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A Brief History of Astronomy
Paul Bergeron
Department of Physics and Astronomy,University of Utah, Salt Lake City
March 29, 2018
Course Plan
Objective
To come away with an understanding of
I how astronomy developed,
I what contemporary astronomy studies,
I and what’s in the winter sky.
Course Plan
Discussion Schedule
1. History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy
2. History of Astronomy – Scientific Era
3. The Night Sky – Sky Orientation & Constellations
4. The Night Sky – Earth, Moon, Sun, and other Phenomena
5. Contemporary Astronomy – Cosmology
6. Contemporary Astronomy – Current Experiments
What would you like to have covered?
Course Plan
Discussion Schedule
1. History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy
2. History of Astronomy – Scientific Era
3. The Night Sky – Sky Orientation & Constellations
4. The Night Sky – Earth, Moon, Sun, and other Phenomena
5. Contemporary Astronomy – Cosmology
6. Contemporary Astronomy – Current Experiments
What would you like to have covered?
Course Plan
Discussion Schedule
1. History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy
2. History of Astronomy – Scientific Era
3. The Night Sky – Sky Orientation & Constellations
4. The Night Sky – Earth, Moon, Sun, and other Phenomena
5. Contemporary Astronomy – Cosmology
6. Contemporary Astronomy – Current Experiments
What would you like to have covered?
Course Plan
Discussion Schedule
1. History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy
2. History of Astronomy – Scientific Era
3. The Night Sky – Sky Orientation & Constellations
4. The Night Sky – Earth, Moon, Sun, and other Phenomena
5. Contemporary Astronomy – Cosmology
6. Contemporary Astronomy – Current Experiments
What would you like to have covered?
Today’s Plan
History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy
I A historical perspective
I What is science?
I Purpose of initial astronomy
I Astronomy in different cultures
Disclaimer
I am a physicist, not a historian
We will discuss history, science, and mythology.
But telling stories is mythologizing, too
Parables 6= History
Archimedes (ca. 287-212 BCE)
I Renowned inventor, scientist, and mathematician
I Came close to inventing calculus
I Proved Acirlce = πr2, determined π to ∼ 1 : 1000
I Famously engineered defensive machines that thwartedthe Romans
I Studied and explained levers; created block-and-tacklepulley systems
Did he really...
...run naked through Syracuse after discovering his eponymousbuoyancy principle?...pull a ship with his little finger, using pulleys to multiply theforce?
Parables 6= History
Archimedes (ca. 287-212 BCE)
I Renowned inventor, scientist, and mathematician
I Came close to inventing calculus
I Proved Acirlce = πr2, determined π to ∼ 1 : 1000
I Famously engineered defensive machines that thwartedthe Romans
I Studied and explained levers; created block-and-tacklepulley systems
Did he really...
...run naked through Syracuse after discovering his eponymousbuoyancy principle?...pull a ship with his little finger, using pulleys to multiply theforce?
TimelineMediterranean Mesopotamia
400 BCE
800 BCE
1200 BCE
1600 BCE
2000 BCE
2400 BCE
2800 BCE
3200 BCEInvention of Writing
Bronze Age Begins 3000 BCE
Iron Age Begins
Minoan Civilization BeginsGiza Pyramids Constructed
Temple of Karnak
Deir el-Bahari
Minoan Eruption
Armana Period
TimelineMediterranean Mesopotamia
400 BCE
800 BCE
1200 BCE
1600 BCE
2000 BCE
2400 BCE
2800 BCE
3200 BCEInvention of Writing
Bronze Age Begins 3000 BCE
Iron Age Begins
Minoan Civilization BeginsGiza Pyramids Constructed
Temple of Karnak
Deir el-Bahari
Minoan Eruption
Armana Period
Uruk Period EndsSumerian Civilization Begins
Gilgamesh(?)
Akkadian Empire Begins
Neo-Sumerian Empire Begins
Code of Ur-NammuBabylonian Empire Begins
Code of HammurabiAssyrian Empire Begins
Library of Ashurbanipal
Medes-Persian RevolutionNeo-Babylonian EmpirePersia defeats Babylon
Battle of Issus (Alexander vs Darius)
TimelineMediterranean Mesopotamia
400 BCE
800 BCE
1200 BCE
1600 BCE
2000 BCE
2400 BCE
2800 BCE
3200 BCEInvention of Writing
Bronze Age Begins 3000 BCE
Iron Age Begins
Minoan Civilization BeginsGiza Pyramids Constructed
Temple of Karnak
Deir el-Bahari
Minoan Eruption
Armana PeriodTrojan War(?)Early ‘Rome’?
Archaic PeriodRoman ‘Regal’ Period
Classical PeriodRoman Republic
Hellenistic Period
Uruk Period EndsSumerian Civilization Begins
Gilgamesh(?)
