Importance of Astronomy

Carlina, Janine Michell C.
April 27, 2011

BEED Assignment in Astronomy
Importance of Astronomy
With astronomy we get to know the world we live.
We can explain phenomena’s happening within our environment
Astronomy has in the past and in the present helped the human race to learn about the
universe.
It also help us navigate
with astronomy we get to know Earth in time and space and with our cosmic roots: the
origin of the sun, earth, the elements in the human bodies and the life itself
Brief History of Astronomy

585 BC Thales of Miletus predicted eclipse 300 BC Aristotle found Earth is not flat
Position of pole star in Greece different when viewed in Egypt. 280 BC Aristarchus
estimated relative distances of Sun and Moon 270 BC Eratosthenes measured
circumference of Earth: 39984 km (40000 km actual value) 7.5º Well at Syene Pillar at
Alexandria Sunlight Shadow Distance = 5000 stadia
300 BC Aristarchus suggested all planets orbit the Sun 150 BC Hipparchus compiled a
star catalogue; discovered precession of the Earth (change in position of the pole) 120
AD Ptolemy explained motion of planets as epicycles Sun, Moon and planets Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn move around in the sky. Introduced epicycles to explain
retrograde motion of some planets. Earth Order: Earth-Moon-Mercury-Venus-Sun-Mars-
Jupiter-Saturn-sphere of fixed stars Earth Planet Epicycle Deferent
700 AD Ptolemy’s book translated into Arabic 830 AD Caliph Al-Mamun builds an
observatory and making it the astronomical centre of the world 1433 Last great Arab
astronomer Ulugh Beigh library in Baghdad sets up an observatory in Samarqand,
Uzbekhistan Very accurate measurements made with the naked eye.
1500 Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) - heliocentric model Found

