Across The Universe

Across the Universe
Lesson 6.1: Motions in the Sky

The Celestial Sphere
The Ancient Greek considered Earth to enclosed in
a hallow sphere called the celestial sphere, where the
stars, the sun, and other heavenly bodies are
embedded. They thought that the motion of the
heavens was caused by the rotation of the celestial
sphere about a fixed Earth.
Precession of the Earth
 Earth is not a perfect sphere.

 Earth’s axes changes direction over a period of time.
 Earth requires 26,000 years to complete one cycle of
precession.
 Earth’s precession was historically called precession of the
equinoxes.
Diurnal Motion and Annual Motion
Diurnal Motion – the apparent daily motion of stars and

other celestial bodies across the sky caused by
Earth’s rotation about it’s axis.
Annual Motion – the apparent motion of the sun caused

by Earth’s revolution around it.
Lesson 6.2: Models of the Universe
Geocentric
Models
Heliocentri
c
Geocentric Model
Pythagorean
Model
Eudoxus Model
Aristotle’s Model
Ptolemy’s Model
Next
Pythagorean Model
◦Pythagoras was acknowledge to be the first assert
that Earth is round and that the heavenly bodies move
n circle. In his model, earth is at rest at the center of
the universe, and everything rotates around it.
Pythagoras also considered that the motion of the
planets were mathematically related to musical
sounds and numbers. These ideas are called “The
Music of the Spheres.”
Back
Eudoxus Model
Eudoxus was the first to “save the appearances” that Plato
referred to, using a series of 27 concentric spheres on which
the sun, the moon, and the planets move in perfect circular
motion .The breakdown of the 27 spheres is as follows: one
sphere for fixed star , three spheres for the sun, three sphere
for the moon, and four spheres for each of the five known
planets at the time: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and
Jupiter. Note that he did not assign any spheres for Earth
because in his model, Earth is fixed.
Back
Aristotle’s Model
◦The Aristotelian model also used the 27 celestial spheres of
Eudoxus. In addition, Aristotle used 27 buffering spheres
between the celestial spheres of Eudoxus and an outermost
sphere that was the domain of what he called the Prime
Mover.
◦According to Aristotle, the order of heavenly bodies in the
universe was (from Earth out): Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus,
Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the fixed stars, and the firmament
of the Prime Mover.
Back
Ptolemy Model
◦The Greek mathematician Apollonius, known
in his time as the Great Geometer, “introduced
the idea of an epicycle to explain planetary
motion”. An epicycle is a circle in which a
planet moves. The center of this small circle in
turn moves around Earth along a bigger
circular path called the deferent.
Back
Heliocentri
c Model
Copernicu’s
Model
Next
Copernicus’s Model
◦Nicolaus Copernicus asserted that Earth spins on its axis
everyday an revolves around the sun just like other planets;
only the moon orbits the sun. He maintained the concept of
uniform circular motion and Ptolemy’s epicycles. He gave
reasonable explanation for the variation of brightness of
planets under retrograde motion. However, his model had
two major scientific flaws: (1) the absence of stellar
parallax and (2) the lack of perceive motion of Earth.
Back
Lesson 6.3: The Birth of Modern Astronomy
Tycho Brahe’s Universe
Tycho Brahe was considered the last and greatest
astronomer prior to the invention of the telescope.
In his universe, the sun orbited Earth, while the other
planets orbited the sun.
Galileo’s Astronomical Observation
*The moon has mountains, valleys, and craters. This suggested
that the moon is not so different from Earth, implying that
something in the celestial realm is barely distinguishable from
objects that belong to the terrestrial realm.
*The surface of the sum has some blemishes, which are now
called sunspots. This observation contradicted the Greek concept
of the sun as being a perfect celestial body.
*Jupiter has four moons revolving around it. This showed that not all
heavenly bodies revolve around the Earth. There are other centers of
revolution that are themselves revolving.
*Venus has phases to those of the moon. This suggested that Venusis
merely illuminated by the light from the sun, and that it revolves around the
sun. The Ptolemiac model can account only for the crescent phase of
Venus, not the full range of phase he observe.
*Many stars to faint to be seen by the naked eye became visible with his
telescope. He observeb that the Milky Way was simply made of individual
stars. Even when viewed through telescope, the stars still appeared to be
points of light. This provided evidence that the stars were extremely far
away and that observing stelllar parallax is extremely difficult.
The Analemma
When viewed from a fixed position on Earth, the sun does not
occupy the same position in the sky at the same time every day in
a year. This is due to the following reasons:
*Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees from the plane of its orbit around
the sun.
*Earth rotates about its axis once a day as it revolves arounds the
sun once every 365.25 days.
*Earth’s orbit is elliptical. Earth moves fastest at the perihelion and slowest
at the aphelion.
The plot of the position of the sun is viewed from a from a fixed
position on Earth at the same time every day in a year is called Analemma.
The analemma of the sun on Earth looks like the figure 8, with one loop
broader than the other. The broadness of the loop depends on the location
of the fixed position of the observer. Figure 6-17 is a plot of the position of
the sun every 12:00 noon as viewed from the Greenwich Observatory in
England in 2006.

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Across the Universe

Lesson 6.1: Motions in the Sky

 Earth is not a perfect sphere.

Diurnal Motion – the apparent daily motion of stars and

Annual Motion – the apparent motion of the sun caused

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