NATS 1740 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Shadow Falls, Orbital Period, Astronomical Object

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1740
• Professor: Tatiana Paulin

Document Summary

Taking the moon"s orbit down to the 1-to-10 billion scale model of the solar system, the sun is about the size of a large grapefruit, which means the entire orbit of the moon could fit inside it. Consider the fact that the sun is located 15 meters away on this scale, you realize that for practical purposes the sun"s ray"s all hit earth and the moon from the same direction. Understanding phases the sun and therefore is dark. Half of the moon is always facing the sun and therefore is bright, while the other half faces away from. As you look at the ball different positions in its orbit around your head, you see different combinations of its bright and dark faces. Synchronous rotation: the rotation of an object that always shows the same face to an object that it is orbiting because its rotation period and orbital period are equal.