MODERN ASTRONOMY

PHYSICAL SCIENCE
 INTRODUCTION
• Throughout human history, scientists have
struggled to understand what they see in
the night sky.
• Famous astronomers – many of them
great scientists who mastered many fields
– explained the heavens with varying
degrees of accuracy.
• Over the centuries, a geocentric view of
the universe – with Earth at the center of
everything – gave way to the proper
understanding we have today of an
expanding universe in which our galaxy is
but one of billions.
• On this list are some of the most famous
scientists from the early days of astronomy
through the modern era, and a summary
of some of their achievements.
 INTRODUCTION
• After 14 centuries since Ptolemy,
five noted scientists made important
discoveries that gave rise to the
birth of modern astronomy.
• These were Nicolaus Copernicus,
Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler,
Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.
 ASTRONOMICAL TERMS
• Astronomical unit (AU) – the unit of length defined as the • Kepler’s third law – the square of a planet’s
average distance between earth and the sun; this orbital period is directly proportional to the
distance is about 1.5 × 108 kilometers or 1.5 x 1011 cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.
meters. • Major axis – the maximum diameter of an
• Eccentricity – in an ellipse, the ratio of the distance ellipse.
between the foci to the major axis. • Orbit – the path of an object that is in
• Ellipse – a closed curve for which the sum of the revolution about another object or point.
distances from any point on the ellipse to two points • Orbital period (p) – the time it takes an object
inside (called the foci) is always the same. to travel once around the sun.
• Focus (plural: foci) – one of two fixed points inside an • Orbital speed – the speed at which an object
ellipse from which the sum of the distances to any point (usually a planet) orbits around the mass of
on the ellipse is constant. another object; in the case of a planet, the
speed at which each planet moves along its
• Kepler’s first law – each planet moves around the sun in ellipse.
an orbit that is an ellipse, with the sun at one focus of the
ellipse. • Semimajor axis – half of the major axis of a
conic section, such as an ellipse.
• Kepler’s second law – the straight line joining a planet
and the sun sweeps out equal areas in space in equal
intervals of time.
 TYCHO BRAHE
• A Danish astronomer and nobleman
who made accurate observations
of the movement of celestial bodies
in an observatory built for him by
King Frederick II of Denmark in 1576.
• He was able to invent different
astronomical instruments, with the
help of his assistants, and made an
extensive study of the solar system.
• He was able to determine the
position of 777 fixed stars
accurately.
 JOHANNES KEPLER
• When King Frederick II died, and the
successor did not fully support
Brahe’s work, he moved to Prague
in 1599 where he was supported by
Emperor Rudolf II and worked as an
imperial mathematician.
• Emperor Rudolf II recommended
Johannes Kepler to work for him as
an assistant.
• Kepler was born to a poor German
family and studied as a scholar at
the University of Tübingen in 1589.
 BRAHE AND KEPLER'S WORK
• Brahe and Kepler had an unsteady working
relationship.
• Kepler was Brahe’s assistant. However, Brahe
mistrusted Kepler with his astronomical data in
fear of being shadowed by his assistant.
• Brahe assigned to Kepler the interpretation of
his observations of Mars, whose movement did
not match Brahe’s calculations.
• Kepler was tasked to figure out what path
Mars followed as it revolved around the Sun.
• It was believed by many scientists that Brahe
gave this task to Kepler to keep him occupied
and left Brahe to develop his laws of planetary
motion.
 KEPLER'S DISCOVERIES FROM
BRAHE'S DATA
• Kepler postulated that there must be a
force from the Sun that moves the
planets.
• He was able to conclude that this force
would explain the orbit of Mars and the
Earth, including all the other planets,
moved fastest when it is nearest from
the Sun and moved slowest when it is
farthest from the Sun.
• Eventually, Brahe decided to give all his
data to Kepler hoping that he would be
able to prove his Tychonic system and
put together new tables of
astronomical data.
 KEPLER'S DISCOVERIES FROM
BRAHE'S DATA
• This table was known as Rudolphine Tables,
named after the Roman emperor and was
useful in determining the positions of the
planets for the past 1000 years and the future
1000 years.
• This table was the most accurate table that is
known to the astronomical world.
• After Brahe died in 1601, Emperor Rudolf II
assigned Kepler as the new imperial
mathematician, and all of Brahe’s writings,
instruments, and the Rudolphine tables were
passed on to him.
• From Brahe’s data, Kepler was able to
formulate his laws of planetary motion:
• Law of Ellipses
• Law of Equal Areas
• Law of Harmonies
KEPLER’S LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION
PHYSICAL SCIENCE
 FIRST LAW - THE LAW OF ELLIPSES
• When Kepler tried to figure out Mars’
orbit, it did not fit the famous theory
that a planet follows a circular path.
• He then postulated that instead of a
circular path, planets follow an oval or
an ellipse orbit.
• This orbit matched his calculations and
explained the “irregularities” in the
movement of Mars.
• He was able to formulate his first law of
planetary motion, the law of ellipses
which describes that the actual path
followed by the planets was elliptical,
not circular, with the Sun at one focus
of the ellipse.
 SECOND LAW - THE LAW OF
EQUAL AREAS
• The second law, which is the law of
equal areas states that when an
imaginary line is drawn from the center
of the Sun to the center of a planet, the
line will sweep out an equal area of
space in equal time intervals.
• The law describes how fast a planet
moves in its orbit.
• A planet moves fastest when it is
nearest the Sun and slowest when it is
farthest from the Sun, and still, the same
area is swept out by the line in equal
amounts of time.
 THIRD LAW - THE LAW OF
HARMONIES
• The law of harmonies, which is the third
law, describes that the square of a
planet’s orbital period (T2) is
proportional to the cube of a planet’s
average distance from the Sun (R3).
• It states that that the ratio of the
squares of the periods of two planets is
equal to the ratio of the cubes of the
average distances of these two planets
2 3
from the Sun or: 𝑇𝑇12=𝑅𝑅13 where the
2 2
subscript 1 indicates planet 1 and
subscript 2 indicates planet 2.