Ingrid Morales

I.D: 20641520
Section: ASTR-1401-92L

Astronomy Homework #1

Chapter 1:
Page One

Middle Left and Right:

Bottom Right:
A star is defined as a massive, glowing ball of gas that produces heat and light via nuclear fusion.
For this reason, the sun, around which we orbit, is regarded as a star. Alongside the sun there are
many other stars in our universe that may not be seen by us but do reside within it, and may
come in many different sizes.

Page Two

Top Left:
A planet can have a variety of compositions, such as rocky, gaseous, or icy, and can vary greatly
in size, though it is always considered moderately large. For example, despite having very
distinct sizes and being the smallest and largest planets in our solar system, respectively,
Mercury and Jupiter are both huge. Moreover, planets get most of their shine via reflected light.
Pluto, a dwarf planet that was once classified as a planet, is no longer considered to be one
because although it is large enough like other planets in our solar system, it lacks the orbital
dominance to clear the neighborhood surrounding its orbit.

Middle Left:
Medium and Large Moons revolve around a star in the same direction as planets. They
developed in orbit around jovian planets, have a significant amount of ice, and have enough
self-gravity to be spherical in shape.

Page Three

Top Right:
The galaxy that we are a part of, the Milky Way, is described as a massive starry island that
revolves around a common center and is bound together by gravity. The Milky Way is not the
only galaxy in the universe as there are many more that may not be seen through our observable
eye.

Middle Right:
About 300,000 kilometers per second is the approximate speed at which light travels. For
example, light would take around 4 hours and 12 minutes, or 4.5 billion kilometers, to reach
Neptune, the planet that is furthest from the sun. As such, we look further back in time the
farther out we look in distance. When we say that we view objects as they were in the past, we
imply that the more distant an object is, the more different the time was then as both the universe
and the objects themselves were much younger closer objects.

Bottom Left:
Not to be confused with the speed that light itself travels at, a light year refers to the distance
light can travel in 1 year, which is about 10 trillion kilometers or 6 trillion miles.

Page Four
Top Left: At great distances, we see objects as they were when the universe was much younger.
The universe has been expanding and changing, pushing everything out, such as planets and stars
that are farther away from our observable universe. The farther back something is pushed, the
younger the universe was at that time it formed and the more it (the universe) has expanded since
then.

Middle Left: The Hubble Deep Field image shows us a sliver of what the universe looked like
before the Sun was even the Sun, it shows us the universe as it was when it was younger and it
hadn’t expanded as much as it has today.

Bottom Left: In the scale we are given (aka the 1 to 10 billion scale) we can see a more
comprehensive scale of the solar system. The sun would resemble a large 14-centimeter
grapefruit, while Earth would be the size of a ballpoint pen tip and situated 15 meters from the
grapefruit Sun, with planet Neptune just a short few minutes walk away.

Page Five

Middle Left: It is understandably difficult to understand just how massive the universe is, this is
exemplified by the fact that the Milky Way galaxy to which we pertain to is just one of about 100
billion more galaxies in our universe.Another factor that shows just how big the universe is is the
fact that there are as many stars in the universe as there are grains of dry sand on all of Earth's
beaches. This number is close to 200 billion trillion stars, encompassing both huge and minor
ones (stars).

Page Six

Middle Right: The Big Bang Theory explains the birth of the universe and the expansion that
has come upon since then. We are still seeing the expansion of the universe but it's on a much
smaller scale than that of the Big Bang as gravity has pulled matter together to make more and
more galaxies. The age of the universe is still unclear but we have an estimate of about 14 billion
years ago, at around this time the Milky Way galaxy was also formed as the universe expanded.
Bottom Left and Right: A lot has happened since the formation of the Milky Way and how we
eventually came to be, the early Universe only contained two chemical elements which were
hydrogen and helium and all the other elements that later come to be were made by stars and
recycled from generation to generation within galaxies. There have been many stars that came to
be and died in our universe and in our galaxy, the sun itself is a star that has been around for
about 4 billion years and formed together with the other planets we know today.

Page Seven

Top Right: Our lifetimes vary greatly to the age of the universe which is why creating a cosmic
calendar is a way to make the scale a lot smaller and more comprehensive and done by
compressing the history of the universe into one year as it is more familiar to us and our how we
understand time best. The best way that we can explain the cosmic calendar is that one year or
365 days equals 13.8 billion years in the life of the universe.

Bottom Right: On Earth, we believe that we are stationary but this is untrue because Earth turns
around its axis once a day, producing day and night as a result of the constant rotation. The
reason we think Earth is still and why we don’t feel it moving is because Earth rotates around its
axis at such a constant speed that we simply spin with it without noticing.

