1. Curtis, Shapley and Hubble

2.  Show that peoples views and ideas about space have changed over time  Consider how we know so much about space when it is so big and things are so far away?  Explain how/why differing scientific views become an accepted scientific theory.

3.  Answer the questions on the worksheet in as much detail as possible

4. “The Earth is at the Centre of the Universe; Sun, moon, planets and stars orbit the Earth”

5. “Sun is at the centre of the Universe” He had observed the movement of the planets - this backed up his theory! BUT the Church disagreed They believed that God must have put the Earth at the centre I don’t think so!!!

6.  “Not everything orbits the Earth”  He observed 4 of Jupiter’s moons and he noticed that they orbited around Jupiter  He confirmed Copernicus’ view: not everything had to orbit the Earth!

7. Observed all the planets and developed laws to confirm that they all follow circular orbits This too agreed with Copernicus’ theory

8. He developed the ideas about gravitation that we use today He explained the positions and the orbits of the planets

10.  The development and technological advancement of the telescope…

11. Great Telescopes “You can see heaven from here” The Hubble Telescope (seen from the space shuttle Discovery)

12.  Who were Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley?  What were there differing views?  When did this debate happen?  Which view was correct?  And what role did Edwin Hubble play in all this?

13. The basic issue under debate was whether: the distant stars seen from Earth were relatively small and were part of our own Milky Way galaxy OR they were separate galaxies but appeared to be so small because they are so far away!

14.  In the Great Debate Shapley said that the Sun was not at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, and thought that the Milky Way galaxy contained the entire Universe.

15.  In the Great Debate Curtis argued that some of the small stars seen from Earth were in fact distant galaxies so far away that they were outside the Milky Way

16.  He settled the argument !  HOW?

17.  He settled the argument !  He identified stars in a separate galaxy (the Andromeda galaxy) and showed that the distance to this galaxy was far beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy  He used a huge 2.5m land based telescope on Mount Wilson (USA) to see this far!  In the 1920’s this was the largest telescope in the world (1oo inch)

19.  2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror!