BCIT Astronomy XXXX: YYYY

OSC_Astro_26_02_Milky-1

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:18:28 +0000

OSC_Astro_08_02_RiftZone-1-1

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OSC_Astro_12_03_GloblPluto-1-1

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jennifer-kirkey-january-2015-burnaby-now-copy-2-300x247

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IMG_7006-300x225

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OSC_Astro_01_00_OurUnivers-1

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OSC_Astro_01_00_Mar-1

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OSC_Astro_01_00_Stellar-300x300

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OSC_Astro_01_04_Nebula-1

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OSC_Astro_01_05_Orbit-1

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OSC_Astro_01_06_Planet-1

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OSC_Astro_01_06_Moon-1

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OSC_Astro_01_06_Solar-1

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OSC_Astro_01_06_Light-1

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OSC_Astro_01_06_MWay-1

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OSC_Astro_01_06_Cluster-1

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garneau

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OSC_Astro_01_07_NGalaxy-1

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OSC_Astro_01_07_SShape-1

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OSC_Astro_01_07_Fornax-1

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OSC_Astro_01_09_Cosmic-1

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OSC_Astro_02_00_Nightsky-1

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OSC_Astro_02_01_SkyAround-1

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OSC_Astro_02_01_CSphere-1

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:18:35 +0000

Starry La Silla

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:18:35 +0000

The stars rotate around the southern celestial pole during a night at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. The fuzzy parts in the trails on the right are due to the Magellanic Clouds, two small galaxies neighbouring the Milky Way. The dome seen in the image hosts ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope and is home to HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter. The rectangular building seen in the lower right of the image contains the 0.25-metre TAROT telescope, designed to react very quickly when a gamma-ray burst is detected. Other telescopes at La Silla include the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope, and the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope, the first telescope to use active optics and, as such, the precursor to all modern large telescopes. La Silla was ESO’s first observing site and is still one of the premier observatories in the southern hemisphere. #L

OSC_Astro_02_01_Star-1

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OSC_Astro_02_01_Ecliptic-1

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OSC_Astro_02_01_Celestial-1

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Print

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OSC_Astro_02_02_RoundShad-1

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OSC_Astro_02_02_LRays-1

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OSC_Astro_02_02_Eratosthen-1

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OSC_Astro_02_02_Precession-1

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OSC_Astro_02_02_Retrograde-1

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OSC_Astro_02_02_CSystem-1

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OSC_Astro_02_03_Signs-1

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©Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. Ojda

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:18:37 +0000

©Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. Ojda

OSC_Astro_02_04_Copernicus-1

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OSC_Astro_02_04_CopSystem-1

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OSC_Astro_02_04_VenusPhase-1

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OSC_Astro_02_04_Galileo-1

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OSC_Astro_02_04_Telescope-1

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OSC_Astro_03_05_Satellite-300x300

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OSC_Astro_03_00_ISS-1

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OSC_Astro_03_01_Tycho-1

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OSC_Astro_03_01_Conic-1

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OSC_Astro_03_01_Ellipse-1

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OSC_Astro_03_01_SecondLaw-1

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OSC_Astro_03_02_Newton-1

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OSC_Astro_03_02_ThirdLaw-1

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OSC_Astro_03_02_Angular-1

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OSC_Astro_03_03_Astronaut-1

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OSC_Astro_03_04_Solar-1

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OSC_Astro_03_05_Firing-1

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anik_a1_hr

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OSC_Astro_03_05_Satellite-1

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OSC_Astro_03_06_Power-1

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Print

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OSC_Astro_04_00_Scale-1

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OSC_Astro_04_01_Washington-1

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OSC_Astro_04_01_Royal-1

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OSC_Astro_04_01_Foucault-1

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OSC_Astro_04_02_Seasons-1

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OSC_Astro_04_02_Sunray-1

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OSC_Astro_04_02_Sunpath-1

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OSC_Astro_04_02_Earth-1

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OSC_Astro_04_02_December-1

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OSC_Astro_04_03_Sidereal-1

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OSC_Astro_04_03_Sidereal2-1

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OSC_Astro_04_04_Stonehenge-1

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OSC_Astro_04_04_Caracol-1

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OSC_Astro_04_05_Moon-1

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OSC_Astro_04_05_Rotation-1

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OSC_Astro_04_06_Pullmoon-1

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OSC_Astro_04_06_Bulges-1

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OSC_Astro_04_06_Fundy-1

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OSC_Astro_04_06_Tides-1

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OSC_Astro_04_06_Darwin-1

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seclipses-1

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OSC_Astro_04_07_TotalSolar-1

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OSC_Astro_04_07_Corona-1

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OSC_Astro_04_07_LEclipses-1

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OSC_Astro_04_07_2017-1

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OSC_Astro_05_00_SunUVlight-1

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OSC_Astro_05_01_Clerk-1

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OSC_Astro_05_01_Waves-1

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OSC_Astro_05_01_Elecwave-1

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OSC_Astro_05_01_Invlight-1

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OSC_Astro_05_02_Radiation2-1

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OSC_Astro_05_02_XRaysky-1

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OSC_Astro_05_02_Illustrate-1

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OSC_Astro_05_02_Prism-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_CSpectrum-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_SVisible-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_DElement-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_Light4A-1

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herzberg

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OSC_Astro_05_03_Rutherford-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_Hydrogen-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_Helium-1

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OSC_Astro_05_03_Isotopes-1

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OSC_Astro_05_04_BohrPlanck-1

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bohrmodel-1

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OSC_Astro_05_05_EngHydro-1

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OSC_Astro_05_05_TSpectra-1

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OSC_Astro_05_06_Doppler-1

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OSC_Astro_06_00_HubbleST-1

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OSC_Astro_06_01_Originsky-1

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OSC_Astro_06_01_Observator-1

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OSC_Astro_06_01_Simplelens-1

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OSC_Astro_06_01_RTelescope-1

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OSC_Astro_06_01_Focusarran-1

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OSC_Astro_06_02_Mirror-1

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OSC_Astro_06_02_RefTele-1

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OSC_Astro_06_02_Thirtysix-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_GeorgeHale-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_Yerkes-1

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OSC_Astro_06_02_Drysite-1

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OSC_Astro_06_02_Adaptive-1

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OSC_Astro_06_03_CCD-1

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willard

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OSC_Astro_06_03_Infrared-1

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OSC_Astro_06_03_Prism-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_RTelescope-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_RadioImage-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_GreenBank-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_ALMA-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_Baseline-1

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OSC_Astro_06_04_Largest-1

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OSC_Astro_06_05_SOFIA-1

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OSC_Astro_06_05_SST-1

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IDL TIFF file

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:18:58 +0000

IDL TIFF file

OSC_Astro_06_05_ChandraRay-1

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OSC_Astro_06_06_JWST-1

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OSC_Astro_06_06_Conception-1

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OSC_Astro_07_00_MarsSurfac-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Astronaut-1

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thirsk

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Orbits-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Mercury-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Giant-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_PlutoNH-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Voyager1-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Asteroid-1

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OSC_Astro_07_01_Comet-1

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OSC_Astro_07_04_Sagan-1

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OSC_Astro_07_02_Jupiter-1

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OSC_Astro_07_02_Ganymede-1

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OSC_Astro_07_02_Shoemaker9-1

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OSC_Astro_07_02_JupiterCol-1

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OSC_Astro_07_03_CratedMoon-1

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OSC_Astro_07_03_Decay-1

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OSC_Astro_07_04_Nebula-1

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OSC_Astro_07_04_Nurseries-1

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OSC_Astro_08_00_MoltenLava-1

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OSC_Astro_08_01_PlanetEar-1

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OSC_Astro_08_01_Interior-1

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OSC_Astro_08_01_Generate-1

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OSC_Astro_08_01_Magnetosph-1

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OSC_Astro_08_02_Igneous-1

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OSC_Astro_08_02_Plates-1

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OSC_Astro_08_02_Wegner-1

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OSC_Astro_08_02_RiftZone-2

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OSC_Astro_08_02_Andreas-1

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OSC_Astro_08_02_Mountains-1

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OSC_Astro_08_03_TheEarth-1

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OSC_Astro_08_03_Storm-1

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OSC_Astro_08_03_IceAge-1

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OSC_Astro_08_04_Fossil-1

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OSC_Astro_08_04_TreeOfLife-1

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OSC_Astro_08_04_Greenhouse-1

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OSC_Astro_08_04_Carbon-1

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OSC_Astro_08_05_Crater-1

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OSC_Astro_08_05_Tunguska-1

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OSC_Astro_08_05_Meteor-1

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OSC_Astro_08_05_Chicxulub-1

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OSC_Astro_09_00_Astronaut-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_Moon-1

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OSC_Astro_09_01_Scientist-1

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OSC_Astro_09_01_MoonRock-1

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OSC_Astro_09_01_Rocket-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_TychoPeak-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_Highland-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_-Apollo15

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OSC_Astro_09_02_Maria-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_Rock-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_Orientale-1

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OSC_Astro_09_02_Footprint-1

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OSC_Astro_09_03_Volcanic-1

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Print

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OSC_Astro_09_03_KingCrater-1

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OSC_Astro_09_03_Appearance-1

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OSC_Astro_09_03_Crossing-1

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OSC_Astro_09_03_MeteorCrtr-1

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OSC_Astro_09_03_Rates-1

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OSC_Astro_09_05_Mercury-1

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OSC_Astro_09_05_Doppler-1

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OSC_Astro_09_05_MercuryTopo-1

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OSC_Astro_09_05_Basin-1

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OSC_Astro_09_05_Discovery-1

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OSC_Astro_10_00_SpiritRov-1

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OSC_Astro_10_01_Venus-1

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OSC_Astro_10_01_Mars-1

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OSC_Astro_10_01_MarsGlobe-1

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OSC_Astro_10_01_Lowell-1

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OSC_Astro_10_02_RadarMap-1

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OSC_Astro_10_02_Craters-1

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OSC_Astro_10_02_Ridges-1

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OSC_Astro_10_02_VenusSurfa-1

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OSC_Astro_10_03_Atmosphere-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_MarsHST-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_Pathfinder-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_Victoria-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_Meteorite-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_MarsMap-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_OlympusMon-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_Canyonland-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_Landslides-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_Landing-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_WaterFrost-1

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OSC_Astro_10_04_DustDevils-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_Erosion-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_NorthPole-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_Phoenix-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_Runoff-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_Garni-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_Evidence-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_GaleCrater-1

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OSC_Astro_10_05_FaceonMars-1

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OSC_Astro_11_00_GiantPlan-1

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OSC_Astro_11_01_Jupiter-1

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:22 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:22 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:22 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:23 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:23 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:23 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:23 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:23 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:23 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:24 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:25 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:25 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:25 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:26 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:26 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:26 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:27 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:27 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:27 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:27 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:28 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:28 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:28 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:28 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:29 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:29 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:29 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:29 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:29 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:29 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:30 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:30 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:30 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:30 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:31 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:33 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:33 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:33 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:34 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:34 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:34 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:34 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:35 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:35 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:35 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:35 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:36 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:37 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:37 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:37 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:37 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:37 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:38 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:38 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:39 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:39 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:39 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:39 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:39 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:40 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:40 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:40 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:40 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:40 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:41 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:41 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:41 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:41 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:42 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:42 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:42 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:43 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:44 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:44 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:44 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:44 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:45 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:45 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:45 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:46 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:46 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:46 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:47 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:48 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:49 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:49 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:49 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:51 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:51 +0000

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jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:19:52 +0000

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Print

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Appendices A.1 How to Study for an Introductory Astronomy Class

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

In this brief appendix, we want to give you some hints for the effective study of astronomy. These suggestions are based on ideas from good teachers and good students around the United States. Your professor will probably have other, more specific suggestions for doing well in your class.

Astronomy, the study of the universe beyond the borders of our planet, is one of the most exciting and rapidly changing branches of science. Even scientists from other fields often confess to having had a lifelong interest in astronomy, though they may now be doing something earthbound—like biology, chemistry, engineering, or writing software.

But some of the things that make astronomy so interesting also make it a challenge for the beginning student. The universe is a big place, full of objects and processes that do not have familiar counterparts here on Earth. Like a visitor to a new country, it will take you a while to feel familiar with the territory or the local customs. Astronomy, like other sciences, also has its own special vocabulary, some of which you will have to learn to communicate well with your professor and classmates.

Still, hundreds of thousands of non-science majors take an introductory astronomy course every year, and surveys show that students from a wide range of backgrounds have succeeded in (and even enjoyed) these classes. Astronomy is for everyone, not just those who are “science oriented.”

So, here are some suggestions to help you increase your chances of doing well in your astronomy class.

The best advice we can give you is to be sure to leave enough time in your schedule to study the material in this class regularly. It sounds obvious, but it is not very easy to catch up with a subject like astronomy by trying to do everything just before an exam. (As astronomers like to put it, you can’t learn the whole universe in one night!) Try to put aside some part of each day, or every other day, when you can have uninterrupted time for reading and studying astronomy.
In class, put your phone away and focus on the class activities. If you have to use a laptop or tablet in class, make a pact with yourself that you will not check email, get on social media, or play games during class. A number of careful studies of student behavior and grades have shown that students are not as good at such multi-tasking as they think they are, and that students who do not use screens during class get significantly better grades in the end.
Try to take careful notes during class. Many students start college without good note-taking habits. If you are not a good note-taker, try to get some help. Many colleges and universities have student learning centers that offer short courses, workbooks, tutors, or videos on developing good study habits. Good note-taking skills will also be useful for many jobs or activities you are likely get involved with after college.
Try to read each assignment in the textbook twice, once before it is discussed in class, and once afterward. Take notes as you read or use a highlighter to outline ideas that you may want to review later.
Form a small astronomy study group with people in your class. Get together with them regularly and discuss what you have been learning. Also, focus on the topics that may be giving group members trouble. Make up sample exam questions and make sure everyone in the group can answer them confidently. If you have always studied alone, you may at first resist this idea, but don’t be too hasty to say no. Study groups are a very effective way to digest a large amount of new information.
Before each exam, create a concise outline of the main ideas discussed in class and presented in your text. Compare your outline with those of other students as a check on your own study habits.
If your professor suggests doing web-based sample quizzes, or looking at online apps, animations, or study guides, take advantage of these resources to enhance your studying.
At the end of each chapter in this textbook you, will find four kinds of questions. The Collaborative Group Activities are designed to encourage you follow up on the material in the chapter as a group, rather than individually. Review Questions help you see if you have learned the material in the chapter. Thought Questions test deeper understanding by asking you to apply your knowledge to new situations. And Figuring for Yourself exercises test and extend some of the mathematical examples in the chapter. (Not all professors will use the math sections; if they don’t, you may not have homework from this section.)
If you find a topic in the text or in class especially difficult or interesting, talk to your professor or teaching assistant. Many students are scared to show their ignorance in front of their teacher, but we can assure you that most professors and TA’s like it when students come to office hours and show that they care enough about the course to ask for help.
Don’t stay up all night before a test and then expect your mind to respond well. For the same reason, don’t eat a big meal just before a test, since we all get a little sleepy and don’t think as clearly after a big meal. Take many deep breaths and try to relax during the test itself.
Don’t be too hard on yourself! If astronomy is new to you, many of the ideas and terms in this book may be unfamiliar. Astronomy is like any new language: it may take a while to become a good conversationalist. Practice as much as you can, but also realize that it is natural to feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe and the variety of things that are going on in it.

A.2 Astronomy Websites, Images, and Apps

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

Throughout the textbook, we suggest useful resources for students on the specific topics in a given chapter. Here, we offer some websites for exploring astronomy in general, plus good sites for viewing and downloading the best astronomy images, and guides to astronomical apps for smartphones and tablets. This is not an exhaustive listing, but merely a series of suggestions to whet the appetite of those wanting to go beyond the textbook.

Websites for Exploring Astronomy in General

Astronomical Organizations

Amateur Astronomy Clubs. In most large cities and a number of rural areas, there are amateur astronomy clubs, where those interested in the hobby of astronomy gather to observe the sky, share telescopes, hear speakers, and help educate the public about the night sky. To find an astronomy club near you, you can try the following sites:

Night Sky Network club finder: http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/club-map.cfm.
Sky & Telescope Magazine astronomy clubs and organizations: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations.
Astronomy Magazine club finder: http://www.astronomy.com/groups.aspx.
Astronomical League astronomy clubs and societies: http://www.astroleague.org/societies/all.
Go-Astronomy club search: http://www.go-astronomy.com/astro-club-search.htm.

American Astronomical Society: http://www.aas.org. Composed mainly of professional astronomers. They have an active education office and various materials for students and the public on the education pages of their website.

Astronomical League: http://www.astroleague.org. The league is the umbrella organization of American astronomy clubs. They offer a newsletter, national observing programs, and support for how to form and support a club.

Astronomical Society of the Pacific: http://www.astrosociety.org. Founded in 1889, this international society is devoted to astronomy education and outreach. They have programs, publications, and materials for families, teachers, amateur astronomers, museum guides, and anyone interested in astronomy.

European Space Agency (ESA): http://www.esa.int/. Information on European space missions with an excellent gallery of images.

International Astronomical Union (IAU): http://www.iau.org/. International organization for professional astronomers; see the menu choice “IAU for the Public” for information on naming astronomical objects and other topics of interest to students.

International Dark-Sky Association: http://www.darksky.org. Dedicated to combating light pollution, the encroachment of stray light that wastes energy and washes out the glories of the night sky.

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov. NASA has a wide range of information on its many websites; the trick is to find what you need. Most space missions and NASA centers have their own sites.

Planetary Society: http://www.planetary.org. Founded by the late Carl Sagan and others, this group works to encourage planetary exploration and the search for life elsewhere. While much of their work is advocacy, they have some educational outreach too.

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada: http://www.rasc.ca/. Unites professional and amateur astronomers around Canada; has 28 centers with local activities, plus national magazines and meetings.

Some Astronomical Publications Students Can Read

Astronomy Now: http://www.astronomynow.com/. A colorful British monthly, with excellent articles about astronomy, the history of astronomy, and stargazing.

Astronomy: http://www.astronomy.com. Has the largest circulation of any magazine devoted to the universe and is designed especially for astronomy hobbyists and armchair astronomers.

Free Astronomy: http://www.astropublishing.com/. A new web-based publication, with European roots.

Scientific American: http://www.sciam.com. Offers one astronomy article about every other issue. These articles, a number of which are reproduced on their website, are at a slightly higher level, but—often being written by the astronomers who have done the work—are authoritative and current.

Sky & Telescope: http://skyandtelescope.com. An older and somewhat higher-level magazine for astronomy hobbyists. Many noted astronomers write for this publication.

Sky News: http://www.skynews.ca/. A Canadian publication, featuring both astronomy and stargazing information. It also lists Canadian events for hobbyists.

StarDate: https://stardate.org/. Magazine that accompanies the brief radio program, with a useful website for beginners.

Sites that Cover Astronomy News

Exploring the Universe: http://fraknoi.blogspot.com. An astronomy news blog by one of the original authors of this textbook.

Portal to the Universe: http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/. A site that gathers online astronomy and space news items, blogs, and pictures.

Science@NASA news stories and newscasts: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/. Well-written stories with, of course, a NASA focus.

Space.com: http://www.space.com/news/. A commercial site, but with wide coverage of space and astronomy news.

Universe Today: http://www.universetoday.com/. Another commercial site, with good articles by science journalists, but a lot of ads.

Sites for Answering Astronomical Questions

Ask an Astrobiologist: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/. On this site from the National Astrobiology Institute at NASA, astronomer David Morrison answered questions about the search for life on other planets, the origin of life on Earth, and many other topics.

Ask an Astronomer at Lick Observatory: http://www.ucolick.org/~mountain/AAA/. Graduate students and staff members at this California observatory answered selected astronomy questions, particularly from high school students.

Ask an Astrophysicist: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html. Questions and answers at NASA’s Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics focus on X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, and such objects as black holes, quasars, and supernovae.

Ask an Infrared Astronomer: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ask_astronomer/faq/index.shtml. A site from the California Institute of Technology, with an archive focusing on infrared (heat-ray) astronomy and the discoveries it makes about cool objects in the universe. No longer taking new questions.

Ask the Astronomer: http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/qanda.html. This site, run by astronomer Sten Odenwald, is no longer active, but lists 3001 answers to questions asked in the mid-1990s. They are nicely organized by topic.

Ask the Experts at PhysLink: http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/index.cfm. Lots of physics questions answered, with some astronomy as well, at this physics education site. Most answers are by physics teachers, not astronomers. Still taking new questions.

Ask the Space Scientist: http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/askmag.html. An archive of questions about the Sun and its interactions with Earth, answered by astronomer Sten Odenwald. Not accepting new questions.

Curious about Astronomy?: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu. An ask-an-astronomer site run by graduate students and professors of astronomy at Cornell University. Has searchable archives and is still answering new questions.

Miscellaneous Sites of Interest

A Guide to Careers in Astronomy: http://aas.org/files/resources/Careers-in-Astronomy.pdf. From the American Astronomical Society.

Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic’s Resource List: http://www.astrosociety.org/pseudo. Readings and websites that analyze such claims as astrology, UFOs, moon-landing denial, creationism, human faces on other worlds, astronomical disasters, and more.

Astronomy for Beginners: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-information/. A page to find resources for getting into amateur astronomy.

Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy and Physics: http://www.astrosociety.org/scifi.

Space Calendar: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/. Ron Baalke at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory keeps a listing of what space events happened on each day of the year; great if you need a reason to have a space-theme party.

Unheard Voices: The Astronomy of Many Cultures: http://multiverse.ssl.berkeley.edu/multicultural. A guide to resources about the astronomy of native, African, Asian, and other non-Western groups.

Selected Websites for Viewing and Downloading Astronomical Images

The Top Image Sites

Astronomy Picture of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html. Two space scientists scour the internet and feature one interesting astronomy image each day.

European Southern Observatory Photo Gallery: http://www.eso.org/public/images/. Magnificent color images from ESO’s largest telescopes. See the topical menu at the top.

Hubble Space Telescope Images: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/browse/images/. Starting at this page, you can select from among many hundreds of Hubble pictures by subject. Other ways to approach these images are through the more public-oriented Hubble Gallery (http://hubblesite.org/gallery/) or the European ESO site (http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/).

National Optical Astronomy Observatories Image Gallery: http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/. Growing archive of images from the many telescopes that are at the United States’ National Observatories.

Planetary Photojournal: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html. Features thousands of images from NASA’s extensive set of planetary exploration missions with a good search menu. Does not include most of the missions from other countries.

The World at Night: http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp. Dramatic night-sky images by professional photographers who are amateur astronomers. Note that while many of the astronomy sites allow free use of their images, these are copyrighted by photographers who make their living selling them.

Other Useful General Galleries

Anglo-Australian Observatory: http://203.15.109.22/images/. Soon at https://www.aao.gov.au/public/images. Great copyrighted color images by leading astro-photographer David Malin and others.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope: http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/HawaiianStarlight/images.html. Remarkable color images from a major telescope on top of the Mauna Kea peak in Hawaii.

European Space Agency Gallery: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images. Access images from such missions as Mars Express, Rosetta, and Herschel.

Gemini Observatory Images: http://www.gemini.edu/index.php?option=com_gallery. Images from a pair of large telescopes in the northern and the southern hemispheres.

Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes Image Gallery: http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/images_index.html. Beautiful images from the Herschel, Newton, and Kapteyn telescopes on La Palma.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory Image Gallery: http://images.nrao.edu/. Organized by topic, the images show objects and processes that give off radio waves.

Our Infrared World Gallery: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/missions_gallery.html. Images from a variety of infrared astronomy telescopes and missions. See also their “Cool Cosmos” site for the public: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/.

Some Galleries on Specific Subjects

Astronaut Photography of Earth: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/.

Chandra X-Ray Observatory Images: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category.html.

NASA Human Spaceflight Gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore or http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/gallery/index.html. Astronaut images.

Robert Gendler: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/. One of the amateur astro-photographers who comes closest to being professional.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey Images: http://www.sdss.org/gallery/.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Gallery: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main. Sun images.

Spitzer Infrared Telescope Images: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images.

Astronomy Apps for Smartphones and Tablets

A pretty comprehensive listing of such apps with brief descriptions and links to their websites can be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/AER2011036. The list is now a few years old, but most of the apps are still available.

Listings and Reviews of Apps

11 Best Astronomy Apps for Amateur Star Gazers: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-best-astronomy-apps-for-amateurs-2013-10. From Kelly Dickerson (2013).

14 Best Astronomy Apps for Stargazers and Space Lovers: http://nerdsmagazine.com/best-astronomy-apps-for-android/. Viney Dhiman’s recommendations, part of Nerd’s Magazine (2014).

15 Best Astronomy Applications for iPhone: http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/top-astronomy-applications-for-iphone/. From iPhoneness.

Apps for Stargazing: http://appadvice.com/appguides/show/astronomy-apps. App Advice site’s reviews.

NASA Apps for Smartphones and Tablets: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/apps.html.

Phone/Tablet Apps and the Practical Astronomer: http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/user-reviews/phonetablet-apps-and-the-practical-astronomer-r2925. Active amateur astronomer Tom Fowler reviews 22 apps (2014).

Sky & Telescope Mobile Apps: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/sky-and-stargazing-apps/. Apps from Sky & Telescope Magazine.

Smartphone Apps Can Make Astronomy as Easy as Point and Gaze: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140511/LIVING/140519988.” Mike Lynch for HeraldNet (2014).

A.3 Scientific Notation

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

In astronomy (and other sciences), it is often necessary to deal with very large or very small numbers. In fact, when numbers become truly large in everyday life, such as the national debt in the United States, we call them astronomical. Among the ideas astronomers must routinely deal with is that the Earth is 150,000,000,000 meters from the Sun, and the mass of the hydrogen atom is 0.00000000000000000000000000167 kilograms. No one in his or her right mind would want to continue writing so many zeros!

Instead, scientists have agreed on a kind of shorthand notation, which is not only easier to write, but (as we shall see) makes multiplication and division of large and small numbers much less difficult. If you have never used this powers-of-ten notation or scientific notation, it may take a bit of time to get used to it, but you will soon find it much easier than keeping track of all those zeros.

Writing Large Numbers

In scientific notation, we generally agree to have only one number to the left of the decimal point. If a number is not in this format, it must be changed. The number 6 is already in the right format, because for integers, we understand there to be a decimal point to the right of them. So 6 is really 6., and there is indeed only one number to the left of the decimal point. But the number 965 (which is 965.) has three numbers to the left of the decimal point, and is thus ripe for conversion.

To change 965 to proper form, we must make it 9.65 and then keep track of the change we have made. (Think of the number as a weekly salary and suddenly it makes a lot of difference whether we have $965 or $9.65.) We keep track of the number of places we moved the decimal point by expressing it as a power of ten. So 965 becomes 9.65 × 10² or 9.65 multiplied by ten to the second power. The small raised 2 is called an exponent, and it tells us how many times we moved the decimal point to the left.

Note that 10² also designates 10 squared, or 10 × 10, which equals 100. And 9.65 × 100 is just 965, the number we started with. Another way to look at scientific notation is that we separate out the messy numbers out front, and leave the smooth units of ten for the exponent to denote. So a number like 1,372,568 becomes 1.372568 times a million (10⁶) or 1.372568 times 10 multiplied by itself 6 times. We had to move the decimal point six places to the left (from its place after the 8) to get the number into the form where there is only one digit to the left of the decimal point.

The reason we call this powers-of-ten notation is that our counting system is based on increases of ten; each place in our numbering system is ten times greater than the place to the right of it. As you have probably learned, this got started because human beings have ten fingers and we started counting with them. (It is interesting to speculate that if we ever meet intelligent life-forms with only eight fingers, their counting system would probably be a powers-of-eight notation!)

So, in the example we started with, the number of meters from Earth to the Sun is 1.5 × 10¹¹. Elsewhere in the book, we mention that a string 1 light-year long would fit around Earth’s equator 236 million or 236,000,000 times. In scientific notation, this would become 2.36 × 10⁸. Now if you like expressing things in millions, as the annual reports of successful companies do, you might like to write this number as 236 × 10⁶. However, the usual convention is to have only one number to the left of the decimal point.

Writing Small Numbers

Now take a number like 0.00347, which is also not in the standard (agreed-to) form for scientific notation. To put it into that format, we must make the first part of it 3.47 by moving the decimal point three places to the right. Note that this motion to the right is the opposite of the motion to the left that we discussed above. To keep track, we call this change negative and put a minus sign in the exponent. Thus 0.00347 becomes 3.47 × 10⁻³.

In the example we gave at the beginning, the mass of the hydrogen atom would then be written as 1.67 × 10⁻²⁷ kg. In this system, one is written as 10⁰, a tenth as 10⁻¹, a hundredth as 10⁻², and so on. Note that any number, no matter how large or how small, can be expressed in scientific notation.

Multiplication and Division

Scientific notation is not only compact and convenient, it also simplifies arithmetic. To multiply two numbers expressed as powers of ten, you need only multiply the numbers out front and then add the exponents. If there are no numbers out front, as in 100 × 100,000, then you just add the exponents (in our notation, 10² × 10⁵ = 10⁷). When there are numbers out front, you have to multiply them, but they are much easier to deal with than numbers with many zeros in them.

Here’s an example:

(3×105)×(2×109)=6×1014(3×105)×(2×109)=6×1014

And here’s another example:

0.04×6,000,000=(4×10−2)×(6×106)=24×104=2.4×1050.04×6,000,000=(4×10−2)×(6×106)=24×104=2.4×105

Note in the second example that when we added the exponents, we treated negative exponents as we do in regular arithmetic (−2 plus 6 equals 4). Also, notice that our first result had a 24 in it, which was not in the acceptable form, having two places to the left of the decimal point, and we therefore changed it to 2.4 and changed the exponent accordingly.

To divide, you divide the numbers out front and subtract the exponents. Here are several examples:

1,000,0001000=106103=10(6−3)=1039×10122×103=4.5×1092.8×1026.2×105=0.452×10−3=4.52×10−41,000,0001000=106103=10(6−3)=1039×10122×103=4.5×1092.8×1026.2×105=0.452×10−3=4.52×10−4

In the last example, our first result was not in the standard form, so we had to change 0.452 into 4.52, and change the exponent accordingly.

If this is the first time that you have met scientific notation, we urge you to practice many examples using it. You might start by solving the exercises below. Like any new language, the notation looks complicated at first but gets easier as you practice it.

Exercises

At the end of September, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft (which encountered Pluto for the first time in July 2015) was 4.898 billion km from Earth. Convert this number to scientific notation. How many astronomical units is this? (An astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the Sun, or about 150 million km.)
During the first six years of its operation, the Hubble Space Telescope circled Earth 37,000 times, for a total of 1,280,000,000 km. Use scientific notation to find the number of km in one orbit.
In a large university cafeteria, a soybean-vegetable burger is offered as an alternative to regular hamburgers. If 889,875 burgers were eaten during the course of a school year, and 997 of them were veggie-burgers, what fraction and what percent of the burgers does this represent?
In a 2012 Kelton Research poll, 36 percent of adult Americans thought that alien beings have actually landed on Earth. The number of adults in the United States in 2012 was about 222,000,000. Use scientific notation to determine how many adults believe aliens have visited Earth.
In the school year 2009–2010, American colleges and universities awarded 2,354,678 degrees. Among these were 48,069 PhD degrees. What fraction of the degrees were PhDs? Express this number as a percent. (Now go and find a job for all those PhDs!)
A star 60 light-years away has been found to have a large planet orbiting it. Your uncle wants to know the distance to this planet in old-fashioned miles. Assume light travels 186,000 miles per second, and there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year. How many miles away is that star?

Answers

4.898 billion is 4.898 × 10⁹ km. One astronomical unit (AU) is 150 million km = 1.5 × 10⁸ km. Dividing the first number by the second, we get 3.27 × 10^{(9 – 8)} = 3.27 × 10¹ AU.
1.28×109km3.7×104orbits=0.346×10(9−4)=0.346×105=3.46×104km per orbit.1.28×109km3.7×104orbits=0.346×10(9−4)=0.346×105=3.46×104km per orbit.
9.97×102veggie burgers8.90×105total burgers=1.12×10(2−5)=1.12×10(2−5)=1.12×10−39.97×102veggie burgers8.90×105total burgers=1.12×10(2−5)=1.12×10(2−5)=1.12×10−3 (or roughly about one thousandth) of the burgers were vegetarian. Percent means per hundred. So 1.12×10−310−2=1.12×10(−3−(−2))=1.12×10−1percent1.12×10−310−2=1.12×10(−3−(−2))=1.12×10−1percent (which is roughly one tenth of one percent).
36% is 36 hundredths or 0.36 or 3.6 × 10⁻¹. Multiply that by 2.22 × 10⁸ and you get about 7.99 × 10^{(−1 + 8)} = 7.99 × 10⁷ or almost 80 million people who believe that aliens have landed on our planet. We need more astronomy courses to educate all those people.
4.81×1042.35×106=2.05×10(4−6)=2.05×10−2=about2%4.81×1042.35×106=2.05×10(4−6)=2.05×10−2=about2%. (Note that in these examples we are rounding off some of the numbers so that we don’t have more than 2 places after the decimal point.)
One light-year is the distance that light travels in one year. (Usually, we use metric units and not the old British system that the United States is still using, but we are going to humor your uncle and stick with miles.) If light travels 186,000 miles every second, then it will travel 60 times that in a minute, and 60 times that in an hour, and 24 times that in a day, and 365 times that in a year. So we have 1.86 × 10⁵ × 6.0 × 10¹ × 6.0 × 10¹ × 2.4 × 10¹ × 3.65 × 10². So we multiply all the numbers out front together and add all the exponents. We get 586.57 × 10¹⁰ = 5.86 × 10¹² miles in a light year (which is roughly 6 trillion miles—a heck of a lot of miles). So if the star is 60 light-years away, its distance in miles is 6 × 10¹ × 5.86 × 10¹² = 35.16 × 10¹³ = 3.516 × 10¹⁴ miles.

A.4 Units Used in Science

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

In the American system of measurement (originally developed in England), the fundamental units of length, weight, and time are the foot, pound, and second, respectively. There are also larger and smaller units, which include the ton (2240 lb), the mile (5280 ft), the rod (16 1/2 ft), the yard (3 ft), the inch (1/12 ft), the ounce (1/16 lb), and so on. Such units, whose origins in decisions by British royalty have been forgotten by most people, are quite inconvenient for conversion or doing calculations.

In science, therefore, it is more usual to use the metric system, which has been adopted in virtually all countries except the United States. Its great advantage is that every unit increases by a factor of ten, instead of the strange factors in the American system. The fundamental units of the metric system are:

length: 1 meter (m)
mass: 1 kilogram (kg)
time: 1 second (s)

A meter was originally intended to be 1 ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along the surface of Earth. It is about 1.1 yd. A kilogram is the mass that on Earth results in a weight of about 2.2 lb. The second is the same in metric and American units.

Length

The most commonly used quantities of length of the metric system are the following.

Length
Conversions
1 kilometer (km) = 1000 meters = 0.6214 mile
1 meter (m) = 0.001 km = 1.094 yards = 39.37 inches
1 centimeter (cm) = 0.01 meter = 0.3937 inch
1 millimeter (mm) = 0.001 meter = 0.1 cm
1 micrometer (µm) = 0.000001 meter = 0.0001 cm
1 nanometer (nm) = 10⁻⁹ meter = 10⁻⁷ cm

To convert from the American system, here are a few helpful factors:

1 mile = 1.61 km
1 inch = 2.54 cm

Mass

Although we don’t make the distinction very carefully in everyday life on Earth, strictly speaking the kilogram is a unit of mass (measuring the quantity of matter in a body, roughly how many atoms it has,) while the pound is a unit of weight (measuring how strongly Earth’s gravity pulls on a body).

The most commonly used quantities of mass of the metric system are the following.

Mass
Conversions
1 metric ton = 10⁶ grams = 1000 kg (and it produces a weight of 2.205 × 10³ lb on Earth)
1 kg = 1000 grams (and it produces a weight of 2.2046 lb on Earth)
1 gram (g) = 0.0353 oz (and the equivalent weight is 0.002205 lb)
1 milligram (mg) = 0.001 g

A weight of 1 lb is equivalent on Earth to a mass of 0.4536 kg, while a weight of 1 oz is produced by a mass of 28.35 g.

Temperature

Three temperature scales are in general use:

Fahrenheit (F); water freezes at 32 °F and boils at 212 °F.
Celsius or centigrade¹ (C); water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 °C.
Kelvin or absolute (K); water freezes at 273 K and boils at 373 K.

All molecular motion ceases at about −459 °F = −273 °C = 0 K, a temperature called absolute zero. Kelvin temperature is measured from this lowest possible temperature, and it is the temperature scale most often used in astronomy. Kelvins have the same value as centigrade or Celsius degrees, since the difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 100 degrees in each. (Note that we just say “kelvins,” not kelvin degrees.)

On the Fahrenheit scale, the difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 180 degrees. Thus, to convert Celsius degrees or kelvins to Fahrenheit degrees, it is necessary to multiply by 180/100 = 9/5. To convert from Fahrenheit degrees to Celsius degrees or kelvins, it is necessary to multiply by 100/180 = 5/9.

The full conversion formulas are:

K = °C + 273
°C = 0.555 × (°F – 32)
°F = (1.8 × °C) + 32

Footnotes

1 Celsius is now the name used for centigrade temperature; it has a more modern standardization but differs from the old centigrade scale by less than 0.1°.

