The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life: The Search for Our Cosmic Roots PDF
Preview The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life: The Search for Our Cosmic Roots
Pekka Teerikorpi · Mauri Valtonen · Kirsi Lehto · Harry Lehto · Gene Byrd · Arthur Chernin The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life The Search for Our Cosmic Roots Second Edition The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life Pekka Teerikorpi Mauri Valtonen (cid:129) (cid:129) Kirsi Lehto Harry Lehto (cid:129) (cid:129) Gene Byrd Arthur Chernin (cid:129) The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life The Search for Our Cosmic Roots Second Edition 123 Pekka Teerikorpi Mauri Valtonen Department ofPhysics andAstronomy Department ofPhysics andAstronomy University of Turku University of Turku Turku,Finland Turku,Finland Kirsi Lehto Harry Lehto Department ofBiology Department ofPhysics andAstronomy University of Turku University of Turku Turku,Finland Turku,Finland Gene Byrd ArthurChernin Department ofPhysics andAstronomy Sternberg Astronomical Institute TheUniversity of Alabama Moscow University Tuscaloosa,AL, USA Moscow,Russia ISBN978-3-030-17920-5 ISBN978-3-030-17921-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17921-2 1stedition:©2009SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,LLC 2ndedition:©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. Covercredit:ESO/Y.BeletskyhorseheadnebulacreditNASA/ESA/HST ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Preface to the Second Edition After our book was first published in 2008, many new discoveries have widened anddeepened ourknowledgeofthephysicaluniverse,boththemacroscopicrealm of planets, stars, and galaxies and the microscopic world of atoms and elementary particles. Some example numbers illustrate this development. In 2008, about 300 exoplanets around other stars were known. Now, the number is almost 4000. The Hipparcos space telescope had measured some 100,000 parallaxes (distances) for stars in the Milky Way, while now its successor Gaia has collected more accurate data formore thanonebillion stars, usedforstudies ofthestructureandhistory of our Galaxy. There have been also important single discoveries, quickly highly esteemed by the Nobel Committee. For example, in 2017, the Nobel Prize in physics was awardedforthefirstdirectdetectionofgravitationalwavesfromdeepspace,andin 2013 for the theoretical work on the Higgs boson, which had led to its actual detection one year earlier. Also,we havecome toknow better theconditionsonother planets inourSolar System andtheproperties ofexoplanets increasingly discovered around stars. This has given, together with new discoveries and ideas on the phenomenon of life and itsorigin,exobiologymorematerialinitsfascinatingquestfortheroleoflifeinthe universe. Thechainsofscientistsandthinkersgobacktoverydistanttimes,indeedto“our forefathers to whom we owe everything and about whom we know nothing,” as said the French eighteenth-century mathematician d’Alembert. Our book was writtenwithahistoricalperspective,asdescribedinthePrefacetotheFirstEdition, and here, we have further emphasized this aspect by adding some more bits of interesting information about the scientists (about whom “we know something”) whoseeffortshaveledtoimportantdiscoveriesduringthelastseveralcenturies.We have pointed out lines of scientists leading to the present knowledge. It is fasci- nating how science advances from generation to generation in such a special way that the past scientists could not know where his or her achievement actually will lead after many years. We are, of course, in the same position. v vi PrefacetotheSecondEdition One hundred years have passed since the International Astronomical Union (IAU)wasfoundedjustaftertheGreatWar,inBrussels,Belgium,in1919.Initially, there were seven member states, which number has now grown to about 80, while there are some 13,500 member astronomers, professional researchers of the uni- verse. The aim of the IAU has been not only to advance astronomical research in the world but also to promote knowledge and understanding of astronomy among general public. In this special year, the IAU celebrates the past century of astro- nomical achievements and makes it with the central theme Under One Sky. Different activities and events are arranged. With our updated book, we wish to make a contribution to this common goal to spread knowledge of astronomy and other physical sciences among wide circles of people, both laymen and