MODELS OF THE UNIVERSE
- built observatories starting 6000 years ago
The Roots of Astronomy:
- For tens of thousands of years, human
beings have been fascinated by the patterns
of stars in the sky above Earth.
-Early people noticed constellations of stars
in the sky that looked like animals and
people, and made up stories about what
they thought they saw.
- Early on, they noticed that the Moon
changed shape from night to night as well
as its position among the star
- In fact, the oldest records we have of
astronomical observations are 30,000-year-
old paintings found on the walls of caves.
- The first astronomers created calendars
from changes they saw in the Moon.
- Some ancient people around 5,000 years
ago set up large stones to mark the
movement of the Sun and other stars.
Stonehenge, An Ancient Observatory
- constructed: 3000 - 1800 BC
- Alignments with locations of sunset, sunrise,
moonset and moonrise at summer and
winter solstices
- Probably used as calendar.
- Heelstone
Big Horn Medicine Wheel
- built on Wyoming, USA
Caracol
- Maya Culture
- Built on Cayo, Belize
Jantar Mantar Observatory
- India
- A huge sundial
Mesopotamian Astronomy
- The ziggurats had seven levels, one for
each wandering object in the sky: Sun,
Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, thus 7 days to the week
- They tracked stars --- groups rising before
sun at different times of year implied
seasonal beginnings for planting and
harvesting (zodiac).
Mesopotamian Zodiac Wheel
- Divided circles in 360 degrees, each degree
into 60 minutes and each minute into 60
seconds -- we still use!
- Left written records in cuneiform so we
understand them better
Egyptian Astronomy
- Ancient Egyptians were very interested in
the night sky. In particular, they were drawn
to two bright stars that always could be seen
circling the North Pole. The Egyptians
referred to those stars as "the
indestructibles. Today we know them as
Kochab, in the bowl of the Little Dipper
(Ursa Minor), and Mizar, in the middle of the
handle of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).
- Egyptians aligned their pyramids and
temples toward the north because they
believed their pharaohs became stars in the
northern sky after they died.
- To assure that a king would join the
circumpolar stars, the pyramids were laid
out facing due north toward the
"indestructible" stars.
- They thought that aligning the pyramids
toward north would give the deceased
pharaohs direct access to the northern sky.
In summary, basis of prehistoric
astronomy:
Rising and setting of Sun, Moon,
and stars - calendars
Constellations
Annual motion of Sun
Motion of planets through zodiac
Phases of the Moon
Eclipses
Early Ideas of the Heavens
Ancient Greek Astronomy
- Use of models and observations
- the first to use a careful and systematic
manner to explain the workings of the
heavens
- Limited to the naked eye observations, their
idea of using logic and mathematics as tools
for investigating nature is still with us today.
- Used observational data
Ptolemy
- Further refinements, including epicycles
Early Astronomy
Ancient Greeks:
Ptolemaic System
- Claudius Ptolemy created a model of the
universe that accounted for the movement
of the planets.
- Problem: Mars
- Mars follows a retrograde motion which is
the apparent westward motion of the planets
with respect to the stars.
Ptolemys Model - Epicycles Included
- Introduced to explain retrograde (westward)
motion of planets
- The Ptolemaic system was considered the
standard model of the Universe until the
Copernican Revolution.

Astrolabe Nicolaus Copernicus

- a device like compass - Copernicus concluded that Earth is a
planet. He proposed a model of the
Eudoxus solar system with the sun at the center.
- model of 27 nested spheres - Heliocentric Universe
-
Erastothenes Copernicus new (and correct) explanation
- measured the circumference of the Earth for retrograde motion of the planets
- Retrograde (westward) motion of a planet
Aristotle occurs when the Earth passes the
- He expanded Eudoxus Model to use 55 planet.
spheres. - This made Ptolemys epicycles
- major authority of philosophy until the late unnecessary.
middle ages: Universe can be divided in 2 - This model explained the retrograde motion
parts: of planets better than the geocentric
1. Imperfect, changeable Earth model.
2. Perfect Heavens
Tycho Brahe
Hipparchus - Tycho Brahe designed and built instruments
- placing the Earth away from the centers of to measure the locations of the
the perfect spheres heavenly bodies.
- Brahes observations, especially of Mars,
were far more precise than any made
previously.
- Beyond his astronomy genius, he lost his
nose in a math-fueled duel, possibly
inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet.
- A solar eclipse in 1560 inspired Brahe to
become an astronomer, and he quickly
realized the burgeoning science could
only progress if it had observations that
were systematic, accurate, and, above
all, nightly.
- To that end, he refined old instruments and
built new ones, and spent the rest of
his life assembling one of the largest
bodies of astronomical data in human
history
The Tychonic Universe A body at rest, or in uniform
- the sun annually circles a central Earth. motion, will remain so unless
- While 5 planets orbits the Sun acted upon by an unbalanced
- The Earth doesnt rotate daily force.

Johannes Kepler 2nd Law

- went to Prague to become Brahes assistant The change in motion
- realized the orbits of the planets werent (acceleration) is proportional to
circles but ellipses and developed 3 the unbalanced force
laws to describe the phenomenon he 3rd Law
observed. For every action there is an
- Wrote the New Astronomy, a book to equal and opposite reaction
support Galileos observations of
Jupiters moons.
- used Tycho Brahes data to develop three
laws that explained the motions of the
planets.
- KEPLERS EQUAL AREA LAW states that a
line connecting Earth to the sun will
pass over equal areas of space in
equal times. Because Earths orbit is
elliptical, Earth moves faster when it is
nearer to the sun.

First Law: Each planet moves in an elliptical

orbit with its star (Sun) at one focus.
Second Law (law of equal areas): an orbiting
object will take the same amount of time
to travel between points A and B as it
takes to travel between points C and D.
Third Law (Law of Harmonics): the square
of a planets orbital time is proportional to
its average distance from the star (Sun)
cubed.

Major Discoveries of Galileo:

- moons of Jupiter & Rings of Saturn
- Surface structures on the moon; first
estimates of the height of mountains on
the moon
- Sun spots (proving that the sun is not
perfect!)
- Phases of Venus (including full Venus),
proving that Venus orbits the sun, not
the Earth!
Sir Isaac Newton
- Although others had theorized the
existence of gravitational force, Newton was
the first to formulate and test the law of
universal gravitation.
Universal Gravitation
- Gravitational force decreases with distance.
- The greater the mass of an object, the
greater is its gravitational force.

Newtons Law of Motion

1st Law