neil degrasse tyson wrote for the universe column of natural history until 2009
natural history was understood by pliny the elder to cover anything that could be found in the world including living things geology astronomy technology art and humanity
 using the hooker telescope edwin hubble identified cepheid variables in several spiral nebulae and in 19221923 proved conclusively that andromeda nebula and triangulum among others were entire galaxies outside our own thus proving that universe consists of a multitude of galaxies