The Earth and the Universe

The illustration shows the Earth—centered

universe (Geocentric model) and Sun –centered
(Heliocentric) of the Solar System. Are you not
perplexed why people in the early years believe
that the earth is the center of the solar system
instead of the Sun?
Models of the Solar System and Fundamental
Physical Laws and Discoveries

Terrestrial Motion
In physics, the motion is said to be relative which
means that any object might be moving or at rest
depending on the frame of reference. For instance, all
of us here on earth although might be stationary or
not moving at a particular instance are moving at a
constant speed in reference to the earth that rotates
on its axis or in reference to the sun as it revolves
around it.
Diurnal motion is an astronomical term referring
to the apparent daily motion of stars around the
Earth or more precisely around two celestial
poles. It is caused by the Earth’s rotation on its
axis, every star apparently moves on a circle that
is called diurnal circle.
On the other hand, annual motions reflect the
Earth’s orbit around the Sun: The Eclipse: Sun’s
path relative to the stars. The Obliquity of the
Ecliptic: 23.5 0 Constellations of the Zodiac along
the Ecliptic. Equinoxes: Sun crosses the celestial
equator.
Lastly, Earth’s precession which was historically
called the precession of the equinoxes, because
the equinoxes move westward along the ecliptic
relative to the fixed stars, opposite to the yearly
motion of the Sun along the ecliptic.
 How did the Greeks know that the Earth is
spherical?
Do you know that while we attribute to Copernicus that
the Earth was round, Greeks had figured it out almost
two thousand years earlier? We might have several
questions as to how they manage to know it, well they
had several different arguments for the roundness of
the earth and one of the best comes from Aristotle
himself, who wrote a book called On the Heavens back
in 340 BC. The Greeks were seafaring culture and sailed
all over Mediterranean. Aristotle claimed that the North
star is not always in the same spot overhead.
 The North Star
Remember that all the stars seem to move in a big circle
over our heads because the earth itself is spinning. The
North Star is the center of the circle and stays put.
However, Aristotle noticed that when you are down
Egypt, the North Star is close to the horizon. When you
are up north in Greece again, it’s high in the sky. How is
this possible since the North Star is supposed to be in
the same location? It is possible, Aristotle concluded,
only if the Earth is round. These ideas revolutionized
further the study of space and its exploration.
 Geocentric and Heliocentric Models of the
Solar System
During the ancient period when human beings
have been looking up at the horizon, our
concept of what the universe looks like has
changed dramatically because of the evidence
that scientist of the early century provided to us.
At one time we hold the conceptions that the
Earth is flat in contrast to being oblate spheroid
and which surrounded by the Sun, the Moon,
and the stars. Over the years, ancient
astronomers became aware that some stars did
not move like the rest, and began to understand
that these too were planets.
We also began to understand that the Earth was
indeed oblate spheroid ( flattened poles with bulging
equator) and came up with rationalized explanations
for the behavior of other celestial bodies. By classical
antiquity( ancient history) , scientist had formulated
ideas on how the motion of the planets occurred, and
how all the heavenly orbs fit together. This gives rise
to the geocentric model of the universe, a now
defunct model that explained how the Sun, Moon,
and firmament circled around our planet.
The notion that the Earth was the center of the
Universe is understandable one. To ancient
people, looking up the at the skies, it seemed
evident that the Sun, Moon and the stars
rotated around Earth once a day. For the Earth-
bound observer, the ground they stood on
seemed like a fixed point of reference, a flat
plane from which to watch the circling cosmos.
On the other hand, a heliocentric system is one
in which the planets revolve around a fixed sun.
thus, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn all revolve around the Sun. the
moon is the only celestial sphere in this system
which revolves around the Earth and together
with it, around the sun.
The Sun- centered universe was first proposed
by Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer. He
first published the Heliocentric system in his
book: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium,
which means “On the revolutions of the
heavenly bodies,” which appeared in 1543.
Copernicus died the same year his book was
published.
After 1,400 years, Copernicus was the first to
propose a theory which differed from Ptolemy’s
geocentric system, according to which the earth is at
rest in the center with the rest of the planets
revolving around it. The claim that all planets revolve
around the sun had been raised in ancient times, but
Copernicus was the first to succeed in describing the
movements of the planets using an astronomical
theory which placed the sun at the center.
 Plato ‘s Saving the Appearances
For several decades, the Aristotelian teachings on
cosmology of rotating spheres carrying the sun, moon,
planets, and stars around the central earth permeated
Western thought. The belief that the earth is the center is
prevalent during this. Planetary spheres rotated because
that was their natural motion. Concurrent with Aristotle’s
physical cosmology was Plato’s geometrical cosmology, in
which astronomers strove to “save the appearances”
which explains the apparently irregular planetary motions
with combinations of circular motions at constant speeds.
In the context of modern science, saving the
appearances with uniform circular motions is an
arbitrary (based solely on personal wishes,
feelings, or perceptions, rather than on objective
facts, reasons, or principles) and absurd task.
The historical importance of a cosmology is not
necessarily negated ( to deny the existence or
truth of) by its absurdity (illogical), especially
when that label is applied in hindsight by
different people in a different age with different
standards and values. Saving the appearances is
plausible (believable) in the context of Plato’s
philosophy and is his concept of what we call as
ideal identity.
A circle drawn on paper is an imperfect
representation in the visible world of experience
of a perfect circle, which exists only in the world
of thought. In his Republic, Plato wrote that the
sky was part of the visible world, and the true
revolutions of the planets, sun, and moon were
to be discerned by reason and thought, not by
sight.
 Models of the Universe
EUDOXUS
Although not really interested in astronomy, the
philosopher Plato had a great influence on the
course of its early history because he perceived
the heavens to be more perfect than the earth.
He even urged astronomers to describe celestial
motions in terms of the most perfect of
geometrical shapes, the circle. For Plato, he
considers a uniform circular motion to be perfect.
One of Plato’s pupils, Eudoxus of Cnidus (409 B.C.-
356 B.C.), was the first astronomer to follow Plato’s
recommendation. Eudoxus because of his
mathematical ingenuity sought to describe the
motions of the heavens in terms of a series of
concentric spherical shells, with the earth
geometrically at the center of those shells. His model
consisted of twenty-seven spheres, three each for
the sun and the moon and four for each of the five
known planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter , and
Saturn. The final sphere carried all the “fixed” stars
and presumably contained the whole universe.
 Aristotle
Another of Plato’s student was the philosopher Aristotle.
He describes nature as dynamic, powerful, and
teleological. He pointed that each object in nature tended
toward a certain sets of ends or goals, and nature as a
whole tended toward a goal that was the result of the
motion of individual objects. What this meant was that
each of the four inanimate elements—earth, water, air and
fire ( Empedocles, the Greek doctor who pioneered the
idea that matter is composed of these four elements)-had
a natural place or equilibrium position in the universe, a
place where it belonged.
If nature were left alone Aristotle felt each element
would move “naturally” to its proper place and nature
as a whole would achieve an ideal structure. He built a
picture of the universe as a whole that heavy objects
move naturally toward the surface of the earth and
light objects move away from the earth’s surface. Now
the ancient Greeks had become convinced through
observations of lunar eclipses and measurements of
shadows cast by sticks on the ground at various
locations that the earth as a body was a sphere.
 Aristarchus
Aristarchus of Samos figured out how to
measure the relative distances from the Earth
(E) of the Sun (S) and the Moon (M). When the
moon is exactly half full, the angle E-M-S must
be exactly 90 degrees. Therefore, a
measurement of the angle M-E-S when the
moon is half full will give the ratio of the Earth-
Moon distance to the Earth-Sun distance,
 GALILEO’S Astronomical Discoveries

