Astronomy #2

ASTRONOMY CONTINUED….
 Astronomical Breakthrough
• One planet allowed a breakthrough in measurement in 1639
• Which one was it?
 Venus
• Our savior! What do you know about Venus?
 Venus Facts(1)
• Seen low in the sky after sunset
• Third brightest object in the sky (after the sun and moon). Why?
•
 Venus Facts(2)
• Highest albedo (brightness) of any planet in solar system
• Reflects ≈70% of sunlight due to acidic clouds in its atmosphere
 Moon’s Albedo
• Albedo of 0.1 (reflects ≈10% of light)
• Dark and rocky
• But it’s close, so it’s countered
 Venus Facts(3)
• Most circular orbit of any planet in solar system
• No moons
 Venus Rotation
• Its day (243 days) is longer than its year! (225 days)
• Slowest rotation of any planet
• At its equator, you could jog faster than the planet spins!
 Venus Rotation
• Also Rotates in the opposite direction to Earth
• Only planet in solar system to do this except Uranus*
• (Called retrograde motion…confusingly)
Venus and Uranus
 Theories
• Strong gravitational pull on thick, dense atmosphere turned it over?
• Collision with celestial body?
• God’s hand?
• Rotation slowed then reversed?
 Venus
• What would a day on Venus be like?
 Hell – Part One!
• Sun rises from West to East
• 1 Venus day = 243 Earth days
• Surface temperature = 460oC
 Hell – Part Two!
• Carbon dioxide is 96.5% of the air
• Rains sulfuric acid, snows metal!
• Thick clouds block sunlight
• Hotter than Mercury (that’s 427oC)
 Venus Facts(4)
• Very circular shape (no bulge)
• Due to slow rotation
• Extremely volcanic
• 1600 major volcanoes
• Total number could exceed 1,000,000
 Venus Facts(5)
• Surface area is 90% that of Earth’s
• Thought to be made up of a central iron core, rocky mantle and silicate crust
• 1 Venusian year = 225 Earth days
• Female names!
 Imagery of Venus is Difficult!
• Venera 13 spacecraft landed there March 1st 1982
• Designed to last 30 minutes. Lasted 2 hours
 Imagery of Venus is Difficult!
• Venera 14, Vega 1, Vega 2 followed. Last on Venus was 1985.
• Disclaimer: Soviet science (be skeptical)
 Exam Question - Venus
Describe Venus. You can mention facts, characteristics,
dimensions, location etc… (6 marks)
 Example Answer
No moons (1) Orbits sun between Mercury and Earth (1) Least eccentric orbit
in solar system (1) Day longer than its year (1) Very circular shape/no
centrifugal bulge (1) Surface temperature of 460oC (1) Extremely volcanic (1)
Visible on Earth low in sky just after sunset (1) Rains sulfuric acid (1) snows
metal (1) Rotates opposite direction to Earth (1) All landmarks on Venus
named after females (1) Slowest rotation of any planet (1) Highest albedo of
0.7 (1) Hotter than mercury (1) Only photographs were taken by Soviets in the
1980s (1) Thick atmospheric clouds (1) Carbon dioxide is 96.5% of air (1)
 The Phases of Venus
What can you remember about this? (was mentioned briefly)
 The Phases of Venus
• Venus is sometimes between Earth and sun
• Sometimes on far side of sun from Earth
 Venus – Phases
• Between sun and Earth:
◦Dark and ‘larger’

• Far side of sun from Earth:

◦Fully illuminated and ‘smaller
 Phases of Venus
• Let’s have a look at a video (again):
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-6x3XRuWVg
 Venus vs the Moon
• Why does Venus look much smaller in the sky compared to the moon?

• Moon diameter: 3,474km

• Venus diameter: 12,104km
 Venus vs the Moon
• Venus is 100-700 times further away from Earth than the Moon!

• Distance from Earth (km):

•Moon: 363,000 to 406,000

•Venus: 38,000,000 to 261,000,000
 AU Note
• So it makes more sense to measure astronomical distances from the Sun
 Side Note: Perihelion and Aphelion
• But be careful of Perihelion and Aphelion!

• What are these terms?

