8 Responses. > 1  the Moon takes an elliptical path around the Earth. The planets make nearly elliptical orbits around the Sun, close enough for reasonable approximations, but the Moonâs Orbit around the Earth is sufficiently influenced by the Sun that it follows a path detectably different from an ellipse.
Quick Answer. In 1896, French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity which was an early contribution to atomic theory. He discovered this phenomenon while experimenting with uranium and a photographic plate. Continue Reading.
Marie and Pierre receive the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. Marie and Pierre, together with Henri Becquerel, receive the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics for their discovery of the phenomenon known as radioactivity.