The Sun has been studied for thousands of years. Long before telescopes were invented, Chinese astronomers observed large sunspots and were able to predict eclipses with surprising accuracy. The Babylonians, too, devised methods by which they could precisely foretell eclipses. But it was not until the early 1600s that serious scientific study of the Sun began in Europe, with telescopic observations by Galileo and others. Studying the apparent motion of sunspots, Galileo was able to estimate the SunΓÇÖs rotational period.
The modern era of solar study began in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the development of solar spectroscopy, the science of observing and
