EARTH SCIENCE
FIRST QUARTER
THE BIRTH OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
EARLY ASTRONOMY
- studies the universe
- includes the observation and interpretation of celestial
bodies and phenomena
- the Greeks used philosophical arguments to explain
natural phenomena
Two Models of Solar System
1. Geocentric Model (Ptolemy)
- Greek’s geocentric model, moon, sun, and the planets
– Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter – orbit Earth
2. Heliocentric Model (Nicolas Copernicus)
- Heliocentric Model, Earth and other planets orbit the
Sun
ARISTOTLE AND PLATO
- Greatest philosophers
- Plato – pioneered on how the old beliefs on how
planets move, and the moral responsibility
- Aristotle – one of the principle – eclipse (sun, earth,
and moon align, every are of knowledge
NICOLAS COPERNICUS (1473 – 1543)
- physician, well-educated, good mathematician
- a canon in the Catholic church
- studied medicine and law
- 1513: write a book outlining his arguments for
Heliocentric universe
- friends only to read and did not put his name
- believed in perfect circular orbits
- he had it published by a friend after his death
- pointed out gaps in Ptolemy’s model
Copernicus’ Axioms
1. No one center the universe
2. Earth’s center is not the center of the universe
3. Center of the universe is near the sun
4. The distance from the Earth to the Sun is
imperceptible compared to the distance to the stars
5. Rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily
rotation of the stars
6. Apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is
caused by the Earth revolving around it
7. Apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by
the motion of the Earth from which one can observe
- Made his predictions no more accurate than Ptolemy’s
and led to doubt his theory
- Started the Copernican Revolution
CHRISTOPHER CLAVIUS (1538 – 1612)
- astronomer for Pope Leo X
- determined that the Julian Calendar was adding three
days too many over a period of 385 years
- caused the date of Easter to slip against the calendar
Note: Julian Calendar was credited to Julius Caesar
Note: Pope Gregory X is credited for instructing the new
calendar and it is known as the Gregorian Calendar
TYCHO BRAHE (1546 TO 1601)
- medicine, law, mathematics and politics
- supernova seen in 1572, turned his attention toward
astronomy
- constructed observatories at Hven, Australia
- became the imperial mathematician to the Holy Roman
Empire in Prague
- great maker of astronomical instruments
- able to measure the positions of hundreds of stars
- created his own Rudolphine tables because of the errors
he found in Alphosine tables
- devised his own unique model of the universe where the
moon and the sun revolved around the Earth, but all of
the planets went around the sun
- he set Kepler to work on the Rudolphine with the
ways/purpose of finding the laws of planetary motion
GIORDONO BRUNO (1548 – 1600)
- ordained priest by the Catholic church
- believed in many heretical ideas:
 No center to our universe
 Universe was infinite
 Other stars were sun
 Believed in atoms
- was persecuted by many different churches and
people
- was publicly burned at the stake on February 17th,
1600 (year of the Jubilee celebration)
GALILEO GALILEI (1564 – 1642)
- excellent experimenter and astronomer
- trained in medicine but never completed the degree
- believer in Copernican System
- understood that an object that is dropped will fall
straight down, not left behind because of the Earth’s
rotation
- used a telescope to look at the heavens and made
improvements in quality and magnification
Discoveries of Galilei
1. Venus has phases that shows it orbits the Sun
2. The moon is covered with mountains, valleys and
craters
3. The Sun is covered with spots that come and go and
the rotation is measured
4. Jupiter has moons that clearly do not orbit the Earth
(Io, Europa, Ganymede, Calisto)
5. Found that the innermost moon was the fastest and
they moved slower as they became farther away
6. Saturn is not round (rings)
7. Milky Way is the result of a larger number of stars
that are too faint to be seen by the naked eye
- wrote a book in Italian about the new evidence for the
