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Chinese Origin Story

PAN GU AND THE EGG OF THE
WORLD
This origin story comes
from Chinese culture. It
was first written down
about 1,760 years ago,
roughly 220 — 265 CE,
yet it must have been told
orally long before that.

From: https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#

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Greek Origin Story

THE TITANS AND THE GODS OF
OLYMPUS
We know the Greek origin story from
some of the earliest Greek literary
sources that have survived, The
Theogony and Works and Days, by
Hesiod. This oral poet is thought to
have been active sometime between
750 and 650 BCE, within decades of
when the Homeric epics, The Iliad
and The Odyssey, took the form in
which we know them
From: https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#

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Greek Origin Story

THE TITANS AND THE GODS OF OLYMPUS
Archaeological findings support
the creation story recorded in
Hesiod’s work; pottery from the
eighth century BCE depicts the
gods and goddesses he
describes. Before Hesiod told
this patriarchal version, in which
the first woman is the cause of
much trouble, Pandora, whose
name means “gift giver,” was
known in oral tradition as a
beneficent Earth goddess.
From: https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#

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Iroquios Origin Story

THE GREAT TURTLE
This story comes from the
Iroquois people in North
America. In the 1400s
they formed a federation
of five separate tribes in
what is now New York
state. The Iroquois did not
use writing, so they told
this story orally until
settlers from Europe wrote
it down. From: https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#

Judeo Christian Origin Story

GENESIS
This biblical story comes from
Genesis, the first book of the Old
Testament, which is the sacred
source book of both Judaism and
Christianity. In Genesis, this story is
followed immediately by a second
creation story in Chapter 2, in which
humans are created first, followed
by plants and animals.
These stories were written down in
the first millennium BCE and
evolved into the form in which we
know them around 450 BCE, about
2,460 years ago. From: https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#

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Mayan Origin Story

The Popol Vuh
This origin story was told by
the Mayans, who lived in the
Yucatán Peninsula of
Mexico from around 250 to
900 CE. It’s the beginning of
a long, complex story called
the Popol Vuh which means
“council book.” It was first
translated into alphabetic
text from Mayan
hieroglyphics in the 16th
century.
From: https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
By the 16th century,
many astronomers
were uncomfortable • How did classical philosophers
with the theory that describe Earth’s place in the
Earth sat at the center Universe?
of a spherical universe.
Today, you will discover • How did Copernicus revise that
how Copernicus ancient theory?
changed the old • How did astronomers discover the
theory, how Kepler
discovered the laws of laws of planetary motion?
planetary motion, and • Why was Galileo condemned by the
how Galileo changed Inquisition?
what we know about
nature

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OUTLINE
•Tycho Brahe
•Tycho Brahe’s Legacy
• Archaeoastronomy Planetary •Kepler: An Astronomer of Humble Origins

The Roots of
• The Astronomy of Greece Motion •Joining Tycho
•Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion
• Aristotle and the Nature of
Astronomy Earth
•The Rudolphine Tables

• The Ptolemaic Universe

Galileo • Telescopic Observations

Galilei • Dialogo and Trial

The • The Copernican Model

Copernican
• De Revolutionibus
Revolution Modern • Standing on the Shoulders of
Astronomy Giants

The Roots of Astronomy

Already in the stone and

bronze ages, human
cultures realized the
cyclic nature of motions
in the sky

The study of Astronomy of

ancient peoples has
been called
Archaeoastronomy

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The Roots of Astronomy

Monuments dating back

to 3000 B.C.E show
alignments with
astronomical significance

These monuments were

probably used as Newgrange, Ireland,
built around 3200 B.C.E
calendars or even to • Sunlight shining down a
predict eclipses passageway into the central
chamber of the mount
indicates the day of the winter
solstice

The Roots of Astronomy

Stonehenge was
constructed
between 3000 –
1800 B.C.E

Alignments with
locations of sunset,
sunrise, moonset,
and moonrise at
summer and winter
solstice

It was probably
used as a calendar

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The Roots of Astronomy

The Roots of Astronomy

Another example is
Chaco Canyon, New
Mexico

A slit in the rock

formation produces a
sunlit “dagger” shape,
indicating the day of
the Summer Solstice

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The Roots of Astronomy

A mammoth tusk
found at Gonzi,
Ukraine

Inscriptions
probably describing
astronomical events

The Roots of Astronomy

Greeks tried to
Unfortunately, there are First preserved written
understand the motions
no written documents documents about
of the sky and describe
about the significance of ancient astronomy are
them in terms of
stone and bronze age from ancient Greek
mathematical, not
monuments philosophy
physical, models

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"COMMON SENSE"
• IF THE EARTH ACTUALLY SPUN ON
AN AXIS, WHY DIDN'T OBJECTS FLY
OFF THE SPINNING EARTH?

