NATS 1745 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: James Clerk Maxwell, Christiaan Huygens, Parabolic Trajectory
15 Feb 2016
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Lecture 8: astronomy after newton (1642 - 1727) Christiaan huygens(1625 - 1695) was first to understand that saturn had a ring (1655)- see pdf: he also discovered saturn"s moon titan (biggest one) Cassini noticed dark band in rings gaps - 1676. Not until 1785- mathematician laplace several thin rings not a solid ring that orbited saturn. These are chunks of rocks, particles, ice and so on) Unlike other objects in the night sky: erratic, unpredictable, often symbolized with bad omens, sign of displeasure of gods, sign of war and death. Aristotle thought that comets were part of our atmosphere: they had to be located below the moons orbit, because they are always changing and not. Kepler thought comets move in straight lines. Galileo - thought comets were part of the atmosphere. 1680 comet viewed in 1680 astronomers accurately measured its position: calculation by newton: showed comets" orbits were either highly elliptical or the shape of a.