A.5 Some Useful Constants for Astronomy

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

Physical Constants
Name	Value
speed of light (c)	2.9979 × 10⁸ m/s
gravitational constant (G)	6.674 × 10⁻¹¹ m³/(kg s²)
Planck’s constant (h)	6.626 × 10⁻³⁴ J-s
mass of a hydrogen atom (M_H)	1.673 × 10⁻²⁷ kg
mass of an electron (M_e)	9.109 × 10⁻³¹ kg
Rydberg constant (R∞R∞)	1.0974 × 10⁷ m⁻¹
Stefan-Boltzmann constant (σ)	5.670 × 10⁻⁸ J/(s·m² deg⁴)¹
Wien’s law constant (λ_maxT)	2.898 × 10⁻³ m K
electron volt (energy) (eV)	1.602 × 10⁻¹⁹ J
energy equivalent of 1 ton TNT	4.2 × 10⁹ J

Astronomical Constants
Name	Value
astronomical unit (AU)	1.496 × 10¹¹ m
Light-year (ly)	9.461 × 10¹⁵ m
parsec (pc)	3.086 × 10¹⁶ m = 3.262 light-years
sidereal year (y)	3.156 × 10⁷ s
mass of Earth (M_Earth)	5.974 × 10²⁴ kg
equatorial radius of Earth (R_Earth)	6.378 × 10⁶ m
obliquity of ecliptic	23.4° 26’
surface gravity of Earth (g)	9.807 m/s²
escape velocity of Earth (v_Earth)	1.119 × 10⁴ m/s
mass of Sun (M_Sun)	1.989 × 10³⁰ kg
equatorial radius of Sun (R_Sun)	6.960 × 10⁸ m
luminosity of Sun (L_Sun)	3.85 × 10²⁶ W
solar constant (flux of energy received at Earth) (S)	1.368 × 10³ W/m²
Hubble constant (H₀)	approximately 20 km/s per million light-years, or approximately 70 km/s per megaparsec

Footnotes

1 deg stands for degrees Celsius or kelvins

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1.0 Introduction

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:55:23 +0000

Distant Galaxies

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="532"] Figure 1. These two interacting islands of stars (galaxies) are so far away that their light takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us on Earth (photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope). (credit: modification of work by NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScl/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and K. Noll (STScl)[/caption]

We invite you to come along on a series of voyages to explore the universe as astronomers understand it today. Beyond Earth are vast and magnificent realms full of objects that have no counterpart on our home planet. Nevertheless, we hope to show you that the evolution of the universe has been directly responsible for your presence on Earth today.

Along your journey, you will encounter:

a canyon system so large that, on Earth, it would stretch from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, USA.

Mars Mosaic

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="602"] Figure 2. This image of Mars is centered on the Valles Marineris (Mariner Valley) complex of canyons, which is as long as the United States is wide. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]This image of Mars is centered on the Valles Marineris (Mariner Valley) complex of canyons, which is as long as the United States is wide. (credit: modification of work by NASA)

a crater and other evidence on Earth that tell us that the dinosaurs (and many other creatures) died because of a cosmic collision.
a tiny moon whose gravity is so weak that one good throw from its surface could put a baseball into orbit.
a collapsed star so dense that to duplicate its interior we would have to squeeze every human being on Earth into a single raindrop.
exploding stars whose violent end could wipe clean all of the life-forms on a planet orbiting a neighboring star.
a “cannibal galaxy” that has already consumed a number of its smaller galaxy neighbors and is not yet finished finding new victims.
a radio echo that is the faint but unmistakable signal of the creation event for our universe.

Stellar Corpse

[caption id="attachment_22" align="aligncenter" width="436"] Figure 3. We observe the remains of a star that was seen to explode in our skies in 1054 (and was, briefly, bright enough to be visible during the daytime). Today, the remnant is called the Crab Nebula and its central region is seen here. Such exploding stars are crucial to the development of life in the universe. (credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester (Arizona State University))[/caption]Such discoveries are what make astronomy such an exciting field for scientists and many others—but you will explore much more than just the objects in our universe and the latest discoveries about them. We will pay equal attention to the process by which we have come to understand the realms beyond Earth and the tools we use to increase that understanding.

We gather information about the cosmos from the messages the universe sends our way. Because the stars are the fundamental building blocks of the universe, decoding the message of starlight has been a central challenge and triumph of modern astronomy. By the time you have finished reading this text, you will know a bit about how to read that message and how to understand what it is telling us.

This book in its original format can be downloaded for free at https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy .

1.1 The Nature of Astronomy

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:51:52 +0000

Astronomy is defined as the study of the objects that lie beyond our planet Earth and the processes by which these objects interact with one another. We will see, though, that it is much more. It is also humanity’s attempt to organize what we learn into a clear history of the universe, from the instant of its birth in the Big Bang to the present moment. Throughout this book, we emphasize that science is a progress report—one that changes constantly as new techniques and instruments allow us to probe the universe more deeply. In considering the history of the universe, we will see again and again that the cosmos evolves; it changes in profound ways over long periods of time. For example, the universe made the carbon, the calcium, and the oxygen necessary to construct something as interesting and complicated as you. Today, many billions of years later, the universe has evolved into a more hospitable place for life. Tracing the evolutionary processes that continue to shape the universe is one of the most important (and satisfying) parts of modern astronomy.

This book in its original format can be downloaded for free at https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy

1.2 The Nature of Science

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:52:34 +0000

The ultimate judge in science is always what nature itself reveals based on observations, experiments, models, and testing. Science is not merely a body of knowledge, but a method by which we attempt to understand nature and how it behaves. This method begins with many observations over a period of time. From the trends found through observations, scientists can model the particular phenomena we want to understand. Such models are always approximations of nature, subject to further testing.

As a concrete astronomical example, ancient astronomers constructed a model (partly from observations and partly from philosophical beliefs) that Earth was the center of the universe and everything moved around it in circular orbits. At first, our available observations of the Sun, Moon, and planets did fit this model; however, after further observations, the model had to be updated by adding circle after circle to represent the movements of the planets around Earth at the center. As the centuries passed and improved instruments were developed for keeping track of objects in the sky, the old model (even with a huge number of circles) could no longer explain all the observed facts. As we will see in the chapter on Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy, a new model, with the Sun at the center, fit the experimental evidence better. After a period of philosophical struggle, it became accepted as our view of the universe.

When they are first proposed, new models or ideas are sometimes called hypotheses. You may think there can be no new hypotheses in a science such as astronomy—that everything important has already been learned. Nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout this textbook you will find discussions of recent, and occasionally still controversial, hypotheses in astronomy. For example, the significance that the huge chunks of rock and ice that hit Earth have for life on Earth itself is still debated. And while the evidence is strong that vast quantities of invisible “dark energy” make up the bulk of the universe, scientists have no convincing explanation for what the dark energy actually is. Resolving these issues will require difficult observations done at the forefront of our technology, and all such hypotheses need further testing before we incorporate them fully into our standard astronomical models.

This last point is crucial: a hypothesis must be a proposed explanation that can be tested. The most straightforward approach to such testing in science is to perform an experiment. If the experiment is conducted properly, its results either will agree with the predictions of the hypothesis or they will contradict it. If the experimental result is truly inconsistent with the hypothesis, a scientist must discard the hypothesis and try to develop an alternative. If the experimental result agrees with predictions, this does not necessarily prove that the hypothesis is absolutely correct; perhaps later experiments will contradict crucial parts of the hypothesis. But, the more experiments that agree with the hypothesis, the more likely we are to accept the hypothesis as a useful description of nature.

One way to think about this is to consider a scientist who was born and lives on an island where only black sheep live. Day after day the scientist encounters black sheep only, so he or she hypothesizes that all sheep are black. Although every observed sheep adds confidence to the theory, the scientist only has to visit the mainland and observe one white sheep to prove the hypothesis wrong.

When you read about experiments, you probably have a mental picture of a scientist in a laboratory conducting tests or taking careful measurements. This is certainly the case for a biologist or a chemist, but what can astronomers do when our laboratory is the universe? It’s impossible to put a group of stars into a test tube or to order another comet from a scientific supply company.

As a result, astronomy is sometimes called an observational science; we often make our tests by observing many samples of the kind of object we want to study and noting carefully how different samples vary. New instruments and technology can let us look at astronomical objects from new perspectives and in greater detail. Our hypotheses are then judged in the light of this new information, and they pass or fail in the same way we would evaluate the result of a laboratory experiment.

Much of astronomy is also a historical science—meaning that what we observe has already happened in the universe and we can do nothing to change it. In the same way, a geologist cannot alter what has happened to our planet, and a paleontologist cannot bring an ancient animal back to life. While this can make astronomy challenging, it also gives us fascinating opportunities to discover the secrets of our cosmic past.

You might compare an astronomer to a detective trying to solve a crime that occurred before the detective arrived at the scene. There is lots of evidence, but both the detective and the scientist must sift through and organize the evidence to test various hypotheses about what actually happened. And there is another way in which the scientist is like a detective: they both must prove their case. The detective must convince the district attorney, the judge, and perhaps ultimately the jury that his hypothesis is correct. Similarly, the scientist must convince colleagues, editors of journals, and ultimately a broad cross-section of other scientists that her hypothesis is provisionally correct. In both cases, one can only ask for evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt.” And sometimes new evidence will force both the detective and the scientist to revise their last hypothesis.

This self-correcting aspect of science sets it off from most human activities. Scientists spend a great deal of time questioning and challenging one another, which is why applications for project funding—as well as reports for publication in academic journals—go through an extensive process of peer review, which is a careful examination by other scientists in the same field. In science (after formal education and training), everyone is encouraged to improve upon experiments and to challenge any and all hypotheses. New scientists know that one of the best ways to advance their careers is to find a weakness in our current understanding of something and to correct it with a new or modified hypothesis.

This is one of the reasons science has made such dramatic progress. An undergraduate science major today knows more about science and math than did Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most renowned scientists who ever lived. Even in this introductory astronomy course, you will learn about objects and processes that no one a few generations ago even dreamed existed.

1.3 The Laws of Nature

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:53:00 +0000

Over centuries scientists have extracted various scientific laws from countless observations, hypotheses, and experiments. These scientific laws are, in a sense, the “rules” of the game that nature plays. One remarkable discovery about nature—one that underlies everything you will read about in this text—is that the same laws apply everywhere in the universe. The rules that determine the motion of stars so far away that your eye cannot see them are the same laws that determine the arc of a baseball after a batter has hit it out of the park. Note that without the existence of such universal laws, we could not make much headway in astronomy. If each pocket of the universe had different rules, we would have little chance of interpreting what happened in other “neighborhoods.” But, the consistency of the laws of nature gives us enormous power to understand distant objects without traveling to them and learning the local laws. In the same way, if every region of a country had completely different laws, it would be very difficult to carry out commerce or even to understand the behavior of people in those different regions. A consistent set of laws, though, allows us to apply what we learn or practice in one state to any other state. This is not to say that our current scientific models and laws cannot change. New experiments and observations can lead to new, more sophisticated models—models that can include new phenomena and laws about their behavior. The general theory of relativity proposed by Albert Einstein is a perfect example of such a transformation that took place about a century ago; it led us to predict, and eventually to observe, a strange new class of objects that astronomers call black holes. Only the patient process of observing nature ever more carefully and precisely can demonstrate the validity of such new scientific models. One important problem in describing scientific models has to do with the limitations of language. When we try to describe complex phenomena in everyday terms, the words themselves may not be adequate to do the job. For example, you may have heard the structure of the atom likened to a miniature solar system. While some aspects of our modern model of the atom do remind us of planetary orbits, many other of its aspects are fundamentally different. This problem is the reason scientists often prefer to describe their models using equations rather than words. In this book, which is designed to introduce the field of astronomy, we use mainly words to discuss what scientists have learned. We avoid complex math, but if this course piques your interest and you go on in science, more and more of your studies will involve the precise language of mathematics.

1.4 Numbers in Astronomy

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:53:23 +0000

In astronomy, we deal with distances on a scale you may never have thought about before, with numbers larger than any you may have encountered. We adopt two approaches that make dealing with astronomical numbers a little bit easier. First, we use a system for writing large and small numbers called scientific notation (or sometimes powers-of-ten notation). This system is very appealing because it eliminates the many zeros that can seem overwhelming to the reader. In scientific notation, if you want to write a number such as 500,000,000, you express it as 5 × 10⁸. The small raised number after the 10, called an exponent, keeps track of the number of places we had to move the decimal point to the left to convert 500,000,000 to 5. If you are encountering this system for the first time or would like a refresher, we suggest you look at Appendix C and the PBS animation for more information. The second way we try to keep numbers simple is to use a consistent set of units—the metric International System of Units, or SI (from the French Système International d’Unités). The metric system is summarized in Appendix D.

Watch this brief PBS animation (http://tiny.cc/rufsqy) that explains how scientific notation works and why it is useful. (Original link is https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/muen-math-ee-scientificnotation/scientific-notation/#.Wvx7yFMvxfQ )

A common unit astronomers use to describe distances in the universe is a light-year, which is the distance light travels during one year. Because light always travels at the same speed, and because its speed turns out to be the fastest possible speed in the universe, it makes a good standard for keeping track of distances. You might be confused because a “light-year” seems to imply that we are measuring time, but this mix-up of time and distance is common in everyday life as well. For example, when your friend asks where the movie theater is located, you might say “about 20 minutes from downtown.”

So, how many kilometers are there in a light-year? Light travels at the amazing pace of 3 × 10⁵ kilometers per second (km/s), which makes a light-year 9.46 × 10¹² kilometers. You might think that such a large unit would reach the nearest star easily, but the stars are far more remote than our imaginations might lead us to believe. Even the nearest star is 4.3 light-years away—more than 40 trillion kilometers. Other stars and nebula visible to the unaided eye are hundreds to thousands of light-years away (See figure 1 below).

Orion Nebula

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="365"] Figure 1. This beautiful cloud of cosmic raw material (gas and dust from which new stars and planets are being made) called the Orion Nebula is about 1400 light-years away. That’s a distance of roughly 1.34 × 10¹⁶ kilometers—a pretty big number. The gas and dust in this region are illuminated by the intense light from a few extremely energetic adolescent stars. (credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team)[/caption]

Scientific Notation In 2015, the richest human being on our planet had a net worth of $79.2 billion. Some might say this is an astronomical sum of money. Express this amount in scientific notation.

Solution $79.2 billion can be written $79,200,000,000. Expressed in scientific notation it becomes $7.92 × 10¹⁰.

Getting Familiar with a Light-Year How many kilometers are there in a light-year?

Solution Light travels 3 × 10⁵ km in 1 sec. So, let’s calculate how far it goes in a year:

There are 60 (6 × 10¹) sec in 1 min, and 6 × 10¹ min in 1 h.
Multiply these together and you find that there are 3.6 × 10³ s/h.
Thus, light covers 3 × 10⁵ km/s × 3.6 × 10³ s/h = 1.08 × 10⁹ km/h.
There are 24 or 2.4 × 10¹ h in a day and 365.24 (3.65 × 10²) days in 1 y.
The product of these two numbers is 8.77 × 10³ h/y.
Multiplying this by 1.08 × 10⁹ km/h gives 9.46 × 10¹² km/light-year.

That’s almost 10,000,000,000,000 km that light covers in a year. To help you imagine how long this distance is, we’ll mention that a string 1 light-year long could fit around the circumference of Earth 236 million times.

1.5 Consequences of Light Travel Time

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:53:42 +0000

There is another reason the speed of light is such a natural unit of distance for astronomers. Information about the universe comes to us almost exclusively through various forms of light, and all such light travels at the speed of light—that is, 1 light-year every year. This sets a limit on how quickly we can learn about events in the universe. If a star is 100 light-years away, the light we see from it tonight left that star 100 years ago and is just now arriving in our neighborhood. The soonest we can learn about any changes in that star is 100 years after the fact. For a star 500 light-years away, the light we detect tonight left 500 years ago and is carrying 500-year-old news.

Because many of us are accustomed to instant news from the Internet, some might find this frustrating. “You mean, when I see that star up there,” you ask, “I won’t know what’s actually happening there for another 500 years?”

But this isn’t the most helpful way to think about the situation. For astronomers, now is when the light reaches us here on Earth. There is no way for us to know anything about that star (or other object) until its light reaches us.

But what at first may seem a great frustration is actually a tremendous benefit in disguise. If astronomers really want to piece together what has happened in the universe since its beginning, they must find evidence about each epoch (or period of time) of the past. Where can we find evidence today about cosmic events that occurred billions of years ago?

The delay in the arrival of light provides an answer to this question. The farther out in space we look, the longer the light has taken to get here, and the longer ago it left its place of origin. By looking billions of light-years out into space, astronomers are actually seeing billions of years into the past. In this way, we can reconstruct the history of the cosmos and get a sense of how it has evolved over time.

This is one reason why astronomers strive to build telescopes that can collect more and more of the faint light in the universe. The more light we collect, the fainter the objects we can observe. On average, fainter objects are farther away and can, therefore, tell us about periods of time even deeper in the past. Instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope (See figure 1 below) and the Very Large Telescope in Chile (which you will learn about in the chapter on Astronomical Instruments), are giving astronomers views of deep space and deep time better than any we have had before.

Telescope in Orbit.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="413"] Figure 1. The Hubble Space Telescope, shown here in orbit around Earth, is one of many astronomical instruments in space. (credit: modification of work by European Space Agency)[/caption]

1.6 A Tour of the Universe

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:53:55 +0000

We can now take a brief introductory tour of the universe as astronomers understand it today to get acquainted with the types of objects and distances you will encounter throughout the text. We begin at home with Earth, a nearly spherical planet about 13,000 kilometers in diameter (See Figure 1 below). A space traveler entering our planetary system would easily distinguish Earth from the other planets in our solar system by the large amount of liquid water that covers some two-thirds of its crust. If the traveler had equipment to receive radio or television signals or came close enough to see the lights of our cities at night, she would soon find signs that this watery planet has sentient life.

Humanity’s Home Base.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="563"] Figure 1. This image shows the Western hemisphere as viewed from space 35,400 kilometers (about 22,000 miles) above Earth. Data about the land surface from one satellite was combined with another satellite’s data about the clouds to create the image. (credit: modification of work by R. Stockli, A. Nelson, F. Hasler, NASA/ GSFC/ NOAA/ USGS)[/caption]

Our nearest astronomical neighbor is Earth’s satellite, commonly called the Moon. (See Figure 2 below) shows Earth and the Moon drawn to scale on the same diagram. Notice how small we have to make these bodies to fit them on the page with the right scale. The Moon’s distance from Earth is about 30 times Earth’s diameter, or approximately 384,000 kilometers, and it takes about a month for the Moon to revolve around Earth. The Moon’s diameter is 3476 kilometers, about one fourth the size of Earth.

Earth and Moon, Drawn to Scale.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. This image shows Earth and the Moon shown to scale for both size and distance. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Light (or radio waves) takes 1.3 seconds to travel between Earth and the Moon. If you’ve seen videos of the Apollo flights to the Moon, you may recall that there was a delay of about 3 seconds between the time Mission Control asked a question and the time the astronauts responded. This was not because the astronomers were thinking slowly, but rather because it took the radio waves almost 3 seconds to make the round trip.

Earth revolves around our star, the Sun, which is about 150 million kilometers away—approximately 400 times as far away from us as the Moon. We call the average Earth–Sun distance an astronomical unit (AU) because, in the early days of astronomy, it was the most important measuring standard. Light takes slightly more than 8 minutes to travel 1 astronomical unit, which means the latest news we receive from the Sun is always 8 minutes old. The diameter of the Sun is about 1.5 million kilometers; Earth could fit comfortably inside one of the minor eruptions that occur on the surface of our star. If the Sun were reduced to the size of a basketball, Earth would be a small apple seed about 30 meters from the ball.

It takes Earth 1 year (3 × 10⁷ seconds) to go around the Sun at our distance; to make it around, we must travel at approximately 110,000 kilometers per hour. (If you, like many students, still prefer miles to kilometers, you might find the following trick helpful. To convert kilometers to miles, just multiply kilometers by 0.6. Thus, 110,000 kilometers per hour becomes 66,000 miles per hour.) Because gravity holds us firmly to Earth and there is no resistance to Earth’s motion in the vacuum of space, we participate in this extremely fast-moving trip without being aware of it day to day. Earth is only one of eight planets that revolve around the Sun. These planets, along with their moons and swarms of smaller bodies such as dwarf planets, make up the solar system. (See Figure 3 below.) A planet is defined as a body of significant size that orbits a star and does not produce its own light. (If a large body consistently produces its own light, it is then called a star.) Later in the book this definition will be modified a bit, but it is perfectly fine for now as you begin your voyage.

Our Solar Family.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="615"] Figure 3. The Sun, the planets, and some dwarf planets are shown with their sizes drawn to scale. The orbits of the planets are much more widely separated than shown in this drawing. Notice the size of Earth compared to the giant planets. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

We are able to see the nearby planets in our skies only because they reflect the light of our local star, the Sun. If the planets were much farther away, the tiny amount of light they reflect would usually not be visible to us. The planets we have so far discovered orbiting other stars were found from the pull their gravity exerts on their parent stars, or from the light they block from their stars when they pass in front of them. We can’t see most of these planets directly, although a few are now being imaged directly.

The Sun is our local star, and all the other stars are also enormous balls of glowing gas that generate vast amounts of energy by nuclear reactions deep within. We will discuss the processes that cause stars to shine in more detail later in the book. The other stars look faint only because they are so very far away. If we continue our basketball analogy, Proxima Centauri, the nearest star beyond the Sun, which is 4.3 light-years away, would be almost 7000 kilometers from the basketball.

When you look up at a star-filled sky on a clear night, all the stars visible to the unaided eye are part of a single collection of stars we call the Milky Way Galaxy, or simply the Galaxy. (When referring to the Milky Way, we capitalize Galaxy; when talking about other galaxies of stars, we use lowercase galaxy.) The Sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars that make up the Galaxy; its extent, as we will see, staggers the human imagination. Within a sphere 10 light-years in radius centered on the Sun, we find roughly ten stars. Within a sphere 100 light-years in radius, there are roughly 10,000 (10⁴) stars—far too many to count or name—but we have still traversed only a tiny part of the Milky Way Galaxy. Within a 1000-light-year sphere, we find some ten million (10⁷) stars; within a sphere of 100,000 light-years, we finally encompass the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy looks like a giant disk with a small ball in the middle. If we could move outside our Galaxy and look down on the disk of the Milky Way from above, it would probably resemble the galaxy in (See figure 4 below), with its spiral structure outlined by the blue light of hot adolescent stars.

Spiral Galaxy.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="393"] Figure 4. This galaxy of billions of stars, called by its catalog number NGC 1073, is thought to be similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Here we see the giant wheel-shaped system with a bar of stars across its middle. (credit: NASA, ESA)[/caption]

The Sun is somewhat less than 30,000 light-years from the center of the Galaxy, in a location with nothing much to distinguish it. From our position inside the Milky Way Galaxy, we cannot see through to its far rim (at least not with ordinary light) because the space between the stars is not completely empty. It contains a sparse distribution of gas (mostly the simplest element, hydrogen) intermixed with tiny solid particles that we call interstellar dust. This gas and dust collect into enormous clouds in many places in the Galaxy, becoming the raw material for future generations of stars. (See Figure 5 below) shows an image of the disk of the Galaxy as seen from our vantage point.

Milky Way Galaxy.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="478"] Figure 5. Because we are inside the Milky Way Galaxy, we see its disk in cross-section flung across the sky like a great milky white avenue of stars with dark “rifts” of dust. In this dramatic image, part of it is seen above Trona Pinnacles in the California desert. (credit: Ian Norman)[/caption]

Typically, the interstellar material is so extremely sparse that the space between stars is a much better vacuum than anything we can produce in terrestrial laboratories. Yet, the dust in space, building up over thousands of light-years, can block the light of more distant stars. Like the distant buildings that disappear from our view on a smoggy day in Los Angeles, the more distant regions of the Milky Way cannot be seen behind the layers of interstellar smog. Luckily, astronomers have found that stars and raw material shine with various forms of light, some of which do penetrate the smog, and so we have been able to develop a pretty good map of the Galaxy.

Recent observations, however, have also revealed a rather surprising and disturbing fact. There appears to be more—much more—to the Galaxy than meets the eye (or the telescope). From various investigations, we have evidence that much of our Galaxy is made of a material we cannot currently observe directly with our instruments. We therefore call this component of the Galaxy dark matter. We know the dark matter is there by the pull its gravity exerts on the stars and raw material we can observe, but what this dark matter is made of and how much of it exists remain a mystery. Furthermore, this dark matter is not confined to our Galaxy; it appears to be an important part of other star groupings as well. By the way, not all stars live by themselves, as the Sun does. Many are born in double or triple systems with two, three, or more stars revolving about each other. Because the stars influence each other in such close systems, multiple stars allow us to measure characteristics that we cannot discern from observing single stars. In a number of places, enough stars have formed together that we recognized them as star clusters (See Figure 6 below). Some of the largest of the star clusters that astronomers have cataloged contain hundreds of thousands of stars and take up volumes of space hundreds of light-years across.

Star Cluster.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="398"] Figure 6. This large star cluster is known by its catalog number, M9. It contains some 250,000 stars and is seen more clearly from space using the Hubble Space Telescope. It is located roughly 25,000 light-years away. (credit: NASA, ESA)[/caption]

You may hear stars referred to as “eternal,” but in fact, no star can last forever. Since the “business” of stars is making energy, and energy production requires some sort of fuel to be used up, eventually all stars run out of fuel. This news should not cause you to panic, though, because our Sun still has at least 5 or 6 billion years to go. Ultimately, the Sun and all stars will die, and it is in their death throes that some of the most intriguing and important processes of the universe are revealed. For example, we now know that many of the atoms in our bodies were once inside stars. These stars exploded at the ends of their lives, recycling their material back into the reservoir of the Galaxy. In this sense, all of us are literally made of recycled “star dust.”

Canadians in Space While telescopes have brought the distant cosmos closer, humans have still only traveled relatively short distances beyond Earth. Marc Garneau is a pioneer of Canadian astronauts and was born in Quebec City. Raised between Canada and England, he completed a Bachlor's Degree in Electrical Engineering and then a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering. [caption id="attachment_49" align="aligncenter" width="280"] Figure 7. Canadian Astronaut Marc Garneau. (credit: C.S.A.)[/caption] Joining the Navy, Marc spent several years working on naval combat systems before becoming an officer. He was soon design authority for naval communications and electronic warfare technology. Selected for the Canadian astronaut program in 1983, Captain Garneau became the first Canadian to fly in space. It was during Shuttle Mission 41-G (http://tiny.cc/vowtqy) as a Payload Specialist in October 1984. Three more spaceflights followed for a total for 677 hours logged in space. Now a veteran astronaut, Marc served the Canadian Space Agency, as Executive Vice President and then as President from 2001 to 2005. During this time, he received Canada's highest civilian honour and thus became a Companion of the Order of Canada. Captain Marc Garneau retired from the C.S.A. in 2005 for a run in federal politics. He won his first parliament seat in 2008 and then again in 2011. Now, he serves as the Minister of Transport (http://tiny.cc/cmwtqy).

1.7 The Universe on the Large Scale

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:54:18 +0000

In a very rough sense, you could think of the solar system as your house or apartment and the Galaxy as your town, made up of many houses and buildings. In the twentieth century, astronomers were able to show that, just as our world is made up of many, many towns, so the universe is made up of enormous numbers of galaxies. (We define the universe to be everything that exists that is accessible to our observations.) Galaxies stretch as far into space as our telescopes can see, many billions of them within the reach of modern instruments. When they were first discovered, some astronomers called galaxies island universes, and the term is aptly descriptive; galaxies do look like islands of stars in the vast, dark seas of intergalactic space.

The nearest galaxy, discovered in 1993, is a small one that lies 75,000 light-years from the Sun in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, where the smog in our own Galaxy makes it especially difficult to discern. (A constellation, we should note, is one of the 88 sections into which astronomers divide the sky, each named after a prominent star pattern within it.) Beyond this Sagittarius dwarf galaxy lie two other small galaxies, about 160,000 light-years away. First recorded by Magellan’s crew as he sailed around the world, these are called the Magellanic Clouds (See Figure 1 below). All three of these small galaxies are satellites of the Milky Way Galaxy, interacting with it through the force of gravity. Ultimately, all three may even be swallowed by our much larger Galaxy, as other small galaxies have been over the course of cosmic time.

Neighbor Galaxies.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="390"] Figure 1. This image shows both the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud above the telescopes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. (credit: ESO, C. Malin)[/caption]

The nearest large galaxy is a spiral quite similar to our own, located in the constellation of Andromeda, and is thus called the Andromeda galaxy; it is also known by one of its catalog numbers, M31 (See Figure 2 below). M31 is a little more than 2 million light-years away and, along with the Milky Way, is part of a small cluster of more than 50 galaxies referred to as the Local Group.

Closest Spiral Galaxy.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="303"] Figure 2. The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is a spiral-shaped collection of stars similar to our own Milky Way. (credit: Adam Evans)[/caption]

At distances of 10 to 15 million light-years, we find other small galaxy groups, and then at about 50 million light-years there are more impressive systems with thousands of member galaxies. We have discovered that galaxies occur mostly in clusters, both large and small (See Figure 3 below).

Fornax Cluster of Galaxies.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="356"] Figure 3. In this image, you can see part of a cluster of galaxies located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Fornax. All the objects that are not pinpoints of light in the picture are galaxies of billions of stars. (credit: ESO, J. Emerson, VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit)[/caption]Some of the clusters themselves form into larger groups called superclusters. The Local Group is part of a supercluster of galaxies, called the Virgo Supercluster, which stretches over a diameter of 110 million light-years. We are just beginning to explore the structure of the universe at these enormous scales and are already encountering some unexpected findings.

At even greater distances, where many ordinary galaxies are too dim to see, we find quasars. These are brilliant centers of galaxies, glowing with the light of an extraordinarily energetic process. The enormous energy of the quasars is produced by gas that is heated to a temperature of millions of degrees as it falls toward a massive black hole and swirls around it. The brilliance of quasars makes them the most distant beacons we can see in the dark oceans of space. They allow us to probe the universe 10 billion light-years away or more, and thus 10 billion years or more in the past.

With quasars we can see way back close to the Big Bang explosion that marks the beginning of time. Beyond the quasars and the most distant visible galaxies, we have detected the feeble glow of the explosion itself, filling the universe and thus coming to us from all directions in space. The discovery of this “afterglow of creation” is considered to be one of the most significant events in twentieth-century science, and we are still exploring the many things it has to tell us about the earliest times of the universe. Measurements of the properties of galaxies and quasars in remote locations require large telescopes, sophisticated light-amplifying devices, and painstaking labor. Every clear night, at observatories around the world, astronomers and students are at work on such mysteries as the birth of new stars and the large-scale structure of the universe, fitting their results into the tapestry of our understanding.

1.8 The Universe of the Very Small

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:54:32 +0000

The foregoing discussion has likely impressed on you that the universe is extraordinarily large and extraordinarily empty. On average, it is 10,000 times more empty than our Galaxy. Yet, as we have seen, even the Galaxy is mostly empty space. The air we breathe has about 10¹⁹ atoms in each cubic centimeter—and we usually think of air as empty space. In the interstellar gas of the Galaxy, there is about one atom in every cubic centimeter. Intergalactic space is filled so sparsely that to find one atom, on average, we must search through a cubic meter of space. Most of the universe is fantastically empty; places that are dense, such as the human body, are tremendously rare.

Even our most familiar solids are mostly space. If we could take apart such a solid, piece by piece, we would eventually reach the tiny molecules from which it is formed. Molecules are the smallest particles into which any matter can be divided while still retaining its chemical properties. A molecule of water (H₂O), for example, consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom bonded together.

Molecules, in turn, are built of atoms, which are the smallest particles of an element that can still be identified as that element. For example, an atom of gold is the smallest possible piece of gold. Nearly 100 different kinds of atoms (elements) exist in nature. Most of them are rare, and only a handful account for more than 99% of everything with which we come in contact. The most abundant elements in the cosmos today are listed below (See The Cosmically Abundant Elements); think of this table as the “greatest hits” of the universe when it comes to elements.

The Cosmically Abundant Elements
Element¹	Symbol	Number of Atoms per Million Hydrogen Atoms
Hydrogen	H	1,000,000
Helium	He	80,000
Carbon	C	450
Nitrogen	N	92
Oxygen	O	740
Neon	Ne	130
Magnesium	Mg	40
Silicon	Si	37
Sulfur	S	19
Iron	Fe	32

All atoms consist of a central, positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The bulk of the matter in each atom is found in the nucleus, which consists of positive protons and electrically neutral neutrons all bound tightly together in a very small space. Each element is defined by the number of protons in its atoms. Thus, any atom with 6 protons in its nucleus is called carbon, any with 50 protons is called tin, and any with 70 protons is called ytterbium. (For a list of the elements, see Appendix K.)

The distance from an atomic nucleus to its electrons is typically 100,000 times the size of the nucleus itself. This is why we say that even solid matter is mostly space. The typical atom is far emptier than the solar system out to Neptune. (The distance from Earth to the Sun, for example, is only 100 times the size of the Sun.) This is one reason atoms are not like miniature solar systems.

Remarkably, physicists have discovered that everything that happens in the universe, from the smallest atomic nucleus to the largest superclusters of galaxies, can be explained through the action of only four forces: gravity, electromagnetism (which combines the actions of electricity and magnetism), and two forces that act at the nuclear level. The fact that there are four forces (and not a million, or just one) has puzzled physicists and astronomers for many years and has led to a quest for a unified picture of nature.

To construct an atom, particle by particle, check out this guided animation from PhET ( https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/build-an-atom or http://tiny.cc/daxtqy) for building an atom.

Footnotes

1 This list of elements is arranged in order of the atomic number, which is the number of protons in each nucleus.

1.9 A Conclusion and a Beginning

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:54:45 +0000

If you are new to astronomy, you have probably reached the end of our brief tour in this chapter with mixed emotions. On the one hand, you may be fascinated by some of the new ideas you’ve read about and you may be eager to learn more. On the other hand, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by the number of topics we have covered, and the number of new words and ideas we have introduced. Learning astronomy is a little like learning a new language: at first it seems there are so many new expressions that you’ll never master them all, but with practice, you soon develop facility with them.

At this point you may also feel a bit small and insignificant, dwarfed by the cosmic scales of distance and time. But, there is another way to look at what you have learned from our first glimpses of the cosmos. Let us consider the history of the universe from the Big Bang to today and compress it, for easy reference, into a single year. (We have borrowed this idea from Carl Sagan’s 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Dragons of Eden.)

On this scale, the Big Bang happened at the first moment of January 1, and this moment, when you are reading this chapter would be the end of the very last second of December 31. When did other events in the development of the universe happen in this “cosmic year?” Our solar system formed around September 10, and the oldest rocks we can date on Earth go back to the third week in September ([link] See Figure 1).

Charting Cosmic Time.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="587"] Figure 1. On a cosmic calendar, where the time since the Big Bang is compressed into 1 year, creatures we would call human do not emerge on the scene until the evening of December 31. (credit: February: modification of work by NASA, JPL-Caltech, W. Reach (SSC/Caltech); March: modification of work by ESA, Hubble and NASA, Acknowledgement: Giles Chapdelaine; April: modification of work by NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University); May: modification of work by NASA, JPL-Caltech; June: modification of work by NASA/ESA; July: modification of work by NASA, JPL-Caltech, Harvard-Smithsonian; August: modification of work by NASA, JPL-Caltech, R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech); September: modification of work by NASA; October: modification of work by NASA; November: modification of work by Dénes Emőke)[/caption]Where does the origin of human beings fall during the course of this cosmic year? The answer turns out to be the evening of December 31. The invention of the alphabet doesn’t occur until the fiftieth second of 11:59 p.m. on December 31. And the beginnings of modern astronomy are a mere fraction of a second before the New Year. Seen in a cosmic context, the amount of time we have had to study the stars is minute, and our success in piecing together as much of the story as we have is remarkable.

Certainly our attempts to understand the universe are not complete. As new technologies and new ideas allow us to gather more and better data about the cosmos, our present picture of astronomy will very likely undergo many changes. Still, as you read our current progress report on the exploration of the universe, take a few minutes every once in a while just to savor how much you have already learned.

For Further Exploration

Books

Miller, Ron, and William Hartmann. The Grand Tour: A Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System. 3rd ed. Workman, 2005. This volume for beginners is a colorfully illustrated voyage among the planets.

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Ballantine, 2013 [1980]. This tome presents a classic overview of astronomy by an astronomer who had a true gift for explaining things clearly. (You can also check out Sagan’s television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage and Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s current series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.)

Tyson, Neil DeGrasse, and Don Goldsmith. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. Norton, 2004. This book provides a guided tour through the beginnings of the universe, galaxies, stars, planets, and life.

Websites

If you enjoyed the beautiful images in this chapter (and there are many more fabulous photos to come in other chapters), you may want to know where you can obtain and download such pictures for your own enjoyment. (Many astronomy images are from government-supported instruments or projects, paid for by tax dollars, and therefore are free of copyright laws.) Here are three resources we especially like:

Astronomy Picture of the Day: apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html. Two space scientists scour the Internet and select one beautiful astronomy image to feature each day. Their archives range widely, from images of planets and nebulae to rockets and space instruments; they also have many photos of the night sky. The search function (see the menu on the bottom of the page) works quite well for finding something specific among the many years’ worth of daily images.
Hubble Space Telescope Images: www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/browse/images. Starting at this page, you can select from among hundreds of Hubble pictures by subject or by date. Note that many of the images have supporting pictures with them, such as diagrams, animations, or comparisons. Excellent captions and background information are provided. Other ways to approach these images are through the more public-oriented Hubble Gallery (www.hubblesite.org/gallery) and the European homepage (www.spacetelescope.org/images).
National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Planetary Photojournal: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov. This site features thousands of images from planetary exploration, with captions of varied length. You can select images by world, feature name, date, or catalog number, and download images in a number of popular formats. However, only NASA mission images are included. Note the Photojournal Search option on the menu at the top of the homepage to access ways to search their archives.

Videos

Cosmic Voyage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXf7AJZ73A. This video presents a portion of Cosmic Voyage, narrated by Morgan Freeman (8:34).

Powers of Ten: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0. This classic short video is a much earlier version of Powers of Ten, narrated by Philip Morrison (9:00).

The Known Universe: www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U. This video tour from the American Museum of Natural History has realistic animation, music, and captions (6:30).

Wanderers: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141208.html. This video provides a tour of the solar system, with narrative by Carl Sagan, imagining other worlds with dramatically realistic paintings (3:50).

