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Period: Jan 1, 1571 to
Orbit of Planets
Two cosmic laws that govern the planets were created by Kepler and Newton. One of these laws is Newton's law of universal gravity, the power that pulls on every molecule of matter. A second law that governs this is the law that controls every moving molecule. -
Period: Jan 1, 1571 to
Meteorite showers happening throughout this time period
Meteorites are meteoroids that have survived hitting a planet's surface. Meteoroids vary in size and have a rocky texture similar to Earth rocks, though the surface may appear burned. Meteoroid fragments generally come off of asteroids, though the fragments can come off of the Moon or Mars. -
Period: Jan 1, 1571 to
People have lived on earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and is the fifth largest. The Earth's crust is unlike any other. The crust has plates that move around, due to convection currents in the mantle. The surface of earth is covered with 71 percent water. The Earth has one natural satellite, the Moon, though thousands of artificial satellites have been put into orbit. -
Dec 27, 1571
Birth of Johannes Kepler (Photo from Fotopedia)
Johannes Kepler was born in the town of Weil der Stadt, Germany. -
Johannes accepted science chair (Photo from Fotopedia)
Early in this year, Johannes accepted the vacant chair of Astronomy at Graz. This started his career as an astronomer and a mathematician, which is not what he wanted to do. -
Kepler's Second Law (Photo from Fotopedia)
Kepler's second law was finished by the end of 1602. This law was, "A planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times as it orbits the Sun. What this means is that the whole planet is light up as it orbits the sun. The planets are light up equal to the times the planet orbits the sun. -
Kepler's First Law (Photo from Fotopedia)
This law was finished by the end of 1605. This law was that planetary orbits are elliptical with the Sun at one focus. This means that the orbits of planets are oval-shaped. -
Third law of Kepler discovered (Photo from Fotopedia)
Kepler's third law was discovered in this year. The law is that the time of orbit scales with an oval size such that the period squared is proportional to the semi-major axis length cubed. To sum that up, the law is that the planet's orbit are scaled with the size of the planet's oval-shaped orbit. The period of time is squared is proportional to the axis length cubed. -
Death of Johannes Kepler (Photo from Fotopedia)
Johannes Kepler died on this date in Regensburg, Germany. -
Period: to
Asteroids-- Bode's Law
Asteroids were first discovered in the 1700's when Johann Bode found a sequence representing the distances of the planets from the Sun. Asteroids were found when the law worked perfectly from Mercury to Uranus except between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where there was no known plantet. Since astronomers thought Bode's Law was correct, they began to search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter. The first astroid was discovered in 1801. Asteroids are hard and have a rocky texture. -
Uranus discovered by William Herschel (Photo from Flickr)
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is the third largest planet, by diameter. Uranus is very different from other planets, because it rotates on it's side, so astronomers have trouble figuring out which pole is the north pole! Also, Uranus' rotation is retrograde, which means it spins east to west. Uranus is made almost completely of rocks and ices, and does not have a rocky core, but does have rings. Uranus has 27 named moons. -
Ceres was found (Photo from Hubble Telescope)
Ceres was the first astroid found ,and is the largest asteroid. Most asteroids are smaller than Ceres. Three types of asteroids, type C, type S, and type M. Type C asteroids are extremely dark colored and are more than 75% of all asteroids. Type S asteroids are made of metallic nickel-iron and are very light. Type S asteroids make up about 17%of asteroids. The final type of asteroid is type M.There are only three types of asteroids, but there are several rarer types of asteroids. -
Neptune was discovered by Galle and d'Arrest (Fotopedia for photo)
Nepturne is the eighth planet from the sun, and is the fourth largest by diameter. Neptune is made up of various ices and rocks, very similar to Uranus. The reason Neptune is blue is because of red light by methane in the atmosphere. Like other gas planets, Neptune has extremely fast winds which reach 2000 km/hour! Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune radiates more energy than it receives from the sun. Like Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Neptune has the Great Dark spot. Neptune has rings + seven moons. -
Pluto was found by Clyde Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory (Photo from Hubble Telescope)
When discovered, the radius had an error margin of +/- 8, almost one percent of JPL value. Though little is known about Pluto, it is most likely 70% rock, and 30% ice, but there are small ices of nitrogen. Pluto has three moons. Pluto is nothing like the other Gas Giants, and is actually like the inner planets. This is because Pluto is smaller, and has a rockier terrain while the Gas Giants are made mostly of gases and are quite large. -
Whipple's Dirty Snowball hypothesis (Hubble Telescope Photo)
Whipple thought of dirty snowball hypothesis during this year. This hypothesis was that a comet is made of small chunks of frozen gases mixed with dust grains and rocks. The comet has four parts: A coma, nucleus, dust tail, and a plasma. A coma is the dry ice vaporizing as the comet moves. The nucleus is the center frozen gas part that is not melting like the coma. The dust tail is that, it's sand and dust debris coming off of the nucleus. The plasma is a hot gas that comes off of the coma. -
Mariner 2 from NASA visits Venus (Courtesy of Hubble Telescope)
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun, and is the sixth largest planet. Venus' day is longer than it's year, and the rotation is west to east, or retrograde. Venus is similar to Earth. Venus has a few craters, and has clouds. Along with plains, Venus also has two large highland areas, and a plateau. There are also volcanos and mountains. Along with that, there are very strong winds in the clouds, while the surface winds are very slow. -
Mariner 4 from NASA was launched for Mars (Courtesy of Hubble Telescope)
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, and is the seventh largest. Also, Mars' orbit is very elliptical. Because of this, the temperature can be anywhere from -67F to 80 F. Along with this, Mars has many mountains, canyons, impact craters, and a huge bulge. Another interesting thing about Mars is that Mars has clear evidence of erosion, including large floods and small river systems. Mars also has two moons. -
Pioneer 10 from NASA visits the Gas Giant closest to the Sun (Picture from Hubble Telescope)
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun, and is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Gas Giants do not have solid surfaces, and their material gets denser with depth. The vivid stripes seen on Jupiter are clouds caused by chemical reactions. There is a great red spot on Jupiter, that is big enough to hold two Earths, and there are other spots, though smaller, that are similar to the Great Red Spot. Jupiter has 63 known satellites, four of which the large Galilean moons. -
Pioneer 10 from NASA visits Saturn (Hubble Telescope Photo)
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second largest. Galileo was the first to observe it with a telescope in 1610. Saturn is the least dense of the planets, and was the first planet known to have rings. Saturn's core is similar to Jupiter's core. The rings are composed of primarily water, ice, and rocky particles with an icy coating. Saturn has 53 named satellites, and there are nine more that have not been named. -
Mariner 10 from NASA Maps Mercury (Photo from Fotopedia)
Mercury was named after Mercury, or Hermes, the Roman/Greek God of speed. Mercury is the closest of the planets to the sun. Mercury has many craters, and is very old and also has no plate tetonices. But even though Mercury has many craters, it also has smooth plains. Also, Mercury is much denser than the moon, being the second most dense planet in the solar system, losing first to earth. Along with this, Mercury is also the hottest planet 300 Fahrenheit to 700 Fahrenheit. -
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