History of Astronomy - Part II After the Copernican Revolution, astronomers strived for more observations to help better explain the universe around them During this time (1600-1750) many major advances in science and astronomy occurred Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion Newton's Laws of Motion and Gravity Warning! - Math and Equations Ahead!

Tycho Brahe - An Observer Tycho Brahe was a prominent scholar and aristocrat in Denmark in the mid-late 1500's He made a huge number of observations of the stars and planets, all with the naked eye Even without a telescope, he was very accurate in his measurements Also recorded the appearance of comets and supernovae The Tycho supernova remnant is still visible today Tycho (1546-1601)

Johannes Kepler - A Theorist Shortly before his death, Tycho began working with another scientist named Kepler Kepler was put to the task of creating a model to fit all of Tycho's planetary data Kepler spent the remainder of his life formulating a set of laws that explained the motion of the planets Kepler (1571 - 1630)

Kepler's First Law Kepler first noted that the orbital path of a planet around the Sun is an ellipse, not a perfect circle The Sun lies at one of the foci of the ellipse The eccentricity of an ellipse is a measure of how 'squished' from a circle the shape is Most planets in the Solar System are very close to a perfect circle Eccentricity, e ~ 0 for a circle Focus Focus Kepler's 1st Law: The orbital paths of the planets are elliptical with the Sun at one focus.

Kepler's First Law =closest to the Sun =farthest from the Sun

Kepler's Second Law Kepler also noticed that the planets sweep out equal areas in their orbit over equal times Notice that this means the planet must speed up and slow down at different points If it takes the same amount of time to go through A as it does C, at what point is it moving faster? C, when it is closest to the Sun Kepler's 2nd Law: An imaginary line connecting the Sun to any planet sweeps out equal areas of the ellipse over equal intervals of time.

Kepler's Third Law Finally, Kepler noticed that the period of planet's orbit squared is proportional to the cube of its semi major axis This law allowed the orbits of all the planets to be calculated It also allowed for the prediction of the location of other possible planets Kepler's 3rd Law Simplified NOTE: In order to use the equation as shown, you must be talking about a planet in the Solar System, P must be in years, and a must be in A.U. !!!

Kepler's Third Law - Examples Suppose you found a new planet in the Solar System with a semi major axis of 3.8 A.U. A planet with a semi major axis of 3.8 A.U. would have an orbital period of 7.41 years years

Kepler's Third Law - Examples Suppose you want to know the semi major axis of a comet with a period of 25 years A planet with an orbital period of 25 years would have a semi major axis of 8.55 A.U. A.U.

Isaac Newton Kepler's Laws were a revolution in regards to understanding planetary motion, but there was no explanation why they worked That explanation would have to wait until Isaac Newton formulated his laws of motion and the concept of gravity Newton's discoveries were important because they applied to actions on Earth and in space Besides motion and gravity, Newton also developed calculus Newton (1642-1727)

Some terms Force: the push or pull on an object that in some way affects its motion Weight: the force which pulls you toward the center of the Earth (or any other body) Inertia: the tendency of an object to keep moving at the same speed and in the same direction Mass: basically, the amount of matter an object has The difference between speed and velocity These two words have become identical in common language, but in physics, they mean two different things Speed is just magnitude of something moving (25 km/hr) Velocity is both the magnitude and direction of motion (35 km/hr to the NE)

Newton's First Law Newton's first law states: An object at rest will remain at rest, an object in uniform motion will stay in motion - UNLESS acted upon by an outside force This is why you should always wear a seat belt! Outside Force

Newton's Second Law Acceleration is created whenever there is a change in velocity Remember, this can mean a change in magnitude AND/OR direction Newton's Second Law states: When a force acts on a body, the resulting acceleration is equal to the force divided by the object's mass Notice how this equation works: The bigger the force, the larger the acceleration The smaller the mass, the larger the acceleration or

Newton's Third Law Newton's Third Law states: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction Simply put, if body A exerts a force on body B, body B will react with a force that is equal in magnitude but opposite direction This will be important in astronomy in terms of gravity The Sun pulls on the Earth and the Earth pulls on the Sun

Newton and the Apple - Gravity After formulating his three laws of motion, Newton realized that there must be some force governing the motion of the planets around the Sun Amazingly, Newton was able to connect the motion of the planets to motions here on Earth through gravity Gravity is the attractive force two objects place upon one another

The Gravitational Force G is the gravitational constant G = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2/kg2 m1 and m2 are the masses of the two bodies in question r is the distance between the two bodies

Gravity - Examples Weight is the force you feel due to the gravitational force between your body and the Earth We can calculate this force since we know all the variables 1 Newton is approximately 0.22 pounds

Gravity - Examples What if we do the same calculation for a person standing on the Moon? All we have to do is replace the Earth's mass and radius with the Moon's 1 Newton is approximately 0.22 pounds

Gravity - Examples If gravity works on any two bodies in the universe, why don't we all cling to each other? Replace the from previous examples with two people and the distance with 5 meters 1 Newton is approximately 0.22 pounds

Revisions to Kepler's 1st Law Newton's law of gravity required some slight modifications to Kepler's laws Instead of a planet rotating around the center of the Sun, it actually rotates around the center of mass of the two bodies Each body makes a small elliptical orbit, but the Sun's orbit is much much smaller than the Earth's because it is so much more massive

Revisions to Kepler's 3rd Law Gravity also requires a slight modification to Kepler's 3rd Law The sum of the masses of the two bodies is now included in the equation For this equation to work, the masses must be in units of solar mass (usually written as M) Remember - for this equation to work: P must be in years! a must be in A.U. M1 and M2 must be in solar masses