2.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:55:58 +0000

Night Sky.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. In this panoramic photograph of the night sky from the Atacama Desert in Chile, we can see the central portion of the Milky Way Galaxy arcing upward in the center of the frame. On the left, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud (smaller galaxies that orbit the Milky Way Galaxy) are easily visible from the Southern Hemisphere. (credit: modification of work by ESO/Y. Beletsky)[/caption]

Much to your surprise, a member of the Flat Earth Society moves in next door. He believes that Earth is flat and all the NASA images of a spherical Earth are either faked or simply show the round (but flat) disk of Earth from above. How could you prove to your new neighbor that Earth really is a sphere? (When you’ve thought about this on your own, you can check later in the chapter for some suggested answers.)

Today, few people really spend much time looking at the night sky. In ancient days, before electric lights robbed so many people of the beauty of the sky, the stars and planets were an important aspect of everyone’s daily life. All the records that we have—on paper and in stone—show that ancient civilizations around the world noticed, worshipped, and tried to understand the lights in the sky and fit them into their own view of the world. These ancient observers found both majestic regularity and never-ending surprise in the motions of the heavens. Through their careful study of the planets, the Greeks and later the Romans laid the foundation of the science of astronomy.

A.6 Physical and Orbital Data for the Planets

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

Physical Data for the Major Planets
Major Planet	Mean Diameter (km)	Mean Diameter (Earth = 1)	Mass (Earth = 1)	Mean Density (g/cm³)	Rotation Period (d)	Inclination of Equator to Orbit (°)	Surface Gravity (Earth = 1[g])	Velocity of Escape (km/s)
Mercury	4879	0.38	0.055	5.43	58.	0.0	0.38	4.3
Venus	12,104	0.95	0.815	5.24	−243.	177	0.90	10.4
Earth	12,756	1.00	1.00	5.51	1.000	23.4	1.00	11.2
Mars	6779	0.53	0.11	3.93	1.026	25.2	0.38	5.0
Jupiter	140,000	10.9	318	1.33	0.414	3.1	2.53	60.
Saturn	117,000	9.13	95.2	0.69	0.440	26.7	1.07	36.
Uranus	50,700	3.98	14.5	1.27	−0.718	97.9	0.89	21.
Neptune	49,200	3.86	17.2	1.64	0.671	29.6	1.14	23.

Physical Data for Well-Studied Dwarf Planets
Well-Studied Dwarf Planet	Diameter (km)	Diameter (Earth = 1)	Mass (Earth = 1)	Mean Density (g/cm³)	Rotation Period (d)	Inclination of Equator to Orbit (°)	Surface Gravity (Earth = 1[g])	Velocity of Escape (km/s)
Ceres	950	0.07	0.0002	2.2	0.378	3	0.03	0.5
Pluto	2470	0.18	0.0024	1.9	−6.387	122	0.06	1.3
Haumea	1700	0.13	0.0007	3	0.163	—	—	0.8
Makemake	1400	0.11	0.0005	2	0.321	—	—	0.8
Eris	2326	0.18	0.0028	2.5	1.25¹	—	—	1.4

Orbital Data for the Major Planets
Major Planet	Semimajor Axis (AU)	Semimajor Axis (10⁶ km)	Sidereal Period (y)	Sidereal Period (d)	Mean Orbital Speed (km/s)	Orbital Eccentricity	Inclination of Orbit to Ecliptic (°)
Mercury	0.39	58	0.24	88.0	47.9	0.206	7.0
Venus	0.72	108	0.6	224.7	35.0	0.007	3.4
Earth	1.00	149	1.00	365.2	29.8	0.017	0.0
Mars	1.52	228	1.88	687.0	24.1	0.093	1.9
Jupiter	5.20	778	11.86	—	13.1	0.048	1.3
Saturn	9.54	1427	29.46	—	9.6	0.056	2.5
Uranus	19.19	2871	84.01	—	6.8	0.046	0.8
Neptune	30.06	4497	164.82	—	5.4	0.010	1.8

Orbital Data for Well-Studied Dwarf Planets
Well-Studied Dwarf Planet	Semimajor Axis (AU)	Semimajor Axis (10⁶ km)	Sidereal Period (y)	Mean Orbital Speed (km/s)	Orbital Eccentricity	Inclination of Orbit to Ecliptic (°)
Ceres	2.77	414.0	4.6	18	0.08	11
Pluto	39.5	5915	248.6	4.7	0.25	17
Haumea	43.1	6452	283.3	4.5	0.19	28
Makemake	45.8	6850	309.9	4.4	0.16	29
Eris	68.0	10,120	560.9	3.4	0.44	44

Footnotes

1 This measurement is quite uncertain.

A.7 Selected Moons of the Planets

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

Note: As this book goes to press, nearly two hundred moons are now known in the solar system and more are being discovered on a regular basis. Of the major planets, only Mercury and Venus do not have moons. In addition to moons of the planets, there are many moons of asteroids. In this appendix, we list only the largest and most interesting objects that orbit each planet (including dwarf planets). The number given for each planet is discoveries through 2015. For further information see https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/solarsystem/moons and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_satellites.

Selected Moons of the Planets
Planet (moons)	Satellite Name	Discovery	Semimajor Axis (km × 1000)	Period (d)	Diameter (km)	Mass (10²⁰ kg)	Density (g/cm³)
Earth (1)	Moon	—	384	27.32	3476	735	3.3
Mars (2)	Phobos	Hall (1877)	9.4	0.32	23	1 × 10⁻⁴	2.0
Mars (2)	Deimos	Hall (1877)	23.5	1.26	13	2 × 10⁻⁵	1.7
Jupiter (67)	Amalthea	Barnard (1892)	181	0.50	200	—	—
	Thebe	Voyager (1979)	222	0.67	90	—	—
	Io	Galileo (1610)	422	1.77	3630	894	3.6
	Europa	Galileo (1610)	671	3.55	3138	480	3.0
	Ganymede	Galileo (1610)	1070	7.16	5262	1482	1.9
	Callisto	Galileo (1610)	1883	16.69	4800	1077	1.9
	Himalia	Perrine (1904)	11,460	251	170	—	—
Saturn (62)	Pan	Voyager (1985)	133.6	0.58	20	3 × 10⁻⁵	—
	Atlas	Voyager (1980)	137.7	0.60	40	—	—
	Prometheus	Voyager (1980)	139.4	0.61	80	—	—
	Pandora	Voyager (1980)	141.7	0.63	100	—	—
	Janus	Dollfus (1966)	151.4	0.69	190	—	—
	Epimetheus	Fountain, Larson (1980)	151.4	0.69	120	—	—
	Mimas	Herschel (1789)	186	0.94	394	0.4	1.2
	Enceladus	Herschel (1789)	238	1.37	502	0.8	1.2
	Tethys	Cassini (1684)	295	1.89	1048	7.5	1.3
	Dione	Cassini (1684)	377	2.74	1120	11	1.3
	Rhea	Cassini (1672)	527	4.52	1530	25	1.3
	Titan	Huygens (1655)	1222	15.95	5150	1346	1.9
	Hyperion	Bond, Lassell (1848)	1481	21.3	270	—	—
	Iapetus	Cassini (1671)	3561	79.3	1435	19	1.2
	Phoebe	Pickering (1898)	12,950	550 (R)¹	220	—	—
Uranus (27)	Puck	Voyager (1985)	86.0	0.76	170	—	—
	Miranda	Kuiper (1948)	130	1.41	485	0.8	1.3
	Ariel	Lassell (1851)	191	2.52	1160	13	1.6
	Umbriel	Lassell (1851)	266	4.14	1190	13	1.4
	Titania	Herschel (1787)	436	8.71	1610	35	1.6
	Oberon	Herschel (1787)	583	13.5	1550	29	1.5
Neptune (14)	Despina	Voyager (1989)	53	0.33	150	—	—
	Galatea	Voyager (1989)	62	0.40	150	—	—
	Larissa	Voyager (1989)	118	1.12	400	—	—
	Triton	Lassell (1846)	355	5.88 (R)²	2720	220	2.1
	Nereid	Kuiper (1949)	5511	360	340	—	—
Pluto (5)	Charon	Christy (1978)	19.7	6.39	1200	—	1.7
	Styx	Showalter et al (2012)	42	20	20	—	—
	Nix	Weaver et al (2005)	48	24	46	—	2.1
	Kerberos	Showalter et al (2011)	58	24	28	—	1.4
	Hydra	Weaver et al (2005)	65	38	61	—	0.8
Eris (1)	Dysnomea	Brown et al (2005)	38	16	684	—	—
Makemake (1)	(MK2)	Parker et al (2016)	—	—	160	—	—
Haumea (2)	Hi’iaka	Brown et al (2005)	50	49	400	—	—
Haumea (2)	Namaka	Brown et al (2005)	39	35	200	—	—

Footnotes

1 R stands for retrograde rotation (backward from the direction that most objects in the solar system revolve and rotate).
2 R stands for retrograde rotation (backward from the direction that most objects in the solar system revolve and rotate).

A.8 Future Total Eclipses

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

We also include eclipses that are annular—where the Moon is directly in front of the Sun, but doesn’t fully cover it—leaving a ring of light around the dark Moon’s edges)

Future Total Solar Eclipses
Date	Type of Eclipse	Location on Earth¹
September 1, 2016	Annular	S Atlantic Ocean, C Africa, Madagascar, Indian Ocean
February 26, 2017	Annular	SW Africa, S tip of South America
August 21, 2017	Total	U.S. and oceans on either side
July 2, 2019	Total	SW South America, Pacific Ocean
December 26, 2019	Annular	Saudi Arabia, S India, Malaysia
June 21, 2020	Annular	(very short) C Africa, Pakistan, India, China
December 14, 2020	Total	Chile, Argentina, and oceans on either side
June 10, 2021	Annular	N Canada, Greenland
December 4, 2021	Total	Only in Antarctica
April 20, 2023	Total²	Mostly in Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia
October 14, 2023	Annular	OR, NV, UT, NM, TX, C America, Colombia, Brazil
April 8, 2024	Total	N Mexico, U.S. (TX to ME), SE Canada and oceans on either side
October 2, 2024	Annular	S Chile, S Argentina, and oceans on either side
February 17, 2026	Annular	Only in Antarctica
August 12, 2026	Total	Greenland, Iceland, Spain
February 6, 2027	Annular	S Pacific, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, S Atlantic
August 2, 2027	Total	Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Arabian Sea
January 26, 2028	Annular	Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, North Atlantic Ocean, Portugal, Spain
July 22, 2028	Total	Indian Ocean, Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific Ocean

Future Total Lunar Eclipses

Future Total Lunar Eclipses
Date	Location on Earth
January 31, 2018	Asia, Australia, W North America
July 27, 2018	S America, Asia, Africa, Australia, Indian Ocean
January 21, 2019	N America, S America, W Africa, W Europe
May 26, 2021	E Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean, W North America, W South America
May 16, 2022	N America, S America, Europe, Africa
November 8, 2022	Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean, N America, S America
March 14, 2025	Pacific Ocean, N America, S America, Atlantic Ocean, W Europe, W Africa
September 7, 2025	Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Indian Ocean
March 3, 2026	E Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean, N America, C America
June 26, 2029	E North America, S America, Atlantic Ocean, W Europe, W Africa
December 20, 2029	E North America, E South America, Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Africa, Asia

Additional Resources

For more information and detailed maps about eclipses, see these resources.

NASA’s Eclipse Site: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Mr. Eclipse site for beginners by Dr. Fred Espenak: http://www.mreclipse.com/
Eclipse Weather and Maps by Meteorologist Jay Anderson: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~jander/
Eclipse Maps by Michael Zeiler: http://www.eclipse-maps.com/Eclipse-Maps/Welcome.html
Eclipse Information and Maps by Xavier Jubier: http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/eclipses.html

Footnotes

1 Remember that a total or annular eclipse is only visible on a narrow track. The same eclipse will be partial over a much larger area, but partial eclipses are not as spectacular as total ones.
2 This is a so-called hybrid eclipse, which is total in some places and annular in others.

A.9 The Nearest Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and White Dwarfs

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:28 +0000

The Nearest Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and White Dwarfs
Star	System	Discovery Name	Distance (light-year)	Spectral Type	Location: RA¹	Location: Dec²	Luminosity (Sun = 1)
		Sun	—	G2 V	—	—	1
1	1	Proxima Centauri	4.2	M5.5 V	14 29	−62 40	5 × 10⁻⁵
2	2	Alpha Centauri A	4.4	G2 V	14 39	−60 50	1.5
3		Alpha Centauri B	4.4	K2 IV	14 39	−60 50	0.5
4	3	Barnard’s Star	6.0	M4 V	17 57	+04 42	4.4 × 10⁻⁴
5	4	Wolf 359	7.8	M6 V	10 56	+07 00	2 × 10⁻⁵
6	5	Lalande 21 185	8.3	M2 V	11 03	+35 58	5.7 × 10⁻³
7	6	Sirius A	8.6	A1 V	06 45	−16 42	23.1
8		Sirius B	8.6	DA2³	06 45	−16 43	2.5 × 10⁻³
9	7	Luyten 726-8 A	8.7	M5.5 V	01 39	−17 57	6 × 10⁻⁵
10		Luyten 726-8 B (UV Ceti)	8.7	M6 V	01 39	−17 57	4 × 10⁻⁵

11	8	Ross 154	9.7	M.05 V	18 49	−23 50	5 × 10⁻⁴
12	9	Ross 248 (HH Andromedae)	10.3	M5.5 V	23 41	+44 10	1.0 × 10⁻⁴
13	10	Epsilon Eridani	10.5	K2 V	03 32	−09 27	0.29
14	11	Lacaille 9352	10.7	M0.5 V	23 05	−35 51	0.011
15	12	Ross 128 (FI Virginis)	10.9	M4 V	11 47	+00 48	3.4 × 10⁻⁴
16	13	Luyten 789-6 A (EZ Aquarii A)	11.3	M5 V	22 38	−15 17	5 × 10⁻⁵
17		Luyten 789-6 B (EZ Aquarii B)	11.3	M5.5 V	22 38	−15 15	5 × 10⁻⁵
18		Luyten 789-6 C (EZ Aquarii C)	11.3	M6.5 V	22 38	−15 17	2 × 10⁻⁵
19	14	61 Cygni A	11.4	K5 V	21 06	+38 44	0.086
20		61 Cygni B	11.4	K7 V	21 06	+38 44	0.041
21	15	Procyon A	11.4	F51V	07 39	+05 13	7.38
22		Procyon B	11.4	wd⁴	07 39	+05 13	5.5 × 10⁻⁴
23	16	Sigma 2398 A	11.5	M3 V	18 42	+59 37	0.003
24		Sigma 2398 B	11.5	M3.5 V	18 42	+59 37	1.4 × 10⁻³
25	17	Groombridge 34 A (GX Andromedae)	11.6	M1.5 V	00 18	+44 01	6.4 × 10⁻³

Footnotes

1 Location (right ascension) given for Epoch 2000.0
2 Location (declination) given for Epoch 2000.0
3 White dwarf stellar remnant
4 White dwarf stellar remnant
5 Brown dwarf
6 Brown dwarf
7 Brown dwarf

A.10 The Brightest Twenty Stars

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:29 +0000

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The brightest stars typically have names from antiquity. Next to each star’s ancient name, we have added a column with its name in the system originated by Bayer (see the Naming Stars feature box.) The distances of the more remote stars are estimated from their spectral types and apparent brightnesses and are only approximate. The luminosities for those stars are approximate to the same degree. Right ascension and declination is given for Epoch 2000.0.[/caption]

Note: These are the stars that appear the brightest visually, as seen from our vantage point on Earth. They are not necessarily the stars that are intrinsically the most luminous.

A.11 The Chemical Elements

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:29 +0000

The Chemical Elements
Element	Symbol	Atomic Number	Atomic Weight¹	Percentage of Naturally Occurring Elements in the Universe
Hydrogen	H	1	1.008	75
Helium	He	2	4.003	23
Lithium	Li	3	6.94	6 × 10⁻⁷
Beryllium	Be	4	9.012	1 × 10⁻⁷
Boron	B	5	10.821	1 × 10⁻⁷
Carbon	C	6	12.011	0.5
Nitrogen	N	7	14.007	0.1
Oxygen	O	8	15.999	1
Fluorine	F	9	18.998	4 × 10⁻⁵
Neon	Ne	10	20.180	0.13
Sodium	Na	11	22.990	0.002
Magnesium	Mg	12	24.305	0.06
Aluminum	Al	13	26.982	0.005
Silicon	Si	14	28.085	0.07
Phosphorus	P	15	30.974	7 × 10⁻⁴
Sulfur	S	16	32.06	0.05
Chlorine	Cl	17	35.45	1 × 10⁻⁴
Argon	Ar	18	39.948	0.02
Potassium	K	19	39.098	3 × 10⁻⁴
Calcium	Ca	20	40.078	0.007
Scandium	Sc	21	44.956	3 × 10⁻⁶
Titanium	Ti	22	47.867	3 × 10⁻⁴
Vanadium	V	23	50.942	3 × 10⁻⁴
Chromium	Cr	24	51.996	0.0015
Manganese	Mn	25	54.938	8 × 10⁻⁴
Iron	Fe	26	55.845	0.11
Cobalt	Co	27	58.933	3 × 10⁻⁴
Nickel	Ni	28	58.693	0.006
Copper	Cu	29	63.546	6 × 10⁻⁶
Zinc	Zn	30	65.38	3 × 10⁻⁵
Gallium	Ga	31	69.723	1 × 10⁻⁶
Germanium	Ge	32	72.630	2 × 10⁻⁵
Arsenic	As	33	74.922	8 × 10⁻⁷
Selenium	Se	34	78.971	3 × 10⁻⁶
Bromine	Br	35	79.904	7 × 10⁻⁷
Krypton	Kr	36	83.798	4 × 10⁻⁶
Rubidium	Rb	37	85.468	1 × 10⁻⁶
’Strontium	Sr	38	87.62	4 × 10⁻⁶
Yttrium	Y	39	88.906	7 × 10⁻⁷
Zirconium	Zr	40	91.224	5 × 10⁻⁶
Niobium	Nb	41	92.906	2 × 10⁻⁷
Molybdenum	Mo	42	95.95	5 × 10⁻⁷
Technetium	Tc	43	(98)	—
Ruthenium	Ru	44	101.07	4 × 10⁻⁷
Rhodium	Rh	45	102.906	6 × 10⁻⁸
Palladium	Pd	46	106.42	2 × 10⁻⁷
Silver	Ag	47	107.868	6 × 10⁻⁸
Cadmium	Cd	48	112.414	2 × 10⁻⁷
Indium	In	49	114.818	3 × 10⁻⁸
Tin	Sn	50	118.710	4 × 10⁻⁷
Antimony	Sb	51	121.760	4 × 10⁻⁸
Tellurium	Te	52	127.60	9 × 10⁻⁷
Iodine	I	53	126.904	1 × 10⁻⁷
Xenon	Xe	54	131.293	1 × 10⁻⁶
Cesium	Cs	55	132.905	8 × 10⁻⁸
Barium	Ba	56	137.327	1 × 10⁻⁶
Lanthanum	La	57	138.905	2 × 10⁻⁷
Cerium	Ce	58	140.116	1 × 10⁻⁶
Praseodymium	Pr	59	140.907	2 × 10⁻⁷
Neodymium	Nd	60	144.242	1 × 10⁻⁶
Promethium	Pm	61	(145)	—
Samarium	Sm	62	150.36	5 × 10⁻⁷
Europium	Eu	63	151.964	5 × 10⁻⁸
Gadolinium	Gd	64	157.25	2 × 10⁻⁷
Terbium	Tb	65	158.925	5 × 10⁻⁸
Dysprosium	Dy	66	162.500	2 × 10⁻⁷
Holmium	Ho	67	164.930	5 × 10⁻⁸
Erbium	Er	68	167.259	2 × 10⁻⁷
Thulium	Tm	69	168.934	1 × 10⁻⁸
Ytterbium	Yb	70	173.054	2 × 10⁻⁷
Lutetium	Lu	71	174.967	1 × 10⁻⁸
Hafnium	Hf	72	178.49	7 × 10⁻⁸
Tantalum	Ta	73	180.948	8 × 10⁻⁹
Tungsten	W	74	183.84	5 × 10⁻⁸
Rhenium	Re	75	186.207	2 × 10⁻⁸
Osmium	Os	76	190.23	3 × 10⁻⁷
Iridium	Ir	77	192.217	2 × 10⁻⁷
Platinum	Pt	78	195.084	5 × 10⁻⁷
Gold	Au	79	196.967	6 × 10⁻⁸
Mercury	Hg	80	200.592	1 × 10⁻⁷
Thallium	TI	81	204.38	5 × 10⁻⁸
Lead	Pb	82	207.2	1 × 10⁻⁶
Bismuth	Bi	83	208.980	7 × 10⁻⁸
Polonium	Po	84	(209)	—
Astatine	At	85	(210)	—
Radon	Rn	86	(222)	—
Francium	Fr	87	(223)	—
Radium	Ra	88	(226)	—
Actinium	Ac	89	(227)	—
Thorium	Th	90	232.038	4 × 10⁻⁸
Protactinium	Pa	91	231.036	—
Uranium	U	92	238.029	2 × 10⁻⁸
Neptunium	Np	93	(237)	—
Plutonium	Pu	94	(244)	—
Americium	Am	95	(243)	—
Curium	Cm	96	(247)	—
Berkelium	Bk	97	(247)	—
Californium	Cf	98	(251)	—
Einsteinium	Es	99	(252)	—
Fermium	Fm	100	(257)	—
Mendelevium	Md	101	(258)	—
Nobelium	No	102	(259)	—
Lawrencium	Lr	103	(262)	—
Rutherfordium	Rf	104	(267)	—
Dubnium	Db	105	(268)	—
Seaborgium	Sg	106	(271)	—
Bohrium	Bh	107	(272)	—
Hassium	Hs	108	(270)	—
Meitnerium	Mt	109	(276)	—
Darmstadtium	Ds	110	(281)	—
Roentgenium	Rg	111	(280)	—
Copernicium	Cn	112	(285)	—
Ununtrium	Uut	113	(284)	—
Flerovium	Fl	114	(289)	—
Ununpentium	Uup	115	(288)	—
Livermorium	Lv	116	(293)	—
Ununseptium	Uus	117	(294)	—
Ununoctium	Uuo	118	(294)	—

Note: Some of the newest elements near the bottom of the table have suggested names that are still under review, and those names are not yet listed here. For example, Tennessine is suggested for element 117, after the state where the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is located.

Footnotes

1 Where mean atomic weights have not been well determined, the atomic mass numbers of the most stable isotopes are given in parentheses.

A.12 The Constellations

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:29 +0000

The Constellations
Constellation (Latin name)	Genitive Case Ending	English Name or Description	Abbreviation	Approximate Position: α (h)	Approximate Position: δ (°)
Andromeda	Andromedae	Princess of Ethiopia	And	1	+40
Antila	Antilae	Air pump	Ant	10	−35
Apus	Apodis	Bird of Paradise	Aps	16	−75
Aquarius	Aquarii	Water bearer	Aqr	23	−15
Aquila	Aquilae	Eagle	Aql	20	+5
Ara	Arae	Altar	Ara	17	−55
Aries	Arietis	Ram	Ari	3	+20
Auriga	Aurigae	Charioteer	Aur	6	+40
Boötes	Boötis	Herdsman	Boo	15	+30
Caelum	Cael	Graving tool	Cae	5	−40
Camelopardus	Camelopardis	Giraffe	Cam	6	+70
Cancer	Cancri	Crab	Cnc	9	+20
Canes Venatici	Canum Venaticorum	Hunting dogs	CVn	13	+40
Canis Major	Canis Majoris	Big dog	CMa	7	−20
Canis Minor	Canis Minoris	Little dog	CMi	8	+5
Capricornus	Capricorni	Sea goat	Cap	21	−20
Carina¹	Carinae	Keel of Argonauts’ ship	Car	9	−60
Cassiopeia	Cassiopeiae	Queen of Ethiopia	Cas	1	+60
Centaurus	Centauri	Centaur	Cen	13	−50
Cepheus	Cephei	King of Ethiopia	Cep	22	+70
Cetus	Ceti	Sea monster (whale)	Cet	2	−10
Chamaeleon	Chamaeleontis	Chameleon	Cha	11	−80
Circinus	Circini	Compasses	Cir	15	−60
Columba	Columbae	Dove	Col	6	−35
Coma Berenices	Comae Berenices	Berenice’s hair	Com	13	+20
Corona Australis	Coronae Australis	Southern crown	CrA	19	−40
Corona Borealis	Coronae Borealis	Northern crown	CrB	16	+30
Corvus	Corvi	Crow	Crv	12	−20
Crater	Crateris	Cup	Crt	11	−15
Crux	Crucis	Cross (southern)	Cru	12	−60
Cygnus	Cygni	Swan	Cyg	21	+40
Delphinus	Delphini	Porpoise	Del	21	+10
Dorado	Doradus	Swordfish	Dor	5	−65
Draco	Draconis	Dragon	Dra	17	+65
Equuleus	Equulei	Little horse	Equ	21	+10
Eridanus	Eridani	River	Eri	3	−20
Fornax	Fornacis	Furnace	For	3	−30
Gemini	Geminorum	Twins	Gem	7	+20
Grus	Gruis	Crane	Gru	22	−45
Hercules	Herculis	Hercules, son of Zeus	Her	17	+30
Horologium	Horologii	Clock	Hor	3	−60
Hydra	Hydrae	Sea serpent	Hya	10	−20
Hydrus	Hydri	Water snake	Hyi	2	−75
Indus	Indi	Indian	Ind	21	−55
Lacerta	Lacertae	Lizard	Lac	22	+45
Leo	Leonis	Lion	Leo	11	+15
Leo Minor	Leonis Minoris	Little lion	LMi	10	+35
Lepus	Leporis	Hare	Lep	6	−20
Libra	Librae	Balance	Lib	15	−15
Lupus	Lupi	Wolf	Lup	15	−45
Lynx	Lyncis	Lynx	Lyn	8	+45
Lyra	Lyrae	Lyre or harp	Lyr	19	+40
Mensa	Mensae	Table Mountain	Men	5	−80
Microscopium	Microscopii	Microscope	Mic	21	−35
Monoceros	Monocerotis	Unicorn	Mon	7	−5
Musca	Muscae	Fly	Mus	12	−70
Norma	Normae	Carpenter’s level	Nor	16	−50
Octans	Octantis	Octant	Oct	22	−85
Ophiuchus	Ophiuchi	Holder of serpent	Oph	17	0
Orion	Orionis	Orion, the hunter	Ori	5	+5
Pavo	Pavonis	Peacock	Pav	20	−65
Pegasus	Pegasi	Pegasus, the winged horse	Peg	22	+20
Perseus	Persei	Perseus, hero who saved Andromeda	Per	3	+45
Phoenix	Phoenicis	Phoenix	Phe	1	−50
Pictor	Pictoris	Easel	Pic	6	−55
Pisces	Piscium	Fishes	Psc	1	+15
Piscis Austrinus	Piscis Austrini	Southern fish	PsA	22	−30
Puppis²	Puppis	Stern of the Argonauts’ ship	Pup	8	−40
Pyxis³ (=Malus)	Pyxidus	Compass of the Argonauts’ ship	Pyx	9	−30
Reticulum	Reticuli	Net	Ret	4	−60
Sagitta	Sagittae	Arrow	Sge	20	+10
Sagittarius	Sagittarii	Archer	Sgr	19	−25
Scorpius	Scorpii	Scorpion	Sco	17	−40
Sculptor	Sculptoris	Sculptor’s tools	Scl	0	−30
Scutum	Scuti	Shield	Sct	19	−10
Serpens	Serpentis	Serpent	Ser	17	0
Sextans	Sextantis	Sextant	Sex	10	0
Taurus	Tauri	Bull	Tau	4	+15
Telescopium	Telescopii	Telescope	Tel	19	−50
Triangulum	Trianguli	Triangle	Tri	2	+30
Triangulum Australe	Trianguli Australis	Southern triangle	TrA	16	−65
Tucana	Tucanae	Toucan	Tuc	0	−65
Ursa Major	Ursae Majoris	Big bear	UMa	11	+50
Ursa Minor	Ursae Minoris	Little bear	UMi	15	+70
Vela⁴	Velorum	Sail of the Argonauts’ ship	Vel	9	−50
Virgo	Virginis	Virgin	Vir	13	0
Volans	Volantis	Flying fish	Vol	8	−70
Vulpecula	Vulpeculae	Fox	Vul	20	+25

Footnotes

1 The four constellations Carina, Puppis, Pyxis, and Vela originally formed the single constellation Argo Navis.
2 The four constellations Carina, Puppis, Pyxis, and Vela originally formed the single constellation Argo Navis.
3 The four constellations Carina, Puppis, Pyxis, and Vela originally formed the single constellation Argo Navis.
4 The four constellations Carina, Puppis, Pyxis, and Vela originally formed the single constellation Argo Navis.

A.13 Star Chart and Sky Event Resources

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:29 +0000

To obtain graphic charts of the sky over your head tonight, there are a number of free online resources.

One of the easiest is at the Skymaps website: http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html. Here you can print out a free PDF version of the northern sky (for roughly latitude 40°, which is reasonable for much of the United States). Maps of the sky from the equator and the southern hemisphere can also be printed.
Sky charts and other summaries of astronomical information can also be found at http://www.heavens-above.com/.
A free, open-source computer application that shows the sky at any time from any place is called Stellarium. You can find it at http://www.stellarium.org/.
Appendix B provides a section of information for finding astronomy apps for cell phones and tablets. Many of these also provide star charts. If you have a smartphone, you can find a variety of inexpensive apps that allow you to simply hold your phone upward to see what is in the sky behind your phone.
A planisphere is a sky chart that turns inside a round frame and can show you the night sky at your latitude on any date and time of the year. You can buy them at science supply and telescope stores or online. Or you can construct your own from templates at these websites:
- Dennis Schatz’s AstroAdventures Star Finder: http://dennisschatz.org/activities/Star%20Finder.pdf
- Uncle Al’s Star Wheel in English and Japanese. Latitude 60 degrees available in Icelandic. Souther wheels available in Spanish and Portuguese. http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/do_science_now/science_apps_and_activities/starwheels
- RASC Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in French and English for latitude 45 degrees: http://www.star-finder.ca/

Calendars of Night Sky Events

The following resources offer calendars of night sky events.

Sea and Sky: http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy.html (click on the fourth menu button)
Sky & Telescope’s This Week’s Sky at a Glance: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/
Astronomy Magazine’s The Sky This Week: http://www.astronomy.com/observing/sky-this-week
NASA Sky Cal: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html
Night Sky Network Sky Planner: https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm
Sky News is a Canadian magazine owned by RASC, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. http://www.skynews.ca/this-weeks-sky/

A.14 Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

jbrewer — Thu, 24 May 2018 22:29:29 +0000

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) is a national, non-profit, charitable organization devoted to the advancement of astronomy and related sciences. It will be 150 years old in 2018.

You can find more about them by visiting their web page at https://www.rasc.ca/home-page .

[caption id="attachment_2868" align="aligncenter" width="275"] Official logo of the Society[/caption]

History

In the mid-nineteenth century, in the bustling Lake Ontario port city of Toronto, there were no professional astronomers. Many inhabitants of the city, however, were keenly interested in sciences and current developments in them. On December 1, 1868 The Toronto Astronomical Club met for the first time, at the home of Andrew Elvins. He had moved to Toronto from Cornwall, England and worked as a cutter at clothing store. The club “having for its object the aiding of each other in the pursuit of astronomical knowledge.”

Thousands of meteor sightings of the Leonid showers made in Toronto in November 1867 and 1868 had doubtless encouraged the club to continue its work. In May, 1869 the word “Club” was changed to “Society.” Written records were kept for the first year, until the secretary moved away.

On March 10, 1890, the organization was incorporated as The Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto (incidentally, the year the British Astronomical Association was founded).

In early 1903, the King of the Dominion, Edward VII of England, was petitioned through official channels to allow the Society to adopt the “Royal” style. On the 27th of February the Society was informed that “His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to grant permission to the Toronto Astronomical Society to adopt the title of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada” (the change was enacted in a provincial court on March 3, 1903)

The change of name in 1903 led immediately to the concept that the Society should not be limited to Toronto, but should become national in scope. The second Centre to be established was that of Ottawa, Ontario in 1906, where the Dominion Observatory was being set up. The Victoria, British Columbia chapter was formed in 1914 with Vancouver, British Columbia following in 1931. As of 2017 there are 29 chapters from coast to coast to coast.

2.1 The Sky Above

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:56:14 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Define the main features of the celestial sphere
Explain the system astronomers use to describe the sky
Describe how motions of the stars appear to us on Earth
Describe how motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets appear to us on Earth
Understand the modern meaning of the term constellation

Our senses suggest to us that Earth is the center of the universe—the hub around which the heavens turn. This geocentric (Earth-centered) view was what almost everyone believed until the European Renaissance. After all, it is simple, logical, and seemingly self-evident. Furthermore, the geocentric perspective reinforced those philosophical and religious systems that taught the unique role of human beings as the central focus of the cosmos. However, the geocentric view happens to be wrong. One of the great themes of our intellectual history is the overthrow of the geocentric perspective. Let us, therefore, take a look at the steps by which we reevaluated the place of our world in the cosmic order.

The Celestial Sphere

If you go on a camping trip or live far from city lights, your view of the sky on a clear night is pretty much identical to that seen by people all over the world before the invention of the telescope. Gazing up, you get the impression that the sky is a great hollow dome with you at the center ([link] See Figure 1), and all the stars are an equal distance from you on the surface of the dome. The top of that dome, the point directly above your head, is called the zenith, and where the dome meets Earth is called the horizon. From the sea or a flat prairie, it is easy to see the horizon as a circle around you, but from most places where people live today, the horizon is at least partially hidden by mountains, trees, buildings, or smog.

The Sky around Us.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="364"] Figure 1. The horizon is where the sky meets the ground; an observer’s zenith is the point directly overhead.[/caption]

If you lie back in an open field and observe the night sky for hours, as ancient shepherds and travelers regularly did, you will see stars rising on the eastern horizon (just as the Sun and Moon do), moving across the dome of the sky in the course of the night, and setting on the western horizon. Watching the sky turn like this night after night, you might eventually get the idea that the dome of the sky is really part of a great sphere that is turning around you, bringing different stars into view as it turns. The early Greeks regarded the sky as just such a celestial sphere ([link] See Figure 2). Some thought of it as an actual sphere of transparent crystalline material, with the stars embedded in it like tiny jewels.

Circles on the Celestial Sphere.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="577"] Figure 2. Here we show the (imaginary) celestial sphere around Earth, on which objects are fixed, and which rotates around Earth on an axis. In reality, it is Earth that turns around this axis, creating the illusion that the sky revolves around us. Note that Earth in this picture has been tilted so that your location is at the top and the North Pole is where the N is. The apparent motion of celestial objects in the sky around the pole is shown by the circular arrow.[/caption]

Today, we know that it is not the celestial sphere that turns as night and day proceed, but rather the planet on which we live. We can put an imaginary stick through Earth’s North and South Poles, representing our planet’s axis. It is because Earth turns on this axis every 24 hours that we see the Sun, Moon, and stars rise and set with clockwork regularity. Today, we know that these celestial objects are not really on a dome, but at greatly varying distances from us in space. Nevertheless, it is sometimes still convenient to talk about the celestial dome or sphere to help us keep track of objects in the sky. There is even a special theater, called a planetarium, in which we project a simulation of the stars and planets onto a white dome.

As the celestial sphere rotates, the objects on it maintain their positions with respect to one another. A grouping of stars such as the Big Dipper has the same shape during the course of the night, although it turns with the sky. During a single night, even objects we know to have significant motions of their own, such as the nearby planets, seem fixed relative to the stars. Only meteors—brief “shooting stars” that flash into view for just a few seconds—move appreciably with respect to other objects on the celestial sphere. (This is because they are not stars at all. Rather, they are small pieces of cosmic dust, burning up as they hit Earth’s atmosphere.) We can use the fact that the entire celestial sphere seems to turn together to help us set up systems for keeping track of what things are visible in the sky and where they happen to be at a given time.

Celestial Poles and the Celestial Equator

To help orient us in the turning sky, astronomers use a system that extends Earth’s axis points into the sky. Imagine a line going through Earth, connecting the North and South Poles. This is Earth’s axis, and Earth rotates about this line. If we extend this imaginary line outward from Earth, the points where this line intersects the celestial sphere are called the north celestial pole and the south celestial pole. As Earth rotates about its axis, the sky appears to turn in the opposite direction around those celestial poles ([link] See Figure 3). We also (in our imagination) throw Earth’s equator onto the sky and call this the celestial equator. It lies halfway between the celestial poles, just as Earth’s equator lies halfway between our planet’s poles.

Circling the South Celestial Pole.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="461"] Figure 3. This long-exposure photo shows trails left by stars as a result of the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere around the south celestial pole. (In reality, it is Earth that rotates.) (Credit: ESO/Iztok Bončina)[/caption]

Now let’s imagine how riding on different parts of our spinning Earth affects our view of the sky. The apparent motion of the celestial sphere depends on your latitude (position north or south of the equator). First of all, notice that Earth’s axis is pointing at the celestial poles, so these two points in the sky do not appear to turn.

If you stood at the North Pole of Earth, for example, you would see the north celestial pole overhead, at your zenith. The celestial equator, 90° from the celestial poles, would lie along your horizon. As you watched the stars during the course of the night, they would all circle around the celestial pole, with none rising or setting. Only that half of the sky north of the celestial equator is ever visible to an observer at the North Pole. Similarly, an observer at the South Pole would see only the southern half of the sky.

If you were at Earth’s equator, on the other hand, you see the celestial equator (which, after all, is just an “extension” of Earth’s equator) pass overhead through your zenith. The celestial poles, being 90° from the celestial equator, must then be at the north and south points on your horizon. As the sky turns, all stars rise and set; they move straight up from the east side of the horizon and set straight down on the west side. During a 24-hour period, all stars are above the horizon exactly half the time. (Of course, during some of those hours, the Sun is too bright for us to see them.)

What would an observer in the latitudes of the United States or Europe see? Remember, we are neither at Earth’s pole nor at the equator, but in between them. For those in the continental United States and Europe, the north celestial pole is neither overhead nor on the horizon, but in between. It appears above the northern horizon at an angular height, or altitude, equal to the observer’s latitude. In San Francisco, for example, where the latitude is 38° N, the north celestial pole is 38° above the northern horizon.

