1. Physics 101 Astronomy Dr. Brian Davies
Office: 532 Currens Hall,
Office Hours: M Tu W F 11-noon
See the webpage for notes & syllabus

2. Physics 101 Astronomy Quick review of Chapters 1 and 2,
followed by the first exam.
You will only need to put your name and ID number on the exam
Pencils are available – ask for one.
Turn in exam sheet and SCANTRON and sign your name on signature sheet.
Exit through the door in front-right.

3. Ch. 1 Review

4. What can we see in the visible sky?
Humans can see about 6000 stars in the night sky (with good vision and a very dark clear night).
Some of these form patterns called asterisms.
These have been grouped into constellations (there are 88 of these in the current system).

5. The Constellation Orion, as seen in the sky and as imagined.

6. The Constellation Orion is actually three dimensional, but appears to us as a group of points on the “celestial sphere”

7. The Celestial Sphere appears to rotate around us at night
The Celestial Sphere appears to rotate around us at night. But you know that it is the Earth that is rotating.

8. To observers who think the earth is stationary,
The celestial sphere appears to be rotating.

9. The Northern Sky, in a time exposure, shows the apparent motion of the northern part of the celestial sphere around the Pole star, Polaris.

10. Right Ascension and Declination are used to indicate positions on the celestial sphere. They correspond to latitude and longitude on the surface of the Earth.

12. The celestial sphere is oriented with respect to the earth, with poles and an equator.

13. On the celestial sphere we use Declination like we use Latitude on the Earth.

14. On the celestial sphere we use Right Ascension like we use Longitude on the Earth, but measured in hours, minutes, and seconds.

15. To an observer on the ground,
directions are defined in this figure.

25. Seen from far above the North Pole, the Earth appears to be rotating counterclockwise (CCW).
Sun
If the Sun is directly above point A, then it
is local noon there, and in 24 hours it will
again be noon at that location on the Earth.

26. The Earth is also in orbit around the Sun, taking 365
The Earth is also in orbit around the Sun, taking days to revolve once around.
This orbital motion is also CCW if viewed from above the
north pole.

27. In 24 hours, which is called the solar day, the Earth must rotate more than 360 degrees!

28. Solar vs. Sidereal Day
The solar day is 24 hours long, by definition, but Earth actually rotates through an angle of o in order to be aligned with the Sun. This is due to the orbital motion of the Earth, which means that the Earth has to rotate an additional 360o/365 or 0.986o per solar day.

29. Solar vs. Sidereal Day
The sidereal day is, by definition, the times it takes the Earth to rotate around and come back into alignment with the stars. This is a rotation of exactly 360o and this takes 3.9 minutes less than 24 hours.
1 sidereal day = solar days.

30. The Zodiac is the set of constellations that the Sun appears to go through during the course of one year.

31. The Ecliptic is the path of the Sun on the celestial sphere, which is tilted with respect to the celestial equator, due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis with respect to our orbit.

32. The axis of the Earth is not perpendicular to the plane of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The Earth is tilted by 23.5o.

33. Sequence
of photos
of the
Moon
shows
the Phases
of the Moon

34. Lunar Phases

35. Lunar Eclipse

36. Lunar Eclipse

38. Solar Eclipse

39. Solar Eclipse Types

40. Penumbra and Umbra

42. Shadow of Moon seen
from Mir space station

43. Animation of Moon eclipsing the Sun, as seen from inside the umbra.

44. Animation of the view from the dark side of the Moon, looking down on the Earth during a solar eclipse.

45. Eclipse Geometry is favorable close to the equinoxes.

46. Eclipse Tracks (also see NASA Eclipse page, Mr. Eclipse and Eclipser)

47. Ch. 2 Review

48. Science is the key to understanding
Science: a body of knowledge and a process of learning about nature (called the scientific method).
Knowledge is acquired by observations and experiments.
Scientific method is a process for gaining more knowledge, that can be tested and accepted by everyone.
Scientific theory is an explanation of observations or experimental results that can be described quantitatively and tested.
The theory must make testable predictions that can be verified by new observations or experiments, and can possibly be refuted.
Theories can be modified and should be the simplest version that explains the observations (Occam’s razor).
Observe, hypothesize, predict, test, modify, economize.

