Download The Origins of Modern Astronomy

The Origins of Modern Astronomy
Early Greeks held the geocentric ("Earth-centered") view of the
universe, believing that Earth was a sphere that stayed motionless at
the center of the universe. Orbiting Earth were the seven wanderers
(planetai in Greek), which included the Moon, Sun, and the known
planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. To the early
Greeks, the stars traveled daily around Earth on a transparent, hollow
sphere called the celestial sphere. In A.D. 141, Claudius Ptolemy
presented the geocentric outlook of the Greeks in its most sophisticated
form in a model that became known as the Ptolemaic system. The
Ptolemaic model had the planets moving in circular orbits around a
motionless Earth. To explain the retrograde motion of planets (the
apparent westward, or opposite motion planets exhibit for a period of time as Earth overtakes
and passes them) Ptolemy proposed that the planets orbited in small circles (epicycles),
revolving along large circles (deferents).
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Modern astronomy evolved through the work of many dedicated
individuals during the 1500s and 1600s. Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543) reconstructed the solar system with the Sun at the
center and the planets orbiting around it, but erroneously continued
to use circles to represent the orbits of planets. Tycho Brahe's
(1546-1601) observations were far more precise than any made
previously and are his legacy to astronomy. Johannes Kepler
(1571-1630) ushered in the new astronomy with his three laws of
planetary motion. After constructing his own telescope, Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642) made many important discoveries that
supported the Copernican view of a sun-centered solar system. Sir
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was the first to formulate and test the law of universal
gravitation, develop the laws of motion, and prove that the force of gravity, combined
with the tendency of an object to move in a straight line (inertia), results in the elliptical
orbits discovered by Kepler.
As early as 5000 years ago people began naming the configurations of stars, called
constellations, in honor of mythological characters or great heroes. Today, 88
constellations are recognized that divide the sky into units, just as state boundaries divide
the United States.
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The two primary motions of Earth are rotation (the
turning, or spinning, of a body on its axis) and revolution
(the motion of a body, such as a planet or moon, along a
path around some point in space). Another very slow
motion of Earth is precession (the slow motion of Earth's
axis that traces out a cone over a period of 26,000 years).
One of the first astronomical phenomenon to be understood was the regular cycle of the
phases of the Moon. The cycle of the Moon through its phases requires 29.5 days, a time
span called the synodic month. However, the true period of the Moon's revolution
around Earth takes 27.33 days and is known as the sidereal month. The difference of
nearly two days is due to the fact that as the Moon orbits Earth, the Earth-Moon system
also moves in an orbit around the Sun.
Questions
1. Explain the geocentric view of the universe held by early Greeks.
2. What were the 7 bodies that early Greeks thought orbited Earth?
3. What planets are missing from this observation? Why do you think that is?
4. How did early Greeks think that stars traveled around the Earth?
5. Explain the Ptolemaic model.
6. How did Nicolaus Copernicus contribute to modern Astronomy?
7. Who came up with the 3 laws of planetary motion?
8. Who was the first person to make a telescope?
9. What 3 major ideas were contributed by Isaac Newton?
10. How long have people been naming constellations? How many are there
today?
11. Explain the difference between rotation and revolution.
12. What is a synodic month? How long is it?