Intro to Astronomy
Intro to Astronomy
Space is Big For distances within our solar
system, we use a unit of distance known as the Astronomical Unit (AU).
1 AU is defined as the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, roughly 1.5 x 108 kilometers (93 million miles)
Really Big When dealing with objects outside
of our solar system, the AU is too small to be effective, so we use the light-year.
A light-year (ly) is defined as the distance a beam of light travels in one year.
1 ly = 10 trillion km (6 trillion mi)
For Comparison... It takes a beam of light roughly 8
minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth
Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to us, after our Sun) is over 4 light years away
The Celestial Sphere Imagine the Earth at the center of
a clear, hollow globe with the stars glued to the inside.
Everything we use to navigate on Earth can be “copied” onto the Celestial Sphere (latitude, longitude, the equator, and the poles)
Angular Measurement A full circle contains 360 degrees 1o can be broken further into arc
minutes (60’ in 1o) Arc minutes can be broken again
into arc seconds (60” in 1’)
Angular Measures The Sun and Moon both cover an
area of about 0.5o – half the size of a finger held at arm’s length
At arm’s length, a hand spans about 15o (also the amount of sky covered by the Sun’s motion in one hour)
Celestial Coordinates Declination (dec) is the equivalent
of latitude on the Celestial Sphere dec is measured in degrees north
or south of the Celestial Equator
Celestial Coordinates (cont.) Right Ascension (RA) is the
longitude equivalent on the C.S. RA is measured in hours, minutes,
and seconds The Prime Meridian of RA is
wherever the Sun is on the C.S. at the vernal equinox (first day of spring)
Orbital Motion Solar Day: the time it takes the
Sun to return to a specific spot in the sky (24 hours)
Sidereal Day: the time it takes Earth to complete one full rotation in its orbit (23 hours, 56 minutes)
The 4 minute per day difference gives us leap years
Seasonal Changes Earth’s orbit around the Sun
causes us to see different constellations in the sky
The Zodiac The ecliptic is the Sun’s path along
the Celestial Sphere. The Zodiac is made up of the 12
constellations that the Sun travels through along the ecliptic.
Due to position, the constellation of your sign can only be seen 6 months before/after your birth month.
Seasonal Changes (cont.) Earth rotates on its axis, which is
tilted 23 ½ degrees to its orbit. On the Celestial Sphere, the
ecliptic is tilted the same 23 ½ degrees.
This tilt is what gives us the four seasons.
Four Seasons
Four Seasons (cont.) Vernal Equinox – March 21st Autumnal Equinox – September 21st
12 hours of night and day - everywhere
Summer Solstice – June 21st
Most sunlight of the year Winter Solstice – December 21st
Least sunlight of the year
Distance & Size We can triangulate the distance to
an object we can’t directly measure
Distance & Size (cont.) With really large distances,
triangulation less reliable. Rather than used a measure
baseline, we use the missing angle of the triangle, or parallax
Distance & Size (cont.) Try this:
Hold a pencil in front of your face and let your eyes focus on the wall. First close your left eye, and then open it and close your right eye.
The apparently difference in position of the pencil is parallax
Review By this point, you should be able to:
Describe the Celestial Sphere Use angular measurements to find
objects in space Explain the apparent motion of the Sun
and stars with the actual motion of the Earth
Explain how to gauge size and distance of faraway object
Motions of the Planets ‘Planets’ comes from the Greek
word: ‘planetes’ which means “wanderer”
As viewed from Earth, the planets of our solar system all exhibit retrograde motion
Like the Moon, planets are visible because of reflected sunlight
The Geocentric Universe Until the 16th century, astronomers
believed that the Earth was the center of the universe
As a result, everything (the Sun, Moon, planets and stars) revolved around us
Astronomers tried everything to fit observations into this theory
The Heliocentric Model Nicholas Copernicus proposed the
idea of a Sun-centered universe in the 16th century
In fear of persecution, Copernicus kept his ideas secret until he died in 1543
Galileo & Kepler Galileo Galilei was the first
astronomer to use a telescope for observing the night sky
Using his telescope, he discovered: Sunspots Lunar terrain Moons orbiting Jupiter The phases of Venus
Eppur si muove For supporting Copernicus’ ideas,
Galileo was arrested and sentenced to death
He was spared the ultimate punishment and instead sentenced to house arrest for retracing his claims
Supposedly, he muttered “And yet, it moves” under his breath after he recanted
Kepler’s Laws
1. The planets revolve around the Sun in elliptical (not circular) paths
Perihelion: when a planet is closest to the Sun
Aphelion: when a planet is farthest from the Sun
Kepler’s Laws (cont.)
2. Planetary orbits sweep out equal areas of the ellipse in equal amounts of time
Kepler’s Laws (cont.)
3. The square of an orbital period is proportional to the cube of its semi-major axis
P2 (in Earth years) = a3 (in AU)
Kepler’s Laws (cont.)
Kepler’s Laws (cont.) During Kepler’s life, there were
only 6 known planets – those that can be seen without a telescope
Kepler’s 3rd Law works for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto even though these were discovered after the 3rd law was written!
Solar System Dimensions Recall: the astronomical unit is
defined as the mean (average) distance from the Earth to the Sun
This was done because until recently, we lacked the technology to directly measure distances outside of Earth
Dimensions (cont.) Today, we use radar imaging to
directly measure the distance between planets
We send radio waves toward a nearby object (Venus, for example) and wait for the echo to come back
Multiply the round trip travel time by the speed of light and we calculate double the distance to the object
Example: Venus At its closest, Venus is 0.3 AU from
Earth A RADAR signal takes 300 s to
reach Venus and return to Earth 300,000 km/s * (300 s / 2) =
45,000,000 km = 0.3 AU Therefore, 1 AU = 150,000,000 km
Gravity The force due to gravity is
continuous and always attractive Unlike magnets, there is no
‘repulsive’ gravity
Gravity (cont.) All objects constantly exert a
gravitational force on each other – even you and me.
The force is only dependent on the mass of the objects and the distance between them
Newton’s Law of Gravitation
F = Gravitational Force G = Gravitational Constant = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 / kg2
M1 = Mass of object #1 m2 = Mass of object #2 r = Distance between objects
221
r
mMGF
Important Notes The force decreases exponentially
with distance If you’re twice as far away, the force
is 22 times weaker (1/4 as strong) No matter how big r gets, the force
never reaches zero (gravity exerts an effect everywhere)
Example: The Lunar DietHow much would you weigh on the Moon? F = Force or Weight G = Gravitational Constant = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 / kg2
M1 = Mass of the Moon (7.3477×1022 kg) m2 = Mass of you (~70kg) r = 1,737,000 m (Moon radius)
11300 m)(384,403,0
kg)(70kg) 10)(7.3477 10 x 6.67(2
22-11
W
Example (cont.) This compares to a weight on Earth
of:W = (70 kg) * (9.8 m/s2) = 686 N
Or, roughly, you’d weigh 1/6 as much on the Moon