The Birth of Modern Astronomy: Earth Science
The Birth of Modern Astronomy: Earth Science
The Birth of Modern Astronomy: Earth Science
TYCHO BRAHE (1546 TO 1601) First Law – orbits of the planets are ellipse with the sun at one
- medicine, law, mathematics and politics foci of the ellipse
- supernova seen in 1572, turned his attention toward Second Law – planets sweep out an equal area in equal time
astronomy - address the issue of planets moving at different speeds
- constructed observatories at Hven, Australia depending on what part of their orbit they were in and
- became the imperial mathematician to the Holy Roman the systematic change in brightness
Third Law – square of the period of a planet is proportional to
Empire in Prague
the cube of its average distance from the Sun
- T 2=k ∙ r 3 - Immediately, after the explosion, the early universe is
- law almost took ten years to formulate and allows near composed of intense radiation and particles
perfect predictions of planet location - The intense radiation, together with some matter, formed
a rapidly expanding region called the primordial fireball
Other Scientific Contributions - In time, the matter broke apart into huge clumps
1. Error Analysis - The clumps became the galaxies
2. Optics - Smaller clumps within the galaxies formed stars
3. Algorithms proof
4. Early steps toward calculus The Big Bang Theory Time Tempera-
5. Astronomical tables Begins ture
6. Astrology 1. The cosmos goes 10−43
through a superfast seconds
ISAAC NEWTON (1643 – 1727) “inflation” expanding from
- raised on a farm; useless as a farm hand the size of an atom to that
- attended Trinity College in London where he of a grapefruit in a tiny
graduated with a degree in Math in 1665 fraction of a second.
- returned home to the farm and formulated some of his
greatest achievements 2. Post-inflation, the 10−32 1027 ℃
Three Laws of Motion universe is a seething, hot seconds
1. Law of Inertia – an object resist changes in their soup of electrons, quarks
state of motion unless acted on by an outside net and other particles.
force
2. Law of Acceleration – an object is acted on by an 3. A rapidly cooling 10−6 1013 ℃
outside net force. It will accelerate according to the cosmos permits quarks to seconds
F clump into protons and
following formula: a= neutrons.
m
3. Law of Action-Reaction – every force, there is
exists an equal and opposite force
4. Still too hot to form 3 108 ℃
atoms, charged electrons minutes
Law of Universal Gravitation – the same force and protons prevent light
that pulls an apple toward the surface of the from shining; the universe
Earth is the same force that holds the moon in is a superhot fog.
orbit
G M1M2 5. Electrons combine with 300,000 10,000 ℃
o F=
r2 protons and neutrons to years
- became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (1669) form atoms, mostly
- later hired as the head of the British mint hydrogen and helium.
Light can finally shine.
- in charge of finding and prosecuting counterfeits
Went undercover and ultimately convicted more
than 10 counterfeiters who were executed
6. Gravity makes hydrogen 1 billion −200 ℃
and helium gas coalesce to years
- conducted hundreds if experiments on light
form the giant clouds that
- discovered the origin of the spectrum created by will become galaxies;
prisms smaller clumps of gas
- invented the reflecting telescope collapse to form the first
- credited as the greatest scientists of all time stars
- impacted more areas of science
- invented an entire branch of Mathematics (Calculus) 7. As galaxies cluster 15 billion −270 ℃
- was knighted among his many honors and served as together under gravity, the years
the President of the Royal Society (Scientific first stars die and spew
Watchdog) heavy elements into space;
- was ill for the last two years of his life and was buried these will eventually form
in Westminster Abbey after his death into new stars and planets.
- Protoplanet Formation
o Once the planetesimals are metre sized, runaway
growth occurred. The planetesimals with sizeable
masses and therefore appreciable gravity quickly
became larger, accumulating all solids in their orbital
path, becoming protoplanets of several hundred
kilometres.
o The resulting size of a protoplanet depended on its
position in the solar nebula, since location
determined the local density and composition
- Protoplanet Size
o In the inner Solar System, protoplanets were the size
of asteroids and small moons, made up of metals and
rocky materials
o In the outer Solar System, protoplanets grew much
larger, between one and 15 Earth masses
o The large size jump of protoplanets at the Mars-
Jupiter boundary was due to the availability of
materials. Since the solar nebula contained a much
higher proportion of volatiles than metals and
silicates, this meant that there was much more
material available in the outer Solar System to go into
forming planets, resulting in much larger protoplanets
o The formation timescale of protoplanets was a few
100,000 to several million years
TIDAL THEORY
- Proposed by Sir James Hopwood Jeans and Harold
Jeffreys
- Planets were formed from the substance that was torn out
of the sun
- As a speeding massive star passed near the Sun, it pulled
off material due to gravitational attraction
- The pulled off material subsequently condensed to form
the planets