UNIT E

SECTION 3.3 THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

Copernicus
By the time he was a teen, tables of planetary motion were inaccurate but no one fixed
them
Believed there was a much simpler explanation of retrograde motion in a Sun-centered
model
Was able to calculate each planets orbital period around Sun and its distance from Sun
However, still believed heavenly motion occurred in perfect circles
o No one followed his new idea because his system was just as complex as
Ptolemys
Tycho Brahe
Wanted to improve astronomical prediction after a Jupiter-Saturn alignment happened 2
days later than Copernicus predicted it
Used parallax to show a supernova and comet were much further away than the moon
Made many accurate observations within 1 arcminute
His model of the solar system put Earth stationary, the Sun orbits the Earth, and all other
planets orbit the Sun
Johannes Kepler
Believed understanding geometry of the sky would bring him closer to God
He was unable to find solutions to the planets orbits using circular orbits
Discovered orbits are actually ellipses
o Has 2 foci on major axis (the one that runs completely across the lengthwise)
Semimajor axis: of the major axis
o Vertical axis is called minor axis
o Eccentricity: how much the ellipse is stretched out compared to a perfect circle,
goes from 0-1
Keplers 3 Laws of Planetary Motion
#1: The orbit of each planet around the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at 1 focus
o Nothing at other focus
o A planets distance from the Sun varies during orbit
o Perihelion: point closest to Sun
o Aphelion: point farthest from the Sun
o Semimajor axis is avg. of perihelion and aphelion, or the avg. distance from the
Sun
#2: As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps out equal areas in equal times
o Planet travels faster the closer it is to the Sun
#3: The more distant planets orbit the Sun at slower avg. speeds, obeying the law,
o P2 = a3, P is planets orbital period in years, a is its avg distance from the sun in
AU
Three objections to the heliocentric model:
Aristotle said if Earth was moving, then objects in sky would be left behind as Earth
moved

Noncircular orbits contradicted Aristotles idea that the heavens must be perfect and
unchanging
No one detected stellar parallax that should occur if Earth orbits Sun
Galileo answered all these questions

Galileo
Contradicted Aristotles physics by saying an object in motion stays in motion unless a
force acts on it (why clouds stay in motion with the Earth)
First to really use the telescope
o Saw sunspots and terrain of the Moon (showed there were imperfections in the
heavens)
o Saw 4 moons orbiting Jupiter and not the Earth
o Venus went through phases that could only happen if it orbited the Sun