1. 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 ( ) 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!

2. 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 ( )

3. 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 ( )

4. 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.

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

6. 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.

7. 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. !!!

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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 ( )

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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)
Why did this equation work before?
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