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Kepler's Law of Planetary Motion
*After Copernicus, the greatest advances in astronomy came
in the 1600s by Johannes Kepler, who formulated the three
laws known today as Kepler's laws of planetary motion, in
which he mathematically described the elliptical orbits of the
planets around the Sun.
TERM 2
Galileo and
Principia
DEFINITION 2
*In 1609, Galileo became the first person to observe the
Moon and planets through a telescope.*The works of
Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo were unified and integrated
by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687 in the publication Principia.
TERM 3
The Terrestrial
Planets
DEFINITION 3
*All 4 Terrestrial Planets are:-relatively small, composed of
rocky material and metals (cores of iron and nickel), solid
surfaces and weak magnetic fields, orbits close together.
Only Earth and Mars have moons
TERM 4
*Mercury:
DEFINITION 4
The fastest planet and closest to the Sun with the shortest
revolution. (88 days/1 year) Named after the Roman god
Mercury which means speedy messenger. The surface is
cratered and crissscrossed by faults. The temperature range:
467C to -183C.-virutally no atmosphere. 1874 first image of
Mercury from Space Craft Mariner 10.
TERM 5
*Venus
DEFINITION 5
The brightest planet, closest neighbor to Earth, named after
the Roman goddess of beauty. Has similar density, mass,
size, and surface gravity as Earth. Dense atmospgere that is
96% Carbon Dioxide (CO2). High atmosphere pressure of
90atm. The temperature rivals Mercury at 462*C
(greenhouse effect due to Co2) Life can not exist here.
*Venus (continued)
-surface cannot be seen from Earth due to dense, thick, clouds that cover the surface that are composed mainly of H2SO droplets.-top layer of clouds contain large amounts of yellowish sulfar dust giving it its color viewed from the Earth.-1990 first image of Venus from Space Craft Magellan. (mission lasted for 5 years)-hot black rock with craters and cliffs, with volcanic plains covering 80% of the surface.-retrograde rotation (clockwise) possibly caused by impact. TERM 7
*Earth
DEFINITION 7
-the blue planet.-spherical rocky body with oceans and an
atmosphere.-only planet with large amounts of surface water,
an atmosphere that contains oxygen, a temperate climate,
and living organisms.-atmosphere 21% oxygen, 78%
nitrogen, and oxygen is the most abundant element in the
Earth's crust.
TERM 8
*Earth (continued)
DEFINITION 8 -Earth is not a perfect sphere, but rather an oblate spheroid:flattened at the polesbulging at the equatordue to rotation at its axis-revolves eastward around the Sun, and rotates eastward around a central internal axis that is tilted at 23.5.-the tilt of the axis and the revolution around the Sun give the Earth four different temperate seasons.-1972 first image of Earth from Space Craft Apollo 17. TERM 9
*Mars
DEFINITION 9 -the red planet.-named after the Roman god of war.-its the planet that most resembles Earth (as for surface).-revolves around the Sun every 687 days (Martian year).-only terrestrial planet to have a moon (2 moons).-atmosphere is 95% CO2, surface temps at 20C to -140C.-does not experience seasonal changes.-when viewed from the Earth bright polar caps are seen (mostly dry ice CO2 but some frozen H2O). TERM 10
*Mars (continued)
DEFINITION 10
-has 12 extinct volcanoes:-Olympus Mons is the largest
volcano in the solar system (15 mile high / 370 mile wide)
from TN to FL.-has its own Grand Canyon called Mariner
Valley which is the width of the US and 4 miles deep.-
Geologist think that it is a crustal fracture caused by internal
fractures.
*Jupiter (continued)
-has 62 moons or more, including the largest in the solar
system call Ganymede.-the 4 largest moons were discovered
by Galileo in 1610 called the Gallilean Moons of Jupiter.-the
greatest mission was the 14 year journey of the spacecraft
Galileo which ended in 2003 when it burned up in Jupiter's
dense atmosphere.
TERM 17
*Saturn
DEFINITION 17
-the ring planet.-named after the Roman god of agriculture.-
small solid core surrounded by ice, a layer of solid hydrogen,
and outer layer of liquid hydrogen and helium.-lowest
density of any planet (0.70g/cm3).-2nd largest planet.
TERM 18
*Saturn (continued)
DEFINITION 18 -rings of Saturn first seen by telescope in 1610 by Galileo.-rings are very wide and flat, composed of rock and ice believed to be pieces of shattered moons, asteroids, and comets (micrometers -> 10m).-the spacecraft Cassini-Huygens arrived at Saturn in 2004 (took 7 years/ 2.2 billion miles).-the Huygens probe landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in Jan 2005. The probe sent data for 3 hours from Titan's surface, which was found to have pools of liquid nitrogen and flashfloods of liquid methane. TERM 19
*Uranus
DEFINITION 19
-the blue-green planet-discovered in 1781 by William
Herschel-name comes from Uranus being the father of the
Titans and grandfather of Jupiter.-farthest planet that can be
seen without a telescope.-retrograde rotation (clockwise).-
aquamarine (blue-green) color with very thin ring system as
seen by Hubble Space telescope.
TERM 20
*Neptune
DEFINITION 20
-the cold blue planet.-discovered in 1846 by the German
astronomer Galle.-considered a twin to Uranus.-images
obtained in 1989 by Voyager II which is still in orbit.
*Pluto
-named after the Roman god of the underworld.-has three known moons (Charon).-its must smaller than the official planets and in Prague, Aug 2006 the IAU classified Pluto as a dwarf planet.-not large enough to clear its neighborhood.-now it is considered to be an object in the Kuiper Belt which is a disk shaped belt at the edge of our solar system consisting of millions of comets and comet materials.-also other Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO's) have been discovered which are larger than Pluto (Sedna 2003, UB313 now called Eris). TERM 22
*Dwarf
Planets
DEFINITION 22
-Ceres in the asteroid belt-Pluto-Eris (formerly 2003 UB313)
in the Kuiper Belt
TERM 23
Stars
DEFINITION 23 a self luminous sphere or hot gas held together by gravity and energized by nuclear reactions.life cycle = stars are born, radiate energy, expand, possibly explode, and then die.lifetime depends on mass = the greater the mass the faster it moves through its cycle.brightness of a star is related to energy and distance.color is related to surface temperature T ~ f; blue is hotter than yellow and yellow is hotter than red.gas and dust distributed among the stars are known as interstellar medium and form cool dense clouds called nebulae. TERM 24
Stars (#1 continued)
DEFINITION 24 a star forms in a nebula when the mass flattens, heats, and spins more rapidly as it gravitationally, contracts, the temp rises, and the material gains thermal energy then called a protostar.as temps continue to increase and nuclear reactions begin (fusion) a star is born.low ad medium mass stars become white dwarfs.nova is an event where a white dwarf as a part of a binary system undergoes a dramatic surface explosion appearing as a new star. TERM 25
Stars (#2 continued)
DEFINITION 25
*some stars may expand mass to enter the red giant or red
supergiant phase.*as these stars are dying (fusion to Fe) its
Fe core will gravitationally collapse and violently explode in
an event called a super nova.*super giants: type II
supernova.
Hubble and Spectrum Shifts
Hubble examined the spectrum shifts of different galaxies.during his investigation he noted that some shifts were blue and some red.-the blue shifts indicates that the galaxy is moving toward us.- the red shifts indicates that the galaxy is moving away from us.Hubble noticed that far away galaxies all exhibited red shifts.he also noted that the farther away the galaxy the larger the red shift.*as a result Hubble concluded that the universe must be expanding.
