The Story of Astronomy

390 Pages·1995·7.192 MB·English

by  Lloyd Motz, Jefferson Hane Weaver (auth.)

THESTORYOF
ASTRONOMY
THESTORYOF
ASTRONOMY
LloydMotz
and
Jefferson Hane Weaver
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
On file
ISBN 978-0-306-45090-7 ISBN 978-1-4899-6309-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-6309-3
© 1995 Lloyd Motz and Jefferson Hane Weaver
Originally published by Plenum Press in 1995.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995
109 8 765 4 3 2 1
All righ ts reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Preface
Of all the scientific disciplines Astronomy stands out as the all-en
compassing one in that all the other sciences grew out of astronomy
and are still influenced by it. A his tory of astronomy, to be com
plete, should trace these interscience relationships to some extent,
but the story of astronomy is not subject to these constraints. By
the very designation as a "story," this book was designed, and so
written, to delineate the high points of astronomy and to trace the
evolution of the great astronomical ideas from their birth as pure
speculations in the minds of the great astronomers of the past to
their present fully developed and fully accepted state.
This, of course, entails a fuller discussion of the astronomers
themselves than one might find in a history of astronomy or in a
straightforward treatise in astronomy. We have emphasized this
phase of the story of astronomy in this book. This has been very
fmitful and revealed the intimate relationship among the sciences:
particularly astronomy, physics, and mathematics.
One can hardly speak of Kepler, Galileo, or Newton without
describing their holistic approaches to astronomy. Thus Galileo
considered himself a mathematician who speculated all phases of
nature and Newton was the great polymath who contributed to
all phases of mathematics, astronomy, and physics, seeking in each
of these disciplines the theoretical bridges to the others, and the
great nineteenth century mathematician earl Friedrich Gauss
greatly enriched astronomy by applying his great mathematical
skill to the solution of complex astronomical problems. And so it
went, culminating in Einstein's great theoretical discoveries of the
photon and the theory of relativity that ushered in our current
rational approach to cosmology.
v
vi PREFACE
Our concern in writing this book was to see how dose we
could come to this ideal and to present to the reader one of the
most exciting stories in the history of civilization. We hope that we
have succeeded.
Lloyd Motz
Jefferson Hane Weaver
Contents
CHAPTER 1 The Origins of Astronomy 1
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Cosmologies 13
CHAPTER 3 The Greek Philosophers and the Early Greek
Astronomers 21
CHAPTER 4 From Aristarchus to Ptolemy: The Birth of
Accurate Observational Astronomy 39
CHAPTER 5 The Revival of European Astronomy 57
CHAPTER 6 Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler 69
CHAPTER 7 Galileo, the Astronomical Telescope, and the
Beginning of Modem Astronomy 89
CHAPTER 8 The Newtonian Era 107
CHAPTER 9 The Rise of Modem Astronomy 129
CHAPTER 10 Post-Newtonian Astronomy 143
CHAPTER 11 The Beginning of the New Age of Astronomy:
Beyond the Solar System 159
CHAPTER 12 Astronomy as a Branch of Physics 185
CHAPTER 13 The New Physics and Its Impact on
Astronomy 205
vii
vüi CONTENTS
CHAPfER 14 Relativity and Astronomy 233
CHAPTER 15 The Origin and Development of
Astrophysics 257
CHAPTER 16 Stellar Evolution and the Beginning of Galactic
Astronomy 279
CHAPTER 17 Beyond the Stars: The Galaxies 309
CHAPTER 18 Cosmology 331
Epilogue 353
Bibliography 361
Index 363
THESTORYOF
ASTRONOMY
CHAPTER 1
The Origins of Astronomy
lf I had been present at the creation, I would have given some useful
hints for the better arrangement of the universe.
-ALFONSO 1HE WISE, KING OF CASTILE
Astronomy, as an orderly pursuit of knowledge about the heavenly
bodies and the universe, did not begin in one moment at some
particular epoch in a single society. Every ancient society had its
own concept of the universe (cosmology) and of humanity's rela
tionship to the universe. In most cases, these concepts were cer
tainly molded by three forces: theology (religion), nature (climate,
floods, winds, natural disasters), and the assumed influence of the
stars and planets on the fortunes and fate of people and their so
cieties (astrology).
Because theology deals with the creation of the universe and
everything in it, the various religions were quite naturally the pre
cursors of the ancient astronomies. To the ancients the apparent di
vision of their universe into water, land, and sky pointed to a
creator or creators who could dweIl primarily in the sky. The study
of the sky became an important phase of religion around the world.
The astronomy that stemmed from these studies was, of course,
extremely primitive. Gods were believed by many ancient societies
to inhabit not only the heavens but also the highest mountains and
the deepest oceans.
We can see the profound influence of religion on the develop
ment of astronomy most clearly when we consider that from the
time of the Babyionians to the Roman era, astronomical knowledge
and the management of the calendar were confined to the priest
hood in most cultures. The Babyionians believed the heavens, the
dwellings of the gods, was a "solid vault" with its foundations sup
ported by the oceans and that the earth was a huge island at the
1