Transcript Slide 1

• Make a list of words that come to mind when
you hear the word:
Astronomy
Astronomy
Sun
Earth
Moon
Planets
Stars
Comets
NASA
Black Holes
Universe
Big Bang Theory
Asteroids
Meteors
Constellations
Satellites
Gravity
Supernova
History of Astronomy
Essential Question
“How do astronomers learn what is beyond our
atmosphere?”
• Today’s Objectives:
– Explain geocentric and heliocentric models of
solar system
– Describe history of Astronomy
Before We Begin…
• Planets  Solar System
• Solar System  Galaxy
• Galaxies  Universe
Early Greek Astronomers
• Ptolemy
• Geocentric Model – states that the Earth is the
center of everything in universe
• Planets move in perfect circles around the
Earth
Copernicus
• 1500’s Polish astronomer
• Heliocentric Model – states that the Sun is the
center of the universe
• Planets move in perfect circles around the Sun
Galileo
• Late 1500s - early 1600s
• Believed Heliocentric
Model
• Inventor of telescope
– Observed moons of
Jupiter
– Observed phases of
Venus
Kepler
• Late 1500s, German mathematician
• Planets have elliptical orbits
• Unable to explain why planets orbits were
elliptical
Newton
• 1600s-1700s
• Studied Gravity –
developed Universal Law
of Gravitation
• Explained why planets
orbit in ellipses
Einstein
• Physicist, early 1900s
• Theory of Relativity
• E= mc2
• Energy = (Mass)(Speed of light) 2