For an observer at 38° N latitude, the south celestial pole is 38° below the southern horizon and, thus, never visible. As Earth turns, the whole sky seems to pivot about the north celestial pole. For this observer, stars within 38° of the North Pole can never set. They are always above the horizon, day and night. This part of the sky is called the north circumpolar zone. For observers in the continental United States, the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Cassiopeia are examples of star groups in the north circumpolar zone. On the other hand, stars within 38° of the south celestial pole never rise. That part of the sky is the south circumpolar zone. To most U.S. observers, the Southern Cross is in that zone. (Don’t worry if you are not familiar with the star groups just mentioned; we will introduce them more formally later on.)

The Rotating Sky Lab (http://tiny.cc/40dxqy) created by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln provides an interactive demonstration that introduces the horizon coordinate system, the apparent rotation of the sky, and allows for exploration of the relationship between the horizon and celestial equatorial coordinate systems.

At this particular time in Earth’s history, there happens to be a star very close to the north celestial pole. It is called Polaris, the pole star, and has the distinction of being the star that moves the least amount as the northern sky turns each day. Because it moved so little while the other stars moved much more, it played a special role in the mythology of several Native American tribes, for example (some called it the “fastener of the sky”).

What’s Your Angle?

Astronomers measure how far apart objects appear in the sky by using angles. By definition, there are 360° in a circle, so a circle stretching completely around the celestial sphere contains 360°. The half-sphere or dome of the sky then contains 180° from horizon to opposite horizon. Thus, if two stars are 18° apart, their separation spans about 1/10 of the dome of the sky. To give you a sense of how big a degree is, the full Moon is about half a degree across. This is about the width of your smallest finger (pinkie) seen at arm’s length.

Rising and Setting of the Sun

We described the movement of stars in the night sky, but what about during the daytime? The stars continue to circle during the day, but the brilliance of the Sun makes them difficult to see. (The Moon can often be seen in the daylight, however.) On any given day, we can think of the Sun as being located at some position on the hypothetical celestial sphere. When the Sun rises—that is, when the rotation of Earth carries the Sun above the horizon—sunlight is scattered by the molecules of our atmosphere, filling our sky with light and hiding the stars above the horizon.

For thousands of years, astronomers have been aware that the Sun does more than just rise and set. It changes position gradually on the celestial sphere, moving each day about 1° to the east relative to the stars. Very reasonably, the ancients thought this meant the Sun was slowly moving around Earth, taking a period of time we call 1 year to make a full circle. Today, of course, we know it is Earth that is going around the Sun, but the effect is the same: the Sun’s position in our sky changes day to day. We have a similar experience when we walk around a campfire at night; we see the flames appear in front of each person seated about the fire in turn.

The path the Sun appears to take around the celestial sphere each year is called the ecliptic ([link] See Figure 4). Because of its motion on the ecliptic, the Sun rises about 4 minutes later each day with respect to the stars. Earth must make just a bit more than one complete rotation (with respect to the stars) to bring the Sun up again.

Star Circles at Different Latitudes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. The turning of the sky looks different depending on your latitude on Earth. (a) At the North Pole, the stars circle the zenith and do not rise and set. (b) At the equator, the celestial poles are on the horizon, and the stars rise straight up and set straight down. (c) At intermediate latitudes, the north celestial pole is at some position between overhead and the horizon. Its angle above the horizon turns out to be equal to the observer’s latitude. Stars rise and set at an angle to the horizon.[/caption]

As the months go by and we look at the Sun from different places in our orbit, we see it projected against different places in our orbit, and thus against different stars in the background ([link] and [link] See Figure 5 and "Constellations on the Ecliptic table)—or we would, at least, if we could see the stars in the daytime. In practice, we must deduce which stars lie behind and beyond the Sun by observing the stars visible in the opposite direction at night. After a year, when Earth has completed one trip around the Sun, the Sun will appear to have completed one circuit of the sky along the ecliptic.

Constellations on the Ecliptic.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="588"] Figure 5. As Earth revolves around the Sun, we sit on “platform Earth” and see the Sun moving around the sky. The circle in the sky that the Sun appears to make around us in the course of a year is called the ecliptic. This circle (like all circles in the sky) goes through a set of constellations. The ancients thought these constellations, which the Sun (and the Moon and planets) visited, must be special and incorporated them into their system of astrology. Note that at any given time of the year, some of the constellations crossed by the ecliptic are visible in the night sky; others are in the day sky and are thus hidden by the brilliance of the Sun.[/caption]

Constellations on the Ecliptic
Constellation on the Ecliptic	Dates When the Sun Crosses It
Capricornus	January 21–February 16
Aquarius	February 16–March 11
Pisces	March 11–April 18
Aries	April 18–May 13
Taurus	May 13–June 22
Gemini	June 22–July 21
Cancer	July 21–August 10
Leo	August 10–September 16
Virgo	September 16–October 31
Libra	October 31–November 23
Scorpius	November 23–November 29
Ophiuchus	November 29–December 18
Sagittarius	December 18–January 21

The ecliptic does not lie along the celestial equator but is inclined to it at an angle of about 23.5°. In other words, the Sun’s annual path in the sky is not linked with Earth’s equator. This is because our planet’s axis of rotation is tilted by about 23.5° from a vertical line sticking out of the plane of the ecliptic ([link]). Being tilted from “straight up” is not at all unusual among celestial bodies; Uranus and Pluto are actually tilted so much that they orbit the Sun “on their side.”

The Celestial Tilt

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="520"] Figure 6. The celestial equator is tilted by 23.5° to the ecliptic. As a result, North Americans and Europeans see the Sun north of the celestial equator and high in our sky in June, and south of the celestial equator and low in the sky in December.[/caption]

The inclination of the ecliptic is the reason the Sun moves north and south in the sky as the seasons change. In Earth, Moon, and Sky, we discuss the progression of the seasons in more detail.

Fixed and Wandering Stars

The Sun is not the only object that moves among the fixed stars. The Moon and each of the planets that are visible to the unaided eye—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus (although just barely)—also change their positions slowly from day to day. During a single day, the Moon and planets all rise and set as Earth turns, just as the Sun and stars do. But like the Sun, they have independent motions among the stars, superimposed on the daily rotation of the celestial sphere. Noticing these motions, the Greeks of 2000 years ago distinguished between what they called the fixed stars—those that maintain fixed patterns among themselves through many generations—and the wandering stars, or planets. The word “planet,” in fact, means “wanderer” in ancient Greek.

Today, we do not regard the Sun and Moon as planets, but the ancients applied the term to all seven of the moving objects in the sky. Much of ancient astronomy was devoted to observing and predicting the motions of these celestial wanderers. They even dedicated a unit of time, the week, to the seven objects that move on their own; that’s why there are 7 days in a week. The Moon, being Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor, has the fastest apparent motion; it completes a trip around the sky in about 1 month (or moonth). To do this, the Moon moves about 12°, or 24 times its own apparent width on the sky, each day.

Angles in the Sky A circle consists of 360 degrees (°). When we measure the angle in the sky that something moves, we can use this formula:

$$\text{speed}=\frac{\text{distance}}{\text{time}}$$

This is true whether the motion is measured in kilometers per hour or degrees per hour; we just need to use consistent units.

As an example, let’s say you notice the bright star Sirius due south from your observing location in the Northern Hemisphere. You note the time, and then later, you note the time that Sirius sets below the horizon. You find that Sirius has traveled an angular distance of about 75° in 5 h. About how many hours will it take for Sirius to return to its original location?

Solution The speed of Sirius is $$\frac{75\text{°}}{5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{h}}=\frac{15\text{°}}{1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{h}}.$$ If we want to know the time required for Sirius to return to its original location, we need to wait until it goes around a full circle, or 360°. Rearranging the formula for speed we were originally given, we find:

$$\text{time}=\frac{\text{distance}}{\text{speed}}=\frac{360\text{°}}{\text{15°/h}}=24\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{h}$$

The actual time is a few minutes shorter than this, and we will explore why in a later chapter.

Check Your Learning The Moon moves in the sky relative to the background stars (in addition to moving with the stars as a result of Earth’s rotation.) Go outside at night and note the position of the Moon relative to nearby stars. Repeat the observation a few hours later. How far has the Moon moved? (For reference, the diameter of the Moon is about 0.5°.) Based on your estimate of its motion, how long will it take for the Moon to return to the position relative to the stars in which you first observed it?

Answer:

The speed of the moon is 0.5°/1 h. To move a full 360°, the moon needs 720 h: $$\frac{0.5\text{°}}{1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{h}}=\frac{360\text{°}}{720\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{h}}.$$ Dividing

720 h by the conversion factor of 24 h/day reveals the lunar cycle is about 30 days.

The individual paths of the Moon and planets in the sky all lie close to the ecliptic, although not exactly on it. This is because the paths of the planets about the Sun, and of the Moon about Earth, are all in nearly the same plane as if they were circles on a huge sheet of paper. The planets, the Sun, and the Moon are thus always found in the sky within a narrow 18-degree-wide belt, centered on the ecliptic, called the zodiac ([link] See Figure 5). (The root of the term “zodiac” is the same as that of the word “zoo” and means a collection of animals; many of the patterns of stars within the zodiac belt reminded the ancients of animals, such as a fish or a goat.)

How the planets appear to move in the sky as the months pass is a combination of their actual motions plus the motion of Earth about the Sun; consequently, their paths are somewhat complex. As we will see, this complexity has fascinated and challenged astronomers for centuries.

Constellations

The backdrop for the motions of the “wanderers” in the sky is the canopy of stars. If there were no clouds in the sky and we were on a flat plain with nothing to obstruct our view, we could see about 3000 stars with the unaided eye. To find their way around such a multitude, the ancients found groupings of stars that made some familiar geometric pattern or (more rarely) resembled something they knew. Each civilization found its own patterns in the stars, much like a modern Rorschach test in which you are asked to discern patterns or pictures in a set of inkblots. The ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks, among others, found their own groupings—or constellations—of stars. These were helpful in navigating among the stars and in passing their star lore on to their children.

You may be familiar with some of the old star patterns we still use today, such as the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Orion the hunter, with his distinctive belt of three stars ([link] See Figure 7). However, many of the stars we see are not part of a distinctive star pattern at all, and a telescope reveals millions of stars too faint for the eye to see. Therefore, during the early decades of the 20th century, astronomers from many countries decided to establish a more formal system for organizing the sky.

Orion.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 7. (a) The winter constellation of Orion, the hunter, is surrounded by neighboring constellations, as illustrated in the seventeenth-century atlas by Hevelius. (b) A photograph shows the Orion region in the sky. Note the three blue stars that make up the belt of the hunter. The bright red star above the belt denotes his armpit and is called Betelgeuse (pronounced “Beetel-juice”). The bright blue star below the belt is his foot and is called Rigel. (credit a: modification of work by Johannes Hevelius; b: modification of work by Matthew Spinelli)[/caption]

Today, we use the term constellation to mean one of 88 sectors into which we divide the sky, much as the United States is divided into 50 states. The modern boundaries between the constellations are imaginary lines in the sky running north–south and east–west, so that each point in the sky falls in a specific constellation, although, like the states, not all constellations are the same size. All the constellations are listed in Appendix L. Whenever possible, we have named each modern constellation after the Latin translations of one of the ancient Greek star patterns that lies within it. Thus, the modern constellation of Orion is a kind of box on the sky, which includes, among many other objects, the stars that made up the ancient picture of the hunter. Some people use the term asterism to denote an especially noticeable star pattern within a constellation (or sometimes spanning parts of several constellations). For example, the Big Dipper is an asterism within the constellation of Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

Students are sometimes puzzled because the constellations seldom resemble the people or animals for which they were named. In all likelihood, the Greeks themselves did not name groupings of stars because they looked like actual people or subjects (any more than the outline of Washington state resembles George Washington). Rather, they named sections of the sky in honor of the characters in their mythology and then fit the star configurations to the animals and people as best they could.

This website about objects in the sky (http://tiny.cc/40dxqy) allows users to construct a detailed sky map showing the location and information about the Sun, Moon, planets, stars, constellations, and even satellites orbiting Earth. Begin by setting your observing location using the option in the menu in the upper right corner of the screen.

The direct evidence of our senses supports a geocentric perspective, with the celestial sphere pivoting on the celestial poles and rotating about a stationary Earth. We see only half of this sphere at one time, limited by the horizon; the point directly overhead is our zenith. The Sun’s annual path on the celestial sphere is the ecliptic—a line that runs through the center of the zodiac, which is the 18-degree-wide strip of the sky within which we always find the Moon and planets. The celestial sphere is organized into 88 constellations, or sectors.

Glossary

celestial equator: a great circle on the celestial sphere 90° from the celestial poles; where the celestial sphere intersects the plane of Earth’s equator

celestial poles: points about which the celestial sphere appears to rotate; intersections of the celestial sphere with Earth’s polar axis

celestial sphere: the apparent sphere of the sky; a sphere of large radius centered on the observer; directions of objects in the sky can be denoted by their position on the celestial sphere

circumpolar zone: those portions of the celestial sphere near the celestial poles that are either always above or always below the horizon

ecliptic: the apparent annual path of the Sun on the celestial sphere

geocentric: centered on Earth

horizon (astronomical): a great circle on the celestial sphere 90° from the zenith; more popularly, the circle around us where the dome of the sky meets Earth

planet: today, any of the larger objects revolving about the Sun or any similar objects that orbit other stars; in ancient times, any object that moved regularly among the fixed stars

year: the period of revolution of Earth around the Sun

zenith: the point on the celestial sphere opposite the direction of gravity; point directly above the observer

zodiac: a belt around the sky about 18° wide centered on the ecliptic

2.4 Ancient Babylonian, Greek and Roman Astronomy

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:56:28 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how Greek astronomers were able to deduce that Earth is spherical
Explain how Greek astronomers were able to calculate Earth’s size
Describe the motion of Earth called precession
Describe Ptolemy’s geocentric system of planetary motion

Early Greek and Roman Cosmology

Our concept of the cosmos—its basic structure and origin—is called cosmology, a word with Greek roots. Before the invention of telescopes, humans had to depend on the simple evidence of their senses for a picture of the universe. The ancients developed cosmologies that combined their direct view of the heavens with a rich variety of philosophical and religious symbolism.

At least 2000 years before Columbus, educated people in the eastern Mediterranean region knew Earth was round. Belief in a spherical Earth may have stemmed from the time of Pythagoras, a philosopher and mathematician who lived 2500 years ago. He believed circles and spheres to be “perfect forms” and suggested that Earth should, therefore, be a sphere. As evidence that the gods liked spheres, the Greeks cited the fact that the Moon is a sphere, using the evidence we describe later.

The writings of Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the tutor of Alexander the Great, summarizes many of the ideas of his day. They describe how the progression of the Moon’s phases—its apparent changing shape—results from our seeing different portions of the Moon’s sunlit hemisphere as the month goes by (see Earth, Moon, and Sky). Aristotle also knew that the Sun has to be farther away from Earth than is the Moon because occasionally the Moon passed exactly between Earth and the Sun and hid the Sun temporarily from view. We call this a solar eclipse.

Aristotle cited convincing arguments that Earth must be round. First is the fact that as the Moon enters or emerges from Earth’s shadow during an eclipse of the Moon, the shape of the shadow seen on the Moon is always round ([link] See Figure 1). Only a spherical object always produces a round shadow. If Earth were a disk, for example, there would be some occasions when the sunlight would strike it edge-on and its shadow on the Moon would be a line.

Earth’s Round Shadow.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into and out of Earth’s shadow. Note the curved shape of the shadow—evidence for a spherical Earth that has been recognized since antiquity. (credit: modification of work by Brian Paczkowski)[/caption]

As a second argument, Aristotle explained that travelers who go south a significant distance are able to observe stars that are not visible farther north. And the height of the North Star—the star nearest the north celestial pole—decreases as a traveler moves south. On a flat Earth, everyone would see the same stars overhead. The only possible explanation is that the traveler must have moved over a curved surface on Earth, showing stars from a different angle. (See the How Do We Know Earth Is Round? feature for more ideas on proving Earth is round.)

One Greek thinker, Aristarchus of Samos (310–230 BCE), even suggested that Earth was moving around the Sun, but Aristotle and most of the ancient Greek scholars rejected this idea. One of the reasons for their conclusion was the thought that if Earth moved about the Sun, they would be observing the stars from different places along Earth’s orbit. As Earth moved along, nearby stars should shift their positions in the sky relative to more distant stars. In a similar way, we see foreground objects appear to move against a more distant background whenever we are in motion. When we ride on a train, the trees in the foreground appear to shift their position relative to distant hills as the train rolls by. Unconsciously, we use this phenomenon all of the time to estimate distances around us.

The apparent shift in the direction of an object as a result of the motion of the observer is called parallax. We call the shift in the apparent direction of a star due to Earth’s orbital motion stellar parallax. The Greeks made dedicated efforts to observe stellar parallax, even enlisting the aid of Greek soldiers with the clearest vision, but to no avail. The brighter (and presumably nearer) stars just did not seem to shift as the Greeks observed them in the spring and then again in the fall (when Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun).

This meant either that Earth was not moving or that the stars had to be so tremendously far away that the parallax shift was immeasurably small. A cosmos of such enormous extent required a leap of imagination that most ancient philosophers were not prepared to make, so they retreated to the safety of the Earth-centered view, which would dominate Western thinking for nearly two millennia.

How Do We Know Earth Is Round?

In addition to the two ways (from Aristotle’s writings) discussed in this chapter, you might also reason as follows:

Let’s watch a ship leave its port and sail into the distance on a clear day. On a flat Earth, we would just see the ship get smaller and smaller as it sails away. But this isn’t what we actually observe. Instead, ships sink below the horizon, with the hull disappearing first and the mast remaining visible for a while longer. Eventually, only the top of the mast can be seen as the ship sails around the curvature of Earth. Finally, the ship disappears under the horizon.
The International Space Station circles Earth once every 90 minutes or so. Photographs taken from the shuttle and other satellites show that Earth is round from every perspective.
Suppose you made a friend in each time zone of Earth. You call all of them at the same hour and ask, “Where is the Sun?” On a flat Earth, each caller would give you roughly the same answer. But on a round Earth you would find that, for some friends, the Sun would be high in the sky whereas for others it would be rising, setting, or completely out of sight (and this last group of friends would be upset with you for waking them up).

Measurement of Earth by Eratosthenes

The Greeks not only knew Earth was round, but also they were able to measure its size. The first fairly accurate determination of Earth’s diameter was made in about 200 BCE by Eratosthenes (276–194 BCE), a Greek living in Alexandria, Egypt. His method was a geometric one, based on observations of the Sun.

The Sun is so distant from us that all the light rays that strike our planet approach us along essentially parallel lines. To see why, look at ([link]See Figure 2). Take a source of light near Earth—say, at position A. Its rays strike different parts of Earth along diverging paths. From a light source at B, or at C (which is still farther away), the angle between rays that strike opposite parts of Earth is smaller. The more distant the source, the smaller the angle between the rays. For a source infinitely distant, the rays travel along parallel lines.

Light Rays from Space.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. The more distant an object, the more nearly parallel the rays of light coming from it.[/caption]

Of course, the Sun is not infinitely far away, but given its distance of 150 million kilometers, light rays striking Earth from a point on the Sun diverge from one another by an angle far too small to be observed with the unaided eye. As a consequence, if people all over Earth who could see the Sun were to point at it, their fingers would, essentially, all be parallel to one another. (The same is also true for the planets and stars—an idea we will use in our discussion of how telescopes work.)

Eratosthenes was told that on the first day of summer at Syene, Egypt (near modern Aswan), sunlight struck the bottom of a vertical well at noon. This indicated that the Sun was directly over the well, meaning that Syene was on a direct line from the center of Earth to the Sun. At the corresponding time and date in Alexandria, Eratosthenes observed the shadow a column made and saw that the Sun was not directly overhead, but was slightly south of the zenith, so that its rays made an angle with the vertical equal to about 1/50 of a circle (7°). Because the Sun’s rays striking the two cities are parallel to one another, why would the two rays not make the same angle with Earth’s surface? Eratosthenes reasoned that the curvature of the round Earth meant that “straight up” was not the same in the two cities. And the measurement of the angle in Alexandria, he realized, allowed him to figure out the size of Earth. Alexandria, he saw, must be 1/50 of Earth’s circumference north of Syene ([link]). Alexandria had been measured to be 5000 stadia north of Syene. (The stadium was a Greek unit of length, derived from the length of the racetrack in a stadium.) Eratosthenes thus found that Earth’s circumference must be 50 × 5000, or 250,000 stadia.

How Eratosthenes Measured the Size of Earth.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. Eratosthenes measured the size of Earth by observing the angle at which the Sun’s rays hit our planet’s surface. The Sun’s rays come in parallel, but because Earth’s surface curves, a ray at Syene comes straight down whereas a ray at Alexandria makes an angle of 7° with the vertical. That means, in effect, that at Alexandria, Earth’s surface has curved away from Syene by 7° of 360°, or 1/50 of a full circle. Thus, the distance between the two cities must be 1/50 the circumference of Earth. (credit: modification of work by NOAA Ocean Service Education)[/caption]

It is not possible to evaluate precisely the accuracy of Eratosthenes solution because there is doubt about which of the various kinds of Greek stadia he used as his unit of distance. If it was the common Olympic stadium, his result is about 20% too large. According to another interpretation, he used a stadium equal to about 1/6 kilometer, in which case his figure was within 1% of the correct value of 40,000 kilometers. Even if his measurement was not exact, his success at measuring the size of our planet by using only shadows, sunlight, and the power of human thought was one of the greatest intellectual achievements in history.

Hipparchus and Precession

Perhaps the greatest astronomer of antiquity was Hipparchus, born in Nicaea in what is present-day Turkey. He erected an observatory on the island of Rhodes around 150 BCE, when the Roman Republic was expanding its influence throughout the Mediterranean region. There he measured, as accurately as possible, the positions of objects in the sky, compiling a pioneering star catalog with about 850 entries. He designated celestial coordinates for each star, specifying its position in the sky, just as we specify the position of a point on Earth by giving its latitude and longitude.

He also divided the stars into apparent magnitudes according to their apparent brightness. He called the brightest ones “stars of the first magnitude”; the next brightest group, “stars of the second magnitude”; and so forth. This rather arbitrary system, in modified form, still remains in use today (although it is less and less useful for professional astronomers).

By observing the stars and comparing his data with older observations, Hipparchus made one of his most remarkable discoveries: the position in the sky of the north celestial pole had altered over the previous century and a half. Hipparchus deduced correctly that this had happened not only during the period covered by his observations, but was in fact happening all the time: the direction around which the sky appears to rotate changes slowly but continuously. Recall from the section on celestial poles and the celestial equator that the north celestial pole is just the projection of Earth’s North Pole into the sky. If the north celestial pole is wobbling around, then Earth itself must be doing the wobbling. Today, we understand that the direction in which Earth’s axis points does indeed change slowly but regularly—a motion we call precession. If you have ever watched a spinning top wobble, you observed a similar kind of motion. The top’s axis describes a path in the shape of a cone, as Earth’s gravity tries to topple it ([link] See figure 4).

Precession.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. Just as the axis of a rapidly spinning top wobbles slowly in a circle, so the axis of Earth wobbles in a 26,000-year cycle. Today the north celestial pole is near the star Polaris, but about 5000 years ago it was close to a star called Thuban, and in 14,000 years it will be closest to the star Vega.[/caption]

Because our planet is not an exact sphere, but bulges a bit at the equator, the pulls of the Sun and Moon cause it to wobble like a top. It takes about 26,000 years for Earth’s axis to complete one circle of precession. As a result of this motion, the point where our axis points in the sky changes as time goes on. While Polaris is the star closest to the north celestial pole today (it will reach its closest point around the year 2100), the star Vega in the constellation of Lyra will be the North Star in 14,000 years.

Ptolemy’s Model of the Solar System

The last great astronomer of the Roman era was Claudius Ptolemy (or Ptolemaeus), who flourished in Alexandria in about the year 140. He wrote a mammoth compilation of astronomical knowledge, which today is called by its Arabic name, Almagest (meaning “The Greatest”). Almagest does not deal exclusively with Ptolemy’s own work; it includes a discussion of the astronomical achievements of the past, principally those of Hipparchus. Today, it is our main source of information about the work of Hipparchus and other Greek astronomers.

Ptolemy’s most important contribution was a geometric representation of the solar system that predicted the positions of the planets for any desired date and time. Hipparchus, not having enough data on hand to solve the problem himself, had instead amassed observational material for posterity to use. Ptolemy supplemented this material with new observations of his own and produced a cosmological model that endured more than a thousand years, until the time of Copernicus.

The complicating factor in explaining the motions of the planets is that their apparent wandering in the sky results from the combination of their own motions with Earth’s orbital revolution. As we watch the planets from our vantage point on the moving Earth, it is a little like watching a car race while you are competing in it. Sometimes opponents’ cars pass you, but at other times you pass them, making them appear to move backward for a while with respect to you.

([link] See Figure 5) shows the motion of Earth and a planet farther from the Sun—in this case, Mars. Earth travels around the Sun in the same direction as the other planet and in nearly the same plane, but its orbital speed is faster. As a result, it overtakes the planet periodically, like a faster race car on the inside track. The figure shows where we see the planet in the sky at different times. The path of the planet among the stars is illustrated in the star field on the right side of the figure.

Retrograde Motion of a Planet beyond Earth’s Orbit.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="730"] Figure 5. The letters on the diagram show where Earth and Mars are at different times. By following the lines from each Earth position through each corresponding Mars position, you can see how the retrograde path of Mars looks against the background stars[/caption]

This retrograde simulation of Mars (http://tiny.cc/i3gxqy) illustrates the motion of Mars as seen from Earth as well as Earth’s retrograde motion as seen from Mars. There is also an animation of the movement of the two planets relative to each other that creates the appearance of this motion.

Normally, planets move eastward in the sky over the weeks and months as they orbit the Sun, but from positions B to D in ([link] See Figure 5), as Earth passes the planets in our example, it appears to drift backward, moving west in the sky. Even though it is actually moving to the east, the faster-moving Earth has overtaken it and seems, from our perspective, to be leaving it behind. As Earth rounds its orbit toward position E, the planet again takes up its apparent eastward motion in the sky. The temporary apparent westward motion of a planet as Earth swings between it and the Sun is called retrograde motion. Such backward motion is much easier for us to understand today, now that we know Earth is one of the moving planets and not the unmoving center of all creation. But Ptolemy was faced with the far more complex problem of explaining such motion while assuming a stationary Earth.

Furthermore, because the Greeks believed that celestial motions had to be circles, Ptolemy had to construct his model using circles alone. To do it, he needed dozens of circles, some moving around other circles, in a complex structure that makes a modern viewer dizzy. But we must not let our modern judgment cloud our admiration for Ptolemy’s achievement. In his day, a complex universe centered on Earth was perfectly reasonable and, in its own way, quite beautiful. However, as Alfonso X, the King of Castile, was reported to have said after having the Ptolemaic system of planet motions explained to him, “If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon Creation, I should have recommended something simpler.”

Ptolemy solved the problem of explaining the observed motions of planets by having each planet revolve in a small orbit called an epicycle. The center of the epicycle then revolved about Earth on a circle called a deferent ([link] See Figure 6). When the planet is at position x in ([link] See Figure 6)on the epicycle orbit, it is moving in the same direction as the center of the epicycle; from Earth, the planet appears to be moving eastward. When the planet is at y, however, its motion is in the direction opposite to the motion of the epicycle’s center around Earth. By choosing the right combination of speeds and distances, Ptolemy succeeded in having the planet moving westward at the correct speed and for the correct interval of time, thus replicating retrograde motion with his model.

Ptolemy’s Complicated Cosmological System.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="477"] Figure 6. Each planet orbits around a small circle called an epicycle. Each epicycle orbits on a larger circle called the deferent. This system is not centered exactly on Earth but on an offset point called the equant. The Greeks needed all this complexity to explain the actual motions in the sky because they believed that Earth was stationary and that all sky motions had to be circular.[/caption]

However, we shall see in Orbits and Gravity that the planets, like Earth, travel about the Sun in orbits that are ellipses, not circles. Their actual behavior cannot be represented accurately by a scheme of uniform circular motions. In order to match the observed motions of the planets, Ptolemy had to center the deferent circles, not on Earth, but at points some distance from Earth. In addition, he introduced uniform circular motion around yet another axis, called the equant point. All of these considerably complicated his scheme.

It is a tribute to the genius of Ptolemy as a mathematician that he was able to develop such a complex system to account successfully for the observations of planets. It may be that Ptolemy did not intend for his cosmological model to describe reality, but merely to serve as a mathematical representation that allowed him to predict the positions of the planets at any time. Whatever his thinking, his model, with some modifications, was eventually accepted as authoritative in the Muslim world and (later) in Christian Europe.

Ancient Greeks such as Aristotle recognized that Earth and the Moon are spheres, and understood the phases of the Moon, but because of their inability to detect stellar parallax, they rejected the idea that Earth moves. Eratosthenes measured the size of Earth with surprising precision. Hipparchus carried out many astronomical observations, making a star catalog, defining the system of stellar magnitudes, and discovering precession from the apparent shift in the position of the north celestial pole. Ptolemy of Alexandria summarized classic astronomy in his Almagest; he explained planetary motions, including retrograde motion, with remarkably good accuracy using a model centered on Earth. This geocentric model, based on combinations of uniform circular motion using epicycles, was accepted as authority for more than a thousand years.

Glossary

apparent magnitude: a measure of how bright a star looks in the sky; the larger the number, the dimmer the star appears to us

cosmology: the study of the organization and evolution of the universe

epicycle: the circular orbit of a body in the Ptolemaic system, the center of which revolves about another circle (the deferent)

parallax: the apparent displacement of a nearby star that results from the motion of Earth around the Sun

precession (of Earth): the slow, conical motion of Earth’s axis of rotation caused principally by the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun on Earth’s equatorial bulge

retrograde motion: the apparent westward motion of a planet on the celestial sphere or with respect to the stars

2.5 Astrology and Astronomy

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:56:47 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain the origins of astrology
Explain what a horoscope is
Summarize the arguments that invalidate astrology as a scientific practice

Many ancient cultures regarded the planets and stars as representatives or symbols of the gods or other supernatural forces that controlled their lives. For them, the study of the heavens was not an abstract subject; it was connected directly to the life-and-death necessity of understanding the actions of the gods and currying favor with them. Before the time of our scientific perspectives, everything that happened in nature—from the weather, to diseases and accidents, to celestial surprises such as eclipses or new comets—was thought to be an expression of the whims or displeasure of the gods. Any signs that helped people understand what these gods had in mind were considered extremely important.

The movements of the seven objects that had the power to “wander” through the realm of the sky—the Sun, the Moon, and five planets visible to the unaided eye—clearly must have special significance in such a system of thinking.

Most ancient cultures associated these seven objects with various supernatural rulers in their pantheon and kept track of them for religious reasons. Even in the comparatively sophisticated Greece of antiquity, the planets had the names of gods and were credited with having the same powers and influences as the gods whose names they bore. From such ideas was born the ancient system called astrology, still practiced by some people today, in which the positions of these bodies among the stars of the zodiac are thought to hold the key to understanding what we can expect from life.

The Beginnings of Astrology

Astrology began in Babylonia about two and half millennia ago. The Babylonians, believing the planets and their motions influenced the fortunes of kings and nations, used their knowledge of astronomy to guide their rulers. When the Babylonian culture was absorbed by the Greeks, astrology gradually came to influence the entire Western world and eventually spread to Asia as well.

By the 2nd century BCE the Greeks democratized astrology by developing the idea that the planets influence every individual. In particular, they believed that the configuration of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the moment of birth affected a person’s personality and fortune—a doctrine called natal astrology. Natal astrology reached its peak with Ptolemy 400 years later. As famous for his astrology as for his astronomy, Ptolemy compiled the Tetrabiblos, a treatise on astrology that remains the “bible” of the subject. It is essentially this ancient religion, older than Christianity or Islam, that is still practiced by today’s astrologers.

The Horoscope

The key to natal astrology is the horoscope, a chart showing the positions of the planets in the sky at the moment of an individual’s birth. The word “horoscope” comes from the Greek words hora (meaning “time”) and skopos (meaning a “watcher” or “marker”), so “horoscope” can literally be translated as “marker of the hour.” When a horoscope is charted, the planets (including the Sun and Moon, classed as wanderers by the ancients) must first be located in the zodiac. At the time astrology was set up, the zodiac was divided into 12 sectors called signs ([link] See Figure 1), each 30° long. Each sign was named after a constellation in the sky through which the Sun, Moon, and planets were seen to pass—the sign of Virgo after the constellation of Virgo, for example.

Zodiac Signs.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 1. The signs of the zodiac are shown in a medieval woodcut.[/caption]When someone today casually asks you your “sign,” they are asking for your “sun sign”—which zodiac sign the Sun was in at the moment you were born. However, more than 2000 years have passed since the signs received their names from the constellations. Because of precession, the constellations of the zodiac slide westward along the ecliptic, going once around the sky in about 26,000 years. Thus, today the real stars have slipped around by about 1/12 of the zodiac—about the width of one sign.

In most forms of astrology, however, the signs have remained assigned to the dates of the year they had when astrology was first set up. This means that the astrological signs and the real constellations are out of step; the sign of Aries, for example, now occupies the constellation of Pisces. When you look up your sun sign in a newspaper astrology column, the name of the sign associated with your birthday is no longer the name of the constellation in which the Sun was actually located when you were born. To know that constellation, you must look for the sign before the one that includes your birthday.

A complete horoscope shows the location of not only the Sun, but also the Moon and each planet in the sky by indicating its position in the appropriate sign of the zodiac. However, as the celestial sphere turns (owing to the rotation of Earth), the entire zodiac moves across the sky to the west, completing a circuit of the heavens each day. Thus, the position in the sky (or “house” in astrology) must also be calculated. There are more or less standardized rules for the interpretation of the horoscope, most of which (at least in Western schools of astrology) are derived from the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy. Each sign, each house, and each planet—the last acting as a center of force—is supposed to be associated with particular matters in a person’s life.

The detailed interpretation of a horoscope is a very complicated business, and there are many schools of astrological thought on how it should be done. Although some of the rules may be standardized, how each rule is to be weighed and applied is a matter of judgment—and “art.” It also means that it is very difficult to tie down astrology to specific predictions or to get the same predictions from different astrologers.

Astrology and Medicine

Medical astrology (traditionally known as iatromathematics) is an ancient medical system that associates various parts of the body, diseases, and drugs as under the influence of the sun, moon, and planets, along with the twelve astrological signs. Each of the astrological signs (along with the sun, moon, and planets) is associated with different parts of the human body. The underlying basis for medical astrology as well as astrology itself is considered to be a pseudoscience (http://tiny.cc/5zcyqy) or superstition (http://tiny.cc/m0cyqy) as there is no scientific basis for its core beliefs.^[1] You can get more information on this topic at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_astrology (http://tiny.cc/60cyqy) [caption id="attachment_90" align="aligncenter" width="324"] Astrological Medicine Illustration by the Limbourgh Brothers, painted somewhere between1411 and 1416. ©Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. Ojda By Limbourg brothers - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108849[/caption]The Limbourgh Brothers did an illustration somewhere between 1411 and 1416. As they explained "Look at the signs of the zodiac. They correspond to each part of the body, starting with Pisces, the feet, and working up their way to the head, with Aries, the ram, that has sacred connotations. In each top corner are painted the arms of the Duke of Berry. Each area is complemented by four Latin inscriptions describing the properties of each sign according to the four complexions (hot, cold, wet or dry), the four temperaments (choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic) and the four cardinal points: "Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are warm and dry, choleric, masculine, Eastern" in the upper left; "Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are cold and dry, melancholy, female, Western" in the upper right; "Gemini, Aquarius and Libra are hot and humid, sanguine, masculine, Southern" in the lower left; "Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces are cold and wet, phlegmatic, feminine, Northern" in the lower right."

Astrology Today

Astrologers today use the same basic principles laid down by Ptolemy nearly 2000 years ago. They cast horoscopes (a process much simplified by the development of appropriate computer programs) and suggest interpretations. Sun sign astrology (which you read in the newspapers and many magazines) is a recent, simplified variant of natal astrology. Although even professional astrologers do not place much trust in such a limited scheme, which tries to fit everyone into just 12 groups, sun sign astrology is taken seriously by many people (perhaps because it is discussed so commonly in the media).

Today, we know much more about the nature of the planets as physical bodies, as well as about human genetics, than the ancients could. It is hard to imagine how the positions of the Sun, Moon, or planets in the sky at the moment of our birth could have anything to do with our personality or future. There are no known forces, not gravity or anything else, that could cause such effects. (For example, a straightforward calculation shows that the gravitational pull of the obstetrician delivering a newborn baby is greater than that of Mars.) Astrologers thus have to argue there must be unknown forces exerted by the planets that depend on their configurations with respect to one another and that do not vary according to the distance of the planet—forces for which there is no shred of evidence.

Another curious aspect of astrology is its emphasis on planet configurations at birth. What about the forces that might influence us at conception? Isn’t our genetic makeup more important for determining our personality than the circumstances of our birth? Would we really be a different person if we had been born a few hours earlier or later, as astrology claims? (Back when astrology was first conceived, birth was thought of as a moment of magic significance, but today we understand a lot more about the long process that precedes it.)

Actually, very few well-educated people today buy the claim that our entire lives are predetermined by astrological influences at birth, but many people apparently believe that astrology has validity as an indicator of affinities and personality. A surprising number of Americans make judgments about people—whom they will hire, associate with, and even marry—on the basis of astrological information. To be sure, these are difficult decisions, and you might argue that we should use any relevant information that might help us to make the right choices. But does astrology actually provide any useful information on human personality? This is the kind of question that can be tested using the scientific method (see Testing Astrology).

The results of hundreds of tests are all the same: there is no evidence that natal astrology has any predictive power, even in a statistical sense. Why, then, do people often seem to have anecdotes about how well their own astrologer advised them? Effective astrologers today use the language of the zodiac and the horoscope only as the outward trappings of their craft. Mostly they work as amateur therapists, offering simple truths that clients like or need to hear. (Recent studies have shown that just about any sort of short-term therapy makes people feel a little better because the very act of talking about our problems with someone who listens attentively is, in itself, beneficial.)

