Sunspots are dark regions that appear on the surface of the Sun due to intense magnetic activity that lowers the surface temperature in those areas. The first recorded telescopic observation of sunspots is credited to Thomas Harriot, an English astronomer, in 1610. He used an early telescope to observe the Sun and documented these spots before Galileo’s more widely known observations. This discovery challenged the long-standing Aristotelian belief that celestial bodies were perfect and unchanging. The presence of spots on the Sun suggested that it was dynamic and imperfect. Later astronomers such as Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner studied sunspots more extensively and tracked their movement, which helped establish that the Sun rotates on its axis. Albert Einstein is known for the theory of relativity, Isaac Newton for gravity and laws of motion, and René Descartes for contributions to philosophy and mathematics. None of them observed sunspots first. Thus, Thomas Harriot is considered the earliest observer, making option D correct. His work contributed significantly to the development of modern astronomy and our understanding of solar activity.