astronomy notes

- EP2: stars are arranged into constellations- polaris is the northern star
- EP3: ecliptic: imaginary path of the sun
- the earth is tilted on its axis by roughly 23 degrees, and the seasons are caused solely by the tilt and not
the distance between the earth and the sun (the orbit is elliptical)
- the axis is actually moving or wobbling, it takes 26,000 years for the small circle to be completed by the
axis
- in 11,000 years, polaris will be replaced by vega as the north star
- this wobbling is precession and the zodiac signs keep changing- astrology does not make sense
- EP4: moon phases exits because the moon orbits the earth and is also tilted, and we see the same half of
the moon every time
- the phases are: new moon, waxing crescent, half full, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, half full,
waning crescent, new moon
- from the moon, the angle is completely 180 degrees reversed so when it is a new moon for us, a person
from the moon would see a full earth
- EP5: solar and lunar eclipses
- during solar eclipse, moon comes between earth and the sun, and sometimes the moon’s shadow lines up
with and falls on the earth
- there are two shadows that fall on the earth: umbra (total darkness) and penumbra (lighter shadow)
totality begins when the umbra sweeps over the space
- the sun’s atmosphere, corona, finally is not overwhelmed by the sun’s intense light and we can see it
sweeping out in boundaries around the moon in tendrils of light
- annular eclipse is when moon is at the far end of its orbit and has a ring of sunlight around it
- lunar eclipse is more often, and the moon becomes blood red when the earth comes in between the sun
and the moon
- EP6: telescopes do two things: increase our ability to resolve details, collects light so we can see fainter
objects
- two main types: refractors (use lenses, not used anymore because of the maintenance) and reflectors (that
use mirrors, used a lot, easy to maintain)
- there are also telescopes that are built to see in waves that we can’t see, and with invention of film, the
universe can be seen and scrutinised in radio waves, microwaves, x rays, gamma rays, UV rays
- the telescopes are built to detect THESE type of waves
- EP7: gravity gets weaker rapidly as the distance from the mass increases (square of the distance is
amount of gravity decreased)
- the longer the force acts, the more the velocity (stone dropped from mountain will have greater final
velocity than stone thrown from the third floor)
- if something is thrown hard enough, it can fall at the ground but keep missing it, only guided in its orbit
by the gravity (this is how satellites orbit the earth)
- but if you throw even harder, the orbit becomes open ended and the object escapes the gravity of the
earth / or anything else
- for earth, escape velocity is 11 km/s but for sun, escape velocity is 600 km/s
- weight is not just the pull of the gravity on the mass, its how hard the surface pushes back on the mass as
well
- weightlessness for astronauts is due to them just falling freely and nothing pushing back on them, but the
gravity of the earth is still pulling on them
- photons have no mass but can be bent by a massive object by its gravity (this happens in black holes)
- EP8: tides are caused by change in force in gravity over distance
- the strength of the tidal force depends on amount of gravity form first object and size and mass of second
object
- the tides cause two bulges in the earth and the moon, causing two high tide and two low tides every day
- the earth pulled on the bulges on the moon until it slowed its spinning and moved the moon father away
from it, until the moon’s rotation time = revolution time, this resulted in us seeing the same side of the
moon
- spaghettification is the act of the tidal waves being so strong that it pulls you apart (black holes)
- EP9: a collapsing cloud was flattened into a disc, which caused the solar system to be flat
- rocky planets formed closer to the sun because the gas atoms were squeezed out, but planets farther away
from the sun held in all that gas and became gas giants
- one asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter, another bordering the solar system- Kuiper belt
- astronomers see the same thing happening every day in the universe
- EP10: the sun is actually pretty huge and ranks in the top 10% of stars in terms of size
- it mostly consists of hydrogen gas
- pressure at sun’s core is 260 billion times the earth’s atmospheric pressure
- the electrons and atoms are stripped apart from the protons, and the astounding pressure makes the
protons fuse together
- the hydrogen atoms fuse together and make helium, which is a heavier gas, and some nuclear energy is
released in the process
- the gases rise up to the surface, becoming less dense and then sinking back
- solar wind is particles from sun just moving around and away from the sun
- solar flare, coronal mass ejection- these magnetic fields in the sun can interact with the earth, causing
power outages, aurorae etc
- EP11: the moon- a satellite of the earth
- giant impact hypothesis: a planet named theia grazed pas the earth but collided into it
- the impact sent a lot of stuff flying and it all condensed into the moon and the tidal forces made sure the
rotation and revolution time was the same
- the same side faced the earth and the impact heated up the side of the moon facing us, thus the near side
and the far side of the moon are so different
- the highlands (heavily cratered) and the maria (smooth and less cratered) are two dominant regions of the
moon
- late heavy bombardment event- 3.5 billion years ago, comets and asteroids clashing into the inner planets
triggered by movement of the outer planets
- this event caused the formation of many craters on the moon