Intro To Astronomy Essay

In the first week of Intro to Astronomy we learned many interesting facts about ancient astronomy, the origins of astronomy, and several people who contributed and were influential. Egypt, Rome, and China were influential in the development of the study of astronomy. Pythagoras was a mathematician and philosopher who proposed the Pythagorean theory. This theory contributed to the development of Philolaus’s theory of the astronomical system, which stated that planets, moons and sun revolved around a paramount force.

The universe is projected to be 13.82 billion years old, leaving much still a mystery. The value to studying Astronomy can help us to understand more about our universe and why certain things work the way that they do and how others

Solar mass is said to equal to the Sun’s mass. Jupiter mass is the measure of apparent mass of Jupiter Jupiter. The last type of measurement for mass is the Earth mass.

In the second week, we touched on a several astronomers who were quite influential in respect to astronomy. Nicolaus Copernicus an astronomer and mathematician during the Renaissance era who was deemed the founder of astronomy for his contributions. In the early 1500 he proposed the heliocentric solar system. The belief previously was that the Earth was the center of the universe; he introduced the concept that instead the sun was in fact the center of the universe. He changed the views on how the universe rotated, his work and findings helped in revolutionizing astronomy.

Furthermore, Galileo Galilei was a Renaissance era mathematician, physicist engineer, philosopher, and astronomer and widely known for his work even today. Galileo is also referred to as the “father of observational astronomy” for his affords towards the theory of the phases of Venus, his observation and analysis of the spots on the sun, and Jupiter’s moons (Galilean

A lunation happens when the moon makes a complete cycle around the Earth. The lunar cycle consists of eight cycles including the New moon phases, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, and the waning crescent. The moon is primarily responsible for the tides on Earth. The Earth and moon have a magnetic like gravitational attraction leaving the moon pulling at the Earth. The Earth is strong enough to keep everything down but the water because it is constantly in motion. As a result, a daily occurrence of two high tides and two low tides. The time between the two high tides is approximately twelve hours and twenty-five