The scheme of astrology has no basis in scientific fact, however; at best, it can be described as a pseudoscience. It is an interesting historical system, left over from prescientific days and best remembered for the impetus it gave people to learn the cycles and patterns of the sky. From it grew the science of astronomy, which is our main subject for discussion.

Testing Astrology

In response to modern public interest in astrology, scientists have carried out a wide range of statistical tests to assess its predictive power. The simplest of these examine sun sign astrology to determine whether—as astrologers assert—some signs are more likely than others to be associated with some objective measure of success, such as winning Olympic medals, earning high corporate salaries, or achieving elective office or high military rank. (You can devise such a test yourself by looking up the birth dates of all members of Congress, for example, or all members of the U.S. Olympic team.) Are our political leaders somehow selected at birth by their horoscopes and thus more likely to be Leos, say, than Scorpios?

You do not even need to be specific about your prediction in such tests. After all, many schools of astrology disagree about which signs go with which personality characteristics. To demonstrate the validity of the astrological hypothesis, it would be sufficient if the birthdays of all our leaders clustered in any one or two signs in some statistically significant way. Dozens of such tests have been performed, and all have come up completely negative: the birth dates of leaders in all fields tested have been found to be distributed randomly among all the signs. Sun sign astrology does not predict anything about a person’s future occupation or strong personality traits.

In a fine example of such a test, two statisticians examined the reenlistment records of the United States Marine Corps. We suspect you will agree that it takes a certain kind of personality not only to enlist, but also to reenlist in the Marines. If sun signs can predict strong personality traits—as astrologers claim—then those who reenlisted (with similar personalities) should have been distributed preferentially in those one or few signs that matched the personality of someone who loves being a Marine. However, the reenlisted were distributed randomly among all the signs.

More sophisticated studies have also been done, involving full horoscopes calculated for thousands of individuals. The results of all these studies are also negative: none of the systems of astrology has been shown to be at all effective in connecting astrological aspects to personality, success, or finding the right person to love.

Other tests show that it hardly seems to matter what a horoscope interpretation says, as long as it is vague enough, and as long as each subject feels it was prepared personally just for him or her. The French statistician Michel Gauquelin, for example, sent the horoscope interpretation for one of the worst mass murderers in history to 150 people, but told each recipient that it was a “reading” prepared exclusively for him or her. Ninety-four percent of the readers said they recognized themselves in the interpretation of the mass murderer’s horoscope.

Geoffrey Dean, an Australian researcher, reversed the astrological readings of 22 subjects, substituting phrases that were the opposite of what the horoscope actually said. Yet, his subjects said that the resulting readings applied to them just as often (95%) as the people to whom the original phrases were given.

For more on astrology and science from an astronomer’s point of view, read this article (http://tiny.cc/x3cyqy) that shines a light on the topic through an accessible Q&A.

The ancient religion of astrology, with its main contribution to civilization a heightened interest in the heavens, began in Babylonia. It reached its peak in the Greco-Roman world, especially as recorded in the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy. Natal astrology is based on the assumption that the positions of the planets at the time of our birth, as described by a horoscope, determine our future. However, modern tests clearly show that there is no evidence for this, even in a broad statistical sense, and there is no verifiable theory to explain what might cause such an astrological influence.

Glossary

astrology: The pseudoscience that deals with the supposed influences on human destiny of the configurations and locations in the sky of the Sun, Moon, and planets

horoscope: A chart used by astrologers that shows the positions along the zodiac and in the sky of the Sun, Moon, and planets at some given instant and as seen from a particular place on Earth—usually corresponding to the time and place of a person’s birth

2.6 The Birth of Modern Astronomy – Copernicus and Galileo

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:57:25 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the solar system
Explain the Copernican model of planetary motion and describe evidence or arguments in favor of it
Describe Galileo’s discoveries concerning the study of motion and forces
Explain how Galileo’s discoveries tilted the balance of evidence in favor of the Copernican model

Astronomy made no major advances in strife-torn medieval Europe. The birth and expansion of Islam after the seventh century led to a flowering of Arabic and Jewish cultures that preserved, translated, and added to many of the astronomical ideas of the Greeks. Many of the names of the brightest stars, for example, are today taken from the Arabic, as are such astronomical terms as “zenith.”

As European culture began to emerge from its long, dark age, trading with Arab countries led to a rediscovery of ancient texts such as Almagest and to a reawakening of interest in astronomical questions. This time of rebirth (in French, “renaissance”) in astronomy was embodied in the work of Copernicus ([link] See Figure 1).

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="279"] Figure 1. Copernicus was a cleric and scientist who played a leading role in the emergence of modern science. Although he could not prove that Earth revolves about the Sun, he presented such compelling arguments for this idea that he turned the tide of cosmological thought and laid the foundations upon which Galileo and Kepler so effectively built in the following century.[/caption]

Copernicus

One of the most important events of the Renaissance was the displacement of Earth from the center of the universe, an intellectual revolution initiated by a Polish cleric in the sixteenth century. Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, a mercantile town along the Vistula River. His training was in law and medicine, but his main interests were astronomy and mathematics. His great contribution to science was a critical reappraisal of the existing theories of planetary motion and the development of a new Sun-centered, or heliocentric, model of the solar system. Copernicus concluded that Earth is a planet and that all the planets circle the Sun. Only the Moon orbits Earth ([link] See Figure 2).

Copernicus’ System.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="387"] Figure 2. Copernicus developed a heliocentric plan of the solar system. This system was published in the first edition of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Notice the word Sol for “Sun” in the middle. (credit: Nicolai Copernici)[/caption]

Copernicus described his ideas in detail in his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution of Celestial Orbs), published in 1543, the year of his death. By this time, the old Ptolemaic system needed significant adjustments to predict the positions of the planets correctly. Copernicus wanted to develop an improved theory from which to calculate planetary positions, but in doing so, he was himself not free of all traditional prejudices.

He began with several assumptions that were common in his time, such as the idea that the motions of the heavenly bodies must be made up of combinations of uniform circular motions. But he did not assume (as most people did) that Earth had to be in the center of the universe, and he presented a defense of the heliocentric system that was elegant and persuasive. His ideas, although not widely accepted until more than a century after his death, were much discussed among scholars and, ultimately, had a profound influence on the course of world history.

One of the objections raised to the heliocentric theory was that if Earth were moving, we would all sense or feel this motion. Solid objects would be ripped from the surface, a ball dropped from a great height would not strike the ground directly below it, and so forth. But a moving person is not necessarily aware of that motion. We have all experienced seeing an adjacent train, bus, or ship appear to move, only to discover that it is we who are moving.

Copernicus argued that the apparent motion of the Sun about Earth during the course of a year could be represented equally well by a motion of Earth about the Sun. He also reasoned that the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere could be explained by assuming that Earth rotates while the celestial sphere is stationary. To the objection that if Earth rotated about an axis it would fly into pieces, Copernicus answered that if such motion would tear Earth apart, the still faster motion of the much larger celestial sphere required by the geocentric hypothesis would be even more devastating.

The Heliocentric Model

The most important idea in Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus is that Earth is one of six (then-known) planets that revolve about the Sun. Using this concept, he was able to work out the correct general picture of the solar system. He placed the planets, starting nearest the Sun, in the correct order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Further, he deduced that the nearer a planet is to the Sun, the greater its orbital speed. With his theory, he was able to explain the complex retrograde motions of the planets without epicycles and to work out a roughly correct scale for the solar system.

Copernicus could not prove that Earth revolves about the Sun. In fact, with some adjustments, the old Ptolemaic system could have accounted, as well, for the motions of the planets in the sky. But Copernicus pointed out that the Ptolemaic cosmology was clumsy and lacking the beauty and symmetry of its successor.

In Copernicus’ time, in fact, few people thought there were ways to prove whether the heliocentric or the older geocentric system was correct. A long philosophical tradition, going back to the Greeks and defended by the Catholic Church, held that pure human thought combined with divine revelation represented the path to truth. Nature, as revealed by our senses, was suspect. For example, Aristotle had reasoned that heavier objects (having more of the quality that made them heavy) must fall to Earth faster than lighter ones. This is absolutely incorrect, as any simple experiment dropping two balls of different weights shows. However, in Copernicus’ day, experiments did not carry much weight (if you will pardon the expression); Aristotle’s reasoning was more convincing.

In this environment, there was little motivation to carry out observations or experiments to distinguish between competing cosmological theories (or anything else). It should not surprise us, therefore, that the heliocentric idea was debated for more than half a century without any tests being applied to determine its validity. (In fact, in the North American colonies, the older geocentric system was still taught at Harvard University in the first years after it was founded in 1636.)

Contrast this with the situation today, when scientists rush to test each new hypothesis and do not accept any ideas until the results are in. For example, when two researchers at the University of Utah announced in 1989 that they had discovered a way to achieve nuclear fusion (the process that powers the stars) at room temperature, other scientists at more than 25 laboratories around the United States attempted to duplicate “cold fusion” within a few weeks—without success, as it turned out. The cold fusion theory soon went down in flames.

How would we look at Copernicus’ model today? When a new hypothesis or theory is proposed in science, it must first be checked for consistency with what is already known. Copernicus’ heliocentric idea passes this test, for it allows planetary positions to be calculated at least as well as does the geocentric theory. The next step is to determine which predictions the new hypothesis makes that differ from those of competing ideas. In the case of Copernicus, one example is the prediction that, if Venus circles the Sun, the planet should go through the full range of phases just as the Moon does, whereas if it circles Earth, it should not ([link] See Figure 3). Also, we should not be able to see the full phase of Venus from Earth because the Sun would then be between Venus and Earth. But in those days, before the telescope, no one imagined testing these predictions.

Phases of Venus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="575"] Figure 3. As Venus moves around the Sun, we see changing illumination of its surface, just as we see the face of the Moon illuminated differently in the course of a month.[/caption]

This animation (http://tiny.cc/88cyqy) shows the phases of Venus. You can also see its distance from Earth as it orbits the Sun.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day has an animation of Venus https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060110.html (http://tiny.cc/vadyqy) and a set of images of Venus as viewed from Earth. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170317.html (http://tiny.cc/ebdyqy)

Galileo and the Beginning of Modern Science

Many of the modern scientific concepts of observation, experimentation, and the testing of hypotheses through careful quantitative measurements were pioneered by a man who lived nearly a century after Copernicus. Galileo Galilei ([link] See Figure 4 ), a contemporary of Shakespeare, was born in Pisa. Like Copernicus, he began training for a medical career, but he had little interest in the subject and later switched to mathematics. He held faculty positions at the University of Pisa and the University of Padua, and eventually became mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence.

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="252"] Figure 4. Galileo advocated that we perform experiments or make observations to ask nature its ways. When Galileo turned the telescope to the sky, he found things were not the way philosophers had supposed.[/caption]

Galileo’s greatest contributions were in the field of mechanics, the study of motion and the actions of forces on bodies. It was familiar to all persons then, as it is to us now, that if something is at rest, it tends to remain at rest and requires some outside influence to start it in motion. Rest was thus generally regarded as the natural state of matter. Galileo showed, however, that rest is no more natural than motion.

If an object is slid along a rough horizontal floor, it soon comes to rest because friction between it and the floor acts as a retarding force. However, if the floor and the object are both highly polished, the object, given the same initial speed, will slide farther before stopping. On a smooth layer of ice, it will slide farther still. Galileo reasoned that if all resisting effects could be removed, the object would continue in a steady state of motion indefinitely. He argued that a force is required not only to start an object moving from rest but also to slow down, stop, speed up, or change the direction of a moving object. You will appreciate this if you have ever tried to stop a rolling car by leaning against it, or a moving boat by tugging on a line.

Galileo also studied the way objects accelerate—change their speed or direction of motion. Galileo watched objects as they fell freely or rolled down a ramp. He found that such objects accelerate uniformly; that is, in equal intervals of time they gain equal increments in speed. Galileo formulated these newly found laws in precise mathematical terms that enabled future experimenters to predict how far and how fast objects would move in various lengths of time.

In theory, if Galileo is right, a feather and a hammer, dropped at the same time from a height, should land at the same moment. On Earth, this experiment is not possible because air resistance and air movements make the feather flutter, instead of falling straight down, accelerated only by the force of gravity. For generations, physics teachers had said that the place to try this experiment is somewhere where there is no air, such as the Moon. In 1971, Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott took a hammer and feather to the Moon and tried it, to the delight of physics nerds everywhere. NASA provides the video of the hammer and feather (http://tiny.cc/wbdyqy) as well as a brief explanation.

Sometime in the 1590s, Galileo adopted the Copernican hypothesis of a heliocentric solar system. In Roman Catholic Italy, this was not a popular philosophy, for Church authorities still upheld the ideas of Aristotle and Ptolemy, and they had powerful political and economic reasons for insisting that Earth was the center of creation. Galileo not only challenged this thinking but also had the audacity to write in Italian rather than scholarly Latin, and to lecture publicly on those topics. For him, there was no contradiction between the authority of the Church in matters of religion and morality, and the authority of nature (revealed by experiments) in matters of science. It was primarily because of Galileo and his “dangerous” opinions that, in 1616, the Church issued a prohibition decree stating that the Copernican doctrine was “false and absurd” and not to be held or defended.

Galileo’s Astronomical Observations

It is not certain who first conceived of the idea of combining two or more pieces of glass to produce an instrument that enlarged images of distant objects, making them appear nearer. The first such “spyglasses” (now called telescopes) that attracted much notice were made in 1608 by the Dutch spectacle maker Hans Lippershey (1570–1619). Galileo heard of the discovery and, without ever having seen an assembled telescope, constructed one of his own with a three-power magnification (3×), which made distant objects appear three times nearer and larger ([link] See Figure 5).

Telescope Used by Galileo.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 5. The telescope has a wooden tube covered with paper and a lens 26 millimeters across.[/caption]

On August 25, 1609, Galileo demonstrated a telescope with a magnification of 9× to government officials of the city-state of Venice. By a magnification of 9×, we mean the linear dimensions of the objects being viewed appeared nine times larger or, alternatively, the objects appeared nine times closer than they really were. There were obvious military advantages associated with a device for seeing distant objects. For his invention, Galileo’s salary was nearly doubled, and he was granted lifetime tenure as a professor. (His university colleagues were outraged, particularly because the invention was not even original.)

Others had used the telescope before Galileo to observe things on Earth. But in a flash of insight that changed the history of astronomy, Galileo realized that he could turn the power of the telescope toward the heavens. Before using his telescope for astronomical observations, Galileo had to devise a stable mount and improve the optics. He increased the magnification to 30×. Galileo also needed to acquire confidence in the telescope.

At that time, human eyes were believed to be the final arbiter of truth about size, shape, and color. Lenses, mirrors, and prisms were known to distort distant images by enlarging, reducing, or inverting them, or spreading the light into a spectrum (rainbow of colors). Galileo undertook repeated experiments to convince himself that what he saw through the telescope was identical to what he saw up close. Only then could he begin to believe that the miraculous phenomena the telescope revealed in the heavens were real.

Beginning his astronomical work late in 1609, Galileo found that many stars too faint to be seen with the unaided eye became visible with his telescope. In particular, he found that some nebulous blurs resolved into many stars, and that the Milky Way—the strip of whiteness across the night sky—was also made up of a multitude of individual stars.

Examining the planets, Galileo found four moons revolving about Jupiter in times ranging from just under 2 days to about 17 days. This discovery was particularly important because it showed that not everything has to revolve around Earth. Furthermore, it demonstrated that there could be centers of motion that are themselves in motion. Defenders of the geocentric view had argued that if Earth was in motion, then the Moon would be left behind because it could hardly keep up with a rapidly moving planet. Yet, here were Jupiter’s moons doing exactly that. (To recognize this discovery and honour his work, NASA named a spacecraft that explored the Jupiter system Galileo.)

With his telescope, Galileo was able to carry out the test of the Copernican theory mentioned earlier, based on the phases of Venus. Within a few months, he had found that Venus goes through phases like the Moon, showing that it must revolve about the Sun, so that we see different parts of its daylight side at different times ([link] See Figure 3.) These observations could not be reconciled with Ptolemy’s model, in which Venus circled about Earth. In Ptolemy’s model, Venus could also show phases, but they were the wrong phases in the wrong order from what Galileo observed.

Galileo also observed the Moon and saw craters, mountain ranges, valleys, and flat, dark areas that he thought might be water. These discoveries showed that the Moon might be not so dissimilar to Earth—suggesting that Earth, too, could belong to the realm of celestial bodies.

For more information about the life and work of Galileo, see the Galileo Project (http://galileo.rice.edu/) at Rice University.

After Galileo’s work, it became increasingly difficult to deny the Copernican view, and Earth was slowly dethroned from its central position in the universe and given its rightful place as one of the planets attending the Sun. Initially, however, Galileo met with a great deal of opposition. The Roman Catholic Church, still reeling from the Protestant Reformation, was looking to assert its authority and chose to make an example of Galileo. He had to appear before the Inquisition to answer charges that his work was heretical, and he was ultimately condemned to house arrest. His books were on the Church’s forbidden list until 1836, although in countries where the Roman Catholic Church held less sway, they were widely read and discussed. Not until 1992 did the Catholic Church admit publicly that it had erred in the matter of censoring Galileo’s ideas.

The new ideas of Copernicus and Galileo began a revolution in our conception of the cosmos. It eventually became evident that the universe is a vast place and that Earth’s role in it is relatively unimportant. The idea that Earth moves around the Sun like the other planets raised the possibility that they might be worlds themselves, perhaps even supporting life. As Earth was demoted from its position at the center of the universe, so, too, was humanity. The universe, despite what we may wish, does not revolve around us.

Most of us take these things for granted today, but four centuries ago such concepts were frightening and heretical for some, immensely stimulating for others. The pioneers of the Renaissance started the European world along the path toward science and technology that we still tread today. For them, nature was rational and ultimately knowable, and experiments and observations provided the means to reveal its secrets.

Observing the Planets

At most any time of the night, and at any season, you can spot one or more bright planets in the sky. All five of the planets known to the ancients—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—are more prominent than any but the brightest stars, and they can be seen even from urban locations if you know where and when to look. One way to tell planets from bright stars is that planets twinkle less.

Venus, which stays close to the Sun from our perspective, appears either as an “evening star” in the west after sunset or as a “morning star” in the east before sunrise. It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. It far outshines any real star, and under the most favourable circumstances, it can even cast a visible shadow. Some young military recruits have tried to shoot Venus down as an approaching enemy craft or UFO.

Mars, with its distinctive red colour, can be nearly as bright as Venus is when close to Earth, but normally it remains much less conspicuous. Jupiter is most often the second-brightest planet, approximately equaling in brilliance the brightest stars. Saturn is dimmer, and it varies considerably in brightness, depending on whether its large rings are seen nearly edge-on (faint) or more widely opened (bright).

Mercury is quite bright, but few people ever notice it because it never moves very far from the Sun (it’s never more than 28° away in the sky) and is always seen against bright twilight skies.

True to their name, the planets “wander” against the background of the “fixed” stars. Although their apparent motions are complex, they reflect an underlying order upon which the heliocentric model of the solar system, as described in this chapter, was based. The positions of the planets are often listed in newspapers (sometimes on the weather page), and clear maps and guides to their locations can be found each month in such magazines as Sky & Telescope and Astronomy (available at most libraries and online). There are also a number of computer programs and phone and tablet apps that allow you to display where the planets are on any night.

Nicolaus Copernicus introduced the heliocentric cosmology to Renaissance Europe in his book De Revolutionibus. Although he retained the Aristotelian idea of uniform circular motion, Copernicus suggested that Earth is a planet and that the planets all circle about the Sun, dethroning Earth from its position at the center of the universe. Galileo was the father of both modern experimental physics and telescopic astronomy. He studied the acceleration of moving objects and, in 1610, began telescopic observations, discovering the nature of the Milky Way, the large-scale features of the Moon, the phases of Venus, and four moons of Jupiter. Although he was accused of heresy for his support of heliocentric cosmology, Galileo is credited with observations and brilliant writings that convinced most of his scientific contemporaries of the reality of the Copernican theory.

Glossary

accelerate: To change velocity; to speed up, slow down, or change direction.

heliocentric: Centred on the Sun

3.1 The Laws of Planetary Motion

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:59:06 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe how Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler contributed to our understanding of how planets move around the Sun
Explain Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion

At about the time that Galileo was beginning his experiments with falling bodies, the efforts of two other scientists dramatically advanced our understanding of the motions of the planets. These two astronomers were the observer Tycho Brahe and the mathematician Johannes Kepler. Together, they placed the speculations of Copernicus on a sound mathematical basis and paved the way for the work of Isaac Newton in the next century.

Tycho Brahe’s Observatory

Three years after the publication of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus, Tycho Brahe was born to a family of Danish nobility. He developed an early interest in astronomy and, as a young man, made significant astronomical observations. Among these was a careful study of what we now know was an exploding star that flared up to great brilliance in the night sky. His growing reputation gained him the patronage of the Danish King Frederick II, and at the age of 30, Brahe was able to establish a fine astronomical observatory on the North Sea island of Hven ([link]). Brahe was the last and greatest of the pre-telescopic observers in Europe.

Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and Johannes Kepler (1571–1630).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. (a) A stylized engraving shows Tycho Brahe using his instruments to measure the altitude of celestial objects above the horizon. The large curved instrument in the foreground allowed him to measure precise angles in the sky. Note that the scene includes hints of the grandeur of Brahe’s observatory at Hven. (b) Kepler was a German mathematician and astronomer. His discovery of the basic laws that describe planetary motion placed the heliocentric cosmology of Copernicus on a firm mathematical basis.[/caption]

At Hven, Brahe made a continuous record of the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets for almost 20 years. His extensive and precise observations enabled him to note that the positions of the planets varied from those given in published tables, which were based on the work of Ptolemy. These data were extremely valuable, but Brahe didn’t have the ability to analyze them and develop a better model than what Ptolemy had published. He was further inhibited because he was an extravagant and cantankerous fellow, and he accumulated enemies among government officials. When his patron, Frederick II, died in 1597, Brahe lost his political base and decided to leave Denmark. He took up residence in Prague, where he became court astronomer to Emperor Rudolf of Bohemia. There, in the year before his death, Brahe found a most able young mathematician, Johannes Kepler, to assist him in analyzing his extensive planetary data.

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was born into a poor family in the German province of Württemberg and lived much of his life amid the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War (see [link]). He attended university at Tubingen and studied for a theological career. There, he learned the principles of the Copernican system and became converted to the heliocentric hypothesis. Eventually, Kepler went to Prague to serve as an assistant to Brahe, who set him to work trying to find a satisfactory theory of planetary motion—one that was compatible with the long series of observations made at Hven. Brahe was reluctant to provide Kepler with much material at any one time for fear that Kepler would discover the secrets of the universal motion by himself, thereby robbing Brahe of some of the glory. Only after Brahe’s death in 1601 did Kepler get full possession of the priceless records. Their study occupied most of Kepler’s time for more than 20 years.

Through his analysis of the motions of the planets, Kepler developed a series of principles, now known as Kepler’s three laws, which described the behavior of planets based on their paths through space. The first two laws of planetary motion were published in 1609 in The New Astronomy. Their discovery was a profound step in the development of modern science.

The First Two Laws of Planetary Motion

The path of an object through space is called its orbit. Kepler initially assumed that the orbits of planets were circles, but doing so did not allow him to find orbits that were consistent with Brahe’s observations. Working with the data for Mars, he eventually discovered that the orbit of that planet had the shape of a somewhat flattened circle, or ellipse. Next to the circle, the ellipse is the simplest kind of closed curve, belonging to a family of curves known as conic sections ([link]).

Conic Sections.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="354"] Figure 2. The circle, ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola are all formed by the intersection of a plane with a cone. This is why such curves are called conic sections.[/caption]

You might recall from math classes that in a circle, the center is a special point. The distance from the center to anywhere on the circle is exactly the same. In an ellipse, the sum of the distance from two special points inside the ellipse to any point on the ellipse is always the same. These two points inside the ellipse are called its foci (singular: focus), a word invented for this purpose by Kepler.

This property suggests a simple way to draw an ellipse ([link]). We wrap the ends of a loop of string around two tacks pushed through a sheet of paper into a drawing board, so that the string is slack. If we push a pencil against the string, making the string taut, and then slide the pencil against the string all around the tacks, the curve that results is an ellipse. At any point where the pencil may be, the sum of the distances from the pencil to the two tacks is a constant length—the length of the string. The tacks are at the two foci of the ellipse.

The widest diameter of the ellipse is called its major axis. Half this distance—that is, the distance from the center of the ellipse to one end—is the semimajor axis, which is usually used to specify the size of the ellipse. For example, the semimajor axis of the orbit of Mars, which is also the planet’s average distance from the Sun, is 228 million kilometers.

Drawing an Ellipse.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="481"] Figure 3. (a) We can construct an ellipse by pushing two tacks (the white objects) into a piece of paper on a drawing board, and then looping a string around the tacks. Each tack represents a focus of the ellipse, with one of the tacks being the Sun. Stretch the string tight using a pencil, and then move the pencil around the tacks. The length of the string remains the same, so that the sum of the distances from any point on the ellipse to the foci is always constant. (b) In this illustration, each semimajor axis is denoted by a. The distance 2a is called the major axis of the ellipse.[/caption]

The shape (roundness) of an ellipse depends on how close together the two foci are, compared with the major axis. The ratio of the distance between the foci to the length of the major axis is called the eccentricity of the ellipse.

If the foci (or tacks) are moved to the same location, then the distance between the foci would be zero. This means that the eccentricity is zero and the ellipse is just a circle; thus, a circle can be called an ellipse of zero eccentricity. In a circle, the semimajor axis would be the radius.

Next, we can make ellipses of various elongations (or extended lengths) by varying the spacing of the tacks (as long as they are not farther apart than the length of the string). The greater the eccentricity, the more elongated is the ellipse, up to a maximum eccentricity of 1.0, when the ellipse becomes “flat,” the other extreme from a circle.

The size and shape of an ellipse are completely specified by its semimajor axis and its eccentricity. Using Brahe’s data, Kepler found that Mars has an elliptical orbit, with the Sun at one focus (the other focus is empty). The eccentricity of the orbit of Mars is only about 0.1; its orbit, drawn to scale, would be practically indistinguishable from a circle, but the difference turned out to be critical for understanding planetary motions.

Kepler generalized this result in his first law and said that the orbits of all the planets are ellipses. Here was a decisive moment in the history of human thought: it was not necessary to have only circles in order to have an acceptable cosmos. The universe could be a bit more complex than the Greek philosophers had wanted it to be.

Kepler’s second law deals with the speed with which each planet moves along its ellipse, also known as its orbital speed. Working with Brahe’s observations of Mars, Kepler discovered that the planet speeds up as it comes closer to the Sun and slows down as it pulls away from the Sun. He expressed the precise form of this relationship by imagining that the Sun and Mars are connected by a straight, elastic line. When Mars is closer to the Sun (positions 1 and 2 in [link]), the elastic line is not stretched as much, and the planet moves rapidly. Farther from the Sun, as in positions 3 and 4, the line is stretched a lot, and the planet does not move so fast. As Mars travels in its elliptical orbit around the Sun, the elastic line sweeps out areas of the ellipse as it moves (the colored regions in our figure). Kepler found that in equal intervals of time (t), the areas swept out in space by this imaginary line are always equal; that is, the area of the region B from 1 to 2 is the same as that of region A from 3 to 4.

If a planet moves in a circular orbit, the elastic line is always stretched the same amount and the planet moves at a constant speed around its orbit. But, as Kepler discovered, in most orbits that speed of a planet orbiting its star (or moon orbiting its planet) tends to vary because the orbit is elliptical.

Kepler’s Second Law: The Law of Equal Areas.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="592"] Figure 4. The orbital speed of a planet traveling around the Sun (the circular object inside the ellipse) varies in such a way that in equal intervals of time (t), a line between the Sun and a planet sweeps out equal areas (A and B). Note that the eccentricities of the planets’ orbits in our solar system are substantially less than shown here.[/caption]

Kepler’s Third Law

Kepler’s first two laws of planetary motion describe the shape of a planet’s orbit and allow us to calculate the speed of its motion at any point in the orbit. Kepler was pleased to have discovered such fundamental rules, but they did not satisfy his quest to fully understand planetary motions. He wanted to know why the orbits of the planets were spaced as they are and to find a mathematical pattern in their movements—a “harmony of the spheres” as he called it. For many years he worked to discover mathematical relationships governing planetary spacing and the time each planet took to go around the Sun.

In 1619, Kepler discovered a basic relationship to relate the planets’ orbits to their relative distances from the Sun. We define a planet’s orbital period, (P), as the time it takes a planet to travel once around the Sun. Also, recall that a planet’s semimajor axis, a, is equal to its average distance from the Sun. The relationship, now known as Kepler’s third law, says that a planet’s orbital period squared is proportional to the semimajor axis of its orbit cubed, or

$${P}^{2}\propto {a}^{3}$$

When P (the orbital period) is measured in years, and a is expressed in a quantity known as an astronomical unit (AU), the two sides of the formula are not only proportional but equal. One AU is the average distance between Earth and the Sun and is approximately equal to 1.5 × 10⁸ kilometers. In these units,

$${P}^{2}={a}^{3}$$

Kepler’s third law applies to all objects orbiting the Sun, including Earth, and provides a means for calculating their relative distances from the Sun from the time they take to orbit. Let’s look at a specific example to illustrate how useful Kepler’s third law is.

For instance, suppose you time how long Mars takes to go around the Sun (in Earth years). Kepler’s third law can then be used to calculate Mars’ average distance from the Sun. Mars’ orbital period (1.88 Earth years) squared, or P², is 1.88² = 3.53, and according to the equation for Kepler’s third law, this equals the cube of its semimajor axis, or a³. So what number must be cubed to give 3.53? The answer is 1.52 (since 1.52 × 1.52 × 1.52 = 3.53). Thus, Mars’ semimajor axis in astronomical units must be 1.52 AU. In other words, to go around the Sun in a little less than two years, Mars must be about 50% (half again) as far from the Sun as Earth is.

Calculating Periods Imagine an object is traveling around the Sun. What would be the orbital period of the object if its orbit has a semimajor axis of 50 AU?

Solution From Kepler’s third law, we know that (when we use units of years and AU)

$${P}^{2}={a}^{3}$$

If the object’s orbit has a semimajor axis of 50 AU (a = 50), we can cube 50 and then take the square root of the result to get P:

$$\begin{array}{lcl} P&=&\sqrt{{a}^{3}} \\ P&=&\sqrt{50\times50\times50}=\sqrt{125,000}=353.6\:\text{years} \end{array}$$

Therefore, the orbital period of the object is about 350 years. This would place our hypothetical object beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Check Your Learning What would be the orbital period of an asteroid (a rocky chunk between Mars and Jupiter) with a semimajor axis of 3 AU?

Answer:

$$P=\sqrt{3\times3\times3}=\sqrt{27}=5.2\:\text{years}$$

Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion can be summarized as follows:

Kepler’s first law: Each planet moves around the Sun in an orbit that is an ellipse, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.
Kepler’s second law: The straight line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in space in equal intervals of time.
Kepler’s third law: The square of a planet’s orbital period is directly proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

Kepler’s three laws provide a precise geometric description of planetary motion within the framework of the Copernican system. With these tools, it was possible to calculate planetary positions with greatly improved precision. Still, Kepler’s laws are purely descriptive: they do not help us understand what forces of nature constrain the planets to follow this particular set of rules. That step was left to Isaac Newton.

Applying Kepler’s Third Law Using the orbital periods and semimajor axes for Venus and Earth that are provided here, calculate P² and a³, and verify that they obey Kepler’s third law. Venus’ orbital period is 0.62 year, and its semimajor axis is 0.72 AU. Earth’s orbital period is 1.00 year, and its semimajor axis is 1.00 AU.

Solution We can use the equation for Kepler’s third law, P² ∝ a³. For Venus, P² = 0.62 × 0.62 = 0.38 and a³ = 0.72 × 0.72 × 0.72 = 0.37 (rounding numbers sometimes causes minor discrepancies like this). The square of the orbital period (0.38) approximates the cube of the semimajor axis (0.37). Therefore, Venus obeys Kepler’s third law. For Earth, P² = 1.00 × 1.00 = 1.00 and a³ = 1.00 × 1.00 × 1.00 = 1.00. The square of the orbital period (1.00) approximates (in this case, equals) the cube of the semimajor axis (1.00). Therefore, Earth obeys Kepler’s third law.

Check Your Learning Using the orbital periods and semimajor axes for Saturn and Jupiter that are provided here, calculate P² and a³, and verify that they obey Kepler’s third law. Saturn’s orbital period is 29.46 years, and its semimajor axis is 9.54 AU. Jupiter’s orbital period is 11.86 years, and its semimajor axis is 5.20 AU.

Answer:

For Saturn, P² = 29.46 × 29.46 = 867.9 and a³ = 9.54 × 9.54 × 9.54 = 868.3. The square of the orbital period (867.9) approximates the cube of the semimajor axis (868.3). Therefore, Saturn obeys Kepler’s third law.

In honor of the scientist who first devised the laws that govern the motions of planets, the team that built the first spacecraft to search for planets orbiting other stars decided to name the probe “Kepler.” To learn more about Johannes Kepler’s life and his laws of planetary motion, as well as lots of information on the Kepler Mission, visit NASA’s Kepler website and follow the links that interest you.

Key Concepts and Summary

Tycho Brahe’s accurate observations of planetary positions provided the data used by Johannes Kepler to derive his three fundamental laws of planetary motion. Kepler’s laws describe the behavior of planets in their orbits as follows: (1) planetary orbits are ellipses with the Sun at one focus; (2) in equal intervals, a planet’s orbit sweeps out equal areas; and (3) the relationship between the orbital period (P) and the semimajor axis (a) of an orbit is given by P² = a³ (when a is in units of AU and P is in units of Earth years).

Glossary

astronomical unit (AU): the unit of length defined as the average distance between Earth and the Sun; this distance is about 1.5 × 10⁸ kilometers

eccentricity: in an ellipse, the ratio of the distance between the foci to the major axis

ellipse: a closed curve for which the sum of the distances from any point on the ellipse to two points inside (called the foci) is always the same

focus: (plural: foci) one of two fixed points inside an ellipse from which the sum of the distances to any point on the ellipse is constant

Kepler’s first law: each planet moves around the Sun in an orbit that is an ellipse, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse

Kepler’s second law: the straight line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in space in equal intervals of time

Kepler’s third law: the square of a planet’s orbital period is directly proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit

major axis: the maximum diameter of an ellipse

orbit: the path of an object that is in revolution about another object or point

orbital period (P): the time it takes an object to travel once around the Sun

orbital speed: the speed at which an object (usually a planet) orbits around the mass of another object; in the case of a planet, the speed at which each planet moves along its ellipse

semimajor axis: half of the major axis of a conic section, such as an ellipse

3.2 Newton’s Great Synthesis

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:59:35 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe Newton’s three laws of motion
Explain how Newton’s three laws of motion relate to momentum
Define mass, volume, and density and how they differ
Define angular momentum

It was the genius of Isaac Newton that found a conceptual framework that completely explained the observations and rules assembled by Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, and others. Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England, in the year after Galileo’s death ([link]). Against the advice of his mother, who wanted him to stay home and help with the family farm, he entered Trinity College at Cambridge in 1661 and eight years later was appointed professor of mathematics. Among Newton’s contemporaries in England were architect Christopher Wren, authors Aphra Behn and Daniel Defoe, and composer G. F. Handel.

Isaac Newton (1643–1727), 1689 Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 1. Isaac Newton’s work on the laws of motion, gravity, optics, and mathematics laid the foundations for much of physical science.[/caption]

Newton’s Laws of Motion

As a young man in college, Newton became interested in natural philosophy, as science was then called. He worked out some of his first ideas on machines and optics during the plague years of 1665 and 1666, when students were sent home from college. Newton, a moody and often difficult man, continued to work on his ideas in private, even inventing new mathematical tools to help him deal with the complexities involved. Eventually, his friend Edmund Halley (profiled in Comets and Asteroids: Debris of the Solar System) prevailed on him to collect and publish the results of his remarkable investigations on motion and gravity. The result was a volume that set out the underlying system of the physical world, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. The Principia, as the book is generally known, was published at Halley’s expense in 1687.

At the very beginning of the Principia, Newton proposes three laws that would govern the motions of all objects:

Newton’s first law: Every object will continue to be in a state of rest or move at a constant speed in a straight line unless it is compelled to change by an outside force.
Newton’s second law: The change of motion of a body is proportional to and in the direction of the force acting on it.
Newton’s third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (or: the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and act in opposite directions).

In the original Latin, the three laws contain only 59 words, but those few words set the stage for modern science. Let us examine them more carefully.

Interpretation of Newton’s Laws

Newton’s first law is a restatement of one of Galileo’s discoveries, called the conservation of momentum. The law states that in the absence of any outside influence, there is a measure of a body’s motion, called its momentum, that remains unchanged. You may have heard the term momentum used in everyday expressions, such as “This bill in Congress has a lot of momentum; it’s going to be hard to stop.”

Newton’s first law is sometimes called the law of inertia, where inertia is the tendency of objects (and legislatures) to keep doing what they are already doing. In other words, a stationary object stays put, and a moving object keeps moving unless some force intervenes.

Let’s define the precise meaning of momentum—it depends on three factors: (1) speed—how fast a body moves (zero if it is stationary), (2) the direction of its motion, and (3) its mass—a measure of the amount of matter in a body, which we will discuss later. Scientists use the term velocity to describe the speed and direction of motion. For example, 20 kilometers per hour due south is velocity, whereas 20 kilometers per hour just by itself is speed. Momentum then can be defined as an object’s mass times its velocity.

It’s not so easy to see this rule in action in the everyday world because of the many forces acting on a body at any one time. One important force is friction, which generally slows things down. If you roll a ball along the sidewalk, it eventually comes to a stop because the sidewalk exerts a rubbing force on the ball. But in the space between the stars, where there is so little matter that friction is insignificant, objects can in fact continue to move (to coast) indefinitely.

