Download File - Earth Science With Mrs. Locke

ASTRONOMERS AND
OUR CHANGING
IDEAS ABOUT THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE
SOLAR SYSTEM CHANGES DUE TO:
•
•
•
•
Improved technology
New ideas and experiments
More information becomes available
Curious minds
A LONG TIME
AGO PEOPLE
BELIEVED THE S.
SYS. WAS
GEOCENTRIC.
THIS MEANS THE
EARTH IS AT THE
CENTER OF THE
UNIVERSE AND
EVERYTHING
ORBITS IT.
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/files/2010/09/image005.jpeg
Ptolemy
suggested
the model in
140.
THEN IN 1543, COPERNICUS
CAME UP WITH ANOTHER
THEORY.
He did this because it was
simpler and better
explained planetary
motion. This was called
the Copernican or
HELIOCENTRIC model.
HELIOCENTRIC MEANS
THE SUN IS THE CENTER
OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
IN THE LATE 1500’S TYCHO BRAHE
CAME UP W/ ANOTHER THEORY. IT
WAS NOT ACCEPTED. HIS MAIN
CONTRIBUTION WAS TAKING REALLY
DETAILED NOTES ON THE MOVEMENT
OF OBJECTS IN THE NIGHT SKY.
Just a note of interest: He lost the end of his nose in a duel and wore a
prosthetic one and he was very protective of his notes and did not want
to share them with his assistant even after his death.
mentalfloss.com
wheatoncollege.edu
Brahe’s assistant, JOHANNES KEPLER,
later used Brahe’s notes to figure out
that the orbits of the planets are
ELLIPTICAL not circles like previously
thought and the sun is not perfectly
centered.
Myhero.com
If there is time at the end of
the notes, come back to
watch the video on Brahe
and Kepler
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/tycho-brahe-the-scandalous-astronomer-dan-wenkel
Still there was no proof of the
heliocentric model and most
people didn’t even know
about it or believe in it.
Then came Galileo in 1609.
He used the telescope to
find proof of the heliocentric
model
EVIDENCE # 1:
Venus goes
through
phases (like
the moon)
Evidence # 2:
Jupiter has moons
orbiting it.
• While Galileo was correct, the
church, who was in charge at the
time, did not like him saying this and
he was put on trial and under house
arrest for the rest of his life. That’s
how strongly he believed in his
theory.
Even later in 1687 Isaac Newton was
finally able to explain how planets
stay in orbit around the sun.
GRAVITY (a force that pulls objects
together) and INERTIA hold the
planets in orbit.
Gravity depends on
distance and the
mass b/t objects.
IN MORE MODERN
TIMES...
Edwin Hubble, saw for
the first time that the
Milky Way was NOT the
only galaxy, in fact
there are lots of
galaxies out there.
https://cienciasetecnologia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/EdwinPowell-Hubble.jpg
SINCE THEN WE HAVE
DISCOVERED LOTS OF NEW
THINGS ABOUT THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
More planets, moons around most planets, the asteroid belt, comets are
made of ice and rock, tectonic plates are shifting, there is water on the
moon and Mars, their might have been life on Mars or the moon that is
covered in giant oceans, Jupiter has a really large storm, we are not the
only galaxy, the big bang and evidence for it, our solar system is much
larger than we thought, there are lots of planets out there going around
other stars, dark matter and black holes exist, just to name a few.
And it’s all due to technological
advances and curious people
P.S. You don’t have to copy this
slide