Copernican System
- ultimately faced the inquisition and was force to
renounce the Copernican System
JOHANNES KEPLER (1571 – 1630)
- showed great mathematical talent as a youth
- studied at the University of Tubingen
- became a professor at Graz
- his astronomy teacher convinced him to become a
professor of mathematics
- his open-minded beliefs caused doubts among the
clergy
- was excommunicated (it was never lifted)
- was hired by Brahe after he received his book
Mysterium Cosmographicum
- first cosmological model: based on solid geometric
shapes and met with good agreement of the orbits
- was tasked of solving Mars’ orbit
First Law – orbits of the planets are ellipse with the sun at one
foci of the ellipse
Second Law – planets sweep out an equal area in equal time
- address the issue of planets moving at different speeds
depending on what part of their orbit they were in and
the systematic change in brightness
Third Law – square of the period of a planet is proportional to
the cube of its average distance from the Sun
 - T 2=k ∙ r 3 - Immediately, after the explosion, the early universe is
- law almost took ten years to formulate and allows near composed of intense radiation and particles
perfect predictions of planet location - The intense radiation, together with some matter, formed
a rapidly expanding region called the primordial fireball
Other Scientific Contributions - In time, the matter broke apart into huge clumps
1. Error Analysis - The clumps became the galaxies
2. Optics - Smaller clumps within the galaxies formed stars
3. Algorithms proof
4. Early steps toward calculus The Big Bang Theory Time Tempera-
5. Astronomical tables Begins ture
6. Astrology 1. The cosmos goes 10−43
through a superfast seconds
ISAAC NEWTON (1643 – 1727) “inflation” expanding from
- raised on a farm; useless as a farm hand the size of an atom to that
- attended Trinity College in London where he of a grapefruit in a tiny
graduated with a degree in Math in 1665 fraction of a second.
- returned home to the farm and formulated some of his
greatest achievements 2. Post-inflation, the 10−32 1027 ℃
 Three Laws of Motion universe is a seething, hot seconds
1. Law of Inertia – an object resist changes in their soup of electrons, quarks
state of motion unless acted on by an outside net and other particles.
force
2. Law of Acceleration – an object is acted on by an 3. A rapidly cooling 10−6 1013 ℃
outside net force. It will accelerate according to the cosmos permits quarks to seconds
F clump into protons and
following formula: a= neutrons.
m
3. Law of Action-Reaction – every force, there is
exists an equal and opposite force
4. Still too hot to form 3 108 ℃
atoms, charged electrons minutes
 Law of Universal Gravitation – the same force and protons prevent light
that pulls an apple toward the surface of the from shining; the universe
Earth is the same force that holds the moon in is a superhot fog.
orbit
G M1M2 5. Electrons combine with 300,000 10,000 ℃
o F=
r2 protons and neutrons to years
- became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (1669) form atoms, mostly
- later hired as the head of the British mint hydrogen and helium.
Light can finally shine.
- in charge of finding and prosecuting counterfeits
 Went undercover and ultimately convicted more
than 10 counterfeiters who were executed
6. Gravity makes hydrogen 1 billion −200 ℃
and helium gas coalesce to years
- conducted hundreds if experiments on light
form the giant clouds that
- discovered the origin of the spectrum created by will become galaxies;
prisms smaller clumps of gas
- invented the reflecting telescope collapse to form the first
- credited as the greatest scientists of all time stars
- impacted more areas of science
- invented an entire branch of Mathematics (Calculus) 7. As galaxies cluster 15 billion −270 ℃
- was knighted among his many honors and served as together under gravity, the years
the President of the Royal Society (Scientific first stars die and spew
Watchdog) heavy elements into space;
- was ill for the last two years of his life and was buried these will eventually form
in Westminster Abbey after his death into new stars and planets.

