History of Astronomy

Ancient Cultures to Isaac Newton

Early Civilizations

• A practical approach– Predicting seasons– Navigation

Aristotle and the Greek View: Geocentric Model

• Geo- Earth• Centric- Centered• The earth is a motionless sphere at the center

of the Universe. • Explained the apparent motion of the sun,

moon and stars.

Planets

• Greek astronomers observed that certain celestial objects do not follow a predictable path like the moon, sun, and stars.– Called these objects Planets (Greek word planetes

means wanderer)– The observable motion of Planets is that they

change speed and even loop back and forth relative to the stars.

Retrograde Motion

• Motion of planets in “backwards” or westward loops is known as Retrograde Motion.

Ptolemy (140 A.D.)

• A more complex model of the Universe/Solar System was needed to explain Retrograde Motion.

• Ptolemy suggests that planets orbit the Earth in a large circular orbits but also follow a small circular orbit around an imaginary point.

• These small orbits were known as Epicycles

The Copernican Revolution: Heliocentric Model

• Ptolemaic Model survived for 13 centuries• Copernicus suggested that the Earth is a planet and

spins on its axis and orbits the Sun.• Heliocentric- Sun Centered

– This accounts for the apparent motion of the sun and stars.

• The realization that Earth is not at the center of the universe is now know as the Copernican Revolution.– What about Retrograde motion of the planets?

Just like when you pass another car on the highway.

Galileo Galilei

• Used the telescope to view objects in the sky (1609).

• Observations of celestial objects supported the Heliocentric Model of the solar system.

Galileo’s Observations

• The terrain of the Moon, Sunspots, the moons of Jupiter

• Phases of Venus

Johannes Kepler

• A student of Tycho Brahe, Kepler used the precise data of his mentor to develop three simple laws that describe the motion of planets.

History of Astronomy

1923 – February 9, 1971

By The Big Bangers (Sean Frazier, Danny

Duvall, Andrew D., and Zach Tarr)

Yuri Gagarin

• Entered Air Force Group 1 in 1960, on March 7.

• April 12, 1961, Became first man to enter space aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

• Flight Time: 0.0750 days• Made Commander of Cosmonaut group in

1963• In 1968 he completed the Zhukovskiy

Military Academy, but died during a MiG-15 training mission.

Alan Shepard

• Alan Shepard was from East Derry, New Hampshire. After he got out of school in 1950, he got into a naval academy.

• In 1959 NASA invited Shepard to join six others for project mercury.

• On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted Freedom 7 to become the 2nd person and the 1st American in space.

• Shepard was scheduled to command the first Gemini but couldn’t due to an inner ear condition that would go on to keep him out of space for six years.

• In 1971 47 year old Alan Shepard, the oldest astronaut in the program, lead the Apollo XIV mission to the moon .

• He returned and went on to retire from the navy and from NASA.

“I must admit maybe I am a piece of

history after all” – Alan Shepard

Sputnik

• Launched on October 4th, 1957• About the size of a beach ball (22.8 inches in diameter)• Weighed 183.9 lbs• The launch started “The Space Age” and the race between

U.S. and U.S.S.R.• Fear arose due to the Soviet Union now having the ability to

launch ballistic missiles long distances. We were also in somewhat of a quarrel with Cuba, who had nuclear warheads, and were allies with the Soviet Union at the time.

• As soon as Sputnik was launched, U.S. Defense department immediately started funding a U.S. satellite project. The Explorer was thus created and launched on January 31st, 1958.

• Because of the launching of Sputnik, the U.S. Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) on October 1st, 1958

Apollo 11• Launched on July 16, 1969 at 1:32 p.m., from

Kennedy Space Center in Florida. • The crew consisted of Commander Neil

Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin.

• Landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969 at 8:17 p.m.

• 30 lunar orbits• Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the

moon. This is when he said his famous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

• Millions of people watched the astronauts walk on the moon from Earth on their TV’s.

• Lunar Sample Mass: 47.5 lbs

Hubble

• Funding for a space telescope was first proposed in 1923.

• Although the Hubble was launched in 1990, it was a land telescope at first, and was able to view galaxies outside of ours for the first time.

• At first, the Hubble had a major flaw, and was not able to take very accurate pictures, which was soon realized and fixed by the replacing of one of its many lenses.

• All of the pictures that were on the backgrounds of the previous slides were taken by the Hubble…

Space Shuttle Challenger

• Background– Nine succesfull flights– Launch delayed six days

• Mission– Cargo Flight– TISP

• Crew– Michael J. Smith, Francis R. Scobee, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S.

Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis, Judith A. Resnik

Disaster

• What went wrong?– O-Ring failure– Too cold

• Aftermath– Mass devestation– Confusion

Christa McAuliffe

• Bio– Grew up in space age, always fascinated by it– School teacher – Concord High School– First mission in space

• Reason for flying– Chosen for TISP

• Memorial– Buried in Concord– Christa McAuliffe Center – Workshops and planetarium– Library

Works Cited• Greene, Nick. “Challenger Disaster - A NASA Tragedy.”

about.com. The New York Times Company, 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2010. <http://space.about.com/ cs/ challenger/ a/ challenger.htm>.

• - - -. “Christa McAuliffe - Space Shuttle Challenger Astronaut - Teacher.” About.com. The New York Times Company, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. <http://space.about.com/ cs/ deceasedastronaut/ a/ mcauliffe.htm>.

• Naden, Corinne J., and Rose Blue. Christa McAuliffe. N.p.: n.p., 1991. Print.

