 There was 2 reasons the ancient people had

an interest in studying the sky:

1. Used the sky to navigate on the sea
2. To know what time of year it was…this
was very important for planting crops
 Stonehenge which is located in Salisbury Plain
in England was built in 2800 B.C.
 Researchers believe that it is an ancient

astronomical calendar
 Heaviest stones weigh up to 50 tons
 It is still a mystery as to how primitive man

was able to move these heavy stones

and form them into a pattern
The ancient Chinese kept excellent records
on astronomical events
Especially two things:
1. Comets 2. guest stars (stars that appear
bright for a short time and then appear to go
away (super nova)
1. Geocentric Model- This model supported
the belief that the Earth was the center of the
Universe.
 This belief followed the teaching of

Aristotle
2. Ptolemaic Model- this model included part
of the geocentric model.
 It stated that the Earth was in the center of

the universe
 But the moons and planets rotated in circles

as they went around Earth

3rd Model- Heliocentric Model- This means Sun
centered. Nicholas Copernicus finds a 1000
year old model of the solar system made by
Arastarchus
 Copernicus will make this idea popular
 The Copernican Revolution- was the critical

realization that the Earth was not the center

of the universe
 Galileo was an
Italian
mathematician
and philosopher
 He was the first to
study the sky with
a telescope
 Galileo had 4 major discoveries:
1. Saw mountains on moon
2. Saw sunspots on Sun…later made him blind
3. Saw the moons of Jupiter
4. Realized that Venus had phases which meant
that it orbited the Sun
 Galileo took a stand against the
Church (which supported the
geocentric model).
 Galileo supported the heliocentric model
 This was a time when the Church burned

Bruno (an astronomer) for his beliefs for the

sun-centered model.
 Galileo made fun of the geocentric model in
public
 The Church demanded that he retract his
statements and placed him under house
arrest in 1633.
 He spent the rest of his life a prisoner in his
own home
 The Church officially and publicly forgave
Galileo for his crimes in 1992
 1 Tycho Brahe- famous for keeping great
records of the sky
 2. Kepler – worked under Brahe and used

Brahe’s records to develop mathematical laws

on how the planets move.
 He was a British mathematician
 He was born on Dec. 25th …the year Galileo

died
 Newton’s famous statements… “if have seen

far, it is because I have stood on the shoulder

of giants”.
3 laws are:
1. A body will stay in motion or at rest unless
another force acts upon it.
2. The greater the force acting on the body,
the faster it will travel
3. To every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction
 Newton also discovered that gravity is an
attractive force a body has on another body.

Escape speed- the speed needed for an object

to escape a gravitational field.