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Thomas Wright stone plaque

Commemorative plaque
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Thomas Wright stone plaque
Photo: Hugh Mortimer on Wikimedia Commons · Open the original picture · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Report the wrong picture · If this is your picture and you want it taken down, email me.

What is recorded here

This stone commemorative plaque records: This observatory tower was erected by Thomas Wright born at Byers Green 1711, died there 1786. To commemorate his treatise Theory of the Universe published 1750, this tablet was placed here by the University of Durham 1950
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Why this person mattered

Thomas Wright, an English astronomer and philosopher, is remembered for his pioneering work "An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe" (1750), where he proposed that the Milky Way is a finite disk of stars and suggested a model of the cosmos that anticipated the modern understanding of galaxies.

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