Letters of Intent received in 2016
LoI 2018-1902
Focus Meeting (GA): KEPLER'S THIRD LAW: HISTORY AND SCIENTIFIC LEGACY
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Date:
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20 August 2018 to 21 August 2018 |
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Category:
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Focus meetings (GA)
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Location:
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Vienna, Austria
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Contact:
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Terence Mahoney (tjm@iac.es) |
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Coordinating division:
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Division C Education, Outreach and Heritage |
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Other divisions:
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Co-Chairs of SOC:
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T. J. Mahoney (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) |
| J. V. Field (Birkbeck, University of London) |
| A. E. L. Davis (University College London) |
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Co-Chairs of LOC:
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T. J. Mahoney (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) |
| J. V. Field (Birkbeck, University of London) |
| A. E. L. Davis (University College London) |
Topics
1. 400th anniversary of discovery of Kepler's 3rd law
2. Kepler's quest for the harmony of the world
3. Extension of the Third Law to the Jovian system
4. Newton's reformulation of Kepler's third law
5. From harmony to dynamic resonance
6. Exoplanets and Kepler's third law
7. The Kepler Mission: the Third Law in action
Rationale
'KEPLER'S THIRD LAW: HISTORY AND SCIENTIFIC LEGACY'
The Johannes Kepler Working Group (JKWG), after its successful and well-received Special Session 'Marking the 400th Anniversary of Kepler's Astronomia nova' at the Rio de Janeiro, take this opportunity to suggest a Focus Meeting for the 2018 Vienna GA dedicated to celebrating the 400th anniversary of Kepler's Third Law of planetary motion in 1618 (the law was published a year later in Harmonice mundi). Kepler's laws of planetary motion are the bedrock of modern astronomy and the JKWG feel that a commemmoration of the Third Law at the Vienna GA would, in combination with the previous special session in Rio, form a fitting acknowledgement of Kepler's monumental achievements in astronomy.
Invited historians will outline the context in which Kepler saw his third law (as part of a wider quest to find the harmony of the world) and his struggle to elucidate the law, which he saw as his crowning achievement. Kepler's investigations into the harmonic relations among the planets is nowadays couched in terms o dynamical resonances. Kepler himself was able to apply his third law not only to the primary planets but also to the Jovian satellites. The three laws of planetary motion are among the very few instances of a major discovery in physical science that can be successfully merged into a later, more comprehensive set of laws (in this case, Newton's theory of gravitation).
In the same way that Kepler's used his third law to establish the scale of the Solar System, so today's astronomers use the same law to establish the orbital radii of exoplanet orbits about their host stars. We would welcome talks on this topic, together with contributions from those currently mining the huge Kepler mission databate.
The meeting, we feel, would bring together a serious historical treatment of the Third Law that would be usefully complemented by present-day applications of this important law.