49. The Copernican Revolution
The Copernican Revolution in our scientific understanding of the solar system is a prominent example of the scientific method.
It replaced the older Greek theory of the solar system with a simpler model that described the motion of the planets.

50. Retrograde motion occurs over several weeks, and involves motion to the west, as compared to prograde (direct) motion, which is to the east (relative to the stars of the ”celestial sphere”).

51. Geocentric Model of planetary motion (Greek philosophy)

52. The Geocentric Model does explain retrograde motion, using concepts like deferent and epicycle. These could be illustrated by swinging a ball on a cord as we revolve a center of an epicycle around the Earth. (class demonstration here)

53. Ptolemy’s Model of planetary motion used deferents (big circles) and epicycles (little circles centered on a point that moves on the deferent). This involved up to 80 circles to describe 7 objects!

54. Nicholas Copernicus and his Heliocentric model of the Solar System explained this in a simpler way with the Sun at the center.

55. The Heliocentric Model also explains the Retrograde Motion of the planets.

56. An illustration of retrograde motion, using Earth and Mars as the example.

57. Retrograde Motion of Mars as seen from Earth

58. Four objects: The Moon The Sun Jupiter Venus (and much more)
Galileo Galilei and the Birth of Modern Astronomy Galileo built a telescope in 1609 and looked at the sky. His observations confirmed the heliocentric model but did not answer all the questions nor provide detailed mathematical models to calculate the orbits of the planets.
Four objects:
The Moon
The Sun
Jupiter
Venus
(and much more)

59. Galilean Moons of Jupiter Small point of light could be seen near Jupiter. By observation during several weeks he deduced that these were moons and that they revolved around Jupiter. Perhaps this planet was like the Earth, with several moons of its own. It also seemed like a miniature model of the heliocentric solar system.

60. Venus Phases in the Heliocentric model These are consistent with the observations in a telescope.

61. Venus Phases in the Geocentric model are obviously wrong as soon as you observe with a telescope

62. After Copernicus and Galileo, two major figures changed the way we come to understand the Universe: Kepler’s laws of planetary motion Newton’s laws of mechanics

63. Geocentric vs. heliocentric theories
Both described the positions and movement of the Sun, Moon, and 5 visible planets, as seen without a telescope. The geocentric theory was too complicated (80 circles!). (Occam’s razor could be invoked to seek a simpler way.) Once the telescope was used to observe Venus, the geocentric theory could not explain the phases of Venus. The heliocentric theory of Copernicus explained many of Galileo’s observations, but also used circular orbits. More accurate measurements did not agree with the simple theory of Copernicus (circles had to be replaced by ellipses in the newer theory of planetary motion).

64. Further development of the heliocentric theory
More detailed observations were made by Tycho Brahe (commonly called Tycho, ). He made observations of a supernova in 1572 which convinced him that it was a distant star. He received an island and built an observatory to measure planetary motion to high accuracy over a period of more than 20 years. His observations were inherited by an assistant, Johannes Kepler, when Tycho died in 1601.

65. Kepler used decades of Tycho’s observations in his mathematical calculations, to determine the shape of the planetary orbits, and the speed of the planets as they went around the Sun. This massive effort resulted in three major statements about the characteristics of planetary orbits: Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion.

66. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Kepler’s first law: The orbital paths of the planets are elliptical, with the Sun at one focus. Kepler’s second law: An imaginary line connecting the Sun to any planet sweeps out equal areas of the ellipse in equal intervals of time. Kepler’s third law: The square of the planet’s orbital period is proportional to the cube of its semimajor axis.

67. For an ellipse,
r1 + r2 = 2a
The eccentricity
is defined as:
e = c/a
A circle results
when e = 0

68. Some Properties of Planetary Orbits

69. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Kepler’s first law: The orbital paths of the planets are elliptical, with the Sun at one focus. Kepler’s second law: An imaginary line connecting the Sun to any planet sweeps out equal areas of the ellipse in equal intervals of time. Kepler’s third law: The square of the planet’s orbital period is proportional to the cube of its semimajor axis.

70. Kepler’s Second Law: The two shaded areas are equal area and are swept out in equal periods of time (10 days in this example).

71. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Kepler’s first law: The orbital paths of the planets are elliptical, with the Sun at one focus. Kepler’s second law: An imaginary line connecting the Sun to any planet sweeps out equal areas of the ellipse in equal intervals of time. Kepler’s third law: The square of the planet’s orbital period is proportional to the cube of its semimajor axis.

72. The Astronomical Unit is about 150,000,000 km

73. Kepler’s Third Law: P2 (in years) = a3 (in a. u
Kepler’s Third Law: P2 (in years) = a3 (in a.u.) Basically, it means that large orbits have long periods.

74. Isaac Newton developed a quantitative and explanatory theory of mechanics, explaining the motion of objects resulting from forces.

75. Newton’s First Law: The law of inertia.
An object will continue in it’s motion
without change of velocity unless
it is acted on by a net external force.
Newton’s Second Law: F = ma The acceleration of a mass is proportional to the total force acting upon it, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.
Newton’s Third Law: Action-reaction For every force acting upon an object (action), there is a force acting on another object (reaction) which has the same magnitude (size) but points (acts) in the opposite direction.

76. Gravitational force varies with the distance between the objects
Gravitational force varies with the distance between the objects. It depends on the product of the two masses, i.e., m1 x m2 and on the inverse of the square of the distance between the masses (assuming they are small compared with the distance). 1/r2

77. Sun’s Gravity causes planets to move on a path called an orbit
Sun’s Gravity causes planets to move on a path called an orbit. These obey Kepler’s Laws.

78. Newton’s Laws explain Kepler’s Laws
Newton’s Laws account for all three of Kepler’s Laws.
The orbits of the planets are ellipses, but it is also possible to have orbits which are parabolas or hyperbolas. (conic sections)
Edmond Halley predicted a comet would return in 1758 and every 76 years after that. (seen in 1910, 1986, and will return in 2061) Halley’s comet has an elliptical orbit extending out past Neptune.
William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781 by accident.
After 50 years it was seen to deviate from an elliptical orbit, and a calculation led to the discovery of Neptune in 1846.
To be precise, elliptical orbits would only occur if there were only the Sun and one planet. There are 8 planets and other objects which cause deviations from the perfect elliptical orbit.

79. Formation of the Solar System
There are several kinds of objects in our Solar System
Terrestrial planets
Jovian planets
“debris” – asteroids, comets and meteoroids
and some objects still being classified: Kuiper Belt, Oort cloud
How did these form?

80. Several disks
that may be
protoplanetary
disks are found
after blowing up
the Hubble photo.
These may form stars and some of them will have planets around them.

81. Major facts that any theory of solar-system formation must explain
Each planet is relatively isolated in space.
The orbits of the planets are nearly circular.
The orbits of the planets all lie in nearly the same plane.
Direction of planet’s movement in orbit is same as sun’s rotation.
Direction of planet’s rotation is same as sun’s rotation. (*usually*)
Direction of the various moon’s revolution is same as planet’s rotation.
The planetary system is highly differentiated.
Asteroids are very old, and not similar to terrestrial planets or Jovian planets.
The Kuiper belt is a group of asteroid-sized icy bodies orbiting outside the orbit of Neptune. (KBO – Kuiper Belt Objects)
The Oort Cloud is composed of icy cometary objects that do not orbit in the same plane as the planets (the ecliptic).

82. A Theory of Solar System Formation: a spinning gas cloud condenses to a much smaller size, and begins to rotate much faster due to conservation of angular momentum. This process explains the fact that all the objects tend to rotate (CCW) in the same way (or ‘sense’).

83. Differentiation may be due to the temperatures in the Early Solar Nebula The inner solar system is closer to the early Sun, and so it is hotter. Volatile gases are not condensed on the planets and end up condensing in the Jovian planets further out. This is similar to a process in chemical plants called distillation or fractionation.

84. Sun and Planets (approximate scale of diameters)

87. Extrasolar planets Planets have been discovered orbiting other stars.
The current count is 490 (Sept. 2010).
Evidence from several sources:
- Distortion of protoplanetary disks, sometimes called proplyds.
- Doppler shift of the light of the star, indicating radial velocity shifts. (This has resulted in the most results.)
- Astrometry to measure stellar wobble.
- Detection of dimming of the star, indicating a transit by a planet.