students. InanattacheddatafiletoaResearchgateentry,thereareover200questionslabeled according to chapter making the book very useful for an in-class or online course. Theyarenumberedwithineachchapter.Answersaregivenimmediatelybeloweach questionlabeled according the chapter,the questionnumber inthe chapterand the letterofthecorrectanswer.Hereisthelinkforthefile, https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/331154207_EvolvingUnivMultChoice_w_Answerspdf. For remarks, questions,orrequests,[email protected],seehttps:// www.researchgate.net/profile/Gene_Byrd2. We are grateful to Hannah Kaufman, Ramon Khanna, and Neil Scriven, of Springer-Verlag, for very good collaboration and patience during the preparation processofthissecondedition. Similarly,wethankKavithanchalyThirumoorthyof Scientific Publishing Services, Chennai - India. August 2019 The authors Preface to the First Edition A golden thread runs through the history of humanity—even in prehistory, when writing was unknown, there was the need to understand, that restless spark within us.Wehavewrittenthisbookforanybodyinterestedinthequestofknowledge—at least to the extent that he or she wishes to appreciate the main results of science, which has changed our way of thinking about the world. Born in a society filled withapplications ofscienceandengineering,weoftentakeallthisforgrantedand donotstoptothinkofthesteps,invisibleastheyareinthedistantpast,thathadto be taken before our world emerged. Wetakeourreadersonavoyagefromthetreasuresofthepasttothefrontiersof modern science which includes physics, cosmology, and astrobiology. We divide the presentation into four parts, which approximately correspond to the major waves of scientific exploration, past to present. Thefirstwave,TheWideningWorldViewaroseinAntiquityandre-emergingat theendoftheMiddleAges,wasbasedonvisualobservationsoftheworld.Quitea lot was accomplished with the naked eye, together with simple devices and rea- soning. Both Ptolemy and Copernicus belonged to this great era. Around 1600, when the new sun-centered worldview was advancing and the telescope was invented, Galileo followed by many others, could see deeper and deeper in space. Thisled,amongotherthings,todeterminationofthedistancetotheSunandtothe other stars faintly glimmering in the sky. In the twentieth century, remote galaxies were reached and observing windows other than optical were opened to astron- omers. A parallel wave we call Physical Laws of Nature was powered by the experimental/mathematical approach to physics, started by Galileo as well, and accelerated by the work of Newton toward modern physics. This wave took us to the realm of atoms and elementary particles, and together with the parallel astro- nomical work finally led to the modern wave of exploration, the Universe, describingtheearliestprocessesinitsoriginandexpansionfromasuperdensestate 14 billion years ago to our universe of galaxies today. In our own times a new and fascinating wave of exploration of the universe beganwhichwecallLifeintheUniverse,whenhumanitylearnedtolaunchdevices and even people beyond the Earth. One is reminded of the words by Tsiolkovski vii viii PrefacetotheFirstEdition “Theplanetisthecradleofintelligence,butyoudonotliveinthecraddleforever”. UptonowonlytheMoonhasbeenvisitedbyhumans,butnumerousspaceprobes have delivered new and impressive information about the planets, asteroids, and comets of the Solar System, and about the Sun itself. Astrobiology, the new interdisciplinaryfieldofscience,hasthusreceivedastrongboostforward,asnowit has become possible to map in detail the wide range of conditions inside our planetary system and to see where life might have originated in addition to the Earth. At the same time, thanks to the advancements in telescopes, astronomers have been able to discover other planetary systems and the count of known extrasolar planets now reaches hundreds. These developments have given new perspectives for the role of life and the human race in the universe. Two decades ago two of the authors (P. T., M. V.) wrote a book in Finnish, published by the Ursa Astronomical Association (“Cosmos—the developing view oftheworld”).Thepresentbookowestothatoneforitsgeneraloutlineandspirit, but its contents reflect the team of writers with diverse specialties and the many new, even revolutionary developments in cosmology, space research, and astrobi- ology during these years. Inwritingthetext,wehavehadinmindawiderangeofaudience,fromlaymen interested in science to students of both humanities and sciences in universities. Even