Trey Davis

Astronomy Term Paper

Jupiter moons and validating Newtons laws

Humans used to think that they were the center of the universe. Not
just egocentrically, but also literally. Early teachings from Ptolemy created
what we now know as the geocentric model, which placed Earth at the
center of the known universe and was the basis for many mythological and
religious beliefs. This model was beneficial to early civilizations to explain
religion, and justify political actions. But then, certain discrepancies were
found with rotation and eclipses. This model was challenged and ultimately
changed by the Copernican model, which proposed a heliocentric, or sun
centered, universe. This model explained eclipses and rotation, furthering
and improving the Ptolemaic model. This development was groundbreaking
in many ways, and created the Western theories in Astronomy as we know
them. It also led to more research and scientific breakthrough, with Keplers
laws of motion and Newtons laws that followed those and refined them. By
looking at these laws on a much smaller scale, I hope to validate Newtons
generalization of Keplers third law to support that we live in a heliocentric
model of the universe, with everything orbiting around the mass of the Sun.
To do this, I will observe the moon Io, the closest moon to Jupiter, and its

revolution around Jupiter to show that their relation to each other is the same
way that our solar system works with the Sun.

To help support Newtons law and reinforcing Keplers Third Law, I

examined a simulation of Jupiters moon Io, and its travel in orbit around
Jupiter, to show correlation between Io and Jupiter, as well as the Earth and
the rotation around the Sun. By measuring the farthest points of Io on both
sides of Jupiter, we can accurately map out how the rotation works. By
finding the central point in the simulation of Jupiter, then converting the
range of pixels to kilometers to accurately demonstrate the scope of the
rotation of the Earth as well. By finding the farthest points on both sides of Io
and repeating the numbers on both points, we can find the pattern of the pull
of Jupiter and its effect on the moon Io.
To calculate a correct mass of Io we first look at the amount of time
that it takes for Io to rotate around Jupiter. I measured the rotation to occur
at 0.88 days, which I then converted to years to get 0.005 years. Next I had
to find the astronomical units, or AU. To do this I first used the software
mapping Jupiter again to measure the farthest eastern and western distance
to get an average of 112.25 pixels. By measuring the diameter of Jupiter in
pixels in the program, I can convert pixels to kilometers because I know that
there are 139,822 km in the diameter of Jupiter. Once that is converted to

kilometers, I then convert from kilometers to AU. This brings me to

0.0024AU, which gives us the information needed to put into Newtons
equation. The equation is AU^3 dived by years^2, so by cubing the AU and
then dividing by the squared years, I got the solution of 5.536 x 10^-4. This
equation is in Solar Mass Units, or SMUs, so I do one more conversion of SMU
to kilograms by multiplying by 1.98 x 10^30. This gives me a solution of 1.07
x 10^27, which is similar to the actual answer of 1.898 x 10^27. This is the
first step of verifying Newtons generalizing Keplers third law.