• IF THE EARTH WAS REVOLVING

AROUND THE SUN, WHY DIDN'T IT
LEAVE BEHIND THE BIRDS FLYING IN
THE AIR?

• IF THE EARTH WERE ACTUALLY ON

AN ORBIT AROUND THE SUN, WHY
WASN'T A PARALLAX EFFECT
OBSERVED?

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ANCIENT GREEK ASTRONOMERS

Models were generally wrong because they were
based on wrong “first principles”, believed to be
“obvious” and not questioned:
1. Geocentric Universe: Earth at the Center of the
Universe
2. “Perfect Heavens”: Motions of all celestial
bodies described by motions involving objects of
“perfect” shape, i.e., spheres or circles

Greeks assumed the Earth

was not moving because
they did not observe
parallaxes in the sky.

The Roots of Astronomy

Pythagoras (570-500 B.C.E.)

noticed that many things in
nature seem to be
governed by geometrical
or mathematical relations

He used the relations between

harmonics in music and
geometric shapes to suggest
that the harmony of the
celestial movements produced
actual music, the “music of the
spheres”

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The Roots of Astronomy

Anaximander (611-546
B.C.E.) described a
universe made up of
wheels filled with fire

The sun and the moon

were holes in the wheels
through which the flames
could be seen

The Roots of Astronomy

Philolaus (500 B.C.E) argued that
the Earth moved in a circular
path around a central fire (not This, by the way, was the first
the sun), which was always theory to suppose that the Earth
hidden behind a counter-Earth is in motion
located between the fire and
Earth

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The Roots of Astronomy

The great philosopher Plato (428-347

B.C.E.) argued that the reality
humans see is only a distorted
shadow of the perfect, ideal form

If human observations are

distorted , then observation
can be misleading, and the
best path to truth is through
pure thought on the ideal
forms that underlie nature

The Roots of Astronomy

Plato argued that the most perfect

Later, astronomers tried to describe
geometrical form was the sphere,
the motions of the heavens by
and therefore, the perfect heavens
imaging multiple rotating spheres,
must be made up of spheres
which became known as the
rotating at constant rates and
principle of uniform circular motion
carrying objects around in circles

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The Roots of Astronomy

Eudoxus of Cnidus (409-356
B.C.E.), a student of Plato, applied
this principle when he devised a
system of 27 nested spheres that
rotated at different about
different axes to produce a
mathematical description of the
motions of the universe

The reality of the spheres was up

to debate, but some began to
think of the spheres as “real”
objects made of perfect celestial
material

The Roots of Astronomy

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.), another

of Plato’s students, believed that
the universe was divided into two
parts: Earth, imperfect and
changeable; and the heavens,
perfect and unchanging

Like many of his

predecessors, he believed
that Earth was the center of
the universe, so his model is
called a geocentric universe

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Ancient Greek Astronomers (3)

• Eudoxus (409 – 356 B.C.): Model
of 27 nested spheres

• Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.), major

authority of philosophy until the
late middle ages:
Universe can be divided in 2 parts:

1. Imperfect, changeable Earth,

2. Perfect Heavens (described by

spheres)

• He expanded Eudoxus’ Model to use 55 spheres.

The Roots of Astronomy

About 200 B.C.E.,

Eratosthenes,
working in the
great library in the
Egyptian city of
Alexandria, found
a way to measure
Earth’s radius,
based upon the
teaching from
Aristotle that the
Earth had to be a
sphere

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The Roots of Astronomy

Hipparchus (2nd century B.C.E.) was an

actual astronomer and is regarded
and the inventor of trigonometry , the
creation of the first star catalog, and
the discovery of precession

He described the motion of the

sun, moon, and planets as
following circular paths with Earth
near, but not at, their centers

These off-center circles

are known as eccentrics

The Roots of Astronomy

Ptolemy (140 A.D.), a Greek

astronomer, wrote a book that
combined all of the ancient
knowledge of astronomy that
he could find. He thought that
the Earth was at the center of
the universe and that the other
planets and the sun revolved
around it. This theory was
known as the Ptolemaic theory.
Although it was incorrect, the
theory predicted the motions
of the planets better than any
other theory at that time.