professional scientists in physics or astronomy may find the historical parts and astrobiological excursions interesting, while for biologists it may be useful to refreshtheirknowledgeofothersciences.Wewriteonanaccessiblelevel,avoiding mathematics and detailed explanations. But the fact remains that some subjects of modern science, in physics, cosmology, and biology as well, are inherently com- plicated and difficult to describe “simply”. We have either skipped such topics or have given descriptions requiring some attentive reading. We conclude some chapterswithbriefexcursionstointeresting“frontier”topics,inordertoconveythe reader a feeling of what kinds of things fascinate scientists today (strange phe- nomena of the microworld, many dimensional worlds, cosmological dark energy, the origin of life, the greenhouse effect, …). Finally, teachers may find this book useful for undergraduate college courses, particularly those who recognize that it is now difficult to divide science into tra- ditionalsubjectsorthosewhorecognizetheconnectionsbetweenhumanitiesandthe sciences. To this purpose we provide a Web site document with a listing of inter- esting Web sites covering the parts of the text plus a collection of short multiple choice questions divided by subject: http://www.bama.ua.edu/ (cid:1)byrd/Evolving_ UniverseWeb.doc. [Forupdatedinformationonthispoint,seePrefacetotheSecond Edition.] Wewishtothankseveralpersonswhohavereadpartsofthemanuscriptorhave in other ways helped this project, e.g., by allowing the use of illustrations. We mention YuriBaryshev,AndrejBerdyugin,SvetlanaBerdyugina,AnthonyFairall, Andrea Gabrielli, Ismael Gognard, Jennifer Goldman, Sethanne Howard, Pekka Heinämäki, Janne Holopainen, Tom Jarrett, Andreas Jaunsen, Michael Joyce, Hannu Karttunen, Perttu Keinänen, Bill Keel, Tapio Korhonen, John Lanoue, Jean-Pierre Luminet, Seppo Mattila, Chris Mihos, Seppo Mikkola, Markku PrefacetotheFirstEdition ix Muinonen, Sami Niemi, Kari Nilsson, Pasi Nurmi, Jyri Näränen, Georges Paturel, Saul Perlmutter, Luciano Pietronero, Laura Portinari, Travis Rector, Rami Rekola, Shane D. Ross, John Ruhl, Allan Sandage, Markku Sarimaa, Aimo Sillanpää, Francesco Sylos Labini, Leo Takalo, Gilles Theureau, Malene Thyssen, Luc Viatour, Iiro Vilja, and Petri Väisänen. WearegratefultoHarryBlom,ChristopherCoughlin,andJennyWolkowickiof Springer-Verlag, New York for very good collaboration and patience during the preparation process of this book. Similarly, we thank Prasad Sethumadhavan of SPi Technologies India. August 2008 The authors Contents List of Tables.. .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... xix Part I The Widening World View 1 When Science Was Born. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Prehistoric Astronomy: Science of the Horizon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Writing on the Sky Vault and on Clay Tablets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Constellations and Horoscope Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Ionian Way of Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Pythagoras Invents the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2 Science in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Anaxagoras Makes the Celestial Bodies Mundane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Atomic Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Plato Establishes the Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Universe of Aristotle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 3 Planetary Spheres and the Size of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Theory of Concentric Spheres. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Epicycle Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Hipparchus Discovers the Slow Wobbling of the Celestial Sphere. . . . 29 Ptolemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The Size of the Spherical Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Aristarchus of Samos—The Copernicus of Antiquity Enlarging the Universe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 On the Road Toward the Solar System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 4 Medieval Cosmology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Treasures of the Past. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 The Cosmology of the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Scholasticism: The Medieval Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 xi
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