Download The History of Astronomy

THE HISTORY OF
ASTRONOMY
Developing a
Model of the
Solar System
BABYLONIANS
About 1600 B.C.
Recorded position of planets
Times of eclipses
Early Chinese, Central American, and North
European cultures show evidence of studying
astronomy
ANCIENT GREEKS
Thales
Used Babylonian data to predict eclipses
Eratosthenes
Measured the circumference of the Earth
Hipparchus
Produced first star catalog and recorded
the names of constellations
GEOCENTRIC VERSUS HELIOCENTRIC
 Heraclides
 330 B.C.
 Developed the first solar system model with the Earth at the center
 Aristarchus
 270 B.C.
 Developed a heliocentric model of the solar system
PTOLEMY
 200 A .D.
 Librarian of Alexandria
 Believed Heraclides’ geocentric model of the solar system to
be correct
 His model seemed to adequately explain the motion of the
planets, but it was complicated.
COPERNICUS
 1500’s
 Believed in the heliocentric model
of the solar system
 The Heliocentric model was not
popular with the church
T YCHO BRAHE
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1580’S
Built the Danish Observatory
Measured positions of planets and stars
Showed that the sun was much farther from the Earth than
the moon is
KEPLER
 1600’s
 Brahe’s student
 Used Brahe’s data to formulate Laws of Planetary Motion
 Used elliptical orbits instead of circular orbits
GALILEO
 1620’s
 Developed laws of motion
 Natural versus forced
 Rest versus uniform motion
 Used a telescope to discover
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Spots on the sun
Mountains and “seas” on the moon
Multiple stars in the Milky Way
Phases of Venus
Jupiter’s moons
NEWTON
 1680’s
 Developed the law of universal gravitation
 Developed the first reflecting telescope