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Assignment 6. Modern Astronomy

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Assignment 6. Modern Astronomy Before the invention of the telescope, all human knew about the universe is got from the observatory of our naked eyes. When Galileo applied his innovated telescope to cosmology in 1610, he showed a world a much clearer picture of this amazing universe. [1] The great discoveries that Galileo made with his refined telescope include the Moons of Jupiter and the Phases of Venus. Graph 1 Galileo's drawings of phases of the Moon During the following years, the telescope has evolved gradually in size and complexity. They need to exclude as much as possible the rain clouds, light pollution, and atmospheric distortion. [2] Many of them were placed at mountain tops, far from cities. Hubble is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space, not earth, which enables it to provide an unobstructed view of the universe. [3] Orbiting high above the earth and its atmosphere, Hubble takes pictures of the universe and send...
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Assignment 5: Georges Lemaitre

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Discoverer of Expanding Universe Georges Lemaître, (17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian Catholic Priest, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven. [1]                                                  Graph 1 George Lemaitre                                                            His study in civil engineering was interrupted by World War 1 when he joined the army. Coming back from the battlefield, he studied Mathematics and physics. He began his astronomy study in 1923, as a graduate student at University of Cambridge. Two years later he went back to Belgium and worked as a part-time lecturer at the Catholic University of Leuven. Contribution to the idea...
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Assignment 4. The Changing Pluto

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The Changing Pluto Pluto Pluto, used to be considered as the ninth planet of the solar system, is a now the largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, which is a shadowy zone consisting of trillions of comets beyond the orbit of by Neptune [1]. It was first discovered by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 as a planet and later reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.  Before the Clyde Tombaugh, the American astronomer Percival Lowell first realized the existence of Pluto through the observation of the orbit of Neptune and Uranus, which is different than predicted unless there is another planet’s gravity tugging the two planets from the beyond. However, even though he spent his remaining 11 years in calculating the position and searching for the "trans-Neptunian" planet [2], he died in 1916 without finishing his research.  Later on, with the fund provided by Lowell's broth - Harvard University President A. Lawren...
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Assignment 2. The Copernican revolution

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The Copernican Revolution First, a little introduction about Nicolaus Copernicus, who is a famous Mathematician and Astronomer in Poland [1]. He is famous for his establishment of the "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres", which includes the concept of a heliocentric solar system. Before the copernican revolution, the astronomy was dominated by Ptolemy's geocentric cosmology system, which assumes Earth is stationary and the centre of the Universe. And all the stars and planets travel along the circle around the Earth.One reason why the geocentric cosmology is widely spreaded and accepted is becasue the Christianity can find the place of Heaven in the scientific model. Even though Ptolmey add several principles on the original Aristotle's modle, it is still have many problems in explaining the planet positions. In fifthteen and sixthteen century, the problem exasperated. Tha sailors needed the Eclipse table to keep track of their postition when sail...
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Assignment 1. Ancient astronomy: The size of Earth

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Eratosthenes of Cyrene Eratosthenes is an ancient Greek Scientist who is famous for his achievement in Geography and Mathematics. He was born in the town of Cyrene, which is now in the Libya, North Africa, around 276 B.C. After many years study in Athens, he was appointed as the chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria in 236 BCE. Achievement: The Sieve of Eratosthenes: He produced a reliable method in discovering prime numbers, which is still important in modern mathematics.  First time realized that Earth is a sphere and calculate its diameter with a good accuracy. Invented Geography and the first person to explain the annual flood of River Nile. Wrote Poems and works on astronomy, theatre, and ethics The Sieve of Eratosthenes: Eratosthenes invented a way to find the prime numbers, which are the numbers with no factors but 1 and themselves. The method works this way: First, target a number that you want to check, like 110 for example, then write d...
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