CHAPTER 1: THE EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE Aristarchus
Introduction
EARLY GREEKS
 The Golden Age of early astronomy centered in Greece.
Only philosophical arguments were used in explaining the
different natural events.
 From the movement of the stars to the location of heavenly
bodies, the Greeks only used their keen observations and
applied their knowledge in geometry and trigonometry to
explain certain events.
 The Greeks had a geocentric view of the Earth; all other
planets circle around the earth including the sun and the
stars were believed to be suspended in a hollow sphere.
ANCIENT ASTRONOMY
Anaxagoras
 He explained the phases of the moon wherein only half of
the spherical moon shone because of reflected sunlight.
 The illuminated part which is visible from the earth changes
periodically (phases of the moon) and the lunar eclipses
occur when the moon moves into the earth’s shadow.
Eudoxus
He first introduced the first five planets to be discovered, namely
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, & Saturn. He proposed that the
stars are anchored to these planets as they orbit the Earth.
Aristotle
Aristotle adopted Eudoxus’ idea and expounded further by
clearly stating the Earth is spherical because of the shadow it
casts onto the moon. His geocentric view propagated for 2000
years (again).
 He is the very first Greek to profess the heliocentric view of
the universe, where the Sun is the center of the universe and
not the Earth.
 He also proposed that the Sun was far bigger than the Earth.
He tried calculating for the distance of the Sun from the
Earth but gave numerous erroneous assumptions and results.
Eratosthenes
 He computed (quite) accurately the circumference of the
Earth by comparing the angles projected by the noonday
sun on the cities Syene (now Aswan) in the south and
Alexandria in the North.
 The angles differed by 7.2° or 1/50 of 360°. Given that the
distance between the two cities is approximately 157.6 m,
then he thought that the Earth must be 50 times that
distance.
 (Eratosthenes’ approximation)
156.7 km x 50 = 39, 400 km
 This is quite close to the actual Earth’s circumference which
is 40, 075 km.
Hipparchus
He discovered the brightness of many stars (just about 850) and
developed a method for predicting the times of lunar eclipses
in hours and the length of a year in minutes.
Claudius Ptolemy
He developed a model called the Ptolemaic Model which
shows the observable motions of the planet.
 The Ptolemaic Model
In this model, planets orbit around small circles
called epicycles and further on a larger circle called
deferents. These paths of motion supported a
backward motion of planets called the retrograde
motion.
MODERN ASTRONOMY
Nicolaus Copernicus
 This Polish mathematician and astronomer first created a
sun-centered model of the universe. All who supported the
Copernican Model had faced controversy.
Tycho Brahe
 He became interested in astronomy while viewing a solar
eclipse. He requested from the King of Denmark an
observatory.
 Opposing the Copernican Model, Brahe’s Tychonic Model
depicts the Sun and moon revolving around the Earth and
all other planets revolving around the sun.
 The successor of the king who built Brahe’s observatory did
not like Brahe. In effect Brahe was forced to leave the
observatory.
Johannes Kepler
 He made use of the discoveries of his mentor, Tycho Brahe.
He discovered that the orbit of Mars is not perfectly circle
but elliptical.
 He proposed the three laws of planetary motion.
a. The Law of Ellipses
b. The Law of Equal Areas
c. The Law of Harmonies
 Furthermore, he improved the Copernican Model where the
orbits are elliptical, explaining the backward motion of some
planets more than Ptolemy’s epicycles.
Galileo Galilei
 With the improvement of the telescope patented by
Lippershey, Galilei was able to point this tool to the heavens
and discovered multiple celestial observations.
1.The satellites/moons Io, Calisto, Ganymede, and Europa was
discovered.
2. Planets are similar to Earth in structure.
3. The moon’s surface is not smooth with mountains, craters,
and plains (which he thought to be bodies of water).
4. The sun has sunspots (dark regions with lower temperatures).
 His discoveries supported the Copernican view. But since the
Roman Catholic Church banned the said view, he was
ordered to abandon his research.
 But he denied.
 Instead, he wrote his famous work, Dialogue of the Great
World Systems, explaining the opposing systems. He went to
Rome to ask permission to publish his book.
 He was sentenced to permanent house arrest but still has
managed to complete his best scientific book of motion.
Isaac Newton
 He further explained Kepler’s third law of planetary motion
when he formulated the Law of Universal Gravitation.