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The Roots of Astronomy

In the Ptolemaic system,

As the Earth “passes” each planet moves Each epicycle is
outer planets in its orbit counterclockwise on a small centered on a large
we observe retrograde circular orbit called an circular orbit called a
motion of the planets epicycle, taking a synodic
period to go around deferent

The Copernican Revolution

Nicholas Copernicus (Poland,

1473-1543 A.D.), proposed a
new theory in which the sun,
not the Earth, was at the
center of that universe.

To explain the daily annual

cycles of the sky, he proposed
that the Earth rotates on its
axis and revolves around the
sun.

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The Copernican Revolution

Copernicus worked on his book De

Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (The
Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) over a
period of many years and was essentially
finished in 1529, but he hesitated to publish.

One reason why he hesitated to publish is

that the idea of a heliocentric universe
would be highly controversial.

Another reason Copernicus hesitated to

publish was that his work was incomplete, as
his model could not accurately predict
planetary positions.

The Copernican Revolution

The Copernican system could

explain retrograde motion, in that
planets lying farther from the sun
orbit slower, and thus explained
away the epicycles of Ptolemy.

The Copernican system was

elegant and simple compared
with the whirling epicycles and
off-center equants of the
Ptolemaic system.

When Copernicus’s theory was

accepted, major changes in
science and society called the
Copernican Revolution took
place.

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The Copernican Revolution

Planetary Motion

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), a

Danish astronomer, favored a
theory of an Earth-centered
universe that was different
from the Ptolemaic theory.

Brahe thought the sun and

the moon revolved around
Earth and the planets
revolved around the sun.

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Planetary Motion

He showed evidence against

the Aristotelian belief of
“perfect”, unchangeable
heavens.

While his theory was incorrect,

Brahe recorded very precise
observations of the planets
and stars that helped future
astronomers.

Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was born to

a poor family in the region that is now
part of southwest Germany, but he
quickly became very proficient in school
earning a scholarship to the university of
Tübingen.

Tycho Brahe invited Kepler to Prague in

1600 to become his understudy, but with
the untimely death of Brahe in 1601,
Kepler became the ne imperial
mathematician and used the
observations of Brahe to analyze the
motions of the planets and complete the
Rudolphine Tables.

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Planetary Motion

Although Kepler did not agree

with Brahe’s theory, he recognized
how valuable the data were.

He found a consistent description

by abandoning circular motion and
uniform motion

Johannes Kepler announced

that all of the planets revolve
around the sun in elliptical
orbits and the sun is not in the
exact center of the orbits. He
introduced three laws of
planetary motion that are still
used today.

Planetary Motion

Kepler’s First Law states: The path of the planets

about the sun is elliptical in shape, with the center
of the sun being located at one focus.

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Planetary Motion
The semimajor axis, a, is half the
longest diameter

The semiminor axis, b, is half the

shortest diameter

The eccentricity, e, of an ellipse tells

you the shape and can be
𝒄
calculated, by 𝒆𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 =
𝒂

If e is nearly equal to one, the

ellipse is nearly elongated

If e is nearly zero, the ellipse is

more circular

ECCENTRICITIES OF ELLIPSES

1) 2) 3)

e = 0.02 e = 0.1 e = 0.2

4) 5)

e = 0.4 e = 0.6

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ECCENTRICITIES OF PLANETARY ORBITS

Orbits of planets are virtually
indistinguishable from circles:
Most extreme example:
Earth: e = 0.0167 Pluto: e = 0.248

Planetary Motion

Kepler’s Second Law states a line from a planet to the

sun sweeps over equal areas in equal intervals of time.

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Planetary Motion

Kepler’s Third Law states a planet’s orbital period squared is

proportional to its average distance from the sun cubed.
𝟐 𝟑
𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝑨𝑼

PLANETARY ORBITS (3)

3. A planet’s orbital period (P) squared is

proportional to its average distance from
the sun (a) cubed:
(Py = period in years;
Py2 = aAU3 aAU = distance in AU)

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Calculations Using Kepler's Third Law

The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods
for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of
their semimajor axes.

R(AU)3=P(years)2
As an example, the "radius" of the orbit of Mars
(the length of the semimajor axis of the orbit) is:

R=P2/3=(1.88)2/3=1.52 AU

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was born in

1564 in Pisa where he studied
medicine and mathematics,
and eventually became the
professor of mathematics at
the University of Padua.

He invented the modern view

of science, which transitions
from a faith-based “science”
to an observational-based
science.

