PHYS 1600 Chapter 1-14: Complete Astronomy Textbook Notes
29 Mar 2018
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Copernicus and heliocentric cosmology: mercury/venus lie inside earth"s orbit (inferior planets, mars, jupiter, saturn lie outside (superior planets, elongation is angle between sun and planet, varies from 0 to maximum value relative to the sun, planets behind the sun are in conjunction, planets opposite the sun are in opposition. Ancient ideas about the heavens: variation angle of viewing object from different location is parallax, kepler"s 1st law: orbit of planet around sun is ellipse with sun at 1 focus, roundest ellipse is circle, most elongated is near straight line, planet moves fastest when it"s near the sun (perihelion, planet moves slowest when away from the sun (aphelion, kepler"s 2nd law: line joining planet and sun sweeps equal areas at equal times, kepler"s 3rd law: square of planets sidereal directly proportionate to cube of orbits semi major axis, newton"s law of universal gravitation: gravitational force decreases with distance.
