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
The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life 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 123 Dr.PekkaTeerikorpi Dr.MauriValtonen UniversityofTurku UniversityofTurku DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy TuorlaObservatory TuorlaObservatory FI-21500Piikkio¨ FI-21500Piikkio¨ Finland Finland pekkatee@utu.fi mavalto@utu.fi Dr.KirsiLehto Dr.HarryLehto UniversityofTurku UniversityofTurku DepartmentofBiology DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy LaboratoryofPlantPhysiology TuorlaObservatory FI-20014Turku FI-21500Piikkio¨ Finland Finland klehto@utu.fi hlehto@utu.fi Dr.GeneByrd Dr.ArthurChernin UniversityofAlabama SternbergStateAstronomicalInstitute DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy UniversitetskiyProspect13 P.O.Box870324 Moscow TuscaloosaAL35487-0324 Russia119899 USA [email protected] [email protected] ISBN978-0-387-09533-2 e-ISBN978-0-387-09534-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008930766 (cid:1)c 2009SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,LLC Allrightsreserved.Thisworkmaynotbetranslatedorcopiedinwholeorinpartwithoutthewritten permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY10013,USA),exceptforbriefexcerptsinconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysis.Usein connectionwithanyformofinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware, orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdevelopedisforbidden. Theuseinthispublicationoftradenames,trademarks,servicemarks,andsimilarterms,eveniftheyare notidentifiedassuch,isnottobetakenasanexpressionofopinionastowhetherornottheyaresubject toproprietaryrights. Coverillustration: Printedonacid-freepaper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com Preface 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. We have written this book for anybody interested in the quest of knowledge – atleasttotheextentthatheorshewishestoappreciatethemainresultsofscience, which has changed our way of thinking about the world. Born in a society filled withapplicationsofscienceandengineering,weoftentakeallthisforgrantedand donotstoptothinkofthesteps,invisibleastheyareinthedistantpast,thathadto betakenbeforeourworldemerged. We take our readers on a voyage from the treasures of the past to the frontiers ofmodernsciencewhichincludesphysics,cosmology,andastrobiology.Wedivide thepresentationintofourparts,whichapproximatelycorrespondtothemajorwaves ofscientificexploration,pasttopresent. Thefirstwave,TheWideningWorldViewaroseinAntiquityandre-emergingat theendoftheMiddleAges,wasbasedonvisualobservationsoftheworld.Quitea lotwasaccomplishedwiththenakedeye,togetherwithsimpledevicesandreason- ing. 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. This led, among other things, to determination of the distance to the Sun and to the other stars faintly glimmering in the sky. In the twentieth century, remote galaxies were reached and observing windows other than optical were opened to astronomers. A parallel wave we call Physical Laws of Nature was powered by the experimen- tal/mathematical approach to physics, started by Galileo as well, and accelerated bytheworkofNewtontowardmodernphysics.Thiswavetookustotherealmof atoms and elementary particles, and together with the parallel astronomical work finallyledtothemodernwaveofexploration,theUniverse,describingtheearliest processesinitsoriginandexpansionfromasuperdensestate14billionyearsagoto ouruniverseofgalaxiestoday. Inourowntimesanewandfascinatingwaveofexplorationoftheuniversebegan which we call Life in the Universe, when humanity learned to launch devices and even people beyond theEarth. Oneisreminded ofthewordsbyTsiolkovski “The v vi Preface planetisthecradleofintelligence,butyoudonotliveinthecraddleforever.”Up tonowonlytheMoonhasbeenvisitedbyhumans,butnumerousspaceprobeshave deliverednewandimpressiveinformationabouttheplanets,asteroids,andcomets oftheSolarSystem,andabouttheSunitself.Astrobiology,thenewinterdisciplinary fieldofscience,hasthusreceivedastrongboostforward,asnowithasbecomepos- sibletomapindetailthewiderangeofconditionsinsideourplanetarysystemand toseewherelifemighthaveoriginatedinadditiontotheEarth.Atthesametime, thanks to the advancements in telescopes, astronomers have been able to discover otherplanetarysystemsandthecountofknownextrasolarplanetsnowreacheshun- dreds.Thesedevelopmentshavegivennewperspectivesfortheroleoflifeandthe humanraceintheuniverse. Two decades ago two of the authors (P.T., M.V.) wrote a book in Finnish, pub- lishedbytheUrsaAstronomicalAssociation(“Cosmos–thedevelopingviewofthe world”).Thepresentbookowestothatoneforitsgeneraloutlineandspirit,butits contentsreflecttheteamofwriterswithdiversespecialtiesandthemanynew,even revolutionarydevelopmentsincosmology,spaceresearch,andastrobiologyduring theseyears. 