Page Eight

Top Left and Right: Once a year, Earth revolves around the Sun at an average distance of one
astronomical unit, or 150 million kilometers. In addition to rotating counterclockwise, Earth also
rotates at an angle, with its axis inclined by 23.5 degrees to point in the direction of the North
Star, Polaris. The sun orbits the Milky Way galaxy every 230 million years, but it does not
revolve around the galaxy's center; rather, it revolves around the center in a manner that is not
observable because of the length of its orbit and the relative randomness by which it moves in
relation to the other stars in the nearby solar neighborhood.
Middle Left and Right: Further research on the Milky Way's rotation reveals dark matter, which
envelops the galaxy and forms a sizable halo around it. It serves as one of its greatest mysteries
as the galaxy is located deep within this halo. Moreover, the majority of the Milky Way's mass is
contained within it (the halo), despite the fact that most of its light originates from a disk and
bulge.

Bottom Left: It is very evident that we live in an expanding universe as the universe continues
to expand today. Hubble's discovery found that the galaxies outside of our local group are
moving farther away from us and the more distant those galaxies are the faster they are racing
away. Like the rotation of Earth, we also don't feel the universe expanding as it is such a massive
occurrence that is happening.

Page Nine

Top Right:
As the universe expands, galaxies are taken along with it and travel inside it; for instance, the
youngest galaxy is the farthest galaxy, as was aforementioned. A good example of this would be
if you were baking chocolate chip cookies and all the chocolate chips were added to the batter in
an unstructured way; after the cookies were baked and allowed to cool, you would take them out
of the oven to find the chocolate chips dispersed and far from where you had originally placed
them. Alongside the chocolate chips, the batter would have also been spread out to make the
actual cookie. This is comparable to the way the universe has been expanding, taking galaxies
and their contents with it as it continues to grow.

Chapter 2:
Page One

Middle Right: The entire sky is made up of 88 constellations, which are described as regions of
the sky that are distinguished by a collection of stars that have been given names and take on a
specific shape.
Bottom Right: The celestial sphere refers to a sphere that is not real but serves a form of which
the observer is the center and on which all celestial objects are considered to lie on. This includes
stars that are from different distances, as well as the ecliptic which is defined as being the sun's
apparent path.

Page Two

Top Right: The Milky Way refers to a band of light that makes a circle around the celestial
sphere, and give us the ability to view into the plane of our spiral galaxy.

Middle Left: The Milky Way, our galaxy, is situated inside the galactic plane. If we were to look
out from within the galactic plane, we would observe the stars and interstellar clouds that make it
up (the Milky Way). Moreover, we can clearly see the far-off universe when we gaze beyond the
galactic plane. In other words, as we are situated inside the Milky Way, we are able to observe
outside of it as though it were a window to see what makes it up, and we could also look beyond
it to see what surrounds it.

Bottom Left: An object's location in our local sky can be determined by looking at its altitude,
which is above the horizon, and its direction along the horizon, which will tell us where it is in
our observable sky.

Page Three

Top Left: Unlike our earthly measurements, where objects are typically measured to exact sizes,
our celestial measurements—such as those of constellations—are made using angles, which give
us an apparent size rather than the actual physical size.

Bottom Right: Stars rising and setting is due to the fact that Earth rotates west to east so the
stars appear to circle from east to west. In other words, the stars setting and rising is more of an
appearance that seems to come about due to the rotation of Earth.
Page Four

Top Left: From our view on Earth, specifically in Texas, we are only able to see the stars near
the celestial pole which are circumpolar (they never set). We are not able to see the stars to the
south of the celestial pole due to our location. Also from our point of view, the Sun, Moon, and
other planets, along with the remaining stars, all rise in the east and set in the west.

Middle Left: Latitude is the biggest factor in determining constellations and how we see them,
this is due to the fact that our position on earth determines which constellations remain below the
horizon. These same constellations we see also show up depending on the time of year because
of how Earth's orbit affects the Sun's position among the stars.

Bottom Right: Because the location of the North Celestial pole in the sky is closely correlated
with the latitude of the observer on Earth, the latitude of the celestial pole is equal to our latitude.
For instance, the North Celestial Pole would be directly above you if you were to be standing in
the North Pole and looked up at it.

Page Five

Top Right: Because of the Sun's apparent eastward motion along the ecliptic, the sky seemingly
alters as Earth revolves around the Sun. Because the Earth revolves around the Sun, at midnight
our Meridian is opposite the Sun and our sky, which implies that the sky may not always appear
the same.

Page Six

Middle Left and Right: When it comes to determining why seasons happen and if it has
anything to do with Earth’s distance to the Sun, we must remember that it is not its distance that
matters but rather the Earth’s axis tilt. As such, seasons happen and depend on how the Earth’s
axis affects the directness of sunlight and are different in the Northern and Southern hemisphere.
Page Seven

Top Right: The true cause of the seasons is that Earth's axis is always pointing toward Polaris,
the North Star; hence, the Earth's orientation is relative to the Sun and varies as Earth revolves
around it. The seasons exist because of the Earth's axis; for example, North America experiences
summer at the same time as winter in Australia because the Sun shines on the Northern
Hemisphere more than the South, this causes Australia to receive less sunlight/heat and hence
experiences winter while we experience summer.

