1. Exploration
EQ: How has mankindâs need to
explore led to our current view
of the solar system?
2. Our First Views of the Universe
âą Egyptians â need a way to predict the
annual flooding of the Nile River
âą Studied the star Sirius and noticed it
was in the morning sky every spring
shortly before the flooding began
3. Our First Views of the Universe
âą Mayans â developed a calendar that
was centuries before their time
âą Observed the solstices
4. Our First Views of the Universe
âą Stonehenge
âBuilt in several stages
âWe donât know who built it or exactly
why
âIt does have connections to the
summer and winter solstices
5. Our First Views of the Solar
System: Reflect
Choose one of the reflections below to answer.
âąM: Restate the reason why Egyptians' exploration of
the night sky was important.
âąI: Which of the three ancient societies would you
have preferred to explore the sky with? Why?
âąU: What are the similarities in the explorations of the
people who built Stonehenge and the Mayans?
âąS: Imagine you are looking up at the stars in 3,000
B.C. How can you explore them?
6. Beginning to Make Sense of the
Universe
âą Greeks observed the planets.
âCalled them wandering stars
âWere aware of 5 planets â Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
7. Beginning to Make Sense of the
Universe
âą Aristotle
âPlaced the earth at the center of the
solar system surrounded by 55
crystalline spheres â GEOCENTRISM
âEarth did not move at all
âEverything revolved around the Earth
8. Beginning to Make Sense of the
Universe
âą Ptolemy
âRefined geocentric model of the solar
system
âEpicycles â smaller circles around large
circles to help explain planetary
motion
âMessy way to explain the movement
of planets
9. Epicycles
âą Used to explain retrograde rotation â
the apparent backward movement of
planets
10. Beginning to Make Sense of the
Universe: Reflect
Choose one of the reflections below to answer.
âąM: Summarize the contributions of Aristotle and
Ptolemy to our understanding of the solar
system.
âąI: How would you feel if I told you the Earth
really is the center of the solar system?
âąU: Contrast Aristotle and Ptolemyâs discoveries
about the solar system.
âąS: Design a NASA mission patch dedicated to
studying geocentrism.
11. The Revolution Begins
âą Copernicus
âPublished Revolutionibus Orbium
Coelestium (On the Revolution of the
Celestial Orbs) the year he died
âMath based
âIntroduced the heliocentrism â the sun
is the center of the solar system
13. The Revolution Begins
âą Brahe â recorded many detailed
astronomical observations â one of the
first to make such detailed records
âą Kepler â used Braheâs data to develop
his laws of planetary motion â planets
orbit in ellipses
14. The Revolution Begins
âą Galileo
â first person to use a telescope to explore the
night sky; he became an expert at building
refracting telescopes
â Evidence for heliocentrism
âą Jupiter â four moons that revolved around
it â not Earth
âą Venus â goes through phases like the
moon
âą Sun â has spots and rotates
15. The Revolution Begins
âą Newton
â Developed a new kind of telescope to explore
with â reflector
â Wrote the Three Laws of Motion to explain
the movements of the planets
â Planets are kept in orbit around the sun by
âą Inertia â objects in motion stay in motion
âą Gravity â force of attraction between
objects
16. The Revolution Begins: Reflect
Choose one of the reflections below to answer.
âąM: What do you think were the two most important
discoveries made by these astronomers?
âąI: Galileoâs findings were rejected the Catholic Church.
How would you feel if you were Galileo?
âąU: If everyone around you believes in a geocentric
universe, hypothesize what their reactions would be
when you explain heliocentrism to them.
âąS: What would it be like to live on Jupiter and watch
four moons orbit around your planet? What
explorations would you conduct?
17. Our Growing Solar System
âą Our continued need to explore has
helped us learn more about the solar
system and our views have changed
over time because of that
18. Our Growing Solar System
âą Uranus â discovered in 1781 by William
Herschel using a telescope
âą Ceres â discovered in 1801; initially
called a planet; started a big debate that
led to the creation of the asteroid
category
âą Neptune â discovered in 1846 using a
telescope
19. Our Growing Solar System
âą Pluto â discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh
âą Kuiper Belt â discovered in 1992
â Itâs the region beyond Neptune where Pluto is
â Many other dwarf planets (Plutoids) are located
here
âą As our tools become more advanced, we continue
to explore and learn about our solar system
â The Oort Cloud is a region beyond the Kuiper Belt
â Weâve discovered a lot more about the moons of
other planets
20. Our Growing Solar System:
Reflection
Choose one of the reflections below to answer.
âąM: What explorations led to Ceres no longer being
considered a planet?
âąI: If you were in charge of deciding where our next
unmanned space probe will go in the solar system, where
would you send it?
âąU: Draw parallels between Ceresâ demotion from planet to
asteroid and Plutoâs demotion from planet to dwarf planet.
âąS: Imagine your patient observations night after night lead
to the discovery of a new planet. How would you announce
your discovery to the world?
21. Organize the Exploration!
âą Create an illustrated timeline to
organize the explorations that led to our
current understanding of the solar
system.