THEORIES IN THE ORIGIN OF LIFE Evidence for Expansion

Cosmology – is the study of the universe, including its
properties, structure and evolution
UNIVERSE
- Derived from the old French word ‘univers’, which in
turn derives from the Latin word ‘universum’
- Is all of space and time (space-time) and its contents,
which includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars,
galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space and all
matter and energy
- Sometimes called cosmos
BIG BANG THEORY
- Evolutionary or evolving universe theory
- All matter and energy of space are compressed in a
primordial core. Billion years ago, thus primordial core
exploded
- The Doppler Effect is used as evidence that galaxies are
moving away from us
o All galaxies show redshift in their spectra
- When light moves away, it’s wavelength is expanded
(gets longer), meaning it becomes redder
- This is called the redshift
Evidence for the Big Bang
- Light from distance galaxies all shift toward red
Shifts in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Red shift = away
- Blue shift = toward
COSMIC INFLATION THEORY
- Proposed by Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, Paul Stein
Hart, and Andy Albrecht
- Basically, cosmic inflation is the hypothesis that,
immediately after Big Bang, the universe expanded very,
very, very rapidly – much faster than the speed of light.
 A fraction of a second later, this rapid expansion slowed
and the universe continued to respond, but at a much
slower rate
Timeline of the Inflationary Universe
Big Bang In an infinitely dense moment 13.7
billion years ago, the Universe is
born from a singularity.
Inflation A mysterious particle or force
accelerates the expansion. Some
models inflate the Universe by a
factor of 1026 in less than 10−32
seconds.
Cosmic After 380,000 years, loose
Microwave electrons cool enough to combine
Background with protons. The Universe
becomes transparent to light. The
microwave background begins to
shine.
Dark Ages Clouds of dark hydrogen gas cool
and coalesce.
First Stars Gas clouds collapse. The fusion of
stars begins.
Galaxy Gravity causes galaxies to form,
Formation merge and drift. Dark energy
accelerates the expansion of the
Universe, but at a much slower rate
than inflation.
STEADY STATE THEORY
- The universe is expanding and has an infinite age
- Infinite Universe Theory or Continuous Creation
- Proposed by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Sir
Fred Hoyle
- The Universe has no beginning or end
- The Universe is in the process of constant creation and
the matter is being continually replenished in one place
and being destroyed elsewhere
- Believes that as galaxies move apart, new matter appears
between them and forms new galaxies
- As new galaxies form, old ones die, with the universe
always having the same density
Evolutionary Theory – density of matter decreases over time
Steady State Theory – density of matter is constant over time
CREATION MYTH
- According to the Genesis of the Bible’s Old Testament,
the creation of the entire cosmos (universe) took place in
six days
- The biblical creation story tells that God created the
universe
- 7 Days of Creation
1. God created light and separated light from the
darkness, calling light “day” and darkness “night”
2. God created an expanse to separate the waters and
called it “sky”
3. God created the ground and gathered the waters,
calling the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters
“seas”. On day three, God also created vegetation
(plants and trees)
4. God created the Sun, moon and the stars to give light
to the Earth and to govern and separate the day and
the night. These would also serve assigns to mark
seasons, days and years
5. God created every living creature of the seas and
every winged bird, blessing them to multiply and fill
the waters and the sky with life
6. God created the animals to fill the Earth. On day six,
God also created man and woman (Adam and Eve) in
his own image to commune with him. He blessed
them and gave them every creature and the whole
Earth to rule over, care for, and cultivate
7. God has finished his work of creation and so he
rested on the seventh.
ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
THE SOLAR NEBULA HYPOTHESIS
- Astronomers have long theorized that the Sun and
planets were formed from the Solar Nebula – a vast
swirling disk-shaped cloud of gas and dust
- Hubble Space Telescope images of proplyds provide
concrete examples to study in order to confirm, refine
and where necessary, revise our theories of planet
formation
- The fact that all planets in the Solar System orbit around
the Sun in the same direction and in nearly the same
plane strongly constrains any theory of the Solar
System’s formation
- The Solar Nebula Hypothesis was originally put forward
by German Philosopher Immanual Kant and French
Scientist Pierre-Simon de Laplace in the late-1700s.
They suggested that the entire Solar System was formed
from a huge rotating cloud of gas and dust called the
Solar Nebula
- As the rotating cloud collapsed, the proto-Sun formed in
the centre, surrounded by a disk of material out of which
the planets formed about 4.5 billion years ago
- The formation of the solar nebula disk from the
collapsing cloud core took about 100,000 years. During
the collapse, the density and temperature of the nebula
increased enormously. The temperatures were high
enough to vaporise the primordial dust of the cloud core,
thereby erasing any prior history of the nebula dust
- The resulting protostellar disk was made up of
predominantly hydrogen gas, with traces of other
elements. Over time, the disk radiated its energy and
began to cool
- Condensation – in the conditions believed to exist in the
solar nebula, whether a substance existed as a solid or a
gas depended on the local temperature
o Temperature decreases from the center
- As the solar nebula radiates its energy and gradually
cooled, different elements and molecules started to
condense out of the nebula, forming solid dust grains
- Different substances have different condensation
temperatures
- Once solids began to condense out of the solar nebula,
this effectively reset their “internal clocks”. Isotope
dating of meteorites tells us that the metals began to
condense as soon as the disk formed, about 4.55 – 4.56
billion years ago
- The rocks (mostly silicates) condensed out a little later,
about 4.4 – 4.5 billion years ago, once the disk began to
cool
PLANETESIMAL HYPOTHESIS
- Proposed by Thomas Chowder Chamberlin and Forest
Ray Moulton
- The collision of a star created huge ideas on the surface
of our sun that resulted to erupted matter
- The cross-pull from the star was thrust into elliptical
orbits around the Sun
- The smaller masses quickly cooled to become solid
planetissbodies called planetesimals
- As their orbits crossed, the larger bodies grew by
absorbing the planetesimals, thus becoming planets
- Small clumps of planetesimals would have formed
gradually
- Planetesimals began to condense out roughly 4.5 billion
years ago
- As the planetesimals formed, the regions of slightly
higher density would have accumulated more of the
surrounding material by gravitational attraction