The momentum of a body can change only under the action of an outside influence. Newton’s second law expresses force in terms of its ability to change momentum with time. A force (a push or a pull) has both size and direction. When a force is applied to a body, the momentum changes in the direction of the applied force. This means that a force is required to change either the speed or the direction of a body, or both—that is, to start it moving, to speed it up, to slow it down, to stop it, or to change its direction.

As you learned in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy, the rate of change in an object’s velocity is called acceleration. Newton showed that the acceleration of a body was proportional to the force being applied to it. Suppose that after a long period of reading, you push an astronomy book away from you on a long, smooth table. (We use a smooth table so we can ignore friction.) If you push the book steadily, it will continue to speed up as long as you are pushing it. The harder you push the book, the larger its acceleration will be. How much a force will accelerate an object is also determined by the object’s mass. If you kept pushing a pen with the same force with which you pushed the textbook, the pen—having less mass—would be accelerated to a greater speed.

Newton’s third law is perhaps the most profound of the rules he discovered. Basically, it is a generalization of the first law, but it also gives us a way to define mass. If we consider a system of two or more objects isolated from outside influences, Newton’s first law says that the total momentum of the objects should remain constant. Therefore, any change of momentum within the system must be balanced by another change that is equal and opposite so that the momentum of the entire system is not changed.

This means that forces in nature do not occur alone: we find that in each situation there is always a pair of forces that are equal to and opposite each other. If a force is exerted on an object, it must be exerted by something else, and the object will exert an equal and opposite force back on that something. We can look at a simple example to demonstrate this.

Suppose that a daredevil astronomy student—and avid skateboarder—wants to jump from his second-story dorm window onto his board below (we don’t recommend trying this!). The force pulling him down after jumping (as we will see in the next section) is the force of gravity between him and Earth. Both he and Earth must experience the same total change of momentum because of the influence of these mutual forces. So, both the student and Earth are accelerated by each other’s pull. However, the student does much more of the moving. Because Earth has enormously greater mass, it can experience the same change of momentum by accelerating only a very small amount. Things fall toward Earth all the time, but the acceleration of our planet as a result is far too small to be measured.

A more obvious example of the mutual nature of forces between objects is familiar to all who have batted a baseball. The recoil you feel as you swing your bat shows that the ball exerts a force on it during the impact, just as the bat does on the ball. Similarly, when a rifle you are bracing on your shoulder is discharged, the force pushing the bullet out of the muzzle is equal to the force pushing backward upon the gun and your shoulder.

This is the principle behind jet engines and rockets: the force that discharges the exhaust gases from the rear of the rocket is accompanied by the force that pushes the rocket forward. The exhaust gases need not push against air or Earth; a rocket actually operates best in a vacuum ([link]).

Demonstrating Newton’s Third Law.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. The U.S. Space Shuttle (here launching Discovery), powered by three fuel engines burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, with two solid fuel boosters, demonstrates Newton’s third law. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

For more about Isaac Newton’s life and work, check out this timeline page with snapshots from his career, produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Mass, Volume, and Density

Before we go on to discuss Newton’s other work, we want to take a brief look at some terms that will be important to sort out clearly. We begin with mass, which is a measure of the amount of material within an object.

The volume of an object is the measure of the physical space it occupies. Volume is measured in cubic units, such as cubic centimeters or liters. The volume is the “size” of an object. A penny and an inflated balloon may both have the same mass, but they have very different volumes. The reason is that they also have very different densities, which is a measure of how much mass there is per unit volume. Specifically, density is the mass divided by the volume. Note that in everyday language we often use “heavy” and “light” as indications of density (rather than weight) as, for instance, when we say that iron is heavy or that whipped cream is light.

The units of density that will be used in this book are grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm³).¹ If a block of some material has a mass of 300 grams and a volume of 100 cm³, its density is 3 g/cm³. Familiar materials span a considerable range in density, from artificial materials such as plastic insulating foam (less than 0.1 g/cm³) to gold (19.3 g/cm³). [link] gives the densities of some familiar materials. In the astronomical universe, much more remarkable densities can be found, all the way from a comet’s tail (10^–16 g/cm³) to a collapsed “star corpse” called a neutron star (10¹⁵ g/cm³).

Densities of Common Materials
Material	Density (g/cm³)
Gold	19.3
Lead	11.3
Iron	7.9
Earth (bulk)	5.5
Rock (typical)	2.5
Water	1
Wood (typical)	0.8
Insulating foam	0.1
Silica gel	0.02

To sum up, mass is how much, volume is how big, and density is how tightly packed.

You can play with a simple animation demonstrating the relationship between the concepts of density, mass, and volume, and find out why objects like wood float in water.

Angular Momentum

A concept that is a bit more complex, but important for understanding many astronomical objects, is angular momentum, which is a measure of the rotation of a body as it revolves around some fixed point (an example is a planet orbiting the Sun). The angular momentum of an object is defined as the product of its mass, its velocity, and its distance from the fixed point around which it revolves.

If these three quantities remain constant—that is, if the motion of a particular object takes place at a constant velocity at a fixed distance from the spin center—then the angular momentum is also a constant. Kepler’s second law is a consequence of the conservation of angular momentum. As a planet approaches the Sun on its elliptical orbit and the distance to the spin center decreases, the planet speeds up to conserve the angular momentum. Similarly, when the planet is farther from the Sun, it moves more slowly.

The conservation of angular momentum is illustrated by figure skaters, who bring their arms and legs in to spin more rapidly, and extend their arms and legs to slow down ([link]). You can duplicate this yourself on a well-oiled swivel stool by starting yourself spinning slowly with your arms extended and then pulling your arms in. Another example of the conservation of angular momentum is a shrinking cloud of dust or a star collapsing on itself (both are situations that you will learn about as you read on). As material moves to a lesser distance from the spin center, the speed of the material increases to conserve angular momentum.

Conservation of Angular Momentum.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. When a spinning figure skater brings in her arms, their distance from her spin center is smaller, so her speed increases. When her arms are out, their distance from the spin center is greater, so she slows down.[/caption]

Key Concepts and Summary

In his Principia, Isaac Newton established the three laws that govern the motion of objects: (1) objects continue to be at rest or move with a constant velocity unless acted upon by an outside force; (2) an outside force causes an acceleration (and changes the momentum) for an object; and (3) for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Momentum is a measure of the motion of an object and depends on both its mass and its velocity. Angular momentum is a measure of the motion of a spinning or revolving object and depends on its mass, velocity, and distance from the point around which it revolves. The density of an object is its mass divided by its volume.

Footnotes

1 Generally we use standard metric (or SI) units in this book. The proper metric unit of density in that system is kg/m³. But to most people,
g/cm³ provides a more meaningful unit because the density of water is exactly 1 g/cm³, and this is useful information for comparison. Density expressed in g/cm³ is sometimes called specific density or specific weight.

Glossary

angular momentum: the measure of the motion of a rotating object in terms of its speed and how widely the object’s mass is distributed around its axis

density: the ratio of the mass of an object to its volume

momentum: the measure of the amount of motion of a body; the momentum of a body is the product of its mass and velocity; in the absence of an unbalanced force, momentum is conserved

Newton’s first law: every object will continue to be in a state of rest or move at a constant speed in a straight line unless it is compelled to change by an outside force

Newton’s second law: the change of motion of a body is proportional to and in the direction of the force acting on it

Newton’s third law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (or: the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and act in opposite directions)

velocity: the speed and direction a body is moving—for example, 44 kilometers per second toward the north galactic pole

3.3 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 15:59:50 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain what determines the strength of gravity
Describe how Newton’s universal law of gravitation extends our understanding of Kepler’s laws

Newton’s laws of motion show that objects at rest will stay at rest and those in motion will continue moving uniformly in a straight line unless acted upon by a force. Thus, it is the straight line that defines the most natural state of motion. But the planets move in ellipses, not straight lines; therefore, some force must be bending their paths. That force, Newton proposed, was gravity.

In Newton’s time, gravity was something associated with Earth alone. Everyday experience shows us that Earth exerts a gravitational force upon objects at its surface. If you drop something, it accelerates toward Earth as it falls. Newton’s insight was that Earth’s gravity might extend as far as the Moon and produce the force required to curve the Moon’s path from a straight line and keep it in its orbit. He further hypothesized that gravity is not limited to Earth, but that there is a general force of attraction between all material bodies. If so, the attractive force between the Sun and each of the planets could keep them in their orbits. (This may seem part of our everyday thinking today, but it was a remarkable insight in Newton’s time.)

Once Newton boldly hypothesized that there was a universal attraction among all bodies everywhere in space, he had to determine the exact nature of the attraction. The precise mathematical description of that gravitational force had to dictate that the planets move exactly as Kepler had described them to (as expressed in Kepler’s three laws). Also, that gravitational force had to predict the correct behavior of falling bodies on Earth, as observed by Galileo. How must the force of gravity depend on distance in order for these conditions to be met?

The answer to this question required mathematical tools that had not yet been developed, but this did not deter Isaac Newton, who invented what we today call calculus to deal with this problem. Eventually he was able to conclude that the magnitude of the force of gravity must decrease with increasing distance between the Sun and a planet (or between any two objects) in proportion to the inverse square of their separation. In other words, if a planet were twice as far from the Sun, the force would be (1/2)², or 1/4 as large. Put the planet three times farther away, and the force is (1/3)², or 1/9 as large.

Newton also concluded that the gravitational attraction between two bodies must be proportional to their masses. The more mass an object has, the stronger the pull of its gravitational force. The gravitational attraction between any two objects is therefore given by one of the most famous equations in all of science:

$${F}_{\text{gravity}}=G\frac{{M}_{1}{M}_{2}}{{R}^{{}_{2}}}$$

where F_gravity is the gravitational force between two objects, M₁ and M₂ are the masses of the two objects, and R is their separation. G is a constant number known as the universal gravitational constant, and the equation itself symbolically summarizes Newton’s universal law of gravitation. With such a force and the laws of motion, Newton was able to show mathematically that the only orbits permitted were exactly those described by Kepler’s laws.

Newton’s universal law of gravitation works for the planets, but is it really universal? The gravitational theory should also predict the observed acceleration of the Moon toward Earth as it orbits Earth, as well as of any object (say, an apple) dropped near Earth’s surface. The falling of an apple is something we can measure quite easily, but can we use it to predict the motions of the Moon?

Recall that according to Newton’s second law, forces cause acceleration. Newton’s universal law of gravitation says that the force acting upon (and therefore the acceleration of) an object toward Earth should be inversely proportional to the square of its distance from the center of Earth. Objects like apples at the surface of Earth, at a distance of one Earth-radius from the center of Earth, are observed to accelerate downward at 9.8 meters per second per second (9.8 m/s²).

It is this force of gravity on the surface of Earth that gives us our sense of weight. Unlike your mass, which would remain the same on any planet or moon, your weight depends on the local force of gravity. So you would weigh less on Mars and the Moon than on Earth, even though there is no change in your mass. (Which means you would still have to go easy on the desserts in the college cafeteria when you got back!)

The Moon is 60 Earth radii away from the center of Earth. If gravity (and the acceleration it causes) gets weaker with distance squared, the acceleration the Moon experiences should be a lot less than for the apple. The acceleration should be (1/60)² = 1/3600 (or 3600 times less—about 0.00272 m/s². This is precisely the observed acceleration of the Moon in its orbit. (As we shall see, the Moon does not fall to Earth with this acceleration, but falls around Earth.) Imagine the thrill Newton must have felt to realize he had discovered, and verified, a law that holds for Earth, apples, the Moon, and, as far as he knew, everything in the universe.

Calculating Weight By what factor would a person’s weight at the surface of Earth change if Earth had its present mass but eight times its present volume?

Solution With eight times the volume, Earth’s radius would double. This means the gravitational force at the surface would reduce by a factor of (1/2)² = 1/4, so a person would weigh only one-fourth as much.

Check Your Learning By what factor would a person’s weight at the surface of Earth change if Earth had its present size but only one-third its present mass?

Answer:

With one-third its present mass, the gravitational force at the surface would reduce by a factor of 1/3, so a person would weight only one-third as much.

Gravity is a “built-in” property of mass. Whenever there are masses in the universe, they will interact via the force of gravitational attraction. The more mass there is, the greater the force of attraction. Here on Earth, the largest concentration of mass is, of course, the planet we stand on, and its pull dominates the gravitational interactions we experience. But everything with mass attracts everything else with mass anywhere in the universe. Newton’s law also implies that gravity never becomes zero. It quickly gets weaker with distance, but it continues to act to some degree no matter how far away you get. The pull of the Sun is stronger at Mercury than at Pluto, but it can be felt far beyond Pluto, where astronomers have good evidence that it continuously makes enormous numbers of smaller icy bodies move around huge orbits. And the Sun’s gravitational pull joins with the pull of billions of others stars to create the gravitational pull of our Milky Way Galaxy. That force, in turn, can make other smaller galaxies orbit around the Milky Way, and so on.

Why is it then, you may ask, that the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle appear to have no gravitational forces acting on them when we see images on television of the astronauts and objects floating in the spacecraft? After all, the astronauts in the shuttle are only a few hundred kilometers above the surface of Earth, which is not a significant distance compared to the size of Earth, so gravity is certainly not a great deal weaker that much farther away. The astronauts feel “weightless” (meaning that they don’t feel the gravitational force acting on them) for the same reason that passengers in an elevator whose cable has broken or in an airplane whose engines no longer work feel weightless: they are falling ([link]).¹

Astronauts in Free Fall.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 1. While in space, astronauts are falling freely, so they experience “weightlessness.” Clockwise from top left: Tracy Caldwell Dyson (NASA), Naoko Yamzaki (JAXA), Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger (NASA), and Stephanie Wilson (NASA). (credit: NASA)[/caption]

When falling, they are in free fall and accelerate at the same rate as everything around them, including their spacecraft or a camera with which they are taking photographs of Earth. When doing so, astronauts experience no additional forces and therefore feel “weightless.” Unlike the falling elevator passengers, however, the astronauts are falling around Earth, not to Earth; as a result they will continue to fall and are said to be “in orbit” around Earth (see the next section for more about orbits).

Orbital Motion and Mass

Kepler’s laws describe the orbits of the objects whose motions are described by Newton’s laws of motion and the law of gravity. Knowing that gravity is the force that attracts planets toward the Sun, however, allowed Newton to rethink Kepler’s third law. Recall that Kepler had found a relationship between the orbital period of a planet’s revolution and its distance from the Sun. But Newton’s formulation introduces the additional factor of the masses of the Sun (M₁) and the planet (M₂), both expressed in units of the Sun’s mass. Newton’s universal law of gravitation can be used to show mathematically that this relationship is actually

$${a}^{3}=\left({M}_{1}+{M}_{2}\right)\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{P}^{2}$$

where a is the semimajor axis and P is the orbital period.

How did Kepler miss this factor? In units of the Sun’s mass, the mass of the Sun is 1, and in units of the Sun’s mass, the mass of a typical planet is a negligibly small factor. This means that the sum of the Sun’s mass and a planet’s mass, (M₁ + M₂), is very, very close to 1. This makes Newton’s formula appear almost the same as Kepler’s; the tiny mass of the planets compared to the Sun is the reason that Kepler did not realize that both masses had to be included in the calculation. There are many situations in astronomy, however, in which we do need to include the two mass terms—for example, when two stars or two galaxies orbit each other.

Including the mass term allows us to use this formula in a new way. If we can measure the motions (distances and orbital periods) of objects acting under their mutual gravity, then the formula will permit us to deduce their masses. For example, we can calculate the mass of the Sun by using the distances and orbital periods of the planets, or the mass of Jupiter by noting the motions of its moons.

Indeed, Newton’s reformulation of Kepler’s third law is one of the most powerful concepts in astronomy. Our ability to deduce the masses of objects from their motions is key to understanding the nature and evolution of many astronomical bodies. We will use this law repeatedly throughout this text in calculations that range from the orbits of comets to the interactions of galaxies.

Calculating the Effects of Gravity A planet like Earth is found orbiting its star at a distance of 1 AU in 0.71 Earth-year. Can you use Newton’s version of Kepler’s third law to find the mass of the star? (Remember that compared to the mass of a star, the mass of an earthlike planet can be considered negligible.)

Solution In the formula a³ = (M₁ + M₂) × P², the factor M₁ + M₂ would now be approximately equal to M₁ (the mass of the star), since the planet’s mass is so small by comparison. Then the formula becomes a³ = M₁ × P², and we can solve for M₁:

$${M}_{1}=\frac{{a}^{3}}{{P}^{2}}$$

Since a = 1, a³ = 1, so

$${M}_{1}=\frac{1}{{P}^{2}}=\frac{1}{{0.71}^{2}}=\frac{1}{0.5}=2$$

So the mass of the star is twice the mass of our Sun. (Remember that this way of expressing the law has units in terms of Earth and the Sun, so masses are expressed in units of the mass of our Sun.)

Check Your Learning Suppose a star with twice the mass of our Sun had an earthlike planet that took 4 years to orbit the star. At what distance (semimajor axis) would this planet orbit its star?

Answer:

Again, we can neglect the mass of the planet. So M₁ = 2 and P = 4 years. The formula is a³ = M₁ × P², so a³ = 2 × 4² = 2 × 16 = 32. So a is the cube root of 32. To find this, you can just ask Google, “What is the cube root of 32?” and get the answer 3.2 AU.

You might like to try a simulation that lets you move the Sun, Earth, Moon, and space station to see the effects of changing their distances on their gravitational forces and orbital paths. You can even turn off gravity and see what happens.

Key Concepts and Summary

Gravity, the attractive force between all masses, is what keeps the planets in orbit. Newton’s universal law of gravitation relates the gravitational force to mass and distance:

$${F}_{\text{gravity}}=G\frac{{M}_{1}{M}_{2}}{{R}^{{}_{2}}}$$

The force of gravity is what gives us our sense of weight. Unlike mass, which is constant, weight can vary depending on the force of gravity (or acceleration) you feel. When Kepler’s laws are reexamined in the light of Newton’s gravitational law, it becomes clear that the masses of both objects are important for the third law, which becomes a³ = (M₁+ M₂) × P². Mutual gravitational effects permit us to calculate the masses of astronomical objects, from comets to galaxies.

Footnotes

1 In the film Apollo 13, the scenes in which the astronauts were “weightless” were actually filmed in a falling airplane. As you might imagine, the plane fell for only short periods before the engines engaged again.

Glossary

gravity: the mutual attraction of material bodies or particles

3.4 Orbits in the Solar System

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:00:06 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Compare the orbital characteristics of the planets in the solar system
Compare the orbital characteristics of asteroids and comets in the solar system

Recall that the path of an object under the influence of gravity through space is called its orbit, whether that object is a spacecraft, planet, star, or galaxy. An orbit, once determined, allows the future positions of the object to be calculated.

Two points in any orbit in our solar system have been given special names. The place where the planet is closest to the Sun (helios in Greek) and moves the fastest is called the perihelion of its orbit, and the place where it is farthest away and moves the most slowly is the aphelion. For the Moon or a satellite orbiting Earth (gee in Greek), the corresponding terms are perigee and apogee. (In this book, we use the word moon for a natural object that goes around a planet and the word satellite to mean a human-made object that revolves around a planet.)

Orbits of the Planets

Today, Newton’s work enables us to calculate and predict the orbits of the planets with marvelous precision. We know eight planets, beginning with Mercury closest to the Sun and extending outward to Neptune. The average orbital data for the planets are summarized in [link]. (Ceres is the largest of the asteroids, now considered a dwarf planet.)

According to Kepler’s laws, Mercury must have the shortest orbital period (88 Earth-days); thus, it has the highest orbital speed, averaging 48 kilometers per second. At the opposite extreme, Neptune has a period of 165 years and an average orbital speed of just 5 kilometers per second.

All the planets have orbits of rather low eccentricity. The most eccentric orbit is that of Mercury (0.21); the rest have eccentricities smaller than 0.1. It is fortunate that among the rest, Mars has an eccentricity greater than that of many of the other planets. Otherwise the pre-telescopic observations of Brahe would not have been sufficient for Kepler to deduce that its orbit had the shape of an ellipse rather than a circle.

The planetary orbits are also confined close to a common plane, which is near the plane of Earth’s orbit (called the ecliptic). The strange orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto is inclined about 17° to the ecliptic, and that of the dwarf planet Eris (orbiting even farther away from the Sun than Pluto) by 44°, but all the major planets lie within 10° of the common plane of the solar system.

You can use an orbital simulator to design your own mini solar system with up to four bodies. Adjust masses, velocities, and positions of the planets, and see what happens to their orbits as a result.

Orbits of Asteroids and Comets

In addition to the eight planets, there are many smaller objects in the solar system. Some of these are moons (natural satellites) that orbit all the planets except Mercury and Venus. In addition, there are two classes of smaller objects in heliocentric orbits: asteroids and comets. Both asteroids and comets are believed to be small chunks of material left over from the formation process of the solar system.

In general, asteroids have orbits with smaller semimajor axes than do comets ([link]). The majority of them lie between 2.2 and 3.3 AU, in the region known as the asteroid belt (see Comets and Asteroids: Debris of the Solar System). As you can see in [link], the asteroid belt (represented by its largest member, Ceres) is in the middle of a gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is because these two planets are so far apart that stable orbits of small bodies can exist in the region between them.

Solar System Orbits.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="702"] Figure 1. We see the orbits of typical comets and asteroids compared with those of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter (black circles). Shown in red are three comets: Halley, Kopff, and Encke. In blue are the four largest asteroids: Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Hygeia.[/caption]

Orbital Data for the Planets
Planet	Semimajor Axis (AU)	Period (y)	Eccentricity
Mercury	0.39	0.24	0.21
Venus	0.72	0.6	0.01
Earth	1	1.00	0.02
Mars	1.52	1.88	0.09
(Ceres)	2.77	4.6	0.08
Jupiter	5.20	11.86	0.05
Saturn	9.54	29.46	0.06
Uranus	19.19	84.01	0.05
Neptune	30.06	164.82	0.01

Comets generally have orbits of larger size and greater eccentricity than those of the asteroids. Typically, the eccentricity of their orbits is 0.8 or higher. According to Kepler’s second law, therefore, they spend most of their time far from the Sun, moving very slowly. As they approach perihelion, the comets speed up and whip through the inner parts of their orbits more rapidly.

Key Concepts and Summary

The closest point in a satellite orbit around Earth is its perigee, and the farthest point is its apogee (corresponding to perihelion and aphelion for an orbit around the Sun). The planets follow orbits around the Sun that are nearly circular and in the same plane. Most asteroids are found between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt, whereas comets generally follow orbits of high eccentricity.

Glossary

aphelion: the point in its orbit where a planet (or other orbiting object) is farthest from the Sun

apogee: the point in its orbit where an Earth satellite is farthest from Earth

asteroid belt: the region of the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in which most asteroids are located; the main belt, where the orbits are generally the most stable, extends from 2.2 to 3.3 AU from the Sun

perigee: the point in its orbit where an Earth satellite is closest to Earth

perihelion: the point in its orbit where a planet (or other orbiting object) is nearest to the Sun

satellite: an object that revolves around a planet

3.5 Motions of Satellites and Spacecraft

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:00:26 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how an object (such as a satellite) can be put into orbit around Earth
Explain how an object (such as a planetary probe) can escape from orbit

Newton’s universal law of gravitation and Kepler’s laws describe the motions of Earth satellites and interplanetary spacecraft as well as the planets. Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, was launched by what was then called the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Since that time, thousands of satellites have been placed into orbit around Earth, and spacecraft have also orbited the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and a number of asteroids and comets.

Once an artificial satellite is in orbit, its behavior is no different from that of a natural satellite, such as our Moon. If the satellite is high enough to be free of atmospheric friction, it will remain in orbit forever. However, although there is no difficulty in maintaining a satellite once it is in orbit, a great deal of energy is required to lift the spacecraft off Earth and accelerate it to orbital speed.

To illustrate how a satellite is launched, imagine a gun firing a bullet horizontally from the top of a high mountain, as in [link], which has been adapted from a similar diagram by Newton. Imagine, further, that the friction of the air could be removed and that nothing gets in the bullet’s way. Then the only force that acts on the bullet after it leaves the muzzle is the gravitational force between the bullet and Earth.

Firing a Bullet into Orbit.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="809"] Figure 1. (a) For paths a and b, the velocity is not enough to prevent gravity from pulling the bullet back to Earth; in case c, the velocity allows the bullet to fall completely around Earth. (b) This diagram by Newton in his De Mundi Systemate, 1731 edition, illustrates the same concept shown in (a).[/caption]

If the bullet is fired with a velocity we can call v_a, the gravitational force acting upon it pulls it downward toward Earth, where it strikes the ground at point a. However, if it is given a higher muzzle velocity, v_b, its higher speed carries it farther before it hits the ground at point b. If our bullet is given a high enough muzzle velocity, v_c, the curved surface of Earth causes the ground to remain the same distance from the bullet so that the bullet falls around Earth in a complete circle. The speed needed to do this—called the circular satellite velocity—is about 8 kilometers per second, or about 17,500 miles per hour in more familiar units.

Anik Satellites Launched in 1972, Anik (Inuktitut for “brother”) A1 was the first domestic communication satellite to be placed in a geostationary orbit. It relayed telephone calls, data, and television for ten years. When joined by Anik A2 and Anik A3, in 1973 and 1975 respectively, it made Canada the first country to use satellites for domestic communication. [caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="446"] Figure 2. Artist rendition of Anik Satellites in orbit. Credit: Canadian Space Agency (CSA)[/caption]

Ongoing Anik satellite launches have in interesting Canadian news footage, an archived sample of which can be found here.

Each year, more than 50 new satellites are launched into orbit by such nations as Russia, the United States, China, Japan, India, and Israel, as well as by the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of European nations (http://www.esa.int/ESA). Today, these satellites are used for weather tracking, ecology, global positioning systems, communications, and military purposes, to name a few uses. Most satellites are launched into low Earth orbit, since this requires the minimum launch energy. At the orbital speed of 8 kilometers per second, they circle the planet in about 90 minutes. Some of the very low Earth orbits are not indefinitely stable because, as Earth’s atmosphere swells from time to time, a frictional drag is generated by the atmosphere on these satellites, eventually leading to a loss of energy and “decay” of the orbit.

Satellites in Earth Orbit.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. This figure shows the larger pieces of orbital debris that are being tracked by NASA in Earth’s orbit. (credit: NASA/JSC)[/caption]

Interplanetary Spacecraft

The exploration of the solar system has been carried out largely by robot spacecraft sent to the other planets. To escape Earth, these craft must achieve escape speed, the speed needed to move away from Earth forever, which is about 11 kilometers per second (about 25,000 miles per hour). After escaping Earth, these craft coast to their targets, subject only to minor trajectory adjustments provided by small thruster rockets on board. In interplanetary flight, these spacecraft follow orbits around the Sun that are modified only when they pass near one of the planets.

As it comes close to its target, a spacecraft is deflected by the planet’s gravitational force into a modified orbit, either gaining or losing energy in the process. Spacecraft controllers have actually been able to use a planet’s gravity to redirect a flyby spacecraft to a second target. For example, Voyager 2 used a series of gravity-assisted encounters to yield successive flybys of Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1980), Uranus (1986), and Neptune (1989). The Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989, flew past Venus once and Earth twice to gain the energy required to reach its ultimate goal of orbiting Jupiter.

If we wish to orbit a planet, we must slow the spacecraft with a rocket when the spacecraft is near its destination, allowing it to be captured into an elliptical orbit. Additional rocket thrust is required to bring a vehicle down from orbit for a landing on the surface. Finally, if a return trip to Earth is planned, the landed payload must include enough propulsive power to repeat the entire process in reverse.

Key Concepts and Summary

The orbit of an artificial satellite depends on the circumstances of its launch. The circular satellite velocity needed to orbit Earth’s surface is 8 kilometers per second, and the escape speed from our planet is 11 kilometers per second. There are many possible interplanetary trajectories, including those that use gravity-assisted flybys of one object to redirect the spacecraft toward its next target.

Glossary

escape speed: the speed a body must achieve to break away from the gravity of another body

3.6 Gravity with More Than Two Bodies

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:00:40 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how the gravitational interactions of many bodies can causes perturbations in their motions
Explain how the planet Neptune was discovered

Until now, we have considered the Sun and a planet (or a planet and one of its moons) as nothing more than a pair of bodies revolving around each other. In fact, all the planets exert gravitational forces upon one another as well. These interplanetary attractions cause slight variations from the orbits than would be expected if the gravitational forces between planets were neglected. The motion of a body that is under the gravitational influence of two or more other bodies is very complicated and can be calculated properly only with large computers. Fortunately, astronomers have such computers at their disposal in universities and government research institutes.

The Interactions of Many Bodies

As an example, suppose you have a cluster of a thousand stars all orbiting a common center (such clusters are quite common, as we shall see in Star Clusters). If we know the exact position of each star at any given instant, we can calculate the combined gravitational force of the entire group on any one member of the cluster. Knowing the force on the star in question, we can therefore find how it will accelerate. If we know how it was moving to begin with, we can then calculate how it will move in the next instant of time, thus tracking its motion.

However, the problem is complicated by the fact that the other stars are also moving and thus changing the effect they will have on our star. Therefore, we must simultaneously calculate the acceleration of each star produced by the combination of the gravitational attractions of all the others in order to track the motions of all of them, and hence of any one. Such complex calculations have been carried out with modern computers to track the evolution of hypothetical clusters of stars with up to a million members ([link]).

Modern Computing Power.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 1. These supercomputers at NASA’s Ames Research Center are capable of tracking the motions of more than a million objects under their mutual gravitation. (credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Tom Trower)[/caption]

Within the solar system, the problem of computing the orbits of planets and spacecraft is somewhat simpler. We have seen that Kepler’s laws, which do not take into account the gravitational effects of the other planets on an orbit, really work quite well. This is because these additional influences are very small in comparison with the dominant gravitational attraction of the Sun. Under such circumstances, it is possible to treat the effects of other bodies as small perturbations (or disturbances). During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mathematicians developed many elegant techniques for calculating perturbations, permitting them to predict very precisely the positions of the planets. Such calculations eventually led to the prediction and discovery of a new planet in 1846.

The Discovery of Neptune

The discovery of the eighth planet, Neptune, was one of the high points in the development of gravitational theory. In 1781, William Herschel, a musician and amateur astronomer, accidentally discovered the seventh planet, Uranus. It happens that Uranus had been observed a century before, but in none of those earlier sightings was it recognized as a planet; rather, it was simply recorded as a star. Herschel’s discovery showed that there could be planets in the solar system too dim to be visible to the unaided eye, but ready to be discovered with a telescope if we just knew where to look. By 1790, an orbit had been calculated for Uranus using observations of its motion in the decade following its discovery. Even after allowance was made for the perturbing effects of Jupiter and Saturn, however, it was found that Uranus did not move on an orbit that exactly fit the earlier observations of it made since 1690. By 1840, the discrepancy between the positions observed for Uranus and those predicted from its computed orbit amounted to about 0.03°—an angle barely discernable to the unaided eye but still larger than the probable errors in the orbital calculations. In other words, Uranus just did not seem to move on the orbit predicted from Newtonian theory.

In 1843, John Couch Adams, a young Englishman who had just completed his studies at Cambridge, began a detailed mathematical analysis of the irregularities in the motion of Uranus to see whether they might be produced by the pull of an unknown planet. He hypothesized a planet more distant from the Sun than Uranus, and then determined the mass and orbit it had to have to account for the departures in Uranus’ orbit. In October 1845, Adams delivered his results to George Airy, the British Astronomer Royal, informing him where in the sky to find the new planet. We now know that Adams’ predicted position for the new body was correct to within 2°, but for a variety of reasons, Airy did not follow up right away.

Meanwhile, French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, unaware of Adams or his work, attacked the same problem and published its solution in June 1846. Airy, noting that Le Verrier’s predicted position for the unknown planet agreed to within 1° with that of Adams, suggested to James Challis, Director of the Cambridge Observatory, that he begin a search for the new object. The Cambridge astronomer, having no up-to-date star charts of the Aquarius region of the sky where the planet was predicted to be, proceeded by recording the positions of all the faint stars he could observe with his telescope in that location. It was Challis’ plan to repeat such plots at intervals of several days, in the hope that the planet would distinguish itself from a star by its motion. Unfortunately, he was negligent in examining his observations; although he had actually seen the planet, he did not recognize it.

About a month later, Le Verrier suggested to Johann Galle, an astronomer at the Berlin Observatory, that he look for the planet. Galle received Le Verrier’s letter on September 23, 1846, and, possessing new charts of the Aquarius region, found and identified the planet that very night. It was less than a degree from the position Le Verrier predicted. The discovery of the eighth planet, now known as Neptune (the Latin name for the god of the sea), was a major triumph for gravitational theory for it dramatically confirmed the generality of Newton’s laws. The honor for the discovery is properly shared by the two mathematicians, Adams and Le Verrier (Figure 2, below [link]).

Mathematicians Who Discovered a Planet.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 2. (a) John Couch Adams (1819–1892) and (b) Urbain J. J. Le Verrier (1811–1877) share the credit for discovering the planet Neptune.[/caption]

We should note that the discovery of Neptune was not a complete surprise to astronomers, who had long suspected the existence of the planet based on the “disobedient” motion of Uranus. On September 10, 1846, two weeks before Neptune was actually found, John Herschel, son of the discoverer of Uranus, remarked in a speech before the British Association, “We see [the new planet] as Columbus saw America from the shores of Spain. Its movements have been felt trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis with a certainty hardly inferior to ocular demonstration.”

This discovery was a major step forward in combining Newtonian theory with painstaking observations. Such work continues in our own times with the discovery of planets around other stars.

For the fuller story of how Neptune was predicted and found (and the effect of the discovery on the search for Pluto), you can read this page on the mathematical discovery of planets.

Astronomy and the Poets

When Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton formulated the fundamental rules that underlie everything in the physical world, they changed much more than the face of science. For some, they gave humanity the courage to let go of old superstitions and see the world as rational and manageable; for others, they upset comforting, ordered ways that had served humanity for centuries, leaving only a dry, “mechanical clockwork” universe in their wake.

Poets of the time reacted to such changes in their work and debated whether the new world picture was an appealing or frightening one. John Donne (1573–1631), in a poem called “Anatomy of the World,” laments the passing of the old certainties:

The new Philosophy [science] calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th’ earth, and no man’s wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.

(Here the “element of fire” refers also to the sphere of fire, which medieval thought placed between Earth and the Moon.)

By the next century, however, poets like Alexander Pope were celebrating Newton and the Newtonian world view. Pope’s famous couplet, written upon Newton’s death, goes

Nature, and nature’s laws lay hid in night.
God said, Let Newton be! And all was light.

In his 1733 poem, An Essay on Man, Pope delights in the complexity of the new views of the world, incomplete though they are:

Of man, what see we, but his station here,
From which to reason, to which refer? . . .
He, who thro’ vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What vary’d being peoples every star,
May tell why Heav’n has made us as we are . . .
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And, in spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.

Poets and philosophers continued to debate whether humanity was exalted or debased by the new views of science. The nineteenth-century poet Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) cries out in his poem “The New Sinai”:

And as old from Sinai’s top God said that God is one,
By science strict so speaks He now to tell us, there is None!
Earth goes by chemic forces; Heaven’s a Mécanique Celeste!
And heart and mind of humankind a watchwork as the rest!

(A “mécanique celeste” is a clockwork model to demonstrate celestial motions.)

The twentieth-century poet Robinson Jeffers (whose brother was an astronomer) saw it differently in a poem called “Star Swirls”:

There is nothing like astronomy to pull the stuff out of man.
His stupid dreams and red-rooster importance:
Let him count the star-swirls.

Key Concepts and Summary

Calculating the gravitational interaction of more than two objects is complicated and requires large computers. If one object (like the Sun in our solar system) dominates gravitationally, it is possible to calculate the effects of a second object in terms of small perturbations. This approach was used by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier to predict the position of Neptune from its perturbations of the orbit of Uranus and thus discover a new planet mathematically.

Glossary

perturbation: a small disturbing effect on the motion or orbit of a body produced by a third body

4.1 Earth and Sky

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:03:39 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe how latitude and longitude are used to map Earth
Explain how right ascension and declination are used to map the sky

In order to create an accurate map, a mapmaker needs a way to uniquely and simply identify the location of all the major features on the map, such as cities or natural landmarks. Similarly, astronomical mapmakers need a way to uniquely and simply identify the location of stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects. On Earth maps, we divide the surface of Earth into a grid, and each location on that grid can easily be found using its latitude and longitude coordinate. Astronomers have a similar system for objects on the sky. Learning about these can help us understand the apparent motion of objects in the sky from various places on Earth.

Locating Places on Earth

Let’s begin by fixing our position on the surface of planet Earth. As we discussed in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy, Earth’s axis of rotation defines the locations of its North and South Poles and of its equator, halfway between. Two other directions are also defined by Earth’s motions: east is the direction toward which Earth rotates, and west is its opposite. At almost any point on Earth, the four directions—north, south, east, and west—are well defined, despite the fact that our planet is round rather that flat. The only exceptions are exactly at the North and South Poles, where the directions east and west are ambiguous (because points exactly at the poles do not turn).

We can use these ideas to define a system of coordinates attached to our planet. Such a system, like the layout of streets and avenues in Manhattan or Salt Lake City, helps us find where we are or want to go. Coordinates on a sphere, however, are a little more complicated than those on a flat surface. We must define circles on the sphere that play the same role as the rectangular grid that you see on city maps.

A great circle is any circle on the surface of a sphere whose center is at the center of the sphere. For example, Earth’s equator is a great circle on Earth’s surface, halfway between the North and South Poles. We can also imagine a series of great circles that pass through both the North and South Poles. Each of this circles is called a meridian; they are each perpendicular to the equator, crossing it at right angles.

Any point on the surface of Earth will have a meridian passing through it ([link]). The meridian specifies the east-west location, or longitude, of the place. By international agreement (and it took many meetings for the world’s countries to agree), longitude is defined as the number of degrees of arc along the equator between your meridian and the one passing through Greenwich, England, which has been designated as the Prime Meridian. The longitude of the Prime Meridian is defined as 0°.

