The History Of

Astronomy
Sci 24 ( Astronomy )
Mid-year 2018
Mrs. Cynthia A. Cabicungan
 Astronomy-
The Original Science
 Imagine that it is 5,000 years ago. Clocks and
modern calendars have not been invented. How
would you tell time or know what day it is?

 One way to tell the time is to study the movement

of stars, planets and the moon. Studying the
ancient skies was so important that ancient
people built observatories.

 Over time, the study of the night sky became the

science of Astronomy. Today Astronomy is known
as the study of the universe.
 Who’s Who of Early Astronomy
 The careful work of early
astronomers helped people
understand their place in the
universe. Almost everything early
astronomers knew about the
universe came from what they
could discover with their eyes and
minds.
 Not surprisingly, most early
astronomers thought that the
universe consisted of the sun, the
moon and the planets. They
thought that the stars were at the
edge of the universe.
Ancient times (Before 3000 B.C):
• People believed that the earth is Flat and that
astronomical bodies pass beneath Earth at night
• Some cultures were interested in astronomical events,
as evidenced by stone structures that were designed
to match up with solstices (Carnac, Newgrange Tomb,
Stonehenge, Giza Pyramids & Sphynx)

Newgrange Tomb, Ireland

Stonehenge, England
Babylonians (3000 BC)
• Mathematical theory rather than just observations
• Motions of the sun and moon
• Provided the first evidence that the earth is round
• Developed basic constellations and astrology
• Introduced the 24 hour day
• Developed a lunar calendar
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
Geocentric Theory
• Proved that the earth is
spherical
• Believed that the earth is the
center of the solar system and
that everything revolves
around it
• Believed that all stars are fixed
points which rotate on a single
celestial sphere
9
Aristotle believed there were only a few basic
Substances
1. Earthly Realm – Air, Earth, Fire, and Water
2. Heavenly Realm – Quintessence (Not found on
Earth)
Aristotle agreed that the Earth is spherical BUT didn’t
believe that the earth moved.
1. No Rotation- NO sense of motion...no strong
winds…..No displacement of thrown object.
2. No Revolution – No measureable stellar parallax,
BUT the stars were too far away to measure
stellar parallax back then. They needed better
equipment.
The soul passing into quintessence
Stellar Parallax – Aristotle said that if the earth
revolved, the closer stars should shift among the
background of further stars. They actually do shift
but not enough for ancient astronomers to detect.

12
Aristarchus (310-230 B.C.)
• 1st to place the sun at the center of the universe,
but his ideas were to radical for anyone to accept.
• 1750 years BEFORE Copernicus!
Eratosthenes (276 - 195 B.C.)
• 1st person able to measure the circumference of
the Earth
Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.)
• Compiled first star catalog
• Developed a scale for star brightness
• Accurately calculated distance from Earth to the
moon!
Ptolemy (90 – 168 AD)
• Earth-centered model which included a complex
system of Epicycles and perfect circles for the orbits
of planets, sun, and moon around Earth
• Assumed that the imperfect Earth was surrounded
by perfect heavenly spheres
Ptolomy’s model
worked so well, it
was not challenged
for 1300 years!
 Copernicus (1473-1543, Poland)
• Popularized the sun-
centered, “heliocentric”
model of universe
• Stated that the earth spins
once per day on its axis
and revolves around the
sun in one year
• Published in Des
Revolutionibus in 1543 (on
his death bed)
 The Heliocentric Model
• Sun at center of
universe
• Planets orbit sun in
perfect circles
• Stars on a huge fixed
sphere (the firmament)
 More Copernicus
• Explained retrograde motion using passing orbits
• Correctly ordered planets, and calculated their
distances!
• Correctly calculated time for planets to orbit sun
• Explained apparent motion of stars and sun using
Earth’s rotation and orbit
• Explained why Mercury and Venus are always
seen near the Sun
• Invented idea of Astronomical Unit (A.U.) –
Distance of Earth from the Sun (About 93 million
miles)
Tycho Brahe (Teeko Bra-hay) (1546 -
1601)
• A Danish nobleman
• Believed in geocentric model of solar system
• designed and built accurate and powerful
instruments to observe the stars
• used these instruments to chart the positions of
planets and other celestial objects with great
precision
• disproved many of the commonly held notions of
planetary and stellar motion
• Difficult to work with. He wasn’t very nice :-\
• Died of a burst bladder (yukko!)
Johannes Kepler (1571- 1630)
• Worked with Tycho Brahe and kept his equipment and
notes
• Proposed that orbits of planets are ellipses, not circles
• Developed 3 simple laws to explain planetary motion in
1609
** 1st law- Orbit of all planets are ellipses with the
sun at one focus
** 2nd law – Law of Equal Areas which defines
planetary speed as they go around the Sun
** 3rd law – As planet distance from the Sun
increases, orbital period increases
 Kepler’s 1st Law of Planetary Motion
• The orbit of a planet is an ellipse, with
the sun at one focus.
 Kepler’s 2nd Law of Planetary Motion
• When a planet is nearer the sun in its
orbit (perihelion), it moves faster.
When it’s farther from the sun
(aphelion), it moves slower.
 Autumnal Equinox (beg. of fall)

