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THE UNMOVING STARS GO UNIFORMLY WESTWARD COSMIC EXPANSION IS ACCELERATING THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL THE INTELLIGENCE IS UNIVERSE IS A SEARCH FOR A OURSELVES EXPANDING GRAVITY EXPLAINS S IN ALL THE MOTIONS OF DIRECTIONS THE PLANETS RIPPLES THROUGH SPACETIME T THE R ASTRONOMY O THE WAY TO N I FOUND THE THAT IT IS A BOOK O COMET, FOR STARS IS IT HAS BIG IDEAS SIMPLY EXPLAINED OPEN CHANGED M ITS PLACE FINALLY WE THE MOST TRUE PATH SHALL PLACE Y OF THE PLANET IS THE SUN HIMSELF AN ELLIPSE AT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE AN EXACT SOLUTION TO A SLOW PROCESS OF RELATIVITY STARS ARE ANNIHILATION PREDICTS FACTORIES FOR OF MATTER THE CHEMICAL BLACK HOLES ELEMENTS DK LONDON PRE-PRODUCTION PRODUCER First American Edition, 2017 Jacqueline Street-Elkayam Published in the United States by DK Publishing, 345 Hudson Street, SENIOR EDITOR New York, New York 10014 Victoria Heyworth-Dunne SENIOR PRODUCER Mandy Inness Copyright © 2017 US EDITOR Dorling Kindersley Limited DK, a Division of Penguin Margaret Parrish DK DELHI Random House LLC 17 18 19 20 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 SENIOR ART EDITORS JACKET DESIGNER 001—283974—Sep/2017 Gillian Andrews, Nicola Rodway Suhita Dharamjit All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under the MANAGING EDITOR EDITORIAL COORDINATOR copyright reserved above, no part of this Gareth Jones Priyanka Sharma publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or SENIOR MANAGING ART EDITOR SENIOR DTP DESIGNER transmitted, in any form, or by any means Lee Griffiths Harish Aggarwal (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. ART DIRECTOR MANAGING JACKETS EDITOR Karen Self Saloni Singh Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHING A catalog record for this book is available DIRECTOR produced for DK by from the Library of Congress. Liz Wheeler TALL TREE LTD. ISBN: 978-1-4654-6418-7 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR EDITORS DK books are available at special discounts Jonathan Metcalf Rob Colson, David John when purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, SENIOR JACKET DESIGNER DESIGN or educational use. For details, contact: Mark Cavanagh Ben Ruocco DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 [email protected] JACKET EDITOR ILLUSTRATIONS Claire Gell James Graham Printed in China A WORLD OF IDEAS: JACKETS DESIGN original styling by SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW DEVELOPMENT MANAGER STUDIO 8 Sophia MTT www.dk.com CONTRIBUTORS JACQUELINE MITTON, CONSULTANT EDITOR ROBERT DINWIDDIE Jacqueline Mitton is the author of more than 20 books Robert Dinwiddie is a science writer specializing in on astronomy, including books for children. She has been educational illustrated books on astronomy, cosmology, a contributor, editor, and consultant for many other books. earth science, and the history of science. He has written Becoming an astronomer was Jacqueline’s childhood or contributed to more than 50 books, including the DK ambition. She studied physics at Oxford University and titles Universe, Space, The Stars, Science, Ocean, Earth, then earned her Ph.D. at Cambridge, where she still lives. and Violent Earth. He lives in southwest London and enjoys travel, sailing, and stargazing. DAVID W. HUGHES PENNY JOHNSON David W. Hughes is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is an international Penny Johnson started out as an aeronautical engineer, authority on comets, asteroids, and the history of astronomy. working on military aircraft for 10 years, before becoming He has spent more than 40 years explaining the joys of a science teacher, and then a publisher producing science astronomy and physics to his students, and has published courses for schools. Penny has been a full-time educational well over 200 research papers, as well as books on the moon, writer for the last 15 years. the solar system, the universe, and the Star of Bethlehem. He was a co-investigator on the European Space Agency’s TOM JACKSON GIOTTO space mission to Halley's Comet and also on ESA’s Smart 1 mission to the moon. David has served on a host Tom Jackson is a science writer based in Bristol, UK. of space and astronomy committees, and has been a vice He has written about 150 books and contributed to many president of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the others, covering all kinds of subjects from fish to religion. British Astronomical Association. Tom writes for adults and children, mostly about science and technology, with a focus on the histories of the sciences. He has worked on several astronomy books, including collaborations with Brian May and Patrick Moore. 