Middle Left: While it may seem reasonable that distance influences the seasons—for instance,
by explaining why summer is hotter if the earth were to be much closer to the sun at that
time—the axis tilt overwhelms this theory since there is very little variation in the distances
between the Earth and the Sun.

Bottom Left: The Sun's path across the sky determines how we can identify solstices and
equinoxes. On the Summer Solstice, for instance, the Sun would appear to be traveling at its
highest point before rising and setting at the furthest point north of due east. In contrast to the
Summer solstice, as it appears to rise and set at the furthest point south of due east, the Winter
solstice would be following the lowest path. As for equinoxes, the Sun would seem to be rising
due east and setting due west on its path.

Page Eight

Top Left: Contrary to common belief, the earth's axis orientation is not unchanged over a period
of time; rather, it changes around every 26,000 years. This implies that after 26,000 years,
Polaris—which is currently recognized as the North Star—might not still be the North Star.
Furthermore, the equinoxes' positions change as they orbit the earth, meaning that the Spring
Equinox, which was formerly in Aries, could then be in Pisces later on.

Bottom Left: Because of the way the moon orbits the Earth and receives light from the Sun, we
are able to observe its phases. Lunar phases result from the moon's 27.3-day orbit around the
Earth, which determines how the moon appears to us based on the Sun, Moon, and Earth's
positions. For instance, the Moon's phase would remain constant worldwide because it is
determined by the positions of the Sun, Earth, and itself, and not by your location.

Page Nine

Middle Left: The lunar phases follow a 29.5-day cycle that starts with the new moon, continues
to the crescent moon, and then repeats. The moon is visible in the afternoon and evening during
its waxing period, when it appears to get fuller and rise later each day. The crescent, first quarter,
and gibbous phases are visible throughout this time, and then meet in the middle for another
period with the full moon. The waning period is what follows and it involves the transition from
the full moon to the gibbous, final quarter, and crescent lunar phases. In this period, the moon is
said to be visible in the late night or morning, diminishing in size, and setting later in the day.

Bottom Left and Right: The reason behind the Moon's phases is that half of the Moon is
illuminated by the Sun and the other half is dark. The Moon's phases are a result of this
combination of light and dark sides orbiting the Earth. The appearance of the Moon doesn't
depend of one's location on Earth, as was previously mentioned. The only situation in which it
could appear differently is if two individuals, one from the North and the other from the South of
the Equator, were to look up and observe the Moon; in this case, the Moon's appearance would
appear to differ due to angles. In the end, though, the moon's phase remains unchanged
worldwide. Moreover, because of the moon's synchronous rotation, which occurs exactly once
every orbit, we can only see one side of the moon. This explains why we can only see the moon
from one side when viewing it from Earth, rather than from all of its sides.

Page Ten

Middle Left: Lunar eclipses can be penumbral, partial, or total and they can only occur at a full
moon. Furthermore, eclipses happen when Earth is positioned precisely between the Moon and
the Sun.
Bottom Left and Right: As for solar eclipses, they can only occur during a new moon and they
can be partial, total, or annular. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun
and Earth, which casts the moon's shadow on Earth. The moon's orbit is 5° inclined to the
ecliptic plane, which means that there are only two eclipse seasons annually—the solar eclipse at
new moon and the lunar eclipse at full moon. This is why we don't experience an eclipse at every
new and full moon.

Page Eleven

Bottom Right: The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were among the
recognized planets of ancient times. Mercury was at the bottom of the sky, hard to see, but
always very close to the Sun; Venus sat atop Mercury, shining brightly when visible and acting
as a morning or evening star; Mars, positioned above Venus, was distinctly red and sat in the
middle of the observable planets; Jupiter resided over Mars, shining brightly like Venus; and
lastly, Saturn, situated above Mars, was somewhat bright.

Page Twelve

Top Left: The term "apparent retrograde motion" describes a planet's temporary shift from the
usual eastward to westward motion for a few weeks; this occurs when a planet and its orbit pass
in front of us.

Middle Left: Because they were unable to detect stellar parallax, a significant aspect in their
belief in planetary motion, the ancient Greeks rejected the true explanation for planetary motion.
In order for them to believe the real reason, the Greeks wanted to actually observe it (stellar
parallax) with their own eyes and the lack of being able to do this at the time was the only thing
that was keeping them back from believing it.

Bottom Left: The Greeks thought that the absence of the visible stellar parallax could indicate
one of two things: either the stars were so far away that the parallax was too small to be seen
with the naked eye, or that the Earth was the center of the universe and did not orbit the Sun.
Naturally, the Greeks were more inclined to the latter because they disapproved of the actual
cause of planetary motion and their conviction that the Stars couldn't be that far away didn’t help
either.