Chapter 2

Emergence of Modern
Astronomy
2.1. Over the course of the year, which gets more hours of daylight,
the Earths north pole or south pole? [Hint: The Earth is at perihelion in January.]
The Earth is at perihelion in January, so its northern hemisphere winter is
shorter, and its southern hemisphere summer is shorter. Consequently, summed
over a year, the north pole gets more light.
2.2. On 2003 August 27, Mars was in opposition as seen from the
Earth. On 2005 July 14 (687 days later), Mars was in western quadrature as seen from the Earth. What was the distance of Mars from
the Sun on these dates, measured in astronomical units (AU)? Is this
greater than or less than the semimajor axis length of the Martian
orbit? You may assume the Earths orbit is a perfect circle. [Hint:
The sidereal period of Mars is also 687 days.]
The number of orbits Earth makes in 687 days is
Norbit =

687 days
= 1.881 orbits.
365.24 days per orbit

The angle swept out by the Earth in 0.881 orbits is = (0.881)(360o) = 317o.14.
As per the left diagram in Figure 2.1, is the angle between the Earth and Mars
as seen from the Sun and is = 360o = 42o.86. Simple trigonometry (right
diagram in Figure 2.1) gives the distance of Mars from the Sun,
c=

a
1 AU
=
= 1.36 AU,
cos
0.733

which is less than the length of the semimajor axis of the orbit of Mars. This
tells us that the orbit of Mars cannot be circular.
7

CHAPTER 2. EMERGENCE OF MODERN ASTRONOMY

Figure 2.1: When Earth is at point 1 in the left diagram, Mars is at opposition.
After one orbit, Mars returns to the same position and Earth is now at point
2, where Mars appears to be at western quadrature; during this time, Earth
has swept out an angle 360o + , and = 360o . The triangle from the left
diagram is expanded on the right, where a is the EarthSun distance, c is the
MarsSun distance, and b is the EarthMars distance when Mars is at western
quadrature.
[Aside: In the next Chapter, we introduce the perihelion distance q = a(1 e).
In the case of Mars, the perihelion distance is is q = (1 e)a = 1.524 AU(1
0.093) = 1.382 AU, which is less than the distance of Mars from the Sun on the
specied dates. This small error occurs on account of assuming that the Earths
orbit is circular, which it is not.]
2.3. In the 1670s, the astronomer Ole Roemer observed eclipses of the
Galilean satellite Io as it plunged through Juptiers shadow once per
orbit. He noticed that the time between observed eclipses became
shorter as Jupiter came closer to the Earth and longer as Jupiter
moved away. Roemer calculated that the eclipses were observed 17
minutes earlier when Jupiter was in opposition than when it was close
to conjunction. This was attributed by Roemer to the nite speed
of light. From Roemers data, compute the speed of light, rst in
AU min1, then in m s1 .
The dierence in Jupiters distance from Earth during opposition and conjunction is simply the diameter of the Earths orbit, D = 2 AU. The speed of light
is thus c = 2 AU/17 min = 0.118 AU/min. In SI units, this becomes
c=

0.118 AU 1.49 1011 m AU1

= 2.92 108 m s1 .
min
60 s min1

MODERN ASTRONOMY

2.4. In addition to aberration of starlight due to the Earths orbital

motion around the Sun, there should also be diurnal aberration due
to the Earths rotation. Where on the Earth is this eect the largest,
and what is its amplitude?
The diurnal eect is largest at the equator where the Earths rotational speed
is greatest,
vrot =

2 6.378 106 m/sidereal day

2r
=
= 465 m s1 .
P
86, 160 s/sidereal day

The aberration angle will be




465m s1
vrot
206265
=
= 0.32 arcsec.
=
c
3 108 m s1
rad
2.5. A light-year is dened as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during one tropical year. How many light-years are in a parsec?
d = ct = 2.99799 108 m s1
Thus,
1 pc =

365.24 days 86, 400 s

= 9.461 1015 m.
year
day

3.085678 1016 m
= 3.26 lt-yr.
9.461 1015 m lt-yr1

2.6. The planets all orbit the Sun in the same sense (counterclockwise
as seen from above the Earths north pole). Imagine a wrong-way
planet orbiting the Sun in the opposite (clockwise) sense, on an orbit
of semimajor axis length a = 1.3 AU. What would the sidereal period
of this planet be? What would its synodic period be as seen from the
Earth? What would its synodic period be as seen from Mars?
From Keplers Third Law, the sidereal period of planet is Pp = (1.3)3/2 = 1.48
years. From Figure 2.2, we see that
p =
E +
 s,
or s = p E , which leads to
1
1
1
1
1
=
+ ,
+
=
S
Pp
PE
1.48 1
or S = 0.597 yr.
As seen from Mars (see Figure 2.3), s = p Mars . Using the sidereal
period of Mars PMars = (1.54)3/2 = 1.91 years, we solve for the synodic period
of the planet using
1
1
1
1
1
=
+
+
=
S
Pp
PMars
1.48 1.91
and nd that S = 0.833 yr = 305 days.

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CHAPTER 2. EMERGENCE OF MODERN ASTRONOMY

Figure 2.2: Angular speeds of Earth (E ) and the wrong-way planet (p ) in

the sidereal reference frame, and the angular speed of the planet in a reference
frame that co-rotates with the EarthSun line (s ).

Figure 2.3: Angular speeds of Mars (M ) and the wrong-way planet (p ) in

the sidereal reference frame, and the angular speed of the planet in a reference
frame that co-rotates with the MarsSun line (s ).
2.7. Consider a football thrown directly northward at a latitude 40o
N. The distance of the quarterback from the receiver is 20 yards
(18.5 m), and the speed of the thrown ball is 25 m s1 . Does the
Coriolis force deect the ball to the right or to the left? By what
amount (in meters) is the ball deected? Does the receiver need
to worry about correcting for the deection, or should he be more
worried about being nailed by the free safety? [Hint: Remember
that the angular velocity
 of the Earths rotation is parallel to the
rotation axis.]
The Coriolis acceleration is given by equation (2.23),
a = 2( v ).
The velocity of the football is: | v | = 25 m s1 and is the angular rotation
speed of the Earth,

1 day
2 rad

7.27 105 rad s1 .

day
86, 400 s

MODERN ASTRONOMY

11

The ball will be deected to the right in the northern hemisphere, by an amount
d

1
a(t)2 ,
2

where t is the time of ight, given by t = D/v. Thus,

 2
 
D
D2 sin 
1
(2v sin )
.
=
d=
2
2
v
v
For  = 40o , sin  = 0.64, this becomes
d=

(18.5)2 7.27 105 0.64

= 6.4 104 m = 0.64 mm.
25

Look out for the free safety!

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CHAPTER 2. EMERGENCE OF MODERN ASTRONOMY