6 CONTENTS 10 INTRODUCTION 26 The unmoving stars go uniformly westward Earth’s rotation FROM MYTH 27 A little cloud in TO SCIENCE the night sky Mapping the galaxies 600 –1550 BCE CE 28 A new calendar for China The solar year 20 It is clear that Earth does not move 30 We have re-observed The geocentric model all of the stars in Ptolemy’s catalog 21 Earth revolves around the Improved instruments sun on the circumference of a circle 32 Finally we shall place the Early heliocentric model sun himself at the center of the universe 22 The equinoxes The Copernican model move over time 64 A perfectly circular spot Shifting stars centered on the sun THE TELESCOPE The transit of Venus 23 The moon’s brightness REVOLUTION is produced by the 65 New moons around Saturn radiance of the sun Observing Saturn’s rings 1550–1750 Theories about the moon 66 Gravity explains the 24 All matters useful to the motions of the planets theory of heavenly things 44 I noticed a new Gravitational theory Consolidating knowledge and unusual star The Tychonic model 74 I dare venture to foretell that the comet will return 48 Mira Ceti is a variable star again in the year 1758 A new kind of star Halley’s comet 50 The most true path of 78 These discoveries are the the planet is an ellipse most brilliant and useful Elliptical orbits of the century Stellar aberration 56 Our own eyes show us four stars traveling 79 A catalog of the around Jupiter southern sky Galileo’s telescope Mapping southern stars 7 100 A survey of the whole URANUS surface of the heavens TO NEPTUNE The southern hemisphere 1750–1850 102 An apparent movement of the stars Stellar parallax 84 I found that it is a comet, for it has changed its place 103 Sunspots appear in cycles Observing Uranus The surface of the sun 86 The brightness of the 104 A spiral form of star was altered arrangement was detected Variable stars Examining nebulae 118 Photographing the stars 87 Our Milky Way is the 106 The planet whose position Astrophotography dwelling, the nebulae you have pointed out are the cities actually exists 120 A precise measurement Messier objects The discovery of Neptune of the stars The star catalog 88 On the construction of the heavens THE RISE OF 122 Classifying the stars The Milky Way according to their ASTROPHYSICS spectra reveals their 90 Rocks fall from space age and size 1850–1915 Asteroids and meteorites The characteristics of stars 92 The mechanism 128 There are two kinds of the heavens 112 Sodium is to be found of red star Gravitational disturbances in the solar atmosphere Analyzing absorption lines The sun’s spectrum 94 I surmise that it could 129 Sunspots are magnetic be something better 113 Stars can be grouped The properties of sunspots than a comet by their spectra The discovery of Ceres Analyzing starlight 130 The key to a distance scale of the universe 114 Enormous masses Measuring the universe of luminous gas Properties of nebulae 138 Stars are giants or dwarfs 116 The sun’s yellow Refining star classification prominence differs from any terrestrial flame 140 Penetrating radiation The sun’s emissions is coming from space Cosmic rays 117 Mars is traversed by a dense network 141 A white hot star of channels that is too faint Mapping Mars’s surface Discovering white dwarfs 8 178 White dwarfs have 196 It took less than an hour a maximum mass to make the atomic nuclei The life cycles of stars The primeval atom 179 The radio universe 198 Stars are factories for Radio astronomy the chemical elements Nucleosynthesis 180 An explosive transition to a neutron star 200 Sites of star formation Supernovae Dense molecular clouds ATOMS, STARS, 182 The source of energy in AND GALAXIES stars is nuclear fusion NEW WINDOWS Energy generation 1915–1950 ON THE UNIVERSE 184 A reservoir of comets 1950–1975 exists beyond the planets 146 Time and space and The Kuiper belt gravitation have no separate existence 185 Some galaxies have active 206 A vast cloud surrounds from matter regions at their centers the solar system The theory of relativity Nuclei and radiation The Oort cloud 154 An exact solution 186 The match of lunar and 207 Comets are dirty snowballs to relativity predicts Earth material is too perfect The composition of comets black holes The origin of the moon Curves in spacetime 208 The way to the stars is open 188 Important new discoveries The launch of Sputnik 156 The spiral nebulae will be made with flying are stellar systems telescopes 210 The search for interstellar Spiral galaxies Space telescopes communications Radio telescopes 162 Stars are dominated by hydrogen and helium 212 Meteorites can vaporize Stellar composition on impact Investigating craters 164 Our galaxy is rotating The shape of the Milky Way 213 The sun rings like a bell The sun’s vibrations 166 A slow process of annihilation of matter 214 The data can best be Nuclear fusion within stars explained as X-rays from sources outside 168 A day without yesterday the solar system The birth of the universe Cosmic radiation 172 The universe is expanding 218 Brighter than a galaxy, in all directions but it looks like a star Beyond the Milky Way Quasars and black holes