Astronomy 110 Lecture 8
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Astronomy 110 Lecture 8 Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 1 What Was Wrong With the Geocentric Universe? There were many subtle details like fluctuations in brightness and speed of solar system objects and it was hard to come up with a real physical model that behaved the right way but a major argument was the phases of Venus: Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 2 At the middle of all things lies the sun. As the location of this luminary in the cosmos, that most beautiful temple, would there be any other place or any better place than the centre, from which it can light up everything at the same time? Hence the sun is not inappropriately called by some the lamp of the universe, by others its mind, and by others its ruler. From the Little Commentary (1514): There is no one centre in the universe. The Earth's centre is not the centre of the universe. The centre of the universe is near the sun. Copernicus (1473-1543): The distance from the Earth to the sun is imperceptible compared with the distance to the stars. The rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily rotation of the stars. The apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is caused by the Earth revolving round it. The apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the motion of the Earth from which one observes. Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 3 …but still used perfect, concentric circles. Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 4 Thomas Digges (c. 1545-c.1595), A Perfit Description of the Coelestiall Orbes (1576) Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 5 Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) Cassipeia, • Compiled the most accurate (one arcminute) naked eye measurements ever made of planetary positions. • Still could not detect stellar parallax, and thus still thought Earth must be at center of solar system (but recognized that other planets go around Sun) • Hired Kepler, who used his observations to discover the truth about planetary motion. Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 6 Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 7 Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) "There is no absolute up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe, and the observer is always at the center of things." "Innumerable suns exist; innumerable earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds." On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584) Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 8 • Kepler first tried to match Tycho’s observations with circular orbits • But an 8 arcminute discrepancy led him eventually to ellipses… If I had believed that we could ignore these eight minutes [of arc], I would Johannes Kepler have patched up my hypothesis (1571-1630) accordingly. But, since it was not permissible to ignore, those eight minutes pointed the road to a complete reformation in astronomy. Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 9 "Henceforth it is no longer a harmony made for the benefit of our planet, but the song which the cosmos sings to its lord and centre, the Solar Logos". Kepler called astrology 'foolish daughter' of the 'wise mother' . But noted:"the mother would starve if the daughter did not earn anything" Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 10 What is an Ellipse? SoSo whatwhat isis aa circle?circle?⊙⊙ Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 11 Eccentricity of an Ellipse Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 12 Kepler’s First Law: The orbit of each planet around the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 13 Kepler’s Second Law: As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps out equal areas in equal times. ⇒ means that a planet travels faster when it is nearer to the Sun and slower when it is farther from the Sun. Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 14 Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 15 Kepler’s Third Law More distant planets orbit the Sun at slower average speeds, obeying the relationship p2 = a3 p = orbital period in years a = avg. distance from Sun in AU Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 16 Graphical version of Kepler’s Third Law Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 17 Example: An asteroid orbits the Sun at an average distance a = 4 AU. How long does it take to orbit the Sun? We need to find p so that p2 = a3 Since a = 4, a3 = 43 = 64 Therefore p2 =64, p = 8 Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 18 Galileo(1564-1642) • Solidified the Copernican revolution • Paved the way for Newton and the birth of physics 1633 - Galileo is ordered to recant his claim that Earth orbits the Sun 1824 - His book on the subject was removed from the index of banned books. 1992 - Galileo formally vindicated by the Church in 1992 Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 19 Galileo showed the heavens were not perfect Using the telescope, Galileo saw: •spots on Sun (“imperfections”) • mountains and valleys on the Moon (proving it is not a perfect sphere) • The Milky Way was made up of many distant stars – so stars must be much farther than was thought Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 20 Galileo also saw four moons orbiting Jupiter, proving that not all objects orbit the Earth… Aristotle thought that all objects naturally come to rest. Galileo showed that objects will stay in motion unless a force acts to slow them down (Newton’s first law of motion). Fall, 2005 Astronomy 110 21.