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Spring 2025
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2025-05
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Donovan_Honors.pdf
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Before the year 1676, the speed of light was thought to be an unmeasurable, infinite quantity in
the field of physics and astronomy. It had been proposed briefly by Jean-Dominique Cassini that
it was a finite value, rejected, and then adopted once more by Ole Roemer from the same staff
while Cassini was at the Paris Observatory. The theory used by Roemer proved conducive, yet
not as accurate as if it had been recreated using modern knowledge and astronomical data. This
experiment aims to combine Ole Roemer’s theory with the astronomical technology of today to
determine the finitude of the speed of light. In order to fulfill this, observations are made using
both the open-source astronomy software Stellarium to take simulated data of 40 orbits of Io
around Jupiter as the Earth moves counterclockwise in its orbit around the Sun, and a SeeStar
S50 smart telescope to observe Io as it orbits around its planet in the months of December 2024,
March, and April 2025. As the Earth moves towards Jupiter, the observed orbits of Io become
shorter, due to the light reflected off the moon and its planet that’s coming towards us having a
decreasing distance it needs to travel. On the opposite side of Earth’s orbit, moving away from
Jupiter, the orbits of Io become longer due to the light needing to travel an increasing distance
from us as observers. This change in the orbit of Io proves that the speed of light is finite, as it
would remain unchanged should it be infinite.
Keywords: Astronomy, Io, Jupiter, Galileo Galilei, Jean-Dominique Cassini, Ole Roemer,
Stellarium, SeeStar S50
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