July Summer
Winter solstice
solstice
(beg. of winter)
(beg. of
Fall Summer summer)

Winter Spring

January
Vernal equinox
(beg. of spring)
 Kepler’s 3rd Law of Planetary Motion
• The larger the planet’s orbit, the
longer it takes.
Planet, etc. Distance Period
Mercury 0.39 AU 88 days
Venus 0.72 AU 225 days
Earth 1.00 AU 365 days
Mars 1.5 AU 687 days
Jupiter 5.2 AU 11.9 years
Saturn 9.5 AU 29.4 years
Halley’s Comet ~ 17 AU 76 years
 Galileo Galilee (1564–1642, Italy)

• Father of observational
astronomy
• 1st to publish in
Italian…Not Latin!
• While he did not invent the
telescope, he was the first
to use the telescope for
astronomy
 Galileo’s Astronomical Accomplishments

• Redesigned the
telescope to be suited
for observing the sky
(only 14X magnification)
• Discovered that there
were many stars not
visible to the naked eye
 More Galileo
• Discovered mountains,
craters, and plains on
Moon
• Discovered phases of
Venus similar to the
moon
 And More Galileo

• Discovered sunspots
on Sun
 Still More Galileo

• Discovered 4 moons
orbiting Jupiter
 Progress at Personal Cost

• Placed under house arrest by Catholic Church

and made to confess “vainglorious ambition” and
mistakes of “pure ignorance” (aka – renounce
Copernicanism)
• Not all religious: some political and personal
rivalries, too
• Worked on laws of motion and falling bodies
until his death (8 years later)
 Isaac Newton (1642-1727, England)

• Not expected to live

over a few
hours…instead lived
84 years and 3
months
• Served as England’s
“Master of the Mint”
• Knighted in 1705
 Newton’s Contributions

• Invented calculus (at age 23!)

• Realized that “white light” can be broken
down into colors of rainbow using a prism
(age 30)
• Invented reflecting (mirror-based)
telescope, a great improvement over
Galileo’s refracting (lens-based) telescope
 More Newton
• Mathematically derived Kepler’s 3 Laws.
• Calculated the existence of other planets due to
orbital anomalies of outer known planets
• Law of Gravity:
• Gravity exists between any 2 objects that have
mass
• Gravity is always attractive, never repulsive
• Gravity increases with increasing mass
• Gravity decreases with increasing distance
• 3 Laws of Motion
Newton’s 1st law applied to Planets
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955 A.D.)
Came up with many theories which expanded our
understanding of the universe
a. Space and time are not separate units but
rather one unit called space-time
b. Gravity is the curvature of space-time. The more
massive the object, the greater the curvature.
(This is the basis of Einstein’s General Relativity
Theory)
*** Einstein explained the true nature of gravity.
• That it’s not a force but a pathway that a mass takes around
more massive objects. This theory was proven correct by
the deflection of starlight observed during a 1919 eclipse.
c. Most Famous for the Equation E=mc2 which led
to the development of the atomic bomb
Edwin Hubble (1889 - 1953)
• determined that so-called “spiral
nebulae” were, in fact, other galaxies,
proving that the Universe extends well
beyond our own galaxy.
• showed that these other galaxies were
moving away at speeds proportional to
their distances away form us.
Georges Lemaître : (1894 – 1966):
• Belgian priest, astronomer and physics professor
• proposed the theory of the expansion of the
Universe, widely misattributed to Edwin Hubble.
• derived what is now known as the Hubble's law
and made the first estimation of what is now
called the Hubble constant which he published in
1927, two years before Hubble's article.
• proposed what became known as the Big Bang
theory of the origin of the Universe
Stephen Hawking (1942 - ):
• Combined the theories of general relativity and
quantum physics to prove that black holes emit
radiation
• Has written several books that explain complicated
subjects in astronomy, physics, and cosmology to
the general public.
• Completely paralyzed due to ALS, yet his computer
generated voice is very famous.
Thank you for listening