Galileo, in his early years, serves a professor of

Mathematics at the Universities of Pisa and
Padua. He was very well informed about the
Copernican theory but he continued to teach the
Ptolemaic system and to use it for astronomical
calculations. He is more focused on the field
mechanics. It seems that Galileo came to believe
in the physical reality of the Copernican system
on the basis of his theory of tides.
In the summer of 1609, while in Venice to visit
some friends, Galileo heard about the invention
in Holland of a “spyglass” that could make the
distant objects appear near which is very similar
to the functionality of a lens that was discovered
by the Dutch eyeglass maker, Hans Lippershey.
The military applications of such device are
obvious, and Galileo, probably motivated mainly
by financial prospects, set about to re-invent it
independently. Having constructed a telescope
of about twenty power, he turned it on the sky
and rapidly made several key discoveries which
include the following:
1. The four major moons of Jupiter
2. The phases of Venus
3. The changes in apparent size of Venus and
Mars
4. The mountains of the moon
5. Sunspots
6. The small apparent size of the stars
 Brahe’s Innovation and Kepler’s Law of
Planetary Motion
The Tychonic system popularly known as
Tychonian system was a model of the Solar
System published by Tycho Brahe in the late 16th
century which combined what he saw as the
mathematical benefits of the Copernican system
with the philosophical and “physical” benefits of
Ptolemaic system. His model depicts that the
objects such as the moon and the sun rotate
around the earth.
The planets such as Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn rotate around the Sun.
Around all is a sphere of stars which rotates.
 Brahe’s Data and Kepler
Kepler and Brahe did not get along well. Brahe
mistrusted Kepler and is afraid that he will
outshined by his bright young assistant and
become the premiere astronomer of his day. To
avoid this, he just let Kepler see only a part of
his voluminous data.
Furthermore, he gave Kepler the task of
understanding the orbit of planet Mars, which
was particularly troublesome. It is believed that
part of motivation for giving the Mars problem
to Kepler was that it was difficult, and Brahe
hoped it would occupy Kepler while Brahe
worked on his theory of the Solar system.
In a supreme irony, it was precisely the Martian
data that allowed Kepler to formulate the
correct laws of planetary motion, thus
eventually achieving place in the development
of astronomy far surpassing that of Brahe.
When Brahe died, Kepler obtained Brahe’s data
despite the attempts by Brahe’s family to keep
the data from him in the hope of monetary gain.
There were reports that Kepler obtained the
data by less than legal means; but with that
circumstance, he eventually built on the
realization that the orbits of the planets were
ellipses to formulate his Three Laws of Planetary
Motion.
 The Three Laws of Planetary Motion

1. The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with

the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.
2. The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps
out equal areas in equal times as the planets
travels around the ellipse.
3. The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary
periods for two planets is equal to the ratio
of the cubes of their semi-major axes.
 Calculations using Kepler’s Third Law
A convenient unit of measurement for periods is in
Earth years, and a convenient unit of measurement
for distances is the average separation of the Earth
from the Sun, which is termed an astronomical unit
and is abbreviated as AU. These units are being used
in 3rd law calculation where the denominators in the
preceding equation are numerically equal to unity
and it may be written in the simple form as:
P12/P22= R13/R23