- Protoplanet Formation
o Once the planetesimals are metre sized, runaway
growth occurred. The planetesimals with sizeable
masses and therefore appreciable gravity quickly
became larger, accumulating all solids in their orbital
path, becoming protoplanets of several hundred
kilometres.
o The resulting size of a protoplanet depended on its
position in the solar nebula, since location
determined the local density and composition

- Protoplanet Size
o In the inner Solar System, protoplanets were the size
of asteroids and small moons, made up of metals and
rocky materials
o In the outer Solar System, protoplanets grew much
larger, between one and 15 Earth masses
o The large size jump of protoplanets at the Mars-
Jupiter boundary was due to the availability of
materials. Since the solar nebula contained a much
higher proportion of volatiles than metals and
silicates, this meant that there was much more
material available in the outer Solar System to go into
forming planets, resulting in much larger protoplanets
o The formation timescale of protoplanets was a few
100,000 to several million years

Jeans’ Tidal Theory

- Laplace Theory was a monistic theory – same body of
material in a single process gave rise to both the Sun and
the planets
- James Jeans (1917) proposed a dualistic theory that
separated formation of Sun from formation of planets

- Jeans’ Theory involved interaction between Sun and a

very massive star in three stages:
1. Massive star passes within Roche Limit of Sun,
pulling out material in the form of a filament.
2. Filament is gravitationally unstable, and breaks into
series of blobs of masses greater than the Jeans’
critical mass, and so collapse to form proto-planets.
3. Planets were left in orbit about the Sun.

TIDAL THEORY
- Proposed by Sir James Hopwood Jeans and Harold
Jeffreys
- Planets were formed from the substance that was torn out
of the sun
- As a speeding massive star passed near the Sun, it pulled
off material due to gravitational attraction
- The pulled off material subsequently condensed to form
the planets