Astro2110 – The Solar System

The five most important astronomical pioneers which we are studying in this course are Nicholas Copernicus (February 19, 1473 to May 24, 1543), Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 to January 8, 1642), Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 to November 15, 1630), Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 to March 20, 1727) and Tycho Brahe (December 14, 1546 to October 24, 1601). Galileo and Kepler were contemporaries from 1571 to 1630, while Galileo and Tycho Brahe were contemporaries from 1546 to 1601. Kepler and Tycho Brahe were contemporaries from 1571 to 1601. All of these men made tremendous contributions to astronomy and the sciences as a whole. In this post I will focus on Newton and his chronological context specifically, but all of them lead interesting lives and left glorious achievements behind them.

Newton specifically was of paramount importance to not only astronomy, but all the sciences. His two most crucial developments were: calculus and the foundations of modern physics. Calculus is used rather extensively in all “hard” sciences, and especially astronomy, in which verifications and formulations of overarching theories require extensive calculus-based proofs. Secondly, Newton’s “foundational” work in physics is often expressed in his three laws (which, of course, do not exhaustively summarize Newton’s contributions to the field). In his famous three laws, Newton essentially expressed that net forces (the sums of all forces acting upon objects) and are necessary to make changes in an object’s momentum, that force strength equals the mass times of an object times the acceleration applied and finally that all forces have opposing “reaction” forces with equal magnitude but opposite direction. Other Newtonian conceptions have proven extremely durable. Many of Newton’s discoveries uprooted thousands of years of cosmological thought, and some have proven exceptionally durable.

One notable event in Newton’s lifetime (and country) was the Great Fire of London, which occurred in 1666, when a young Newton was only 23 years old. Although the Great Fire of London was not astronomical in nature, it caused damage of an absolutely astronomical nature. The fire burned significant parts of Central London, destroying national architecture and infrastructure, including the famous St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Another notable event during Newton’s lifetime was the Great Northern War between a coalition headed by the Russian Tsardom against the Swedish Empire. Russia and its coalition allies successfully toppled the previously unrivaled Kingdom of Sweden in Northern Europe. The war lasted from 1700 until 1721, which was only two years prior to Newton’s death.

One of Newton’s famous contemporaries was Charles XII of Sweden, who was a belligerent (and King of Sweden) for much of the Great Northern War. Being only 36 at the time of his death in 1718, he won several “upset” victories (he proved himself a highly capable military commander) against his coalition opposition. He eventually succumbed during the Siege of Fredriksten.

I happened to know much of the general context of Newton’s lifetime and events due to reading I’ve done over the years, but what surprised me was just how prevalent astronomy was during Newton’s lifetime. When I was looking for contemporary figures (of Newton) to mention, I hit a wall twice in a row with Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke (they both did rather substantial astronomical work which I didn’t know about). In these times, it seems that many people were polymaths!