 Side Note: Perihelion and Aphelion
• The perihelion - the point where the body comes closest to the Sun
• The aphelion - the point where the body is farthest from the Sun
 AU -Averages
• Hence astronomical distances are usually given as an average
 A Special Phenomenon - Venus
• Last happened: 2004 and 2014
• Before that: 1874 and 1882
• Next one: 2117, What is it?
 The Venus Transit
• When Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth
• A huge breakthrough in astronomical distance measuring!
 The Venus Transit
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7U5VbasKr4
• Highly dramatized video!
 The Venus Transit
• Takes a matter of hours to travel across the sun’s surface
• Happens extremely rarely. Why?
 The Venus Transit
• The Sun, Venus and The Earth are in line every 584 days
• But tilted orbits mean Venus is usually above/below line of sight
•
 The Venus Transit
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdz0dRhsoLs (0 – 05:30)
• Perfect alignment: 4 times every 243 years
 Transit of Venus - 1639
• Jeremiah Horrocks observed/recorded the Venus Transit in 1639
• Died two years later in English Civil War, aged 22

1622 - 1641
 Horrock’s Role in this
• He proposed the method to find astronomical distances in km
• Before, it was all proportional!

1622 - 1641
 Venus Transit Calculations
• Essentially used to convert AU/ ratios into km
• We’d previously mapped distances in AU thanks to Brahe’s excellent data
 Venus Transit calculation
• Any idea how this calculation was done?
 Venus Transit calculation
• Parallax and Geometry!
Parallax – Simplified Pictures
 Parallax – Highly Advanced Experiment
• See what happens as you move your finger…
 Venus Transit calculation - Simplified
• Different paths will be observed at different places on earth
• And because of geometry, it looks something like….
 …This
• Not to scale!
 …This
• Remember: We had an idea of distances in AU (Thanks to Brahe’s logs)
• Let’s expand on this…
 Astronomical Unit Ratios
• Can be confirmed with observation and trigonometry
• By observing the position of maximum elongation. What’s that?
 Position of Maximum Elongation
• When planets reach greatest visual/angular distance from sun
• From our perspective on Earth! What’s special here?
 Position of Maximum Elongation
• Planet will appear half-illuminated
• For this to happen, there must be a 90o angle
 Position of Maximum Elongation
• We can measure the angular distance from the sun
• Mercury = 23o
• Venus = 46o
 Inferior Planets - Elongation
• Angle never reaches 180o
• Mercury and Venus (inside Earth’s orbit)
• Old astronomers used this as proof
• Mercury and Venus are closer to the sun!
 A Question
• What are superior planets?
 Superior Planets - Elongation
• The other ones! Can reach 180o
• Thus, other planets are further from the sun
 History of Astronomy
• Copernicus used the elongation observations as proof
• Helped to build his model

1473 –1543
 Using Trigonometry
•Sin 46 = 0.72 AU
• Distance from Sun to Venus
• Is this constant?
 Distance from Sun to Venus
• It’s pretty damn constant at 0.72 AU
•But varies between 0.718 AU and 0.728 AU due to the elliptical orbit
 Distance from Earth to Venus
• Is this constant?
• Diagram shows 0.3 AU
 Distance from Earth to Venus
• Hell no!
• 0.3 to 1.7 AU
 Kepler’s Third Law
• Distance from Sun to Venus = 0.72AU
•Can you verify this with Kepler’s third law?
• Venus orbits sun in 225 days = 0.616 years
• P2 = a3
 Kepler’s Third Law
•a= = 0.72
• Venus is 0.72 AU from the sun
 Venus Transit calculation
• We have a problem that looks like this. What do we do?
 Venus Transit calculation
• Let’s look at the calculation applied to the 2012 transit
 Observation
• The transit was observed in two different locations:
•1) Princeton, New Jersey 2) Maui, Hawaii
 Observation
• Sense of scale: 13-hour flight apart!
 This Calculation - Steps
• Gives an idea of how early astronomers mapped out the solar system
• Shows some modern adaptations
• But: it is only an estimate
 Observation
• Can you see how this relates to the exaggerated diagram?
• We can record the motion from each viewpoint
• What next?
 Superimposition
• The transits can be superimposed thanks to technology and careful aligning
• Sunspot separation can help align this
• After aligning, it looks like the third pic
 Superimposition
• https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tex/VenusParallax/ms.pdf
• Calculation I’m summarizing is from this document
• (Have also simplified it in some areas)
 Visuals
• This shows what’s happening more clearly (different locations to doc.)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRRWqokyRsA
Actual Superimposed Photos
 Question
• How could we reduce the error?
•Look at exaggerated diagram
 Question
• Make the observation points further apart
 Pixel Measurements
• Measured Separation in pixels between two transits = 26.315
 Measurement that Day
• Measured angular diameter of Sun = 0.526o = 0.009183 radians
 Sun’s Diameter
• Sun Diameter = 2460 pixels
 Things We Know
• Measured Distance between transits = 26.315 pixels
• Sun Diameter = 2460 pixels
• Angular diameter of Sun that day = 0.009183 radians (0.526o)
 Things We Know
• We observe the sun as a flat disk (be careful: perspective)
• So we can find the angular diameter of the separated transits in radians
• As observed from Earth!
 Angular Diameter Between Transits
• Angular Diameter Observed from Earth
•
• We still have to do more. We have to find the angle from Venus
We have the purple, we want the red
We have the purple, we want the red
 We have the purple, we want the red
• How can we get a reasonable estimate for the red angle?
 We have the purple, we want the red
• Proportion it and estimate (as per report):
 We have the purple, we want the red
• xv = distance from Earth to Venus = 0.2887 AU (From NASA*)
• xs = distance from Earth to Sun = 1.0147 AU
• Purple angle =
 Some Approximating
• We can use small-angle approximation for a good estimate
• Diving the purple angle by 0.7260 AU to estimate the red one
 Small Angle Approximations
• We’re dealing with angles of around 0.0001 radians
• Error using them will be low.
 Some Approximating
𝟓
•
 Some Approximating
• Θ=
• What next?
 Some Earth Geometry
• We want to approximate ‘d1’
• We know ‘θ’ and the Earth radius (6378.1km)
 Some Earth Geometry
• If we can find the distance between the two locations we can find ‘φ’

