Gravitation and the motion

of the planets

Science: Key to comprehending the cosmos

The ancient Greeks about 2500 years ago began to use mathematics
to describe nature.
This eventually lead to the development of the scientific method.
Scientific method: Make observations, then make or modify a theory
to fit the observations, then use the theory to make predictions.

Changing our earth-centered view of the

universe
Cosmology is the theory of the structure and evolution of the
universe.
Early astronomers believed in geocentric cosmology. This is where the
earth is at the center of the universe and everything else orbits
around it.
But this idea made it very difficult to explain and come up with a
model for the motion of the other planets.

Heliocentric cosmology
The ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos proposed a
simpler explanation for the motion of the planets. He proposed that
all the planets including the earth orbit the sun.
This the theory of heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmology.

Later Nicolaus Copernicus devised a comprehensive heliocentric

cosmology.

Copernicus observations
Copernicus was able to figure out the synodic period, and sidereal
period of many of the planets.
He was also able to figure out the distance from the sun for many of
the planets.

Synodic period
The synodic period is the time between two successive identical
configurations as seen from earth.

Sidereal period
A sidereal period is the time it takes an object to make one complete
orbit around the sun.

Parallax
Parallax is a difference in apparent position of an object as seen at
two different locations. This can be used to find out how far away
something is.

Keplers laws
Johannes Kepler came up with three laws that deal with the orbits of
planets around the sun.

Keplers first law

The orbit of each planet around the sun is an ellipse with the sun at
one focus.

Ellipses
An ellipse is a shape that looks like a stretched circle. The amount that
it is stretched we call eccentricity. The more eccentricity the ellipse
has the more its stretched.

Keplers second law

A line joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal
time intervals.

Keplers third law

The square of a planets sidereal period (P) around the sun is directly
proportional to the cube of the length of its orbits semimajor axis (a).

2
P

3
a

Astronomical units of distance

In astronomy we often deal with distances that are very large, so its
convenient to use large units.
Astronomical unit (AU): 1 AU 1.5 x 108 km 9.3 x 107 mi
The distance light travels in a year is a Light-year (ly): 1 ly 63,200 AU
Parsec (pc): 1 pc 3.26 ly

Newtons Laws
Sir Isaac Newton made laws that deal with the motion of objects.

Newtons first law

Inertia is a measure of an objects resistance to change its motion. An
object at rest will remain at rest and an object in with constant speed
will remain at that speed unless acted on by an external net force.

Newtons second law

The acceleration of an object is proportional to the net force acting
on it and inversely proportional to its mass.
Force = mass x acceleration
Acceleration is a change in speed. If an object has acceleration it
means it is speeding up or slowing down.
This law means if a force is applied to an object its speed will change.

Mass and weight

It is important to know the difference between mass and weight.
Mass is the amount of matter an object contains. An objects mass is
the same anywhere.
Weight is a force acting on an objects mass due to gravity. An objects
weight can change depending on its location. For example There is
less gravity on the moon than on earth because the moon is less
massive than the earth. Therefore an object would weigh less on the
moon than on earth.

Newtons third law

Also known as the action-reaction law. Whenever an object exerts a
force on a second object, that second object exerts a equal force on
the first in the opposite direction.

Newtons law of Universal Gravitation

Two objects attract each other with a force that is proportional to the
product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of
the distance between them.

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