History of Observations Since the dawn of recorded civilization, astronomy and the placement of the stars has played a key role in religion and proved vital to navigation. Astronomy, the study of the heavens, may be the most 17th century prompted the realization that stars were just like the sun, all obeying the same laws of physics. In the 19th century, photography and spectroscopy ”the study of the wavelengths of light that objects emit” made it possible to investigate the compositions and motions of stars from afar, leading to the development of astrophysics. In 1937, the first  radio telescope  was built, enabling astronomers to detect otherwise invisible radiation from stars. In 1990, the first space-based optical telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, was launched, providing the deepest, most detailed visible-light view of the universe. Star Naming Designations Ancient cultures saw patterns in the heavens that resembled people, animals or common objects ”constellations that came to represent figures from myth, such as Orion the Hunter, a hero in Greek mythology. Astronomers now often use constellations in the naming of stars, with the International Astronomical Union, the world authority for assigning names to celestial objects, officially recognizing 88 constellations that cover the entire sky. Usually, the brightest star in a constellation is has "alpha," the first letter of the Greek alphabet, as part of its scientific name. The second brightest star in a constellation is typically designated "beta," the third brightest "gamma," and so on until all the Greek letters are used, after which numerical designations follow. Since there are so many stars in the universe, the IAU uses  a different system for newfound stars. Most consist of an abbreviation that stands for either the type of star or a catalog that lists information about the star, followed by a group of symbols. For instance, PSR J1302-6350 is a pulsar, thus the PSR. The J reveals that a coordinate system known as J2000 is being used, while the 1302 and 6350 are coordinates similar to the latitude and longitude codes used on Earth. A number of stars have possessed names since antiquity. Aldebaran, for instance, means "the follower" in Arabic, as it seems to follow the Ple