Ancient Civilizations
Which civilization first recorded planetary motion patterns?
Mesopotamian's
What did Galileo discover orbiting Jupiter?
Moons
What forces keep the planets in orbit?
Gravity
What are the five "wandering stars" noticed by ancient Mesopotamian astronomers?
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
What did Tycho Brahe’s observations of a supernova and comet show?
The heavens can change; celestial spheres are not solid and permanent
Why was astronomy important to early civilizations?
Agriculture, calendars, religion, surviva
What did the phases of Venus show?
It orbits the Sun
Who came up with the theory of redshift and what does redshift mean?
Edwin Hubble; and galaxies moving away
Why did ancient Egyptians study the stars?
To track the Nile’s flooding and create a calendar
How did Eratosthenes calculate Earth’s circumference?
Measured shadows in two cities and used geometry
What star did Egyptians use to predict flooding?
Sirius
What did Hubble discover about “nebulae”?
They were other galaxies
Who was the astronomer that came up with the theory of General Relativity (gravity as bending space and time)?
Einstein
Who proposed the idea of the Heliocentric model?
Copernicus
What observation helped the Egyptians align the Great Pyramid of Giza?
Tracking circumpolar stars to find true north
Which civilization carefully tracked Venus cycles?
Mayans
What did the ancient Chinese record in 1054 that helps astronomers today?
A supernova (Crab Nebula)
Who calculated the distances to other galaxies using Cepheid variable stars?
Edwin Hubble
How did Mesopotamian priests record their astronomical observations?
On clay tablets using cuneiform writing
What instrument did Islamic astronomers improve to measure stars and time?
Astrolabe
What repeating cycle helped predict eclipses?
Saros Cycle
Who used detailed naked-eye observations to track planets before the telescope?
Tycho Brahe
Which Belgian scientist first proposed that the universe is expanding using Einstein’s equations?
Georges Lemaître
How did Aristotle describe the motion of the heavens?
He believed celestial bodies moved in perfect circles (epicycles) on concentric spheres around a stationary Earth.
What was the main purpose of ziggurats for Mesopotamian astronomers?
To provide a high place to observe the sky for patterns in stars and planets.