Introduction to
Astronomy
Chapter 1
The study of celestial objects. These include moons,
What do we planets, stars, nebulas, and galaxies.
• Requires observations of distance objects
study in more than lab experiments
Astronomy? • We can build ideas or models to help us
understand them
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From the beginnings of modern human experiences, the nightly theater of stars, the
Moon, and planets invites us to ask enduring questions such as:
• Who are we?
• What are we?
• How did we get here?
We view ourselves as part of the universe. The universe is the total of space, time,
matter, and energy.
Numbers in Astronomy
When we talk about a measurement or value of something,
we list a number and a unit:
● My cat, Mano, is seven years old.
● She weighs 10 pounds.
● Yesterday, she chased 2 bugs.
Without units, some things make sense, but some don’t…
● My cat, Mano, is seven.
● She weighs 10.
● Yesterday, she chased 2. Two what?!
Numbers in
Numbers in Astronomy
Astronomy
Distances in astronomy may be in:
• Kilometers (km)
• Astronomical Units (AU)
• Light-years (ly)
The Astronomical Unit
Numbers in Astronomy
One common unit of size in astronomy is called the
astronomical unit (AU). This is the average distance from the
Sun to the Earth. It is given as 1 AU = 1.5 X 1011 meters.
For larger distances, we use the distance that light travels in
one year. This is called a light year (ly). 1ly = 9.5 X 1015 meters.
Astronomers also use the Parsec (pc) for much larger
distances. 1 Parsec = 3.26 light years.
Numbers and Human Time
Numbers in Astronomy
The numbers and scales used in astronomy are quite large
compared to our daily experiences.
• The diameter of the Earth: 12,756 kilometers
• The distance between the Earth and the Moon:
384,400 kilometers
• The distance between Earth and Sun:
149,597,871 kilometers
• Numbers must be expressed in scientific notation
• 1 AU = 1.5 × 108 𝑘𝑚
Scientific Notation
• To deal with large numbers, we use a special notation
called scientific notation.
• These numbers consist of two parts:
• a value between 1.0 and 10 including the value of 1.0
• a power of 10 multiplier.
• For example, 5 billion years which is 5,000,000,000 is
written as 5.0 × 109 years
• We can express the number 0.005 as 5.0 × 10−3 in
scientific notation.
Converting to Scientific Notation
1. Put the decimal after the first significant digit
2. Indicate how many places the decimal moved by the
power of 10
• If moved to the left, the exponent will be a positive number
• If moved to the right, the exponent will be a negative
number
A Sense of Magnitude
• Humans - In terms of scale, have an
average height between 1 and 2 meters.
The length is approximately 100 meters.
• Planets – These come in two general types:
• Small spheres of rock (for example Earth). The
length is approximately 107 meters.
• Large spheres of gas (for example Jupiter)
often have a rocky core. The length is
approximately 108 meters.
• Stars – These are balls of gas that produce
energy in their cores through nuclear fusion (for
example, our Sun). The length is approximately
109 meters.
• However, stars can range from 100 times smaller to
1,000 times larger than the Sun.
• Planetary Systems – These are composed of a
star and the planets that orbit it. (for example,
our Sun and eight planets). There are billions of
planetary systems in our galaxy. The length is
approximately 1013 meters.
• Galaxies – These are called “cities of Suns” and
are collections of stars. (for example, our galaxy,
the Milky Way, contains 400 billion stars. The
length is approximately 1021 meters. The
typical length between stars is 1016 meters.
• Galaxy Clusters – These are galaxies that form
together in groups on a large scale. A typical
galaxy cluster can have 1,000 galaxies in it.
The length is approximately 1023 meters.
• Superclusters – These are a collection of
galaxy clusters. The length is approximately
1024 meters.
• Superclusters are still forming as gravity in these
structures continues to pull matter together.
Smaller Units
Some Comments on the Microscopic World
• We start with single celled organisms. These represent the
beginning of life. An example is an amoeba. Its length is about
0.2 millimeters. The length is approximately 10−4 meters.
• Dust particles – These are the smallest bits of solid matter. This
is the starting point for building planets. The length is
approximately 10−6 meters. Each dust particle is composed of
billions of atoms.
• Atoms- These are the fundamental building blocks of all normal
matter in the universe. An example is a hydrogen atom. The
length is approximately 10−10 meters.
• Subatomic particles – These are the parts of the atom: protons,
electrons and neutrons. The length is approximately
10−15 meters.