1502 in science

	… 1492; 1493; 1494; 1495; 1496; 1497; 1498; ; 1499; 1500; 1501; 1502; 1503; 1504; 1505; ; 1506; 1507; 1508; 1509; 1510; 1511; 1512 …;
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The year 1502 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Exploration

January 1 – Portuguese explorers, led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, sail into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, mistaking it for the mouth of a river, which they name Rio de Janeiro.
May 11 – Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain for his fourth and final voyage to the New World.^[1]
May 21 – Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovers the uninhabited island of Saint Helena.^[1]
August 14 – Columbus lands at Trujillo and names the country 'Honduras'.^[1]
September 18 – Columbus lands in Costa Rica.
Amerigo Vespucci, on his return to Lisbon from a voyage to the New World, writes a letter, Mundus Novus, to Lorenzo de' Medici indicating that South America must be an independent continent.^[1]
The Cantino planisphere is the first known world map showing Portuguese discoveries.

In Germany, Peter Henlein of Nuremberg uses iron parts and coiled springs to build a portable timepiece, the first "Nuremberg Eg".^[1]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Grun, Bernard (1991). The Timetables of History (3rd ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 223.