Exam 4: Origins of Modern Astronomy

What tool did Galileo use to prove that the Moon was not perfect?

What was the evidence that ancient astronomers used to conclude that Earth did not move?

The most important idea in Copernicus' De Revolutionibus was placing the _______________ at the center of the Universe.

Explain the differences between a hypothesis, theory and a natural law.

Kepler's first law of planetary motion defied what long-held belief with ancient astronomers?

Most Greek philosophers believed in a geocentric Universe.

_______________'s laws have been used for almost four centuries as a true description of orbital motion.

The Inquisition condemned Galileo for heresy in 1616.

What part of the Copernican model was incorrect?

Why did Copernicus hesitate to consider alternatives to the Ptolemaic Universe?

Which model did Galileo disprove by discovering the transit of Venus?

Ancient astronomers often had difficulty explaining _____, the occasional westward motion of the planets.

Which book was authored by Copernicus that explained the Sun as the center of a planetary system?

What was Eratosthenes's mathematical contribution to the history of astronomy, even though it was incorrect?

Which planet did Galileo observe go through a complete set of phases, thus proving the Ptolemaic model wrong?

Galileo's discovery of Saturn's moons proved that Earth, too, could move and still keep its satellite.

A circle is an ellipse with an eccentricity of ____.

Though their contributions to astronomy were different, Galileo and Copernicus were astronomers during the same time period.

Eudoxus of Cnidus (408-355 BCE), a student of Plato's, applied the principle of heliocentric motion to produce a mathematical description of the motions of the Universe.

The 99 years that revolutionized Astronomy ended with whose death?