The U.S. Mariner 10

Mercury

• The Mariner 10 took the first to visit (as of 2003) and take pictures of Mercury

• The Mariner has come up with little but, the most information we have on Mercury

• Took 3 flybys in 1974-75• Was the 7th successful launch of the Mariner spacecrafts • Was the first spacecraft to use gravitational pull to get from

one planet to another

• http://ser.sese.asu.edu/merc.html• http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Tech/

Space/Missions/Mariner_10.asp

Voyager

Voyagers 1/2

• Launched 1977• Voyager mission to

Jupiter/Saturn• Into Deep Space and beyond• Nuclear Powered Battery• Farthest man-made object from

earth• 1,592 lbs

• Currently in Heliosheath

• 2x farther than pluto from sun

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/

a3/790106-0203_Voyager_58M_to_31M_r

educed.gif

US Viking Probes

1975

•The Viking Probes were two probes,

called Viking 1 and Viking 2, and were

designed to take information from Mars

•Viking 1 and 2 were launched in

August and September, 1975

•The Probes landed on Mars in 1976

•The soil was discovered to be mostly silicon and iron, and the atmosphere was

shown to be mostly carbon dioxide

•Mars was shown to be much colder than Earth; its temperature rises only to 70

degrees F at the equator and can drop to -166 degrees F at night

Carl Sagan with a Viking Lander

•One of the main missions of the Viking Probes was to investigate if there was any life on Mars

•Each Lander had instruments on board and scooped soil samples, but no evidence of life was found

•The Viking Probes took many photographs of the surface of Mars (shown below) and discovered that the sky was pink, and not dark blue like scientists had predicted (a result of the red dust particles in the atmosphere)

•Viking 2 worked until 1980, and Viking 1 sent

images until 1982

Works Cited

• http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112188/viking_probes.htm

• http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/viking.htm

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanhein/2800095502/

• http://nineplanets.org/spacecraft.html

• http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Mars/MarsExploration/MarsVikings.html

Pioneer 10

1972

Pioneer 10…• was launched on March 2nd, 1972

• was the first object designed to

leave our solar system, and passed

through the Asteroid Belt in 4 months

• reached Jupiter on December 3rd,

1973, where it took the first close-up

photos of the planet and collected other data

• has continued to travel across the galaxy, and sent

data

for over 30 years before it was too distant to transmit a

signal

The Pioneer Plaque

Eric Burgess and Richard Hoagland approached Dr. Carl Sagan (pictured above) and gave him the idea to attach a gold plaque to the Pioneer 10. It was designed so that, if found by extraterrestrial life, it could convey that there was intelligent life on our planet. It depicts a man and a woman, as well as our solar system, with a satellite pointing to Earth.

Works Cited

• http://www.solarviews.com/eng/pn10-11.htm

• http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Tech/Space/Missions/images/Pioneer10

-Jupiter%5B320%5D.jpg

• http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/pioneer/other/plaque.html

• http://teacherknowledge.wikispaces.com/file/view/PioneerPlaqueholding.jpg/

30290049/PioneerPlaqueholding.jpg

ASTRONOMY1986- NOW

By KC, Alex, and Kristen

The Galileo Probe

Launched on October 18,1989 on Atlantis

Explored Jupiter and its moons from December 1995 to September 21, 2003The spacecraft was deliberately plunged

into Jupiter’s atmosphere to protect the discovery of a possible ocean beneath the crust on Jupiter’s moon Europa

The Galileo Project: Achievements

1st spacecraft to fly by an asteroid1st to discover a moon of an asteroid

(Dactyl orbiting Ida)1st to measure Jupiter’s atmosphere

with a probe1st to conduct long-term observations of

the Jovian System from orbitFound evidence of subsurface saltwater

on Europa, Ganymede, and CallistoRevealed volcanic activity on Io

Col. Eileen Collins*First Woman Shuttle Commander*

Selected in 1990 by NASABecame an astronaut in 1991Originally assigned to Orbiter

engineering supportServed as pilot on STS-63 (February 3-

11, 1995) and STS-84 (May 15-24, 1997), and was the commander on STS-93 (July 22-27, 1999) and STS-114 (July 26 to August 9, 2005)

Collins has logged over 872 hours in space.

Retired from NASA in May 2006.

Constellation Constellation is America’s plan to return to the moon and then to mars The program is being ended by Obama If the program were to go through it would eventually lead up to a moon base giving America a space colonization and military advantage

Built to explore Mars and to prove a rover could be placed on mars at a low cost.

Lasted until September of 1997 Sent back 17000 pictures and 15

chemical analyses.

Mars Pathfinder

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

Dr. Hubble

Hubble is the first space telescope

NASA named it after American Astronomer Edwin P. Hubble

Dr. Hubble confirmed an expanding universe

Cost of launch is 1.5 billion dollars.

Chris Cassidy

Born January 4th, 1970 in Salem Mass.

Considers York Maine to be his home town

Served 10 Years as a U.S. Navy Seal.

Volunteered for a 180 mile charity kayak to raise money for Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Accepted by NASA in 2004

Works Cited

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/?CFID=30013625&CFTOKEN=55197149

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/collins.html http://www.ceo.wa.edu.au/home/carey.peter/astronomy.jpg http://lasp.colorado.edu/~bagenal/3750/ClassNotes/Class23/id

a_dactyl.jpg

http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nielsp/233/photos/astronomy/htm/galileo-spacecraft.jpg

http://www.raumfahrer.net/raumfahrt/spaceshuttle/images/sts-114_crew.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Eileen_Collins,_early_NASA_portrait.jpg