φ
 Finding the Angle from Venus
• Two locations are 7835km apart
• Represents which part?
 Finding the Angle from Venus
• Two locations are 7835km apart
• r = 6378.1km. Find φ
 Finding the Angle from Venus
•φ=
• Think about that, and the diagram…
 Changing our Diagram
• If φ = , this diagram isn’t that good for visualizing…
• Let’s change it…

φ
 Changing our Diagram
• A bit better to visualize the problem…
 Hawaii’s Location
• Very near the tropic of cancer
• Date of measurements: June 5th
• What does this mean?
 Hawaii’s Location
• Sun/Venus almost directly overhead!
• Off by 1.5O on that day
• So, for estimation…
 Redrawing…
• Following the document’s method… (Can critique it after)
 Approximating ‘y’
• Approximate the perpendicular distance ‘y’ between locations
•φ , r = 6378.1km
 Approximating ‘y’
•y≈ φ y ≈ 6378.1km x sin (1.228)
• y = 6007km What does this represent?
 Next Steps
• y = 6007km - Distance through Earth between locations
•θ= What’s next?
 Approximating Distance to Venus
• Distance to Venus = 𝟒
 Approximating Distance to Venus
• Approximated Distance to Venus = 44 million km
• Now let’s get the distance to the sun (1 AU)…
 Approximating Distance to Venus
• Distance to the sun = 44 million km x = 152, 000,000 km
 Approximating Distance to Sun
• Approximated Distance to Sun = 152 million km
• Real distance to Sun = 149.6 million km Good estimate?
 Approximating Distance to Sun
• Great estimate. ≈2% out
Parallax – Simplified Pictures
 Parallax – Highly Advanced Experiment
• See what happens as you move your finger…
 What’s Next?
• To discuss Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
• To discuss other main Earth ideas
• To discuss main characteristics of planets in our solar system
 Kepler’s ‘Mystery Force’
• Published in Astronomia Nova in 1609
• Hypothesised that planets moved due to ‘mystery force’ from Sun
 Enter Newton
• The man who ultimately explained that mystery force
• Though others did attempt before him (Hooke etc….)

1643 - 1726
 Aristotle’s Contribution
• Noticed that ‘Bodies at rest resist being moved’
• But didn’t expand on that

384 – 322 BC
 Galileo’s Contribution (1)
• Ball experiment:
• Sped up as it rolled down a slope
• Slowed down if it went up one

1564 - 1642
 Galileo’s Contribution (1)
• Hypothesized “If a ball rolls on a flat surface and no forces act, its speed
would neither increase nor decrease but remain constant”

1564 - 1642
 Galileo’s Contribution (1)
• Thus: “In the absence of forces, inertia keeps an object already in
motion moving at a fixed speed”

1564 - 1642
 Galileo’s Contribution (2) - Disputed
• Allegedly dropped two balls from Tower of Pisa
• Same material, different masses
• Demonstrated: time of descent, independent of mass.
 Disagreed with Aristotle!
• “Heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones, in
direct proportion to weight.”