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 modernscience,inphysics,cosmology,andbiologyaswell,areinherentlycompli- catedanddifficulttodescribe“simply.”Wehaveeitherskippedsuchtopicsorhave given descriptions requiring some attentive reading. We conclude some chapters withbriefexcursionstointeresting“frontier”topics,inordertoconveythereadera feelingofwhatkindsofthingsfascinatescientiststoday(strangephenomenaofthe microworld,manydimensionalworlds,cosmologicaldarkenergy,theoriginoflife, thegreenhouseeffect,...). Finally, teachers may find this book useful for undergraduate college courses, particularlythosewhorecognizethatitisnowdifficulttodividescienceintotradi- tionalsubjectsorthosewhorecognizetheconnectionsbetweenhumanitiesandthe sciences.TothispurposeweprovideaWebsitedocumentwithalistingofinterest- ingWebsitescoveringthepartsofthetextplusacollectionofshortmultiplechoice questionsdividedbysubject: http://bama.ua.edu/∼byrd/Evolving UniverseWeb.doc We wish to thank several persons who have read parts of the manuscript or have in other ways helped this project, e.g., by allowing the use of illustrations. We mention Yuri Baryshev, Andrej Berdyugin, Svetlana Berdyugina, Anthony Fairall, Andrea Gabrielli, Ismael Gognard, Jennifer Goldman, Sethanne Howard, PekkaHeina¨ma¨ki,JanneHolopainen,TomJarrett,AndreasJaunsen,MichaelJoyce, HannuKarttunen,PerttuKeina¨nen,BillKeel,TapioKorhonen,JohnLanoue,Jean- Pierre Luminet, Seppo Mattila, Chris Mihos, Seppo Mikkola, Markku Muinonen, Sami Niemi, Kari Nilsson, Pasi Nurmi, Jyri Na¨ra¨nen, Georges Paturel, Saul Preface vii Perlmutter,LucianoPietronero,LauraPortinari,TravisRector,RamiRekola,Shane D. Ross, John Ruhl, Allan Sandage, Markku Sarimaa, Aimo Sillanpa¨a¨, Francesco SylosLabini,LeoTakalo,GillesTheureau,MaleneThyssen,LucViatour,IiroVilja, andPetriVa¨isa¨nen. We are grateful to Harry Blom, Christopher Coughlin, and Jenny Wolkowicki ofSpringer-Verlag,NewYorkforverygoodcollaborationandpatienceduringthe preparationprocessofthisbook. Similarly,wethankPrasadSethumadhavanofSPiTechnologiesIndia. August2008 Theauthors Contents ListofTables ......................................................xvii PartI TheWideningWorldView 1 WhenScienceWasBorn......................................... 3 PrehistoricAstronomy:ScienceoftheHorizon ....................... 3 WritingontheSkyVaultandonClayTablets ........................ 5 ConstellationsandHoroscopeSigns ................................ 6 TheIonianWayofThinking....................................... 9 PythagorasInventstheCosmos .................................... 10 2 ScienceinAthens............................................... 13 AnaxagorasMakestheCelestialBodiesMundane .................... 13 TheAtomicDoctrine............................................. 14 PlatoEstablishestheAcademy..................................... 15 TheUniverseofAristotle ......................................... 18 3 PlanetarySpheresandtheSizeoftheUniverse..................... 23 TheTheoryofConcentricSpheres ................................. 23 TheEpicycleTheory............................................. 26 HipparchusDiscoverstheSlowWobblingoftheCelestialSphere ....... 26 Ptolemy........................................................ 28 TheSizeoftheSphericalEarth .................................... 29 AristarchusofSamos–TheCopernicusofAntiquityEnlargingthe Universe ....................................................... 31 OntheRoadTowardtheSolarSystem .............................. 34 4 MedievalCosmology ............................................ 37 TreasuresofthePast ............................................. 38 TheCosmologyoftheMiddleAges ................................ 38 Scholasticism:TheMedievalScience ............................... 40 ix
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