Galilean Nights!A DeepSkyDivas! Special Program

AFM*Radio / October 24th, 2009

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IYA 2009 & Galilean NightsOctober 22-24 2009

Rediscovering our place in the Universe.

Inspire us to look up, and in the process, become a more peaceful and cooperative planet.

Celebrate Galileo and the dawning of modern astronomy and science.

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IYA 2009

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UNESCO & IAU global effort endorsed by the UN & the International Council of Science

Sponsoring and facilitating a series of local, national, regional, and international events

Creating a partnership between professional & amateur astronomers, educators and space enthusiasts for public

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Galilean NightsCelebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations of Jupiter and its moons.1

Sidewalk astronomy around the world: 1150 events in 86 countries.

Onsite and remote 1Galileo actually recorded his first jovian moon observations in January, 1610.

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[T]here are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours ... we must believe that in all worlds there are living creatures and plants and other things we see in this world....

Epicurus (341-270 BC)

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St. Augustine: On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis

“Even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world… it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense about these things.” (AD 408)

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On the Revolutions of

Celestial OrbitsNicholas Copernicus

Catholic cleric (doctor and lawyer); nominated to be a bishop

1543:

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Ptolemy vs. Copernicus

Earth

Mercury

Sun

Jupiter

Mars

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"There are countless suns and countless earths all rotating around their suns in exactly the same way as the seven planets of our system . . .

The countless worlds in the universe are no worse and no

less inhabited than our Earth”

Giordano Bruno, 1584

in De L'infinito Universo

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Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)• German mathematician &

astronomer

• Best known for “Kepler’s laws of planetary motion”

1. Kepler's elliptical orbit law: The planets orbit the sun in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus.

2. Kepler's equal-area law: The line connecting a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal amounts of time.

3. Kepler's law of periods: The time required for a planet to orbit the sun, called its period, is proportional to the long axis of the ellipse raised to the 3/2 power.

• Successfully predicted the 1631

transits of Mercury & Venus18

1453 The Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople

1492 Christopher Columbus discovers America

1517 Martin Luther’s 95 theses; Protestant Reformation begins

1543 Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

1545-1563 The Council of Trent called to deal with Protestantism

1564 Galileo is born in Pisa

1571 Johannes Kepler is born

The lead-up

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Galileo

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ResultsHeliocentrism/Keplerian system only triumphs with Newton’s Physics, 1680s

Astronomy done by mathematicians …until 1750s, Copernicanism taught in math classes, Geocentrism in philosophy

Break between theology and natural philosophy (the “Image” is “Discarded”)

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Fr. Riccioli’s 1652 map of the Moon(based on the observations of Fr. Grimaldi)

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Over the centuries, telescopes got better and better…

Galileo and his Refractive Telescope, 1609

Herschel’s Reflecting Telescope, 1789

The Hooker Telescope - Mount Wilson, ca 1920

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1-Atlantis Launch … NASA’s Galileo spacecraft was launched on October 18, 1989 by Space Shuttle Atlantis, Mission STS-34

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2-GalileoCraft … At launch, Galileo measured seven meters long and weighed 5,653 pounds.

The craft was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The probe was built by Hughes Aircraft Company.

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3-GalileoCraft … Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators(RTGs) powered the Galileo spacecraft through the radioactive decay of plutonium-238.

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4-Venus … Venus, as imaged by Galileo, during its flyby gravity assist on February 10, 1990.

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5-Earth1 … The Earth, as imaged by Galileo during its flyby gravity assist on December 8, 1990.

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6-Gaspra … Galileo achieved the first-ever asteroid encounter when it flew within 1000 miles of 951-Gaspra in 1991.

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7-EarthMoon2 … The Earth and Moon, as imaged by Galileo during its flyby gravity assist on December 8, 1992

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8-IdaDactyl … NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made the first discovery of an asteroid moon when it flew within 1,500 miles of asteroid 243-Ida in 1993. The small moon, Dactyl, is an S-type object measuring just 1.4 km in diameter.

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9-ShoemakerLevyImpact … NASA’s Galileo spacecraft achieved the first-ever direct observation of a comet impacting a planet when it imaged Shoemaker-Levy 9’s collision with Jupiter. These images of Fragment W’s impact were acquired at a distance of 1.6 AU.

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10-GalileoProbeImage … The Galileo Probe weighed 335 kilograms and measured 1.3 meters across.

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11-GalileoProbeInstruments … The Galileo probe's electronics were powered by lithium sulfur dioxide batteries.

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12-GalileoHeatShield … The Galileo probe’s heat shield lost 80kg(of its total 152kg) during its supersonic entry into Jupiter’s atmosphere.

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13-JupiterGRS … Color mosaic of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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14-JupiterGRS … Jupiter’s stratospheric haze, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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15-JupiterAurora … Jupiter’s Nightside Aurora, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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16-JupiterLightning … Jupiter’s changing lightning storms, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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17-JupiterBeltZones … “True” Color Mosaic of Jupiter’s Belt-Zone Boundary, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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18-JupiterRings…Jupiter’s ring system as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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20-IoTvashtar …Io’s active Tvashtar Catena, as imaged by Galileo in 1999 and 2000.

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19-IoGlobal …Two volcanic plumes are apparent in this image acquired during Galileo’s ninth orbit. Given its own name for its remarkable longevity, Prometheus is that plume near the terminator. The second plume, apparent along Io’s limb, measured 86-miles high.

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21-EuropaGlobal … Europa, as imaged by the Galileo spacecraft, in June 1997 at a distance of 1.25-million kilometers.

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22-EuropaFeatures … Europa’s fascinating surface features, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.

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23-CallistoGlobal …Callisto, as imaged by the Galileo spacecraft, in May 2001.

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24-CallistoUpClose … Callisto at increasing resolutions, as imaged by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997.

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25-GanymedeGlobal …Natural color view of Ganymede, as imaged by the Galileo craft in 1996.

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26-GanymedeCraters … A fragmented comet likely created this chain of craters on Ganymede. The image, covering a 120-square-mile-region, was acquired by NASA’s Galileo craft in 1997.

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27-GalileoMissionPatch …

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www.galileoscope.org

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www.galileoscope.org

$20 high-quality 50mm achromatic refractor kit including 20mm (25x) eyepiece and 2x Barlow.

Intended to improve math & science literacy using astronomy and optical physics.

Provides telescope access to less-developed parts of the world.

Galileoscope

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