Scribd
Upload
66 views20 pages

The Local Sky: An Object's (Along Horizon) Specifies Its Location in Your Local Sky

1) An object's location in the local sky is specified by its altitude (angle above the horizon) and azimuth (direction along the horizon). 2) Stars appear to lie on the celestial sphere, which is centered on Earth. The ecliptic is the sun's apparent path through the celestial sphere over the year. 3) Kepler's three laws of planetary motion describe the elliptical orbits of planets around the sun and the relationship between orbital period and average orbital distance.

Uploaded by

Caleb North
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
66 views20 pages

The Local Sky: An Object's (Along Horizon) Specifies Its Location in Your Local Sky

1) An object's location in the local sky is specified by its altitude (angle above the horizon) and azimuth (direction along the horizon). 2) Stars appear to lie on the celestial sphere, which is centered on Earth. The ecliptic is the sun's apparent path through the celestial sphere over the year. 3) Kepler's three laws of planetary motion describe the elliptical orbits of planets around the sun and the relationship between orbital period and average orbital distance.

Uploaded by

Caleb North
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

The Local Sky

An object’s altitude (above horizon) and direction


(along horizon) specifies its location in your local
sky
The Celestial Sphere
Stars at different
distances all appear to
lie on the celestial
sphere.

Ecliptic is Sun’s
apparent path through
the celestial sphere.
The Celestial Sphere

The 88 official
constellations
cover the celestial
sphere.
Angular Measurements
• Full circle = 360º
• 1º = 60 (arcminutes)
• 1 = 60 (arcseconds)
Angular Size
360 degrees
angular size = physical size ×
2π × distance

An object’s angular size


appears smaller if it is
farther away
Review: Coordinates on the Earth
• Latitude: position north or south of equator
• Longitude: position east or west of prime meridian
(runs through Greenwich, England)
The sky varies as Earth orbits the Sun
• As the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun appears to move eastward
along the ecliptic.
• At midnight, the stars on our meridian are opposite the Sun in
the sky.
How does the orientation of Earth’s axis
change with time?
•Although the axis seems fixed on human time scales,
it actually precesses over about 26,000 years.
 Polaris won’t always be the North Star.
 Positions of equinoxes shift around orbit; e.g.,
spring equinox, once in Aries, is now in Pisces!

Earth’s axis
precesses like
the axis of a
spinning top
The Milky Way
What are Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion?
Kepler’s First Law: The orbit of each planet around
the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.
What are Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion?
Kepler’s First Law: The orbit of each planet around
the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.
Kepler’s Second Law: As a planet moves around its
orbit, it sweeps out equal areas in equal times.

 means that a planet travels faster when it is nearer to the Sun and
slower when it is farther from the Sun.
Kepler’s Third Law
More distant planets orbit the Sun at slower
average speeds, obeying the relationship

p2 = a3

p = orbital period in years


a = avg. distance from Sun in AU
Graphical version of Kepler’s Third Law
What determines the strength of gravity?
The Universal Law of Gravitation:
1. Every mass attracts every other mass.
2. Attraction is directly proportional to the product of
their masses.
3. Attraction is inversely proportional to the square of
the distance between their centers.
How does Newton’s law of gravity extend
Kepler’s laws?
• Kepler’s first two laws apply to all orbiting
objects, not just planets
• Ellipses are not the only
orbital paths. Orbits can
be:
– Bound (ellipses)
– Unbound
• Parabola
• Hyperbola
Center of Mass
• Because of momentum
conservation, orbiting
objects orbit around
their center of mass
Newton and Kepler’s Third Law
His laws of gravity and motion showed that the
relationship between the orbital period and
average orbital distance of a system tells us the
total mass of the system.

Examples:
• Earth’s orbital period (1 year) and average distance (1 AU)
tell us the Sun’s mass.
• Orbital period and distance of a satellite from Earth tell us
Earth’s mass.
• Orbital period and distance of a moon of Jupiter tell us
Jupiter’s mass.
Newton’s Version of Kepler’s Third Law

4π 2 a3
p2 = 4π 2 a3 OR M1+M2 =
G(M1+M2 ) G p2

p = orbital period
a=average orbital distance (between centers)
(M1 + M2) = sum of object masses
How do gravity and energy together
allow us to understand orbits?
More gravitational energy;
• Total orbital energy
Less kinetic energy
(gravitational +
kinetic) stays
constant if there is
no external force
• Orbits cannot
change
spontaneously.
Less gravitational energy;
More kinetic energy

Total orbital energy stays constant

You might also like