Transcript Astronomy and a Context for Humanity

Astronomy
Early insights and
A context for Humanity
Do you know what this is?
What is the basis for each of the
following units of time?
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Day
Week
Month
Seasons
Year
How about these?
• Hour
• Minute
• Second
Where do we get the names for
our days of the week?
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Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Where do we get the names for
our days of the week?
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Sunday – Sun’s day
Monday – Moon’s day
Tuesday – Tiw’s day (Norse god)
Wednesday – Wodin’s day (King of Norse gods)
Thursday – Thor’s day (more Norse mythology)
Friday – Freya’s day (still another!)
Saturday – Saturn’s day
The connections get clearer
Day
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Germanic
Tiw
Wodin
Thor
Freya
Romance
Sol
Lunes
Martes
Miercoles
Jueves
Viernes
Sabado
Object
Sun
Moon
Mars
Mercury
Jupiter
Venus
Saturn
Why was astronomy so important
to ancient civilizations (e.g.,
Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek,
Norse, etc.)
• A means of keeping time (calendar)
• Recurring, predictable changes in the
heavens
• When to plant, when to harvest, when the
Nile would flood, when to collect taxes, etc.
Were there other applications?
• Order in the heavens
• Might this order extend to peoples’ lives
too?
• So… maybe people’s futures can be
predicted
• Hence, the pseudoscience of Astrology
What’s your sign?
• Astrology is based on ancient Babylonian
religion
• It relies on a series of assumptions that have
been debunked by science
• So, what are these assumptions?
Assumptions inherent in
astrology
• Earth is the center of the universe
• Sun, moon, planets and stars, including
constellations revolve around Earth
• Constellations are “real”, i.e., they define
real shapes in two dimensions
Assumptions inherent in
astrology
• Calendars haven’t changed through time
• Unknown forces from stars that are billions
of miles away affect people more than
DNA!
Earth in context
Earth
• One of nine planets orbiting a central Star –
the SUN
• Sun is one of about 100 billion stars in the
Milky Way Galaxy
• Milky Way is one of 28 galaxies in a
cluster called The Local Group
• The Local Group is one of trillions of
galactic clusters that make up the Universe
Andromeda Galaxy
Spiral Galaxy –
like the Milky Way
Just how big is the Universe?
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Consider the following:
Each galaxy has 50-100 billion stars
Classroom demonstration – 1500 galaxies
Example: look in the cup of the Big Dipper
This area of space holds about 1 million
galaxies!!
Hubble images a part of the
Universe