Akkadian Empire Begins
Neo-Sumerian Empire Begins
Code of Ur-NammuBabylonian Empire Begins
Code of HammurabiAssyrian Empire Begins
Library of Ashurbanipal
Medes-Persian RevolutionNeo-Babylonian EmpirePersia defeats Babylon
Battle of Issus (Alexander vs Darius)
TimelineMediterranean Mesopotamia
400 BCE
800 BCE
1200 BCE
1600 BCE
2000 BCE
2400 BCE
2800 BCE
3200 BCEInvention of Writing
Bronze Age Begins 3000 BCE
Iron Age Begins
Minoan Civilization BeginsGiza Pyramids Constructed
Temple of Karnak
Deir el-Bahari
Minoan Eruption
Armana PeriodTrojan War(?)Early ‘Rome’?
Archaic PeriodRoman ‘Regal’ Period
Pythagoras: Spherical Earth
Classical PeriodRoman Republic
Aristarchus: HeliocentrismHellenistic Period
Erastosthenes: REarthHipparchus
Uruk Period EndsSumerian Civilization Begins
Gilgamesh(?)
Akkadian Empire Begins
Neo-Sumerian Empire Begins
Code of Ur-NammuBabylonian Empire Begins
Code of HammurabiAssyrian Empire Begins
Library of Ashurbanipal
Medes-Persian RevolutionNeo-Babylonian EmpirePersia defeats Babylon
Battle of Issus (Alexander vs Darius)
What is Astronomy?
getchemistryhelp.com
What is Science?
I Process of testing and explainingthe natural world
I tests are reproducible
I hypothesis make falsifiable predictions
I limited by experimental accuracy
Astronomy is the study of...
“...the origins, physics, and evolution of plan-ets, stars, galaxies, and the universe as awhole.”
–Department of Astronomy, OSU
What is Astronomy?
getchemistryhelp.com
What is Science?
I Process of testing and explainingthe natural world
I tests are reproducible
I hypothesis make falsifiable predictions
I limited by experimental accuracy
Astronomy is the study of...
“...the origins, physics, and evolution of plan-ets, stars, galaxies, and the universe as awhole.”
–Department of Astronomy, OSU
What is Astronomy?
getchemistryhelp.com
What is Science?
I Process of testing and explainingthe natural world
I tests are reproducible
I hypothesis make falsifiable predictions
I limited by experimental accuracy
Astronomy is the study of...
“...the origins, physics, and evolution of plan-ets, stars, galaxies, and the universe as awhole.”
–Department of Astronomy, OSU
What is Astronomy?
getchemistryhelp.com
What is Science?
I Process of testing and explainingthe natural world
I tests are reproducible
I hypothesis make falsifiable predictions
I limited by experimental accuracy
Astronomy is the study of...
“...the origins, physics, and evolution of plan-ets, stars, galaxies, and the universe as awhole.”
–Department of Astronomy, OSU
Early AstronomyPurely observational – focused on cataloguing
Applied for
I Marking the seasons
I Aligning lunisolar calendars
I Telling time at night
I NavigationI Setting Religious events
I astrology: divination/prognosticationI religious/philosophical cosmologies
Venus Tablet, ca. 1500 BCE
K.160, The British Museum
Etruscan Liver Chart, ca 400-300 BCE Antikythera Mechanism, ca 150-100 BCE
Wikipedia Commons (Museo Civico) National Archeological Museum of Athens
Egypt
Star Clock/Decan ChartImage Credits: Wikimedia Commons
ca 1200 BCE ca 1473 BCE
Decans:
I specific 36 star groups
I ∼ 36 groups in a year
I 1 group every 10 days
Lunisolar Calendar (Luxor)
Image Credit: hudsonvalleygeologist, blogspot
I Solar Calendar:
I 36, 10-day weeks
I Lunar Calendar:
I 12 months, new moon
I Syncrhonized: heliacal rising ofSirius
I 5 day intercallary month
I month of rest
I spiritually dangerous
Mesoamerica (Maya)Uxmal Image Credit: James Q. Jacobs
I Codices show Venus synodic cycle
I Govenors Palace: Venusbuilt aligned not with Uxmal butwith Venus’s Northern extreme
Chitzen Itza Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons
I Caracol: built observatory withline-of-sights for 20+ events
I Temple of KukulkanI Corners align with sunrise/set
for solar culmination at zenithI Kukulkan slithers at the equinox
AnasaziChaco Canyon (ca 900 - 1150 CE)
Image Credit: James Q. Jacobs
Alignments
Great Houses:
I Pueblo Bonito & Chetro Ketlon the East-West geodesic
I Pueblo Alto & Tsin KletsinNorth-South aligned
I Penasco Blanco & Una Vidalunar azimuthal maximum
I Pueblo Pintado & Kin Bineolalunar azimuthal minimum
Piedra del Sol
I Observation point: Sun ‘balances’ twoweeks before the summer solstice
I eclipse of 1097 with corona?
ChinaTaosi Observatory ca 2200-2100 BCE
Image Credit: He Nu, UNESCO/IAU
I 21-m wall forming an arc
I columns set into the wallfoundation
I pit aligned with pillar gaps
I 2 gaps aligned with solstices
Astronomy
Image Credit: Marilyn Shea, UMF
I bi (gnomon) for measurements
I experimental mixed with philosophicalTaoism, Confuscianism, & Buddhism
I 6 flat Earth schools (3 major)
I zenith culmination ⇒ Earth-Sundistance