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Galileo Galilei
The telescope was
apparently invented
around 1608 by lens
makers in Holland, but
Galileo was able to build
telescopes in his
workshop.

Galileo was the first to

apply telescopic
observations to the
theoretical problem of
the day- the place of
Earth.

Galileo’s telescope
revealed four new
“planets” circling Jupiter,
objects known today as
the Galilean moons.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo observed that the moon was

not perfect, but rather consisted of
mountains and valleys just like the
Earth.

He observed Venus going through a

complete set of phases, which
disproves the epicycle model and
proved that it did indeed revolve
around the Sun.

He published all of his observations in

a small book called Sidereus Nuncius
(The Sidereal Messenger), which was
very popular and made Galileo
famous.

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Galileo Galilei

Galileo’s most infamous work was published in 1632

was called Dialogo Sopra I Due Massimi del Mondo
(Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems),
which confronts the ancient astronomy of Aristotle
and Ptolemy with the Copernican model and with
telescopic observations.

The Inquisition stopped the sales of

the book and interrogated Galileo
four times and was threatened with
torture.

He was eventually condemned in 1633, not

for heresy, but for disobeying direct orders
given to him by Cardinal Bellarime in 1616 to
not teach or defend the principles of
Copernicus.

Isaac Newton

In 1687, a scientist named Sir Isaac

Newton showed that all objects in
the universe attract each other
through gravitational force. The force
of gravity depends on the mass of
the objects and the distance
between them. Newton’s law of
gravity explained why all the planets
orbit the most massive object in the
solar system – the sun. This helped
explain the observations of the
scientists who came before him.

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Edwin Hubble

In 1924, Edwin His data Today, larger and

Hubble proved confirmed the better telescopes
that other beliefs of many on Earth and in
galaxies astronomers space, new
existed beyond that the models of the
the edge of universe is universe, and
the Milky Way. much larger spacecraft help
than our astronomers study
galaxy. space.

Modern Astronomy

The science known as

“Modern Astronomy”
began during the 99
years between the
deaths of Copernicus and
Galileo (1543 to 1642)

The Renaissance is
commonly taken to be the
period between 1300 to
1600, and these 99 years of
astronomical history lie at
the culmination of the
reawaking of learning in all
fields

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Steady State theory

 1940s Fred Hoyle, Thomas
Gold and Herman Bondi
 Matter is continuously
created at a rate that keeps
the average density of the
Universe the same as it
expands.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/univer
se/questions_and_ideas/steady_state_the
ory

Pulsating Universe Theory

(Oscillating Universe Theory)
By: Richard Tolman
1. The Pulsating Universe Theory says
that the universe follows infinite self-
sustaining cycles such as expanding and
contrasting.
2. The theory also says that after the
universe has been contracted to a certain
size, explosion occurs and the universe
will start expanding.
3. The theory also states that the
universe is "living" and keeps pulsating in
and out. The universe expands at a rapid
rate with gravity and inertia and
eventually inertia will run out and gravity
will be left and will cause the universe to
pull in to itself and create a "crunch"
Evidence Redshift happens when light
seen coming from an object that is
moving away is proportionally increased
in wavelength.

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Inflationary (or Inflating) Universe

In 1980, the American physicist Alan Guth proposed a
model of theuniverse based on the Big Bang, but
incorporating a short, early period of exponential cosmic
inflation in order to solve the horizon and flatness
problems of the standard Big Bang model. Another
variation of the inflationary universe is the cyclic model
developed by Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok in 2002
using state-of-the-art M-theory, superstring theory and
brane cosmology, which involves an
inflationary universeexpanding and contracting in cycles.

Multiverse
The Russian-American physicist Andrei Linde developed the
inflationary universe idea further in 1983 with his chaotic inflation
theory (or eternalinflation), which sees our universe as just one
of many “bubbles” that grew as part of a multiverse owing to a
vacuum that had not decayed to its ground state. The American
physicists Hugh Everett III and Bryce DeWitt had initially
developed and popularized their “many worlds” formulation of
the multiverse in the 1960s and 1970s. Alternative versions have
also been developed where our observable universe is just one
tiny organized part of an infinitely big cosmos which is largely in
a state of chaos, or where our organized universe is just one
temporary episode in an infinite sequence of largely chaotic and
unorganized arrangements.

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Modern Scientific Origin Story

The Big Bang Theory
This version of modern
science’s origin story is
condensed and
interpreted from a great
body of historical and
scientific information.

https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1
#

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