384 – 322 BC
 Galileo’s Experiment
• 00:00 - 04:00
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43-CfukEgs
 Newton’s First Law of Motion (Inertia)
• “A body continues in a state of rest/motion in a straight line at constant speed
unless made to change that state by forces acting on it”

1643 - 1726
 Newton’s First Law - Astronomy
• What significance does this have in astronomy?
 Newton’s First Law - Astronomy
• If a body is not moving in a straight line at constant speed…..
• …A net force must be acting on it
 Centripetal Force
• What would become known as the centripetal force
• First proposed by Christopher Huygens

1629 - 1695
 Newton – Gravitational Forces
• Published his universal law of gravitation in 1687
• What (alleged) event gave Newton inspiration?

1643 - 1726
 Newton and Apples… - Question
• Observed an apple falling from a tree
• What conclusions occurred during this observation?
 Some Conclusions
• Apple falls directly downward: Attracted to Earth’s centre
• Speculated the Earth’s gravity could extend to Moon
 Newton’s Thought Experiment
• Do you know Newton’s Cannon?
 Newton’s Thought Experiment
• A cannon on a mountain peak – firing a projectile
• The faster we fire it, the longer the arc….
 Newton’s Thought Experiment
• If the projectile moves sufficiently fast, the Earth’s surface will curve
away in such a way that it never hits the ground (orbit)
 Newton’s Thought Experiment
• What does this say about Newton’s apple and the Moon?
 Newton’s Thought Experiment
• Linear acceleration of the apple and centripetal acceleration of moon
• Both caused by gravitational forces
 Orbit and Newton
• The balance between inertia and gravitational force maintains orbit
• Should travel in straight line at constant speed. But a force acts on it.
 Change in Motion
• What does that actually mean?
 Change in Motion
• A Change in the object’s direction or speed. (Acceleration)
• This means the object’s motion is non-uniform
• Which one of Newton’s laws explains this? What is it?
 Newton’s Second Law
•To produce acceleration, force must be present
• Force = mass x acceleration
 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
• Newton studied the Moon’s motion. What did he conclude?
 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
• Every mass exerts a force of attraction on every other mass.
• Force to the product of the masses, divided by the square of their separation

• Equation?
 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
•F=
• What does each quantity represent? What does the equation tell us?
 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
• F – Force between two bodies
• M - ‘Bigger’ mass
• m – ‘Smaller’ mass
• r - Separation between centres
• G - Gravitational Constant
• = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 kg−2

F=
 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
•F= , G = 6.67 x 10-11m3kg-1s-2

• More mass = more force

• More separation = lower force
• Gravitational forces are weak
• All matter in universe attracts other matter
• Hence the name ‘universal’
•Gravitational forces have infinite range
 Newton’s Third Law - Review
• What is it?
 Newton’s Third Law - Review
• “When two bodies interact, they create equal and opposite forces on each other”
• What does this tell us about the Sun and Earth?
 Newton’s Third Law – In Space
• Gravitational force of Earth on Sun = Gravitational Force of Sun on Earth
 Exam Question
• Why does the Earth orbit the Sun and not opposite? (4 marks)
• Explain using Newton’s 2nd Law

Ms = 1.99 × 1030 kg
ME = 5.97 × 1024 kg
 Example Answer
• (1) Sun is much, much more massive than Earth (1) roughly 300,00 times
more massive (1) Thus, Sun’s acceleration from the force is roughly 300,000 times
lower (1) The Earth does most of the moving (1) The gravitational force depends
only on the product of the two masses (1)

Ms = 1.99 × 1030 kg
ME = 5.97 × 1024 kg
 Exam Question
• Calculate the gravitational force between the Sun and Earth (4 marks)

Ms = 1.99 × 1030 kg
ME = 5.97 × 1024 kg
r = 149,600,000km
G = 6.67 x 10-11m3kg-1s-2
 Answer
•

= 3.52 x 1022 N
 Exam Question
Why is the gravitational force between two humans so small it’s negligible?
Explain using Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation (4 marks)
 Example Answer
• The value of the Universal Gravitation Constant ‘G’ is very small (= 6.67 x 10-11 N.m2/kg2) (1)
𝒎𝟏 𝒎𝟐
• By looking at the equation for Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation, (1),
𝒓𝟐

