Astronomy: The Solar System and Beyond

507 Pages·2010·61.82 MB·English

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The Dark Age when
the big bang had
Imagine the history of the universe cooled and before
as a time line down the middle of a stars began to shine
football field. The story begins on
one goal line as the big bang fills Formation of the
the universe with energy and a first galaxies
fantastically hot gas of hydrogen well under way
and helium. Follow the history The Age of Quasars: Galaxies,
from the first inch of the time including our home galaxy, actively
line as the expansion of the forming, colliding, and merging
universe cools the gas and it
begins to form galaxies and
stars.
The expansion of the
universe stops slowing
and begins accelerating.
Recombination: A few hundred
thousand years after the big
bang, the gas becomes
transparent to light.
i
r
A typical galaxy contains 100 billion stars.
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
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Goal line
One-inch line

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The sun is just a star. a
Nuclear reactions First hominids
make energy.
• •
Earth Moon
(not to scale)
Ten thousand years ago, on
the 0.0026 inch line, humans
begin building cities and
modern civilization begins.
Formation of the sun and
planets from a cloud of
interstellar gas and dust
Life begins in
Earth’s oceans.
Cambrian explosion 540 million
years ago: Life in Earth’s oceans
becomes complex.
Life first emerges
onto the land.
Over billions of years, generation
Age of Dinosaurs
after generation of stars have lived
and died, cooking the hydrogen
and helium of the big bang into the
atoms of which you are made. Study
the last inch of the time line to see
the rise of human ancestors and the
origin of civilization. Only in the last
flicker of a moment on the time line
have astronomers begun to
understand the story.
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Goal line
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A bout the Authors
Mike Seeds has been a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Franklin and Mar-
shall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since 1970. In 1989 he received F&M Col-
lege’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Mike’s love for the history of as-
tronomy led him to create upper-level courses on “Archaeoastronomy” and
“Changing Concepts of the Universe.” His research interests focus on variable stars
and the automation of astronomical telescopes. Mike is the author of Horizons:
Exploring the Universe, Eleventh Edition (2010); Astronomy: The Solar System and
Beyond, Sixth Edition (2010); Foundations of Astronomy, Tenth Edition (2008);
and Perspectives on Astronomy (2008), all published by Brooks/Cole. He was
Senior Consultant for creation of the 20-episode telecourse accompanying his book
Horizons: Exploring the Universe.
Dana Backman taught in the physics and astronomy department at Franklin and
Marshall College in Lancaster,0 Pennsylvania, from 1991 until 2003. He invented
and taught a course titled “Life in the Universe” in F&M’s interdisciplinary Founda-
tions program. Dana now teaches introductory astronomy, astrobiology, and cos-
mology courses in Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. His research
interests focus on infrared observations of planet formation, models of debris disks
around nearby stars, and evolution of the solar system’s Kuiper Belt. Dana is the
author of the fi rst edition of Perspectives on Astronomy (2008); Horizons: Exploring
the Universe, Eleventh Edition (2010); and Astronomy: The Solar System and Be-
yond, Sixth Edition (2010), all published by Brooks/Cole. He is with the SETI Insti-
tute in Mountain View, California, in charge of the education and public outreach
program for SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) at NASA’s
Ames Research Center.
S I X T H E D I T I O N
6
Michael A. Seeds
Joseph R. Grundy Observatory
Franklin and Marshall College
Dana E. Backman
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared
Astronomy (SOFIA)
SETI Institute
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Astronomy: The Solar System and Beyond, © 2010, 2008 Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning
Sixth Edition
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Michael A. Seeds, Dana E. Backman
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Part 1: The Sky
CHAPTER 1 HERE AND NOW 1
CHAPTER 2 THE SKY 10
CHAPTER 3 CYCLES OF THE SKY 21
CHAPTER 4 THE ORIGIN OF MODERN ASTRONOMY 42
CHAPTER 5 LIGHT AND TELESCOPES 69
CHAPTER 6 ATOMS AND STARLIGHT 94
Part 2: The Solar System
CHAPTER 7 THE SOLAR SYSTEM: AN OVERVIEW 108
CHAPTER 8 THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS 131
CHAPTER 9 THE JOVIAN PLANETS, PLUTO, AND THE KUIPER BELT 166
CHAPTER 10 METEORITES, ASTEROIDS, AND COMETS 195
Part 3: The Stars
CHAPTER 11 THE SUN 214
CHAPTER 12 THE FAMILY OF STARS 236
CHAPTER 13 THE FORMATION AND STRUCTURE OF STARS 266
CHAPTER 14 THE DEATHS OF STARS 292
CHAPTER 15 NEUTRON STARS AND BLACK HOLES 318
Part 4: The Universe of Galaxies
CHAPTER 16 THE MILKY WAY GALAXY 341
CHAPTER 17 GALAXIES 367
CHAPTER 18 ACTIVE GALAXIES AND SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES 390
CHAPTER 19 MODERN COSMOLOGY 403
Part 5: Life
CHAPTER 20 LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS 428
Part 1: The Sky
Chapter 1 | Here and Now 1
1-1 WHERE ARE WE? 2
1-2 WHEN IS NOW? 6
Reasoning with Numbers
1-3 WHY STUDY ASTRONOMY? 7
2-1 Magnitudes 15
Chapter 2 | The Sky 10 3-1 The Small-Angle Formula 34
2-1 THE STARS 11 4-1 Circular Velocity 61
2-2 THE SKY AND ITS MOTION 14 5-1 The Powers of a Telescope 77
6-1 Blackbody Radiation 100
Chapter 3 | Cycles of the Sky 21
6-2 The Doppler Formula 105
3-1 CYCLES OF THE SUN 22
3-2 ASTRONOMICAL INFLUENCES ON EARTH’S CLIMATE 26
3-3 THE CYCLES OF THE MOON 29
How Do We Know?
Chapter 4 | The Origin of Modern Astronomy 42
4-1 CLASSICAL ASTRONOMY 43
1-1 The So-Called Scientifi c Method 7
4-2 COPERNICUS 46
2-1 Scientifi c Models 18
4-3 PLANETARY MOTION 49
3-1 Pseudoscience 26
4-4 GALILEO GALILEI 55
3-2 Evidence as the Foundation of Science 28
4-5 ISAAC NEWTON AND ORBITAL MOTION 58
3-3 Scientifi c Arguments 29
Chapter 5 | Light and Telescopes 69 4-1 Scientifi c Revolutions 49
5-1 RADIATION: INFORMATION FROM SPACE 70 4-2 Hypothesis, Theory, and Law 53
5-2 OPTICAL TELESCOPES 72 4-3 Cause and Effect 60
5-3 SPECIAL INSTRUMENTS 84 4-4 Testing a Theory by Prediction 65
5-4 RADIO TELESCOPES 86 5-1 Resolution and Precision 76
5-5 ASTRONOMY FROM SPACE 89 6-1 Quantum Mechanics 97
Chapter 6 | Atoms and Starlight 94
6-1 ATOMS 95
6-2 THE INTERACTION OF LIGHT AND MATTER 97 Concept Art Portfolios
6-3 INFORMATION FROM SPECTRA 101
The Sky Around You 16–17
The Cycle of the Seasons 24–25
The Phases of the Moon 32–33
The Ancient Universe 44–45
Orbiting Earth 62–63
Modern Astronomical Telescopes 80–81
Atomic Spectra 102–103