Modern Astronomy

The Birth of
Modern
Astronomy
 After 14 centuries since Ptolemy,
five noted scientists made important
discoveries that gave rise to the birth
of modern astronomy. These were
Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe,
Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei
and Isaac Newton.
Some Astronomical Terms:
 ASTRONOMICAL UNIT (AU) the unit
of length defined as the average distance
between Earth and the Sun; this distance
is about 1.5 × 108 kilometers or 1.5 x
1011 metres
 ECCENTRICITY in an ellipse, the ratio
of the distance between the foci to the
major axis
 ELLIPSE a closed curve for
which the sum of the distances
from any point on the ellipse to
two points inside (called the foci)
is always the same
 FOCUS (plural: foci) one of two
fixed points inside an ellipse
from which the sum of the
distances to any point on the
ellipse is constant
 KEPLER’S FIRST LAW each
planet moves around the Sun in
an orbit that is an ellipse, with the
Sun at one focus of the ellipse
 KEPLER’S SECOND LAW the
straight line joining a planet and
the Sun sweeps out equal areas in
space in equal intervals of time
 KEPLER’S THIRD LAW the
square of a planet’s orbital period
is directly proportional to the
cube of the semimajor axis of its
orbit
 MAJOR AXIS the maximum
diameter of an ellipse
 ORBIT the path of an
object that is in revolution
about another object or
point
 ORBITAL PERIOD (P)
the time it takes an object to
travel once around the Sun
 ORBITAL SPEED the speed at
which an object (usually a
planet) orbits around the mass
of another object; in the case of
a planet, the speed at which
each planet moves along its
ellipse
 SEMIMAJOR AXIS half of
the major axis of a conic
section, such as an ellipse
Nicolaus Copernicus
• Became convinced
that Earth is a planet
just like the others
known at the time.
• He proposed a model
of the solar system
with the Sun at the
center.
• He used circles to
represent the orbits of
the planets.
• This was not

ultimately successful
as the planets still
seemed to stray from
their predicted
positions, indicating
that their path around
the Sun was not a
perfect circle.
Tycho Brahe
• A Danish astronomer
who was noted for his
precise measurement
of the locations and
orbits of celestial
bodies.
• He is most noteworthy
for his observations of
Mars.
Johannes Kepler
• Assistant to Brahe, he
kept all of the data, and
used it to continue
making observations
after Brahe’s death.
• Discovered three laws

of planetary motion.
• The most important
was that the orbit of
planets are not circles
but ellipses.
• Ellipses are oval in

shape; almost like an
egg
• There are two
points inside an
ellipse, each
known as a focus,
that help determine
the shape of the
ellipse.
Summary of the Three Laws
• The path of each

planet around the sun
is an ellipse with the
sun at one focus.
The other focus is an
empty position in
space located at the
opposite end of the
ellipse.
• A line connecting a
planet to the sun
would move in such a
way that equal areas
are swept in equal
time periods.
• This translates into

the planets revolving
slower when they are
further from the sun
and revolving faster
when they are closer
to the sun.
• There is a mathematical
relationship between the time it
takes a planet to orbit the sun and
that planet’s distance from the
sun.
Distances from planets to the sun
can be calculated when their
periods of revolution are known.
Galileo Galilei
• His most important

contributions were the
descriptions he made of
the behavior of moving
objects.
• He made his own

telescope with which he
could view celestial
objects in a way not able
to be done previously.
• His observations
supported
Copernicus’s
view of a sun-
centered
universe.
• The discovery of four
moons orbiting
Jupiter.
• This disproved that the

notion that the Earth
was the only center of
motion in the universe.
• The discovery that
planets are circular
disks – not points of
light.
• This showed that the

planets were not stars.
• The discovery that the
sun had sunspots,
and that it rotated in
just under a month.
Sir Isaac Newton
• Sir Issac was the first to
formulate and test the law
of universal
gravitation.
• According to this law

every object in the
universe attracts every
other body with a force
directly proportional to
their masses and inversely
proportional to their
distance from one
another.
• In other words, the more mass an object has the more
gravitational pull it can exert.
• The closer two objects are to each other determines how

much gravitational pull they can exert on each other.
• Mass is the measurement of how much matter an
object has.
• Weight is a measurement of the force of gravity

on an object.
• Weight can vary depending on location (Earth vs

Moon) while mass will always remain the same.
• Newton was able to prove that the force of gravity
coupled with the tendency of a planet to remain in a
straight line motion results in the elliptical orbits
that Kepler first discovered.

Modern Astronomy

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The Birth of

• This was not

• Discovered three laws

• Ellipses are oval in

• The path of each

• This translates into

• His most important

• He made his own

• This disproved that the

• This showed that the

• According to this law

• The closer two objects are to each other determines how

• Weight is a measurement of the force of gravity

• Weight can vary depending on location (Earth vs

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