• we can see that the gravitational force ‘F’ between two bodies (1)
• is directly proportional to the masses of the bodies being considered ‘m1’ and ’m2’ (1).
• Since the constant is so small, a significantly large mass is needed to produce a noticeable force (1)
• The mass of a human is therefore too small to provide a noticeable gravitational force (1)
 Exam Question
A man takes his dog for a walk on a beach. Treat the bodies as point objects and find the
force of gravity between the 105kg man and his 11.2kg dog when they are separated by a
distance of a) 1.00m and b) 10.0m (6 marks)

Interpret and compare these to the gravitational forces produced by Earth

G = 6.67 x 10-11 N.m2/kg2

 Example Answer

𝟏
𝟐
𝟐
𝟐 ,

𝟏 𝟐
 𝟐 𝟐




 Measuring Mass
How can we find the mass of a celestial body?
 Measuring Mass
Let’s look at how we find the mass of the Sun…
 Step One
1) We have a value for distance to the Sun ≈ 1.5 x 1011m
 Assumptions
What assumptions will we make?
 Assumptions
1. Circular orbit
2. Sun is stationary
3. Distance = 1.5 x 1011m
I. Between centers-of-mass
 Newton’s Second Law
• Can you apply it here?
 Newton’s Second Law
• Resultant force = Mass of Earth x Centripetal Acceleration

•
 Newton’s Second Law
•

• What force acts on Earth?

 Force on Earth
• Gravitational force from Sun

• Can you write it in an equation?

•Hint: Back a few slides…
 Force on Earth
•

• =
 Force on Earth
• =

• What next?
• What do we know?
 Period!
• T = 365 days!
• T = 31, 536, 000 s/rev

• How is velocity related to ‘T’?

 Period!
•v=

•v=

• What next?
 Re-arranging time
𝟐
• = 𝒆

• Smash them together…

 Next…
𝟐
𝒔
• 𝟐 = 𝟐

• What are we looking for again?

 Mass of the Sun
𝟐 𝟑
• = 𝟐

• Plug in the values…

 Mass of the Sun
𝟒𝝅𝟐 ×(𝟏.𝟓×𝟏𝟎𝟏𝟏 )𝟑
• = (𝟑𝟏,𝟓𝟑𝟔,𝟎𝟎𝟎)𝟐 ×(𝟔.𝟔𝟕×𝟏𝟎 𝟏𝟏 )

• Ms= 2.0 x 1030 kg

• Mass of the Sun!

 Look Closely
• =

• Notice anything?
 Look More Closely…
• =

• How about now?

 Look Even More Closely…
𝟐 𝟑
• =
𝒔

• Now?
 Look Even More Closely…
𝟐 𝟑
• =
𝒔

• = kr3

• T2 r3
 Newton And Kepler
• T2 r3
• Newton’s laws back up Kepler!
 A Question Remains
𝟐 𝟑
• =
𝒔

• Where did ‘G’ come from?

 A Man and his shed - 1798
• Henry Cavendish (1731 – 1810)
Cavendish Experiment
 Cavendish’s Equipment
• Two suspended 1.6 pound lead balls
• Two stationary 350 pound lead balls
 A Flat Earth Favorite…
• Common claim “It hasn’t been repeated since 1798”
 A Flat Earth Favorite…
• Common claim “It hasn’t been repeated since 1798”
• A quick google:
• https://www.spsnational.org/sites/default/files/University%20of%20Central...
• http://www.phys.utk.edu/labs/modphys/Pasco%20Cavendish%20Experiment.pdf
• https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/cavendish-experiment
• http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/10/6/001/meta
• https://www.ukessays.com/essays/sciences/finding-gravitational-constant...
 Surface Gravity
• Measures gravitational attraction at a body’s surface
• Acceleration on a mass created by the local gravitational force
 Surface Gravity
• Determines what a mass weighs
• Influences a body’s shape
 Surface Gravity
• How do we determine the strength of a planet’s surface gravity?
• What equations and laws?
 Surface Gravity Determination
•F= , r = R, R = Planet’s radius
• F = ma
• ma = a=g

•g=

• What does ‘g’ depend on?

 Surface Gravity
•g= 𝟐

• Mass of body
• Radial distance from centre