Ptolemaic system too messy and put Sun at centre instead of Earth. Didn’t publish his
work till he was dying in 1543 for fear of imprisonment by the Church. Still thought
orbits should be circular and brought back epicycles. 1570 Denmark, Tycho Brahe -
parallax, stellar distances Produced revised star catalogue with precise positions of
planets as they moved. He did not accept the Copernican system and preferred a system
whereby the planets orbited the Sun, which orbited the Earth. 1600s Germany, Johannes
Kepler - 3 laws to describe planetary orbits Movement of Mars could not be explained by
Ptolemaic or Copernican system; he found its orbit was elliptical. Planet Sun
1600s Holland, telescopes invented 1610 Italy, Galileo Galilei proved heliocentric model
was correct Using a telescope he see mountains and craters on the Moon and realised the
band of light across the star was a vast collection of stars (the Milky Way). He found 4
satellites around Jupiter and that Venus shows phases like the Moon, thus disproving
once and for all the Ptolemaic theory. He was labelled a heretic by the Church in Rome
and spent the rest of his life under house arrest at his villa. Galileo’s observatory in Padua
1700s England, Isaac Newton derived 3 physical laws In 1687 he published his famous
work ‘Philosophiae Naturalis Principa Mathematica’ containing the laws of universal
gravitation. He built the first reflecting telescope; he showed that light was made up of
many colours using a prism and he also independently invented calculus, an essential
branch of mathematics.
1700s England, John Flamsteed and Christopher Wren build the Royal Greenwich
Observatory for the primary purpose of producing an extensive star catalogue for use by
British sea navigators. Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal. Edmond Halley was
the second Astronomer Royal and became famous after predicting the return of a comet.
He also discovered several bright stars had shifted in position since the time of Ptolemy.
Image courtesy of Spike Gowers
Denmark, Ole Romer measures the velocity of light France, Giovanni Cassini at the Paris
observatory discovers a gap in Saturn’s rings and several of the satellites England,
William Herschel discovers Uranus He also discovered and catalogued thousands of
double stars, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies, making him the ‘father of stellar
astronomy’. He measured the shape of the Milky Way, which looked like 2 fried eggs
back to back. He placed the Sun at the centre, when in actual fact it is 30 000 lyrs from
there. France, Charles Messier creates the Messier catalogue of objects His main interest
was in comets and he catalogued other objects e.g. Andromeda - M31 to distinguish them
from comets. England, John Goodricke discovers some stars with variable light are
actually eclipsing binary systems.
1814 Germany, Josef Von Fraunhofer discovers dark lines in the Sun’s spectrum These
gaps are caused by the absorption of specific wavelengths of light by atoms in the Sun.
1845 Ireland, Earl of Rosse makes the largest telescope yet A 183 cm mirror helps him
see the spiral nature of some objects; 80 years later these are found to be independent
galaxies. 1846 England & France, two mathematicians predict the presence of Neptune
Some unknown force was pulling Uranus out of position and it was found to be Neptune
moving in a larger orbit.
Greeks, Babylonians and Mayans
Greeks
The first ancient culture that usually comes to mind as being more aware of the truth of
their surroundings than other cultures of that time period are the Greeks. In fact, our word
astronomy comes from the Greek words meaning "law and order". The Greeks were not
the first culture to try their hand at astronomy but the work of their philosophers was
widely distributed by the Romans and was the accepted authority on that subject for
hundreds of years. The Greeks discovered that the earth was a sphere by several methods
and the philosopher Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth to within about
300 kilometers of today’s generally accepted value. In about 200 BC Aristarchus first
stated that the earth revolves around the sun but most philosophers argued that everything
revolves around earth.
Babylonians
Babylonian clay tablets that have survived since dawn of civilization in the
Mesopotamian region record the earliest total solar eclipse seen in Ugarit on May 3, 1375
BC. Like the Chinese, Babylonian astrologers kept careful records about celestial
happenings including the motions of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, and the Moon on tablets
dating from 1700 to 1681 BC. Later records identified a total solar eclipse on July 31,
1063 BC, that "turned day into night," and the famous eclipse of June 15, 763 BC,
recorded by Assyrian observers in Nineveh. Babylonian astronomers are credited with
having discovered the 223-month period for lunar eclipses.
Mayans
While Chinese, Babylonian, and Greek astronomers dominated the knowledge of old
world astronomy half way across the globe, Mayan observers were working on calendars
and recording celestial observations. The Dresden Codex records several tables thought
to be lunar eclipse tables. As in previous civilizations in other parts of the world, the
Mayas used records of historical lunar eclipses to calculate how often they occurred over
a 405-month period. There is no mention of recorded total solar eclipses, or discussions
in the Codex for how to predict these events. After the Spanish Conquistadores, came the
missionaries in the 1600s who intentionally destroyed nearly all native written record.
Little survives to tell us whether the Mayas, Incas, or Aztecs achieved a deeper
understanding of solar eclipses and their forecasting.
Branches of astronomy
The subdisciplines of astronomy are:
 Astrobiology - the study of the advent and evolution of biological systems in the
universe.
 Astrometry - the study of the position of objects in the sky and their changes of position.
Defines the system of coordinates used and the kinematics of objects in our galaxy.
 Astrophysics - the study of physics of the universe, including the physical properties
(luminosity, density, temperature, chemical composition) of astronomical objects.
 Cosmology - the study of the origin of the universe and its evolution. The study of
cosmology is theoretical astrophysics at its largest scale.
 Galaxy formation and evolution - the study of the formation of the galaxies, and their
evolution.
 Galactic astronomy - the study of the structure and components of our galaxy and of
other galaxies.
 Extragalactic astronomy - the study of objects (mainly galaxies) outside our galaxy.
 Stellar astronomy - the study of the stars.
 Stellar evolution - the study of the evolution of stars from their formation to their end as a
stellar remnant.
 Star formation - the study of the condition and processes that led to the formation of stars
in the interior of gas clouds, and the process of formation itself.
 Planetary Sciences - the study of the planets of the Solar System.

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Carlina, Janine Michell C.

April 27, 2011

Brief History of Astronomy

1500 Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) - heliocentric model Found

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