Latitude and Longitude of Washington, DC.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="472"] Figure 1. We use latitude and longitude to find cities like Washington, DC, on a globe. Latitude is the number of degrees north or south of the equator, and longitude is the number of degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian. Washington, DC’s coordinates are 38° N and 77° W.[/caption]

Why Greenwich, you might ask? Every country wanted 0° longitude to pass through its own capital. Greenwich, the site of the old Royal Observatory ([link]), was selected because it was between continental Europe and the United States, and because it was the site for much of the development of the method to measure longitude at sea. Longitudes are measured either to the east or to the west of the Greenwich meridian from 0° to 180°. As an example, the longitude of the clock-house benchmark of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, is 77.066° W.

Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. At the internationally agreed-upon zero point of longitude at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, tourists can stand and straddle the exact line where longitude “begins.”(credit left: modification of work by “pdbreen”/Flickr; credit right: modification of work by Ben Sutherland)[/caption]

Your latitude (or north-south location) is the number of degrees of arc you are away from the equator along your meridian. Latitudes are measured either north or south of the equator from 0° to 90°. (The latitude of the equator is 0°.) As an example, the latitude of the previously mentioned Naval Observatory benchmark is 38.921° N. The latitude of the South Pole is 90° S, and the latitude of the North Pole is 90° N.

Locating Places in the Sky

Positions in the sky are measured in a way that is very similar to the way we measure positions on the surface of Earth. Instead of latitude and longitude, however, astronomers use coordinates called declination and right ascension. To denote positions of objects in the sky, it is often convenient to make use of the fictitious celestial sphere. We saw in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy that the sky appears to rotate about points above the North and South Poles of Earth—points in the sky called the north celestial pole and the south celestial pole. Halfway between the celestial poles, and thus 90° from each pole, is the celestial equator, a great circle on the celestial sphere that is in the same plane as Earth’s equator. We can use these markers in the sky to set up a system of celestial coordinates.

Declination on the celestial sphere is measured the same way that latitude is measured on the sphere of Earth: from the celestial equator toward the north (positive) or south (negative). So Polaris, the star near the north celestial pole, has a declination of almost +90°.

Right ascension (RA) is like longitude, except that instead of Greenwich, the arbitrarily chosen point where we start counting is the vernal equinox, a point in the sky where the ecliptic (the Sun’s path) crosses the celestial equator. RA can be expressed either in units of angle (degrees) or in units of time. This is because the celestial sphere appears to turn around Earth once a day as our planet turns on its axis. Thus the 360° of RA that it takes to go once around the celestial sphere can just as well be set equal to 24 hours. Then each 15° of arc is equal to 1 hour of time. For example, the approximate celestial coordinates of the bright star Capella are RA 5h = 75° and declination +50°.

One way to visualize these circles in the sky is to imagine Earth as a transparent sphere with the terrestrial coordinates (latitude and longitude) painted on it with dark paint. Imagine the celestial sphere around us as a giant ball, painted white on the inside. Then imagine yourself at the center of Earth, with a bright light bulb in the middle, looking out through its transparent surface to the sky. The terrestrial poles, equator, and meridians will be projected as dark shadows on the celestial sphere, giving us the system of coordinates in the sky.

You can explore a variety of basic animations about coordinates and motions in the sky at this interactive site from ClassAction. Click on the “Animations” tab for a list of options. If you choose the second option in the menu, you can play with the celestial sphere and see RA and declination defined visually.

The Turning Earth

Why do many stars rise and set each night? Why, in other words, does the night sky seem to turn? We have seen that the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere could be accounted for either by a daily rotation of the sky around a stationary Earth or by the rotation of Earth itself. Since the seventeenth century, it has been generally accepted that it is Earth that turns, but not until the nineteenth century did the French physicist Jean Foucault provide an unambiguous demonstration of this rotation. In 1851, he suspended a 60-meter pendulum weighing about 25 kilograms from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris and started the pendulum swinging evenly. If Earth had not been turning, there would have been no alteration of the pendulum’s plane of oscillation, and so it would have continued tracing the same path. Yet after a few minutes Foucault could see that the pendulum’s plane of motion was turning. Foucault explained that it was not the pendulum that was shifting, but rather Earth that was turning beneath it ([link]). You can now find such pendulums in many science centers and planetariums around the world.

Foucault’s Pendulum.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. As Earth turns, the plane of oscillation of the Foucault pendulum shifts gradually so that over the course of 12 hours, all the targets in the circle at the edge of the wooden platform are knocked over in sequence. (credit: Manuel M. Vicente)[/caption]

Can you think of other pieces of evidence that indicate that it is Earth and not the sky that is turning? (See Collaborative Group Activity A at the end of this chapter.)

Key Concepts and Summary

The terrestrial system of latitude and longitude makes use of the great circles called meridians. Longitude is arbitrarily set to 0° at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. An analogous celestial coordinate system is called right ascension (RA) and declination, with 0° of declination starting at the vernal equinox. These coordinate systems help us locate any object on the celestial sphere. The Foucault pendulum is a way to demonstrate that Earth is turning.

Glossary

declination: the angular distance north or south of the celestial equator

great circle: a circle on the surface of a sphere that is the curve of intersection of the sphere with a plane passing through its center

meridian: a great circle on the terrestrial or celestial sphere that passes through the poles

right ascension: the coordinate for measuring the east-west positions of celestial bodies; the angle measured eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle passing through a body

4.2 The Seasons

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:03:54 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe how the tilt of Earth’s axis causes the seasons
Explain how seasonal differences on Earth vary with latitude

One of the fundamental facts of life at Earth’s midlatitudes, where most of this book’s readers live, is that there are significant variations in the heat we receive from the Sun during the course of the year. We thus divide the year into seasons, each with its different amount of sunlight. The difference between seasons gets more pronounced the farther north or south from the equator we travel, and the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are the opposite of what we find on the northern half of Earth. With these observed facts in mind, let us ask what causes the seasons.

Many people have believed that the seasons were the result of the changing distance between Earth and the Sun. This sounds reasonable at first: it should be colder when Earth is farther from the Sun. But the facts don’t bear out this hypothesis. Although Earth’s orbit around the Sun is an ellipse, its distance from the Sun varies by only about 3%. That’s not enough to cause significant variations in the Sun’s heating. To make matters worse for people in North America who hold this hypothesis, Earth is actually closest to the Sun in January, when the Northern Hemisphere is in the middle of winter. And if distance were the governing factor, why would the two hemispheres have opposite seasons? As we shall show, the seasons are actually caused by the 23.5° tilt of Earth’s axis.

The Seasons and Sunshine

[link] shows Earth’s annual path around the Sun, with Earth’s axis tilted by 23.5°. Note that our axis continues to point the same direction in the sky throughout the year. As Earth travels around the Sun, in June the Northern Hemisphere “leans into” the Sun and is more directly illuminated. In December, the situation is reversed: the Southern Hemisphere leans into the Sun, and the Northern Hemisphere leans away. In September and March, Earth leans “sideways”—neither into the Sun nor away from it—so the two hemispheres are equally favored with sunshine.

Seasons.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. We see Earth at different seasons as it circles the Sun. In June, the Northern Hemisphere “leans into” the Sun, and those in the North experience summer and have longer days. In December, during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere “leans into” the Sun and is illuminated more directly. In spring and autumn, the two hemispheres receive more equal shares of sunlight.1[/caption]

How does the Sun’s favoring one hemisphere translate into making it warmer for us down on the surface of Earth? There are two effects we need to consider. When we lean into the Sun, sunlight hits us at a more direct angle and is more effective at heating Earth’s surface ([link]). You can get a similar effect by shining a flashlight onto a wall. If you shine the flashlight straight on, you get an intense spot of light on the wall. But if you hold the flashlight at an angle (if the wall “leans out” of the beam), then the spot of light is more spread out. Like the straight-on light, the sunlight in June is more direct and intense in the Northern Hemisphere, and hence more effective at heating.

The Sun’s Rays in Summer and Winter.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 2. (a) In summer, the Sun appears high in the sky and its rays hit Earth more directly, spreading out less. (b) In winter, the Sun is low in the sky and its rays spread out over a much wider area, becoming less effective at heating the ground.[/caption]

The second effect has to do with the length of time the Sun spends above the horizon ([link]). Even if you’ve never thought about astronomy before, we’re sure you have observed that the hours of daylight increase in summer and decrease in winter. Let’s see why this happens.

The Sun’s Path in the Sky for Different Seasons.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. On June 21, the Sun rises north of east and sets north of west. For observers in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth, the Sun spends about 15 hours above the horizon in the United States, meaning more hours of daylight. On December 21, the Sun rises south of east and sets south of west. It spends 9 hours above the horizon in the United States, which means fewer hours of daylight and more hours of night in northern lands (and a strong need for people to hold celebrations to cheer themselves up). On March 21 and September 21, the Sun spends equal amounts of time above and below the horizon in both hemispheres.[/caption]As we saw in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy, an equivalent way to look at our path around the Sun each year is to pretend that the Sun moves around Earth (on a circle called the ecliptic). Because Earth’s axis is tilted, the ecliptic is tilted by about 23.5° relative to the celestial equator (review [link]). As a result, where we see the Sun in the sky changes as the year wears on.

In June, the Sun is north of the celestial equator and spends more time with those who live in the Northern Hemisphere. It rises high in the sky and is above the horizon in the United States for as long as 15 hours. Thus, the Sun not only heats us with more direct rays, but it also has more time to do it each day. (Notice in [link] that the Northern Hemisphere’s gain is the Southern Hemisphere’s loss. There the June Sun is low in the sky, meaning fewer daylight hours. In Chile, for example, June is a colder, darker time of year.) In December, when the Sun is south of the celestial equator, the situation is reversed.

Let’s look at what the Sun’s illumination on Earth looks like at some specific dates of the year, when these effects are at their maximum. On or about June 21 (the date we who live in the Northern Hemisphere call the summer solstice or sometimes the first day of summer), the Sun shines down most directly upon the Northern Hemisphere of Earth. It appears about 23° north of the equator, and thus, on that date, it passes through the zenith of places on Earth that are at 23° N latitude. The situation is shown in detail in [link]. To a person at 23° N (near Hawaii, for example), the Sun is directly overhead at noon. This latitude, where the Sun can appear at the zenith at noon on the first day of summer, is called the Tropic of Cancer.

We also see in [link] that the Sun’s rays shine down all around the North Pole at the solstice. As Earth turns on its axis, the North Pole is continuously illuminated by the Sun; all places within 23° of the pole have sunshine for 24 hours. The Sun is as far north on this date as it can get; thus, 90° – 23° (or 67° N) is the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen for a full 24-hour period (sometimes called the “land of the midnight Sun”). That circle of latitude is called the Arctic Circle.

Earth on June 21.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Figure 4. This is the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Note that as Earth turns on its axis (the line connecting the North and South Poles), the North Pole is in constant sunlight while the South Pole is veiled in 24 hours of darkness. The Sun is at the zenith for observers on the Tropic of Cancer.[/caption]

Many early cultures scheduled special events around the summer solstice to celebrate the longest days and thank their gods for making the weather warm. This required people to keep track of the lengths of the days and the northward trek of the Sun in order to know the right day for the “party.” (You can do the same thing by watching for several weeks, from the same observation point, where the Sun rises or sets relative to a fixed landmark. In spring, the Sun will rise farther and farther north of east, and set farther and farther north of west, reaching the maximum around the summer solstice.)

Now look at the South Pole in [link]. On June 21, all places within 23° of the South Pole—that is, south of what we call the Antarctic Circle—do not see the Sun at all for 24 hours.

The situation is reversed 6 months later, about December 21 (the date of the winter solstice, or the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere), as shown in [link]. Now it is the Arctic Circle that has the 24-hour night and the Antarctic Circle that has the midnight Sun. At latitude 23° S, called the Tropic of Capricorn, the Sun passes through the zenith at noon. Days are longer in the Southern Hemisphere and shorter in the north. In the United States and Southern Europe, there may be only 9 or 10 hours of sunshine during the day. It is winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Earth on December 21.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Figure 5. This is the date of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Now the North Pole is in darkness for 24 hours and the South Pole is illuminated. The Sun is at the zenith for observers on the Tropic of Capricorn and thus is low in the sky for the residents of the Northern Hemisphere.[/caption]

Seasonal Variations As you can see in [link], the Tropic of Cancer is the latitude for which the Sun is directly overhead on the summer solstice. At this time, the Sun is at a declination of 23° N of the celestial equator, and the corresponding latitude on Earth is 23° N of the equator. If Earth were tilted a bit less, then the Tropic of Cancer would be at a lower latitude, closer to the equator.

The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude for which the day length is 24 hours on the day of the summer solstice. This is located at 90° – 23° = 67° N of Earth’s equator. If Earth were tilted a bit less, then the Arctic Circle would move farther North. In the limit at which Earth is not tilted at all (its axis is perpendicular to the ecliptic), the Tropic of Cancer would be right on Earth’s equator, and the Arctic Circle would simply be the North Pole. Suppose the tilt of Earth’s axis were tilted only 5°. What would be the effect on the seasons and the locations of the Tropic of Cancer and Arctic Circle?

Solution If Earth were tilted less, the seasons would be less extreme. The variation in day length and direct sunlight would be very small over the course of a year, and the Sun’s daily path in the sky would not vary much. If Earth were tilted by 5°, the Sun’s position on the day of the summer solstice would be 5° N of the celestial equator, so the Tropic of Cancer would be at the corresponding latitude on Earth of 5° N of the Equator. The Arctic Circle would be located at 90° – 5° = 85° N of the equator.

Check Your Learning Suppose the tilt of Earth’s axis were 16°. What, then, would be the difference in latitude between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer? What would be the effect on the seasons compared with that produced by the actual tilt of 23°?

Answer:

The Tropic of Cancer is at a latitude equal to Earth’s tilt, so in this case, it would be at 16° N latitude. The Arctic Circle is at a latitude equal to 90° minus Earth’s tilt, or 90° – 16° = 74°. The difference between these two latitudes is 74° – 16° = 58°. Since the tilt of Earth is less, there would be less variation in the tilt of Earth and less variation in the Sun’s paths throughout the year, so there would be milder seasonal changes.

You can see an animation of the Sun’s path during the seasons alongside a time-lapse view of light and shadow from a camera set up on the University of Nebraska campus.

Many cultures that developed some distance north of the equator have a celebration around December 21 to help people deal with the depressing lack of sunlight and the often dangerously cold temperatures. Originally, this was often a time for huddling with family and friends, for sharing the reserves of food and drink, and for rituals asking the gods to return the light and heat and turn the cycle of the seasons around. Many cultures constructed elaborate devices for anticipating when the shortest day of the year was coming. Stonehenge in England, built long before the invention of writing, is probably one such device. In our own time, we continue the winter solstice tradition with various holiday celebrations around that December date.

Halfway between the solstices, on about March 21 and September 21, the Sun is on the celestial equator. From Earth, it appears above our planet’s equator and favors neither hemisphere. Every place on Earth then receives roughly 12 hours of sunshine and 12 hours of night. The points where the Sun crosses the celestial equator are called the vernal (spring) and autumnal (fall) equinoxes.

The Seasons at Different Latitudes

The seasonal effects are different at different latitudes on Earth. Near the equator, for instance, all seasons are much the same. Every day of the year, the Sun is up half the time, so there are approximately 12 hours of sunshine and 12 hours of night. Local residents define the seasons by the amount of rain (wet season and dry season) rather than by the amount of sunlight. As we travel north or south, the seasons become more pronounced, until we reach extreme cases in the Arctic and Antarctic.

At the North Pole, all celestial objects that are north of the celestial equator are always above the horizon and, as Earth turns, circle around parallel to it. The Sun is north of the celestial equator from about March 21 to September 21, so at the North Pole, the Sun rises when it reaches the vernal equinox and sets when it reaches the autumnal equinox. Each year there are 6 months of sunshine at each pole, followed by 6 months of darkness.

The Position of the Sun in the Sky The Sun’s coordinates on the celestial sphere range from a declination of 23° N of the celestial equator (or +23°) to a declination 23° S of the celestial equator (or –23°). So, the Sun’s altitude at noon, when it crosses the meridian, varies by a total of 46°. What is the altitude of the Sun at noon on March 21, as seen from a place on Earth’s equator? What is its altitude on June 21, as seen from a place on Earth’s equator?

Solution On Earth’s equator, the celestial equator passes through the zenith. On March 21, the Sun is crossing the celestial equator, so it should be found at the zenith (90°) at noon. On June 21, the Sun is 23° N of the celestial equator, so it will be 23° away from the zenith at noon. The altitude above the horizon will be 23° less than the altitude of the zenith (90°), so it is 90° – 23° = 67° above the horizon.

Check Your Learning What is the altitude of the Sun at noon on December 21, as seen from a place on the Tropic of Cancer?

Answer:

On the day of the winter solstice, the Sun is located about 23° S of the celestial equator. From the Tropic of Cancer, a latitude of 23° N, the zenith would be a declination of 23° N. The difference in declination between zenith and the position of the Sun is 46°, so the Sun would be 46° away from the zenith. That means it would be at an altitude of 90° – 46° = 44°.

Clarifications about the Real World

In our discussions so far, we have been describing the rising and setting of the Sun and stars as they would appear if Earth had little or no atmosphere. In reality, however, the atmosphere has the curious effect of allowing us to see a little way “over the horizon.” This effect is a result of refraction, the bending of light passing through air or water, something we will discuss in Astronomical Instruments. Because of this atmospheric refraction (and the fact that the Sun is not a point of light but a disk), the Sun appears to rise earlier and to set later than it would if no atmosphere were present.

In addition, the atmosphere scatters light and provides some twilight illumination even when the Sun is below the horizon. Astronomers define morning twilight as beginning when the Sun is 18° below the horizon, and evening twilight extends until the Sun sinks more than 18° below the horizon.

These atmospheric effects require small corrections in many of our statements about the seasons. At the equinoxes, for example, the Sun appears to be above the horizon for a few minutes longer than 12 hours, and below the horizon for fewer than 12 hours. These effects are most dramatic at Earth’s poles, where the Sun actually can be seen more than a week before it reaches the celestial equator.

You probably know that the summer solstice (June 21) is not the warmest day of the year, even if it is the longest. The hottest months in the Northern Hemisphere are July and August. This is because our weather involves the air and water covering Earth’s surface, and these large reservoirs do not heat up instantaneously. You have probably observed this effect for yourself; for example, a pond does not get warm the moment the Sun rises but is warmest late in the afternoon, after it has had time to absorb the Sun’s heat. In the same way, Earth gets warmer after it has had a chance to absorb the extra sunlight that is the Sun’s summer gift to us. And the coldest times of winter are a month or more after the winter solstice.

Key Concepts and Summary

The familiar cycle of the seasons results from the 23.5° tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation. At the summer solstice, the Sun is higher in the sky and its rays strike Earth more directly. The Sun is in the sky for more than half of the day and can heat Earth longer. At the winter solstice, the Sun is low in the sky and its rays come in at more of an angle; in addition, it is up for fewer than 12 hours, so those rays have less time to heat. At the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the Sun is on the celestial equator and we get about 12 hours of day and night. The seasons are different at different latitudes.

Footnotes

1 Note that the dates indicated for the solstices and equinoxes are approximate; depending on the year, they may occur a day or two earlier or later.

4.3 Keeping Time

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:04:09 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain the difference between the solar day and the sidereal day
Explain mean solar time and the reason for time zones

The measurement of time is based on the rotation of Earth. Throughout most of human history, time has been reckoned by positions of the Sun and stars in the sky. Only recently have mechanical and electronic clocks taken over this function in regulating our lives.

The Length of the Day

The most fundamental astronomical unit of time is the day, measured in terms of the rotation of Earth. There is, however, more than one way to define the day. Usually, we think of it as the rotation period of Earth with respect to the Sun, called the solar day. After all, for most people sunrise is more important than the rising time of Arcturus or some other star, so we set our clocks to some version of Sun-time. However, astronomers also use a sidereal day, which is defined in terms of the rotation period of Earth with respect to the stars.

A solar day is slightly longer than a sidereal day because (as you can see from [link]) Earth not only turns but also moves along its path around the Sun in a day. Suppose we start when Earth’s orbital position is at day 1, with both the Sun and some distant star (located in the direction indicated by the long white arrow pointing left), directly in line with the zenith for the observer on Earth. When Earth has completed one rotation with respect to the distant star and is at day 2, the long arrow again points to the same distant star. However, notice that because of the movement of Earth along its orbit from day 1 to 2, the Sun has not yet reached a position above the observer. To complete a solar day, Earth must rotate an additional amount, equal to 1/365 of a full turn. The time required for this extra rotation is 1/365 of a day, or about 4 minutes. So the solar day is about 4 minutes longer than the sidereal day.

Difference Between a Sidereal Day and a Solar Day.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This is a top view, looking down as Earth orbits the Sun. Because Earth moves around the Sun (roughly 1° per day), after one complete rotation of Earth relative to the stars, we do not see the Sun in the same position.[/caption]

Because our ordinary clocks are set to solar time, stars rise 4 minutes earlier each day. Astronomers prefer sidereal time for planning their observations because in that system, a star rises at the same time every day.

Sidereal Time and Solar Time The Sun makes a complete circle in the sky approximately every 24 hours, while the stars make a complete circle in the sky in 4 minutes less time, or 23 hours and 56 minutes. This causes the positions of the stars at a given time of day or night to change slightly each day. Since stars rise 4 minutes earlier each day, that works out to about 2 hours per month (4 minutes × 30 = 120 minutes or 2 hours). So, if a particular constellation rises at sunset during the winter, you can be sure that by the summer, it will rise about 12 hours earlier, with the sunrise, and it will not be so easily visible in the night sky. Let’s say that tonight the bright star Sirius rises at 7:00 p.m. from a given location so that by midnight, it is very high in the sky. At what time will Sirius rise in three months? Solution In three months’ time, Sirius will be rising earlier by:

$$90\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{days}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{4\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{minutes}}{\text{day}}=\text{360 minutes or 6 hours}$$

It will rise at about 1:00 p.m. and be high in the sky at around sunset instead of midnight. Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major (the big dog). So, some other constellation will be prominently visible high in the sky at this later date.

Check Your Learning If a star rises at 8:30 p.m. tonight, approximately what time will it rise two months from now?

Answer:

In two months, the star will rise:

$$60\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{days}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{4\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{minutes}}{\text{day}}=24\text{0 minutes or 4 hours earlier.}$$

This means it will rise at 4:30 p.m.

Apparent Solar Time

We can define apparent solar time as time reckoned by the actual position of the Sun in the sky (or, during the night, its position below the horizon). This is the kind of time indicated by sundials, and it probably represents the earliest measure of time used by ancient civilizations. Today, we adopt the middle of the night as the starting point of the day and measure time in hours elapsed since midnight. During the first half of the day, the Sun has not yet reached the meridian (the great circle in the sky that passes through our zenith). We designate those hours as before midday (ante meridiem, or a.m.), before the Sun reaches the local meridian. We customarily start numbering the hours after noon over again and designate them by p.m. (post meridiem), after the Sun reaches the local meridian.

Although apparent solar time seems simple, it is not really very convenient to use. The exact length of an apparent solar day varies slightly during the year. The eastward progress of the Sun in its annual journey around the sky is not uniform because the speed of Earth varies slightly in its elliptical orbit. Another complication is that Earth’s axis of rotation is not perpendicular to the plane of its revolution. Thus, apparent solar time does not advance at a uniform rate. After the invention of mechanical clocks that run at a uniform rate, it became necessary to abandon the apparent solar day as the fundamental unit of time.

Mean Solar Time and Standard Time

Instead, we can consider the mean solar time, which is based on the average value of the solar day over the course of the year. A mean solar day contains exactly 24 hours and is what we use in our everyday timekeeping. Although mean solar time has the advantage of progressing at a uniform rate, it is still inconvenient for practical use because it is determined by the position of the Sun. For example, noon occurs when the Sun is highest in the sky on the meridian (but not necessarily at the zenith). But because we live on a round Earth, the exact time of noon is different as you change your longitude by moving east or west.

If mean solar time were strictly observed, people traveling east or west would have to reset their watches continually as the longitude changed, just to read the local mean time correctly. For instance, a commuter traveling from Oyster Bay on Long Island to New York City would have to adjust the time on the trip through the East River tunnel because Oyster Bay time is actually about 1.6 minutes more advanced than that of Manhattan. (Imagine an airplane trip in which an obnoxious flight attendant gets on the intercom every minute, saying, “Please reset your watch for local mean time.”)

Until near the end of the nineteenth century, every city and town in the United States kept its own local mean time. With the development of railroads and the telegraph, however, the need for some kind of standardization became evident. In 1883, the United States was divided into four standard time zones (now six, including Hawaii and Alaska), each with one system of time within that zone.

By 1900, most of the world was using the system of 24 standardized global time zones. Within each zone, all places keep the same standard time, with the local mean solar time of a standard line of longitude running more or less through the middle of each zone. Now travelers reset their watches only when the time change has amounted to a full hour. Pacific standard time is 3 hours earlier than eastern standard time, a fact that becomes painfully obvious in California when someone on the East Coast forgets and calls you at 5:00 a.m.

Globally, almost all countries have adopted one or more standard time zones, although one of the largest nations, India, has settled on a half-zone, being 5.5 hours from Greenwich standard. Also, several large countries (Russia, China) officially use only one time zone, so all the clocks in that country keep the same time. In Tibet, for example, the Sun rises while the clocks (which keep Beijing time) say it is midmorning already.

Daylight saving time is simply the local standard time of the place plus 1 hour. It has been adopted for spring and summer use in most states in the United States, as well as in many countries, to prolong the sunlight into evening hours, on the apparent theory that it is easier to change the time by government action than it would be for individuals or businesses to adjust their own schedules to produce the same effect. It does not, of course, “save” any daylight at all—because the amount of sunlight is not determined by what we do with our clocks—and its observance is a point of legislative debate in some states.

The International Date Line

The fact that time is always advancing as you move toward the east presents a problem. Suppose you travel eastward around the world. You pass into a new time zone, on the average, about every 15° of longitude you travel, and each time you dutifully set your watch ahead an hour. By the time you have completed your trip, you have set your watch ahead a full 24 hours and thus gained a day over those who stayed at home.

The solution to this dilemma is the International Date Line, set by international agreement to run approximately along the 180° meridian of longitude. The date line runs down the middle of the Pacific Ocean, although it jogs a bit in a few places to avoid cutting through groups of islands and through Alaska ([link]). By convention, at the date line, the date of the calendar is changed by one day. Crossing the date line from west to east, thus advancing your time, you compensate by decreasing the date; crossing from east to west, you increase the date by one day. To maintain our planet on a rational system of timekeeping, we simply must accept that the date will differ in different cities at the same time. A good example is the date when the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, known in the United States as Sunday, December 7, 1941, but taught to Japanese students as Monday, December 8.

Where the Date Changes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 2. The International Date Line is an arbitrarily drawn line on Earth where the date changes. So that neighbors do not have different days, the line is located where Earth’s surface is mostly water.[/caption]

Key Concepts and Summary

The basic unit of astronomical time is the day—either the solar day (reckoned by the Sun) or the sidereal day (reckoned by the stars). Apparent solar time is based on the position of the Sun in the sky, and mean solar time is based on the average value of a solar day during the year. By international agreement, we define 24 time zones around the world, each with its own standard time. The convention of the International Date Line is necessary to reconcile times on different parts of Earth.

Glossary

apparent solar time: time as measured by the position of the Sun in the sky (the time that would be indicated by a sundial)

International Date Line: an arbitrary line on the surface of Earth near longitude 180° across which the date changes by one day

mean solar time: time based on the rotation of Earth; mean solar time passes at a constant rate, unlike apparent solar time

sidereal day: Earth’s rotation period as defined by the positions of the stars in the sky; the time between successive passages of the same star through the meridian

solar day: Earth’s rotation period as defined by the position of the Sun in the sky; the time between successive passages of the Sun through the meridian

4.4 The Calendar

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:04:22 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Understand how calendars varied among different cultures
Explain the origins of our modern calendar

“What’s today’s date?” is one of the most common questions you can ask (usually when signing a document or worrying about whether you should have started studying for your next astronomy exam). Long before the era of digital watches, smartphones, and fitness bands that tell the date, people used calendars to help measure the passage of time.

The Challenge of the Calendar

There are two traditional functions of any calendar. First, it must keep track of time over the course of long spans, allowing people to anticipate the cycle of the seasons and to honor special religious or personal anniversaries. Second, to be useful to a large number of people, a calendar must use natural time intervals that everyone can agree on—those defined by the motions of Earth, the Moon, and sometimes even the planets. The natural units of our calendar are the day, based on the period of rotation of Earth; the month, based on the cycle of the Moon’s phases (see later in this chapter) about Earth; and the year, based on the period of revolution of Earth about the Sun. Difficulties have resulted from the fact that these three periods are not commensurable; that’s a fancy way of saying that one does not divide evenly into any of the others.

The rotation period of Earth is, by definition, 1.0000 day (and here the solar day is used, since that is the basis of human experience). The period required by the Moon to complete its cycle of phases, called the lunar month, is 29.5306 days. The basic period of revolution of Earth, called the tropical year, is 365.2422 days. The ratios of these numbers are not convenient for calculations. This is the historic challenge of the calendar, dealt with in various ways by different cultures.

Early Calendars

Even the earliest cultures were concerned with the keeping of time and the calendar. Some interesting examples include monuments left by Bronze Age people in northwestern Europe, especially the British Isles. The best preserved of the monuments is Stonehenge, about 13 kilometers from Salisbury in southwest England ([link]). It is a complex array of stones, ditches, and holes arranged in concentric circles. Carbon dating and other studies show that Stonehenge was built during three periods ranging from about 2800 to 1500 BCE. Some of the stones are aligned with the directions of the Sun and Moon during their risings and settings at critical times of the year (such as the summer and winter solstices), and it is generally believed that at least one function of the monument was connected with the keeping of a calendar.

Stonehenge.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 1. The ancient monument known as Stonehenge was used to keep track of the motions of the Sun and Moon. (credit: modification of work by Adriano Aurelio Araujo)[/caption]

The Maya in Central America, who thrived more than a thousand years ago, were also concerned with the keeping of time. Their calendar was as sophisticated as, and perhaps more complex than, contemporary calendars in Europe. The Maya did not attempt to correlate their calendar accurately with the length of the year or lunar month. Rather, their calendar was a system for keeping track of the passage of days and for counting time far into the past or future. Among other purposes, it was useful for predicting astronomical events, such as the position of Venus in the sky ([link]).

El Caracol.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. This Mayan observatory at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan, Mexico, dates from around the year 1000. (credit: “wiredtourist.com”/Flickr)[/caption]The ancient Chinese developed an especially complex calendar, largely limited to a few privileged hereditary court astronomer-astrologers. In addition to the motions of Earth and the Moon, they were able to fit in the approximately 12-year cycle of Jupiter, which was central to their system of astrology. The Chinese still preserve some aspects of this system in their cycle of 12 “years”—the Year of the Dragon, the Year of the Pig, and so on—that are defined by the position of Jupiter in the zodiac.

Our Western calendar derives from a long history of timekeeping beginning with the Sumerians, dating back to at least the second millennium BCE, and continuing with the Egyptians and the Greeks around the eighth century BCE. These calendars led, eventually, to the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar, which approximated the year at 365.25 days, fairly close to the actual value of 365.2422. The Romans achieved this approximation by declaring years to have 365 days each, with the exception of every fourth year. The leap year was to have one extra day, bringing its length to 366 days, and thus making the average length of the year in the Julian calendar 365.25 days. In this calendar, the Romans had dropped the almost impossible task of trying to base their calendar on the Moon as well as the Sun, although a vestige of older lunar systems can be seen in the fact that our months have an average length of about 30 days. However, lunar calendars remained in use in other cultures, and Islamic calendars, for example, are still primarily lunar rather than solar.

The Gregorian Calendar

Although the Julian calendar (which was adopted by the early Christian Church) represented a great advance, its average year still differed from the true year by about 11 minutes, an amount that accumulates over the centuries to an appreciable error. By 1582, that 11 minutes per year had added up to the point where the first day of spring was occurring on March 11, instead of March 21. If the trend were allowed to continue, eventually the Christian celebration of Easter would be occurring in early winter. Pope Gregory XIII, a contemporary of Galileo, felt it necessary to institute further calendar reform.

The Gregorian calendar reform consisted of two steps. First, 10 days had to be dropped out of the calendar to bring the vernal equinox back to March 21; by proclamation, the day following October 4, 1582, became October 15. The second feature of the new Gregorian calendar was a change in the rule for leap year, making the average length of the year more closely approximate the tropical year. Gregory decreed that three of every four century years—all leap years under the Julian calendar—would be common years henceforth. The rule was that only century years divisible by 400 would be leap years. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900—all divisible by 4 but not by 400—were not leap years in the Gregorian calendar. On the other hand, the years 1600 and 2000, both divisible by 400, were leap years. The average length of this Gregorian year, 365.2425 mean solar days, is correct to about 1 day in 3300 years. The Catholic countries immediately put the Gregorian reform into effect, but countries of the Eastern Church and most Protestant countries did not adopt it until much later. It was 1752 when England and the American colonies finally made the change. By parliamentary decree, September 2, 1752, was followed by September 14. Although special laws were passed to prevent such abuses as landlords collecting a full month’s rent for September, there were still riots, and people demanded their 12 days back. Russia did not abandon the Julian calendar until the time of the Bolshevik revolution. The Russians then had to omit 13 days to come into step with the rest of the world. The anniversary of the October Revolution (old calendar) of 1917, bringing the communists to power, thus ended up being celebrated in November (new calendar), a difference that is perhaps not so important since the fall of communism.

Key Concepts and Summary

The fundamental problem of the calendar is to reconcile the incommensurable lengths of the day, month, and year. Most modern calendars, beginning with the Roman (Julian) calendar of the first century BCE, neglect the problem of the month and concentrate on achieving the correct number of days in a year by using such conventions as the leap year. Today, most of the world has adopted the Gregorian calendar established in 1582 while finding ways to coexist with the older lunar calendars’ system of months.

4.5 Phases and Motions of the Moon

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:04:39 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain the cause of the lunar phases
Understand how the Moon rotates and revolves around Earth

After the Sun, the Moon is the brightest and most obvious object in the sky. Unlike the Sun, it does not shine under its own power, but merely glows with reflected sunlight. If you were to follow its progress in the sky for a month, you would observe a cycle of phases (different appearances), with the Moon starting dark and getting more and more illuminated by sunlight over the course of about two weeks. After the Moon’s disk becomes fully bright, it begins to fade, returning to dark about two weeks later.

These changes fascinated and mystified many early cultures, which came up with marvelous stories and legends to explain the cycle of the Moon. Even in the modern world, many people don’t understand what causes the phases, thinking that they are somehow related to the shadow of Earth. Let us see how the phases can be explained by the motion of the Moon relative to the bright light source in the solar system, the Sun.

Lunar Phases

Although we know that the Sun moves 1/12 of its path around the sky each month, for purposes of explaining the phases, we can assume that the Sun’s light comes from roughly the same direction during the course of a four-week lunar cycle. The Moon, on the other hand, moves completely around Earth in that time. As we watch the Moon from our vantage point on Earth, how much of its face we see illuminated by sunlight depends on the angle the Sun makes with the Moon.

Here is a simple experiment to show you what we mean: stand about 6 feet in front of a bright electric light in a completely dark room (or outdoors at night) and hold in your hand a small round object such as a tennis ball or an orange. Your head can then represent Earth, the light represents the Sun, and the ball the Moon. Move the ball around your head (making sure you don’t cause an eclipse by blocking the light with your head). You will see phases just like those of the Moon on the ball. (Another good way to get acquainted with the phases and motions of the Moon is to follow our satellite in the sky for a month or two, recording its shape, its direction from the Sun, and when it rises and sets.)

Let’s examine the Moon’s cycle of phases using [link], which depicts the Moon’s behavior for the entire month. The trick to this figure is that you must imagine yourself standing on Earth, facing the Moon in each of its phases. So, for the position labeled “New,” you are on the right side of Earth and it’s the middle of the day; for the position “Full,” you are on the left side of Earth in the middle of the night. Note that in every position on [link], the Moon is half illuminated and half dark (as a ball in sunlight should be). The difference at each position has to do with what part of the Moon faces Earth.

Phases of the Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The appearance of the Moon changes over the course of a complete monthly cycle. The pictures of the Moon on the white circle show the perspective from space, with the Sun off to the right in a fixed position. The outer images show how the Moon appears to you in the sky from each point in the orbit. Imagine yourself standing on Earth, facing the Moon at each stage. In the position “New,” for example, you are facing the Moon from the right side of Earth in the middle of the day. (Note that the distance of the Moon from Earth is not to scale in this diagram: the Moon is roughly 30 Earth-diameters away from us.) (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

The Moon is said to be new when it is in the same general direction in the sky as the Sun (position A). Here, its illuminated (bright) side is turned away from us and its dark side is turned toward us. You might say that the Sun is shining on the “wrong ” side of the Moon from our perspective. In this phase the Moon is invisible to us; its dark, rocky surface does not give off any light of its own. Because the new moon is in the same part of the sky as the Sun, it rises at sunrise and sets at sunset.

But the Moon does not remain in this phase long because it moves eastward each day in its monthly path around us. Since it takes about 30 days to orbit Earth and there are 360° in a circle, the Moon will move about 12° in the sky each day (or about 24 times its own diameter). A day or two after the new phase, the thin crescent first appears, as we begin to see a small part of the Moon’s illuminated hemisphere. It has moved into a position where it now reflects a little sunlight toward us along one side. The bright crescent increases in size on successive days as the Moon moves farther and farther around the sky away from the direction of the Sun (position B). Because the Moon is moving eastward away from the Sun, it rises later and later each day (like a student during summer vacation).

After about one week, the Moon is one-quarter of the way around its orbit (position C) and so we say it is at the first quarter phase. Half of the Moon’s illuminated side is visible to Earth observers. Because of its eastward motion, the Moon now lags about one-quarter of the day behind the Sun, rising around noon and setting around midnight.

