Lecture # 1

ASTRONOMY
Early astronomers
• Nicholas Copernicus: First astronomer to tell that earth is not the
center of universe. It is SUN.
• Galilieo Galilie: built the first telescope
Cluster
• Collection of galaxies bound together by gravity
• Virgo Cluster
• The Milky Way Galaxy belongs to the Local Group, which lies on the
outskirts of the Virgo Cluster.
Galaxy
• A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars
and their solar systems, all held together by gravity.
• Types:
• Spiral- eg MilkyWay
• Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to Milkyway
• Andromeda is 10th largest galaxy
• Elliptical: Largest Galaxy is IC 1101
• Irregular
Milky way Galaxy
• 200-400 bn stars
• Major and Minor Arms
• Solar system lies in Minor Arm
Solar System= Sun+planets+Satellites+Asteriods+
Meteorides+comets
• Asteroid belt
Sun
• Star – Fusion reaction – four hydrogen nuclei are combined into one helium nucleus
• Huge ball of gas- H and He
• Largest body in Solar system
• The Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in the solar system
• 110 times the diameter of the Earth
• It takes eight minutes for light reach Earth from the Sun. (3x10 power 8)
• The Sun rotates in the opposite direction to Earth with the Sun rotating from
west to east instead of east to west like Earth.
• Temp at surface = 5500 C and at core =15 million C
• Average density= 1.4 g/cm3
• Distance from earth= 150 million km
• Solar mass= 1.95x10 power 30 kg
Structure of Sun
• Three zones
• Core – hottest part of Sun -25% of solar radius
• Radioactive zone
• Convective zone

• Photosphere- boundary b/w sun and sun’s interior

• Chromosphere- lower region of Sun’s atmosphere
• Corona- upper most part of sun’s atmosphere – much hotter than
photosphere
Planet
• Orbit around sun
• Solar system has 8 planets
• 4 inner (Small, no rings, rocky, few moons); 4 outer (Many rings,
gaseous, many moons)
• Mercury
• smallest and fastest revolving(moons= 0)

• Venus-
• Hottest,
• brightest and
• morning star/ evening star,
• sister of earth(same size),
• slowest rotating
• (moons= 0)
• rotates( East to West)
• Earth-
• heaviest and
• most dense
• (moons= 1 called Luna)
• (5th largest)
• (Venus is closest to earth)
• (71% water, 29% land)
• (atmosphere N2=78%, O2=20.9%, Ar=0.93%, CO2=0.03% )
• (rev= 365 days, rotation: 23h, 56m, 4sec)
• Mars-
• Red planet (red dust)
• 2nd smallest
• (moons= 2)
• Jupiter –
• biggest,
• fastest rotating
• (moons= 79) Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system (larger than the planet Mercury)
• Saturn-
• Ring planet, (surrounded by rings of ice and dust)
• least dense, and
• 2nd Largest, 2nd fastest rotating planet
• (moons= 82)
• Uranus –
• Green planet
• (moons= 27)
• Neptune –
• Coldest,
• slowest revolving
• (moons= 14)
Diff b/w Star and Planet
STAR PLANET
They have their own light. They do not have their own light.
They have their own light. They do not have their own light.
Stars twinkle. Planets do not twinkle.
High temp Low temp
Revolve around galaxy Revolve around star
Big Small
Hydrogen, Helium and other light elements. Solid, liquid or gases, or a combination thereon.
Dwarf Planet
• Three things
• 1. It revolves around star but is not itself a satellite
• 2. It has sufficient mass so it is nearly spherical in shape
• 3. It has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit
• (Dwarf planet could not do so because of small size and less gravitational pull)
• 5 Dwarf Planets
Moon
• The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite
• the fifth largest moon in the solar system.
• Moon orbits earth in 27 days and 7 hours
• Effect of gravity is one-sixth of earth’s gravity
• Moon light takes 1.3 sec to reach earth
• One-fourth of size of earth
• Asteroids
• Largest non-planetary and non-lunar objects
• Small rocky objects that orbit around sun
• Most of them are in Asteroids belt
• Leftovers of solar system
• Comets
• Ice + Dust not rocky
• Orbit around the sun
• Meteoroids
• One asteroid smashes into another then pieces of asteroid break off. Those pieces are called
meteoroids

• Meteorites
• Meteoroid rocks do not vaporize and fall on earth surface, are call
meteorites
• Meteors (Shooting stars)
• Meteoroids come close to Earth’s atmosphere, they vaporize and turn into a meteor- a streak
of light in the sky
Constellation
• Group of stars within a particular region
• The sky was divided up into 88 different constellations in 1922
• The largest constellation by area is Hydra
• The smallest is Crux
What is eclipse
• When a planet or moon gets in the way of Sun’s light
• When one heavenly body moves into the shadow of another heavenly
body
• Types of Eclipse
• Lunar
• Solar
Lunar Eclipse= moon gets dark
• When Moon Comes in Earth’s shadow
• Earth comes in mid of the sun and moon
• Some lunar eclipse can last up to 3 hour and 45 minutes.
• During this type of eclipse the Moon appears to be a reddish color.
• This type of eclipse can only occur during a full moon.
• There are typically more solar eclipses than lunar eclipses per year.
• There are three types of lunar eclipse: partial, full/total/blood moon, and
penumbral.
• At least two partial lunar eclipse happen every year but total lunar eclipse are rear.
• It is not dangerous to look directly at the Moon during a lunar eclipse because the
Moon is not giving off its own light
Solar Eclipse
• When moon gets in the way of sun’s light and casts shadow on Earth
• A solar eclipse can only take place at the phase of new moon.
• New moons occur when the moon is directly between the sun and Earth
• Types of Solar Eclipse
• Umbra region: Total : moon completely covers sun (without protective glasses can
damage one’s eyes)
• Total solar eclipses happen about once every 1.5 years(18 months).
• Penumbra region: Partial :moon partially covers the sun
• (occurs at least twice a year)
• Ant umbra: Annular : solar disc or bright ring is visible
• The maximum number of solar eclipses (partial, annular, or total) is 5 per
year.
• There are at least 2 solar eclipses per year somewhere on the Earth.
Astronomical System of Units
• Astronomical Unit of Time
• Symbol = D
• AU of time = DAY
• AU of Mass = Solar mass = 1.98x10 power 30 kg
• AU of length= Light year and parsec
• Light year is a distance that light travels in one year in a vacuum = 5.8x10
power 12 miles 1 light year = 63240 AU
• one astronomical unit (AU) represents the mean distance between the Earth
and our sun. An AU is approximately 93 million miles (150 million km).
• Parsec= 3.26 lightyears
Black Hole
• A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even
light can not get out.
• The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny
space