New technology allowed investigations of the global magnetohydrodynamic behavior of space plasmas as well as of their kinetic behavior (movement) on a local scale. One advantage is that programmes and new machinery can look and analyse data better than humans which made it easy for us to find new planets.
Before the telescope was invented, we were making guesses on how the solar system looks like based on what we see with the naked eye. Ptolemy made one of the earliest ideas about the solar system putting the earth at the centre. Nicolas Copernicus changed that model with the Sun being in the centre.
I hope this helps. If you have more questions please ask because I’m not sure how many points you need :>