During the week after the first quarter phase, we see more and more of the Moon’s illuminated hemisphere (position D), a phase that is called waxing (or growing) gibbous (from the Latin gibbus, meaning hump). Eventually, the Moon arrives at position E in our figure, where it and the Sun are opposite each other in the sky. The side of the Moon turned toward the Sun is also turned toward Earth, and we have the full phase.

When the Moon is full, it is opposite the Sun in the sky. The Moon does the opposite of what the Sun does, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. Note what that means in practice: the completely illuminated (and thus very noticeable) Moon rises just as it gets dark, remains in the sky all night long, and sets as the Sun’s first rays are seen at dawn. Its illumination throughout the night helps lovers on a romantic stroll and students finding their way back to their dorms after a long night in the library or an off-campus party.

And when is the full moon highest in the sky and most noticeable? At midnight, a time made famous in generations of horror novels and films. (Note how the behavior of a vampire like Dracula parallels the behavior of the full Moon: Dracula rises at sunset, does his worst mischief at midnight, and must be back down in his coffin by sunrise. The old legends were a way of personifying the behavior of the Moon, which was a much more dramatic part of people’s lives in the days before electric lights and television.)

Folklore has it that more crazy behavior is seen during the time of the full moon (the Moon even gives a name to crazy behavior—“lunacy”). But, in fact, statistical tests of this “hypothesis” involving thousands of records from hospital emergency rooms and police files do not reveal any correlation of human behavior with the phases of the Moon. For example, homicides occur at the same rate during the new moon or the crescent moon as during the full moon. Most investigators believe that the real story is not that more crazy behavior happens on nights with a full moon, but rather that we are more likely to notice or remember such behavior with the aid of a bright celestial light that is up all night long.

During the two weeks following the full moon, the Moon goes through the same phases again in reverse order (points F, G, and H in [link]), returning to new phase after about 29.5 days. About a week after the full moon, for example, the Moon is at third quarter, meaning that it is three-quarters of the way around (not that it is three-quarters illuminated—in fact, half of the visible side of the Moon is again dark). At this phase, the Moon is now rising around midnight and setting around noon.

Note that there is one thing quite misleading about [link]. If you look at the Moon in position E, although it is full in theory, it appears as if its illumination would in fact be blocked by a big fat Earth, and hence we would not see anything on the Moon except Earth’s shadow. In reality, the Moon is nowhere near as close to Earth (nor is its path so identical with the Sun’s in the sky) as this diagram (and the diagrams in most textbooks) might lead you to believe.

The Moon is actually 30 Earth-diameters away from us; Science and the Universe: A Brief Tour contains a diagram that shows the two objects to scale. And, since the Moon’s orbit is tilted relative to the path of the Sun in the sky, Earth’s shadow misses the Moon most months. That’s why we regularly get treated to a full moon. The times when Earth’s shadow does fall on the Moon are called lunar eclipses and are discussed in Eclipses of the Sun and Moon.

Astronomy and the Days of the Week

The week seems independent of celestial motions, although its length may have been based on the time between quarter phases of the Moon. In Western culture, the seven days of the week are named after the seven “wanderers” that the ancients saw in the sky: the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets visible to the unaided eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn).

In English, we can easily recognize the names Sun-day (Sunday), Moon-day (Monday), and Saturn-day (Saturday), but the other days are named after the Norse equivalents of the Roman gods that gave their names to the planets. In languages more directly related to Latin, the correspondences are clearer. Wednesday, Mercury’s day, for example, is mercoledi in Italian, mercredi in French, and miércoles in Spanish. Mars gives its name to Tuesday (martes in Spanish), Jupiter or Jove to Thursday (giovedi in Italian), and Venus to Friday (vendredi in French).

There is no reason that the week has to have seven days rather than five or eight. It is interesting to speculate that if we had lived in a planetary system where more planets were visible without a telescope, the Beatles could have been right and we might well have had “Eight Days a Week.”

View this animation to see the phases of the Moon as it orbits Earth and as Earth orbits the Sun.

The Moon’s Revolution and Rotation

The Moon’s sidereal period—that is, the period of its revolution about Earth measured with respect to the stars—is a little over 27 days: the sidereal month is 27.3217 days to be exact. The time interval in which the phases repeat—say, from full to full—is the solar month, 29.5306 days. The difference results from Earth’s motion around the Sun. The Moon must make more than a complete turn around the moving Earth to get back to the same phase with respect to the Sun. As we saw, the Moon changes its position on the celestial sphere rather rapidly: even during a single evening, the Moon creeps visibly eastward among the stars, traveling its own width in a little less than 1 hour. The delay in moonrise from one day to the next caused by this eastward motion averages about 50 minutes.

The Moon rotates on its axis in exactly the same time that it takes to revolve about Earth. As a consequence, the Moon always keeps the same face turned toward Earth ([link]). You can simulate this yourself by “orbiting” your roommate or another volunteer. Start by facing your roommate. If you make one rotation (spin) with your shoulders in the exact same time that you revolve around him or her, you will continue to face your roommate during the whole “orbit.” As we will see in coming chapters, our Moon is not the only world that exhibits this behavior, which scientists call synchronous rotation.

The Moon without and with Rotation.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. In this figure, we stuck a white arrow into a fixed point on the Moon to keep track of its sides. (a) If the Moon did not rotate as it orbited Earth, it would present all of its sides to our view; hence the white arrow would point directly toward Earth only in the bottom position on the diagram. (b) Actually, the Moon rotates in the same period that it revolves, so we always see the same side (the white arrow keeps pointing to Earth).[/caption]

The differences in the Moon’s appearance from one night to the next are due to changing illumination by the Sun, not to its own rotation. You sometimes hear the back side of the Moon (the side we never see) called the “dark side.” This is a misunderstanding of the real situation: which side is light and which is dark changes as the Moon moves around Earth. The back side is dark no more frequently than the front side. Since the Moon rotates, the Sun rises and sets on all sides of the Moon. With apologies to Pink Floyd, there is simply no regular “Dark Side of the Moon.”

Key Concepts and Summary

The Moon’s monthly cycle of phases results from the changing angle of its illumination by the Sun. The full moon is visible in the sky only during the night; other phases are visible during the day as well. Because its period of revolution is the same as its period of rotation, the Moon always keeps the same face toward Earth.

Glossary

phases of the Moon: the different appearance of light and dark on the Moon as seen from Earth during its monthly cycle, from new moon to full moon and back to new moon

sidereal month: the period of the Moon’s revolution about Earth measured with respect to the stars

solar month: the time interval in which the phases repeat—say, from full to full phase

synchronous rotation: when a body (for example, the Moon) rotates at the same rate that it revolves around another body

4.6 Ocean Tides and the Moon

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:04:55 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe what causes tides on Earth
Explain why the amplitude of tides changes during the course of a month

Anyone living near the sea is familiar with the twice-daily rising and falling of the tides. Early in history, it was clear that tides must be related to the Moon because the daily delay in high tide is the same as the daily delay in the Moon’s rising. A satisfactory explanation of the tides, however, awaited the theory of gravity, supplied by Newton.

The Pull of the Moon on Earth

The gravitational forces exerted by the Moon at several points on Earth are illustrated in [link]. These forces differ slightly from one another because Earth is not a point, but has a certain size: all parts are not equally distant from the Moon, nor are they all in exactly the same direction from the Moon. Moreover, Earth is not perfectly rigid. As a result, the differences among the forces of the Moon’s attraction on different parts of Earth (called differential forces) cause Earth to distort slightly. The side of Earth nearest the Moon is attracted toward the Moon more strongly than is the center of Earth, which in turn is attracted more strongly than is the side opposite the Moon. Thus, the differential forces tend to stretch Earth slightly into a prolate spheroid (a football shape), with its long diameter pointed toward the Moon.

Pull of the Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The Moon’s differential attraction is shown on different parts of Earth. (Note that the differences have been exaggerated for educational purposes.)[/caption]

If Earth were made of water, it would distort until the Moon’s differential forces over different parts of its surface came into balance with Earth’s own gravitational forces pulling it together. Calculations show that in this case, Earth would distort from a sphere by amounts ranging up to nearly 1 meter. Measurements of the actual deformation of Earth show that the solid Earth does distort, but only about one-third as much as water would, because of the greater rigidity of Earth’s interior.

Because the tidal distortion of the solid Earth amounts—at its greatest—to only about 20 centimeters, Earth does not distort enough to balance the Moon’s differential forces with its own gravity. Hence, objects at Earth’s surface experience tiny horizontal tugs, tending to make them slide about. These tide-raising forces are too insignificant to affect solid objects like astronomy students or rocks in Earth’s crust, but they do affect the waters in the oceans.

The Formation of Tides

The tide-raising forces, acting over a number of hours, produce motions of the water that result in measurable tidal bulges in the oceans. Water on the side of Earth facing the Moon flows toward it, with the greatest depths roughly at the point below the Moon. On the side of Earth opposite the Moon, water also flows to produce a tidal bulge ([link]).

Tidal Bulges in an “Ideal” Ocean.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Figure 2. Differences in gravity cause tidal forces that push water in the direction of tidal bulges on Earth.[/caption]

You can run this animation for a visual demonstration of the tidal bulge.

Note that the tidal bulges in the oceans do not result from the Moon’s compressing or expanding the water, nor from the Moon’s lifting the water “away from Earth.” Rather, they result from an actual flow of water over Earth’s surface toward the two regions below and opposite the Moon, causing the water to pile up to greater depths at those places ([link]).

High and Low Tides.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. This is a side-by-side comparison of the Bay of Fundy in Canada at high and low tides. (credit a, b: modification of work by Dylan Kereluk)[/caption]

In the idealized (and, as we shall see, oversimplified) model just described, the height of the tides would be only a few feet. The rotation of Earth would carry an observer at any given place alternately into regions of deeper and shallower water. An observer being carried toward the regions under or opposite the Moon, where the water was deepest, would say, “The tide is coming in”; when carried away from those regions, the observer would say, “The tide is going out.” During a day, the observer would be carried through two tidal bulges (one on each side of Earth) and so would experience two high tides and two low tides.

The Sun also produces tides on Earth, although it is less than half as effective as the Moon at tide raising. The actual tides we experience are a combination of the larger effect of the Moon and the smaller effect of the Sun. When the Sun and Moon are lined up (at new moon or full moon), the tides produced reinforce each other and so are greater than normal ([link]). These are called spring tides (the name is connected not to the season but to the idea that higher tides “spring up”). Spring tides are approximately the same, whether the Sun and Moon are on the same or opposite sides of Earth, because tidal bulges occur on both sides. When the Moon is at first quarter or last quarter (at right angles to the Sun’s direction), the tides produced by the Sun partially cancel the tides of the Moon, making them lower than usual. These are called neap tides.

Tides Caused by Different Alignments of the Sun and Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 4. (a) In spring tides, the Sun’s and Moon’s pulls reinforce each other. (b) In neap tides, the Sun and the Moon pull at right angles to each other and the resulting tides are lower than usual.[/caption]

The “simple” theory of tides, described in the preceding paragraphs, would be sufficient if Earth rotated very slowly and were completely surrounded by very deep oceans. However, the presence of land masses stopping the flow of water, the friction in the oceans and between oceans and the ocean floors, the rotation of Earth, the wind, the variable depth of the ocean, and other factors all complicate the picture. This is why, in the real world, some places have very small tides while in other places huge tides become tourist attractions. If you have been in such places, you may know that “tide tables” need to be computed and published for each location; one set of tide predictions doesn’t work for the whole planet. In this introductory chapter, we won’t delve further into these complexities.

George Darwin and the Slowing of Earth

The rubbing of water over the face of Earth involves an enormous amount of energy. Over long periods of time, the friction of the tides is slowing down the rotation of Earth. Our day gets longer by about 0.002 second each century. That seems very small, but such tiny changes can add up over millions and billions of years.

Although Earth’s spin is slowing down, the angular momentum (see Orbits and Gravity) in a system such as the Earth-Moon system cannot change. Thus, some other spin motion must speed up to take the extra angular momentum. The details of what happens were worked out over a century ago by George Darwin, the son of naturalist Charles Darwin. George Darwin (see [link]) had a strong interest in science but studied law for six years and was admitted to the bar. However, he never practiced law, returning to science instead and eventually becoming a professor at Cambridge University. He was a protégé of Lord Kelvin, one of the great physicists of the nineteenth century, and he became interested in the long-term evolution of the solar system. He specialized in making detailed (and difficult) mathematical calculations of how orbits and motions change over geologic time.

George Darwin (1845–1912).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 5. George Darwin is best known for studying Earth’s spin in relation to angular momentum.[/caption]

What Darwin calculated for the Earth-Moon system was that the Moon will slowly spiral outward, away from Earth. As it moves farther away, it will orbit less quickly (just as planets farther from the Sun move more slowly in their orbits). Thus, the month will get longer. Also, because the Moon will be more distant, total eclipses of the Sun will no longer be visible from Earth.

Both the day and the month will continue to get longer, although bear in mind that the effects are very gradual. Darwin’s calculations were confirmed by mirrors placed on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts. These show that the Moon is moving away by 3.8 centimeters per year, and that ultimately—billions of years in the future—the day and the month will be the same length (about 47 of our present days). At this point the Moon will be stationary in the sky over the same spot on Earth, meaning some parts of Earth will see the Moon and its phases and other parts will never see them. This kind of alignment is already true for Pluto’s moon Charon (among others). Its rotation and orbital period are the same length as a day on Pluto.

Key Concepts and Summary

The twice-daily ocean tides are primarily the result of the Moon’s differential force on the material of Earth’s crust and ocean. These tidal forces cause ocean water to flow into two tidal bulges on opposite sides of Earth; each day, Earth rotates through these bulges. Actual ocean tides are complicated by the additional effects of the Sun and by the shape of the coasts and ocean basins.

Glossary

tides: alternate rising and falling of sea level caused by the difference in the strength of the Moon’s gravitational pull on different parts of Earth

4.7 Eclipses of the Sun and Moon

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:05:10 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe what causes lunar and solar eclipses
Differentiate between a total and partial solar eclipse
Explain why lunar eclipses are much more common than solar eclipses

One of the coincidences of living on Earth at the present time is that the two most prominent astronomical objects, the Sun and the Moon, have nearly the same apparent size in the sky. Although the Sun is about 400 times larger in diameter than the Moon, it is also about 400 times farther away, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same angular size—about 1/2°. As a result, the Moon, as seen from Earth, can appear to cover the Sun, producing one of the most impressive events in nature. Any solid object in the solar system casts a shadow by blocking the light of the Sun from a region behind it. This shadow in space becomes apparent whenever another object moves into it. In general, an eclipse occurs whenever any part of either Earth or the Moon enters the shadow of the other. When the Moon’s shadow strikes Earth, people within that shadow see the Sun at least partially covered by the Moon; that is, they witness a solar eclipse. When the Moon passes into the shadow of Earth, people on the night side of Earth see the Moon darken in what is called a lunar eclipse. Let’s look at how these happen in more detail.

The shadows of Earth and the Moon consist of two parts: a cone where the shadow is darkest, called the umbra, and a lighter, more diffuse region of darkness called the penumbra. As you can imagine, the most spectacular eclipses occur when an object enters the umbra. [link] illustrates the appearance of the Moon’s shadow and what the Sun and Moon would look like from different points within the shadow.

Solar Eclipse.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. (a) The shadow cast by a spherical body (the Moon, for example) is shown. Notice the dark umbra and the lighter penumbra. Four points in the shadow are labeled with numbers. In (b) you see what the Sun and Moon would look like in the sky at the four labeled points. At position 1, you see a total eclipse. At positions 2 and 3, the eclipse is partial. At position 4, the Moon is farther away and thus cannot cover the Sun completely; a ring of light thus shows around the Sun, creating what is called an “annular” eclipse.[/caption]

If the path of the Moon in the sky were identical to the path of the Sun (the ecliptic), we might expect to see an eclipse of the Sun and the Moon each month—whenever the Moon got in front of the Sun or into the shadow of Earth. However, as we mentioned, the Moon’s orbit is tilted relative to the plane of Earth’s orbit about the Sun by about 5° (imagine two hula hoops with a common center, but tilted a bit). As a result, during most months, the Moon is sufficiently above or below the ecliptic plane to avoid an eclipse. But when the two paths cross (twice a year), it is then “eclipse season” and eclipses are possible.

Eclipses of the Sun

The apparent or angular sizes of both the Sun and Moon vary slightly from time to time as their distances from Earth vary. ([link] shows the distance of the observer varying at points A–D, but the idea is the same.) Much of the time, the Moon looks slightly smaller than the Sun and cannot cover it completely, even if the two are perfectly aligned. In this type of “annular eclipse,” there is a ring of light around the dark sphere of the Moon.

However, if an eclipse of the Sun occurs when the Moon is somewhat nearer than its average distance, the Moon can completely hide the Sun, producing a total solar eclipse. Another way to say it is that a total eclipse of the Sun occurs at those times when the umbra of the Moon’s shadow reaches the surface of Earth.

The geometry of a total solar eclipse is illustrated in [link]. If the Sun and Moon are properly aligned, then the Moon’s darkest shadow intersects the ground at a small point on Earth’s surface. Anyone on Earth within the small area covered by the tip of the Moon’s shadow will, for a few minutes, be unable to see the Sun and will witness a total eclipse. At the same time, observers on a larger area of Earth’s surface who are in the penumbra will see only a part of the Sun eclipsed by the Moon: we call this a partial solar eclipse.

Between Earth’s rotation and the motion of the Moon in its orbit, the tip of the Moon’s shadow sweeps eastward at about 1500 kilometers per hour along a thin band across the surface of Earth. The thin zone across Earth within which a total solar eclipse is visible (weather permitting) is called the eclipse path. Within a region about 3000 kilometers on either side of the eclipse path, a partial solar eclipse is visible. It does not take long for the Moon’s shadow to sweep past a given point on Earth. The duration of totality may be only a brief instant; it can never exceed about 7 minutes.

Geometry of a Total Solar Eclipse.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. Note that our diagram is not to scale. The Moon blocks the Sun during new moon phase as seen from some parts of Earth and casts a shadow on our planet.[/caption]

Because a total eclipse of the Sun is so spectacular, it is well worth trying to see one if you can. There are some people whose hobby is “eclipse chasing” and who brag about how many they have seen in their lifetimes. Because much of Earth’s surface is water, eclipse chasing can involve lengthy boat trips (and often requires air travel as well). As a result, eclipse chasing is rarely within the budget of a typical college student. Nevertheless, a list of future eclipses is given for your reference in Appendix H, just in case you strike it rich early. (And, as you can see in the Appendix, there will be total eclipses visible in the United States in 2017 and 2024, to which even college students may be able to afford travel.)

Appearance of a Total Eclipse

What can you see if you are lucky enough to catch a total eclipse? A solar eclipse starts when the Moon just begins to silhouette itself against the edge of the Sun’s disk. A partial phase follows, during which more and more of the Sun is covered by the Moon. About an hour after the eclipse begins, the Sun becomes completely hidden behind the Moon. In the few minutes immediately before this period of totality begins, the sky noticeably darkens, some flowers close up, and chickens may go to roost. As an eerie twilight suddenly descends during the day, other animals (and people) may get disoriented. During totality, the sky is dark enough that planets become visible in the sky, and usually the brighter stars do as well.

As the bright disk of the Sun becomes entirely hidden behind the Moon, the Sun’s remarkable corona flashes into view ([link]). The corona is the Sun’s outer atmosphere, consisting of sparse gases that extend for millions of miles in all directions from the apparent surface of the Sun. It is ordinarily not visible because the light of the corona is feeble compared with the light from the underlying layers of the Sun. Only when the brilliant glare from the Sun’s visible disk is blotted out by the Moon during a total eclipse is the pearly white corona visible. (We’ll talk more about the corona in the chapter on The Sun: A Garden-Variety Star.)

The Sun’s Corona.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. The corona (thin outer atmosphere) of the Sun is visible during a total solar eclipse. (It looks more extensive in photographs than it would to the unaided eye.) (credit: modification of work by Lutfar Rahman Nirjhar)[/caption]The total phase of the eclipse ends, as abruptly as it began, when the Moon begins to uncover the Sun. Gradually, the partial phases of the eclipse repeat themselves, in reverse order, until the Moon has completely uncovered the Sun. We should make one important safety point here: while the few minutes of the total eclipse are safe to look at, if any part of the Sun is uncovered, you must protect your eyes with safe eclipse glasses¹ or by projecting an image of the Sun (instead of looking at it directly). For more, read the How to Observe Solar Eclipses box in this chapter.

Eclipses of the Moon

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon enters the shadow of Earth. The geometry of a lunar eclipse is shown in [link]. Earth’s dark shadow is about 1.4 million kilometers long, so at the Moon’s distance (an average of 384,000 kilometers), it could cover about four full moons. Unlike a solar eclipse, which is visible only in certain local areas on Earth, a lunar eclipse is visible to everyone who can see the Moon. Because a lunar eclipse can be seen (weather permitting) from the entire night side of Earth, lunar eclipses are observed far more frequently from a given place on Earth than are solar eclipses.

Geometry of a Lunar Eclipse.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. The Moon is shown moving through the different parts of Earth’s shadow during a total lunar eclipse. Note that the distance the Moon moves in its orbit during the eclipse has been exaggerated here for clarity.[/caption]An eclipse of the Moon is total only if the Moon’s path carries it though Earth’s umbra. If the Moon does not enter the umbra completely, we have a partial eclipse of the Moon. But because Earth is larger than the Moon, its umbra is larger, so that lunar eclipses last longer than solar eclipses, as we will discuss below. A lunar eclipse can take place only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in a line. The Moon is opposite the Sun, which means the Moon will be in full phase before the eclipse, making the darkening even more dramatic. About 20 minutes before the Moon reaches the dark shadow, it dims somewhat as Earth partly blocks the sunlight. As the Moon begins to dip into the shadow, the curved shape of Earth’s shadow upon it soon becomes apparent.

Even when totally eclipsed, the Moon is still faintly visible, usually appearing a dull coppery red. The illumination on the eclipsed Moon is sunlight that has been bent into Earth’s shadow by passing through Earth’s atmosphere. After totality, the Moon moves out of the shadow and the sequence of events is reversed. The total duration of the eclipse depends on how closely the Moon’s path approaches the axis of the shadow. For an eclipse where the Moon goes through the center of Earth’s shadow, each partial phase consumes at least 1 hour, and totality can last as long as 1 hour and 40 minutes. Eclipses of the Moon are much more “democratic” than solar eclipses. Since the full moon is visible on the entire night side of Earth, the lunar eclipse is visible for all those who live in that hemisphere. (Recall that a total eclipse of the Sun is visible only in a narrow path where the shadow of the umbra falls.) Total eclipses of the Moon occur, on average, about once every two or three years. A list of future total eclipses of the Moon is in Appendix H. In addition, since the lunar eclipse happens to a full moon, and a full moon is not dangerous to look at, everyone can look at the Moon during all the parts of the eclipse without worrying about safety.

Thanks to our understanding of gravity and motion (see Orbits and Gravity), eclipses can now be predicted centuries in advance. We’ve come a long way since humanity stood frightened by the darkening of the Sun or the Moon, fearing the displeasure of the gods. Today, we enjoy the sky show with a healthy appreciation of the majestic forces that keep our solar system running.

How to Observe Solar Eclipses

A total eclipse of the Sun is a spectacular sight and should not be missed. However, it is extremely dangerous to look directly at the Sun: even a brief exposure can damage your eyes. Normally, few rational people are tempted to do this because it is painful (and something your mother told you never to do!). But during the partial phases of a solar eclipse, the temptation to take a look is strong. Think before you give in. The fact that the Moon is covering part of the Sun doesn’t make the uncovered part any less dangerous to look at. Still, there are perfectly safe ways to follow the course of a solar eclipse, if you are lucky enough to be in the path of the shadow.

The easiest technique is to make a pinhole projector. Take a piece of cardboard with a small (1 millimeter) hole punched in it, and hold it several feet above a light surface, such as a concrete sidewalk or a white sheet of paper, so that the hole is “aimed” at the Sun. The hole produces a fuzzy but adequate image of the eclipsed Sun. Alternatively, if it’s the right time of year, you can let the tiny spaces between a tree’s leaves form multiple pinhole images against a wall or sidewalk. Watching hundreds of little crescent Suns dancing in the breeze can be captivating. A kitchen colander also makes an excellent pinhole projector.

Although there are safe filters for looking at the Sun directly, people have suffered eye damage by looking through improper filters, or no filter at all. For example, neutral density photographic filters are not safe because they transmit infrared radiation that can cause severe damage to the retina. Also unsafe are smoked glass, completely exposed color film, sunglasses, and many other homemade filters. Safe filters include welders’ goggles and specially designed eclipse glasses.

You should certainly look at the Sun directly when it is totally eclipsed, even through binoculars or telescopes. Unfortunately, the total phase, as we discussed, is all too brief. But if you know when it is coming and going, be sure you look, for it’s an unforgettably beautiful sight. And, despite the ancient folklore that presents eclipses as dangerous times to be outdoors, the partial phases of eclipses—as long as you are not looking directly at the Sun—are not any more dangerous than being out in sunlight.

During past eclipses, unnecessary panic has been created by uninformed public officials acting with the best intentions. There were two marvelous total eclipses in Australia in the twentieth century during which townspeople held newspapers over their heads for protection and schoolchildren cowered indoors with their heads under their desks. What a pity that all those people missed what would have been one of the most memorable experiences of their lifetimes. On August 21, 2017, there will be a total solar eclipse visible across a large swath of the continental United States. The path the Moon’s shadow will cast is shown in [link].

2017 Total Solar Eclipse.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 5. This map of the United States shows the path of the total solar eclipse of 2017. On August 21, 2017, the shadow will first cross onto the West Coast near Portland, Oregon, traversing the United States and exiting the East Coast in South Carolina approximately 90 minutes later, covering about 3000 miles in the process. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Since the eclipse path is not more than a one-day drive for most people in the United States, this would be a prime opportunity to witness this extraordinary spectacle.

Check out this useful booklet about the 2017 eclipse (with specific times in different locations).

Key Concepts and Summary

The Sun and Moon have nearly the same angular size (about 1/2°). A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow on a part of Earth’s surface. If the eclipse is total, the light from the bright disk of the Sun is completely blocked, and the solar atmosphere (the corona) comes into view. Solar eclipses take place rarely in any one location, but they are among the most spectacular sights in nature. A lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon moves into Earth’s shadow; it is visible (weather permitting) from the entire night hemisphere of Earth.

For Further Exploration

Articles

Bakich, M. “Your Twenty-Year Solar Eclipse Planner.” Astronomy (October 2008): 74. Describes the circumstances of upcoming total eclipses of the Sun.

Coco, M. “Not Just Another Pretty Phase.” Astronomy (July 1994): 76. Moon phases explained.

Espenak, F., & Anderson, J. “Get Ready for America’s Coast to Coast Experience.” Sky & Telescope (February 2016): 22.

Gingerich, O. “Notes on the Gregorian Calendar Reform.” Sky & Telescope (December 1982): 530.

Kluepfel, C. “How Accurate Is the Gregorian Calendar?” Sky & Telescope (November 1982): 417.

Krupp, E. “Calendar Worlds.” Sky & Telescope (January 2001): 103. On how the days of the week got their names.

Krupp, E. “Behind the Curve.” Sky & Telescope (September 2002): 68. On the reform of the calendar by Pope Gregory XIII.

MacRobert, A., & Sinnott, R. “Young Moon Hunting.” Sky & Telescope (February 2005): 75. Hints for finding the Moon as soon after its new phase as possible.

Pasachoff, J. “Solar Eclipse Science: Still Going Strong.” Sky & Telescope (February 2001): 40. On what we have learned and are still learning from eclipses.

Regas, D. “The Quest for Totality.” Sky & Telescope (July 2012): 36. On eclipse chasing as a hobby.

Schaefer, B. “Lunar Eclipses That Changed the World.” Sky & Telescope (December 1992): 639.

Schaefer, B. “Solar Eclipses That Changed the World.” Sky & Telescope (May 1994): 36.

Websites

Ancient Observatories, Timeless Knowledge (Stanford Solar Center): http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/. An introduction to ancient sites where the movements of celestial objects were tracked over the years (with a special focus on tracking the Sun).

Astronomical Data Services: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index.php. This rich site from the U.S. Naval Observatory has information about Earth, the Moon, and the sky, with tables and online calculators.

Calendars through the Ages: http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/index.html. Like a good museum exhibit on the Web.

Calendar Zone: http://www.calendarzone.com/. Everything you wanted to ask or know about calendars and timekeeping, with links from around the world.

Eclipse 2017 Information and Safe Viewing Instructions: http://www.nsta.org/publications/press/extras/files/solarscience/SolarScienceInsert.pdf.

Eclipse Maps: http://www.eclipse-maps.com/Eclipse-Maps/Welcome.html. Michael Zeiler specializes in presenting helpful and interactive maps of where solar eclipses will be visible

Eclipse Predictions: http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/lunarcycles/eclipsetable.html. This visual calendar provides dates for upcoming solar and lunar eclipses through 2029.EclipseWise: http://www.eclipsewise.com/intro.html. An introductory site on future eclipses and eclipse observing by NASA’s Fred Espenak.

History of the International Date Line: http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/idl/idl.htm. From R. H. van Gent at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Lunacy and the Full Moon: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lunacy-and-the-full-moon/. This Scientific American article explores whether the Moon’s phase is related to strange behavior.

Moon Phase Calculator: https://stardate.org/nightsky/moon. Keep track of the phases of the Moon with this calendar.

NASA Eclipse Website: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html. This site, by NASA’s eclipse expert Fred Espenak, contains a wealth of information on lunar and solar eclipses, past and future, as well as observing and photography links.

Phases of the Moon Gallery and Information: http://astropixels.com/moon/phases/phasesgallery.html. Photographs and descriptions presented by NASA’s Fred Espenak.

Time and Date Website: http://www.timeanddate.com/. Comprehensive resource about how we keep time on Earth; has time zone converters and many other historical and mathematical tools.

Walk through Time: The Evolution of Time Measurement through the Ages (National Institute of Standards and Technology): http://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time/.

Videos

Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Explains the Seasons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUU7IyfR34o. For kids, but college students can enjoy the bad jokes, too (4:45).

Geography Lesson Idea: Time Zones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j-SWKtWEcU. (3:11).

How to View a Solar Eclipse: http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/how-to-view-eclipse. (1:35).

Shadow of the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNcfKUJwnjM. This NASA video explains eclipses of the Sun, with discussion and animation, focusing on a 2015 eclipse, and shows what an eclipse looks like from space (1:54).

Strangest Time Zones in the World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW6QqcmCfm8. (8:38).

Understanding Lunar Eclipses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNi5UFpales. This NASA video explains why there isn’t an eclipse every month, with good animation (1:58).

Collaborative Group Activities

Have your group brainstorm about other ways (besides the Foucault pendulum) you could prove that it is our Earth that is turning once a day, and not the sky turning around us. (Hint: How does the spinning of Earth affect the oceans and the atmosphere?)
What would the seasons on Earth be like if Earth’s axis were not tilted? Discuss with your group how many things about life on Earth you think would be different.
After college and graduate training, members of your U.S. student group are asked to set up a school in New Zealand. Describe some ways your yearly school schedule in the Southern Hemisphere would differ from what students are used to in the Northern Hemisphere.
During the traditional U.S. Christmas vacation weeks, you are sent to the vicinity of the South Pole on a research expedition (depending on how well you did on your astronomy midterm, either as a research assistant or as a short-order cook!). Have your group discuss how the days and nights will be different there and how these differences might affect you during your stay.
Discuss with your group all the stories you have heard about the full moon and crazy behavior. Why do members of your group think people associate crazy behavior with the full moon? What other legends besides vampire stories are connected with the phases of the Moon? (Hint: Think Professor Lupin in the Harry Potter stories, for example.)
Your college town becomes the founding site for a strange new cult that worships the Moon. These true believers gather regularly around sunset and do a dance in which they must extend their arms in the direction of the Moon. Have your group discuss which way their arms will be pointing at sunset when the Moon is new, first quarter, full, and third quarter.
Changes of the seasons play a large part in our yearly plans and concerns. The seasons have inspired music, stories, poetry, art, and much groaning from students during snowstorms. Search online to come up with some examples of the seasons being celebrated or overcome in fields other than science.
Use the information in Appendix H and online to figure out when the next eclipse of the Sun or eclipse of the Moon will be visible from where your group is going to college or from where your group members live. What time of day will the eclipse be visible? Will it be a total or partial eclipse? What preparations can you make to have an enjoyable and safe eclipse experience? How do these preparations differ between a solar and lunar eclipse?
On Mars, a day (often called a sol) is 24 hours and 40 minutes. Since Mars takes longer to go around the Sun, a year is 668.6 sols. Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos. Phobos, the inner moon, rises in the west and sets in the east, taking 11 hours from moonrise to the next moonrise. Using your calculators and imaginations, have your group members come up with a calendar for Mars. (After you do your own, and only after, you can search online for the many suggestions that have been made for a martian calendar over the years.)

Review Questions

1: Discuss how latitude and longitude on Earth are similar to declination and right ascension in the sky.

2: What is the latitude of the North Pole? The South Pole? Why does longitude have no meaning at the North and South Poles?

3: Make a list of each main phase of the Moon, describing roughly when the Moon rises and sets for each phase. During which phase can you see the Moon in the middle of the morning? In the middle of the afternoon?

4: What are advantages and disadvantages of apparent solar time? How is the situation improved by introducing mean solar time and standard time?

5: What are the two ways that the tilt of Earth’s axis causes the summers in the United States to be warmer than the winters?

6: Why is it difficult to construct a practical calendar based on the Moon’s cycle of phases?

7: Explain why there are two high tides and two low tides each day. Strictly speaking, should the period during which there are two high tides be 24 hours? If not, what should the interval be?

8: What is the phase of the Moon during a total solar eclipse? During a total lunar eclipse?

9: On a globe or world map, find the nearest marked latitude line to your location. Is this an example of a great circle? Explain.

10: Explain three lines of evidence that indicate that the seasons in North America are not caused by the changing Earth-Sun distance as a result of Earth’s elliptical orbit around the Sun.

11: What is the origin of the terms “a.m.” and “p.m.” in our timekeeping?

12: Explain the origin of the leap year. Why is it necessary?

13: Explain why the year 1800 was not a leap year, even though years divisible by four are normally considered to be leap years.

14: What fraction of the Moon’s visible face is illuminated during first quarter phase? Why is this phase called first quarter?

15: Why don’t lunar eclipses happen during every full moon?

16: Why does the Moon create tidal bulges on both sides of Earth instead of only on the side of Earth closest to the Moon?

17: Why do the heights of the tides change over the course of a month?

18: Explain how tidal forces are causing Earth to slow down.

19: Explain how tidal forces are causing the Moon to slowly recede from Earth.

20: Explain why the Gregorian calendar modified the nature of the leap year from its original definition in the Julian calendar.

21: The term equinox translates as “equal night.” Explain why this translation makes sense from an astronomical point of view.

22: The term solstice translates as “Sun stop.” Explain why this translation makes sense from an astronomical point of view.

23: Why is the warmest day of the year in the United States (or in the Northern Hemisphere temperate zone) usually in August rather than on the day of the summer solstice, in late June?

Thought Questions

24: When Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun during June, some would argue that the cause of our seasons is that the Northern Hemisphere is physically closer to the Sun than the Southern Hemisphere, and this is the primary reason the Northern Hemisphere is warmer. What argument or line of evidence could contradict this idea?

25: Where are you on Earth if you experience each of the following? (Refer to the discussion in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy as well as this chapter.)

The stars rise and set perpendicular to the horizon.
The stars circle the sky parallel to the horizon.
The celestial equator passes through the zenith.
In the course of a year, all stars are visible.
The Sun rises on March 21 and does not set until September 21 (ideally).

26: In countries at far northern latitudes, the winter months tend to be so cloudy that astronomical observations are nearly impossible. Why can’t good observations of the stars be made at those places during the summer months?

27: What is the phase of the Moon if it . . .

rises at 3:00 p.m.?
is highest in the sky at sunrise?
sets at 10:00 a.m.?

28: A car accident occurs around midnight on the night of a full moon. The driver at fault claims he was blinded momentarily by the Moon rising on the eastern horizon. Should the police believe him?

29: The secret recipe to the ever-popular veggie burgers in the college cafeteria is hidden in a drawer in the director’s office. Two students decide to break in to get their hands on it, but they want to do it a few hours before dawn on a night when there is no Moon, so they are less likely to be caught. What phases of the Moon would suit their plans?

30: Your great-great-grandfather, who often exaggerated events in his own life, once told your relatives about a terrific adventure he had on February 29, 1900. Why would this story make you suspicious?

31: One year in the future, when money is no object, you enjoy your birthday so much that you want to have another one right away. You get into your supersonic jet. Where should you and the people celebrating with you travel? From what direction should you approach? Explain.

32: Suppose you lived in the crater Copernicus on the side of the Moon facing Earth.

How often would the Sun rise?
How often would Earth set?
During what fraction of the time would you be able to see the stars?

33: In a lunar eclipse, does the Moon enter the shadow of Earth from the east or west side? Explain.

34: Describe what an observer at the crater Copernicus would see while the Moon is eclipsed on Earth. What would the same observer see during what would be a total solar eclipse as viewed from Earth?

35: The day on Mars is 1.026 Earth-days long. The martian year lasts 686.98 Earth-days. The two moons of Mars take 0.32 Earth-day (for Phobos) and 1.26 Earth-days (for Deimos) to circle the planet. You are given the task of coming up with a martian calendar for a new Mars colony. Would a solar or lunar calendar be better for tracking the seasons?

36: What is the right ascension and declination of the vernal equinox?

37: What is the right ascension and declination of the autumnal equinox?

38: What is the right ascension and declination of the Sun at noon on the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere?

39: During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is illuminated by the Sun 24 hours per day. During this time, the temperature often does not rise above the freezing point of water. Explain why.

40: On the day of the vernal equinox, the day length for all places on Earth is actually slightly longer than 12 hours. Explain why.

41: Regions north of the Arctic Circle are known as the “land of the midnight Sun.” Explain what this means from an astronomical perspective.

42: In a part of Earth’s orbit where Earth is moving faster than usual around the Sun, would the length of the sidereal day change? If so, how? Explain.

43: In a part of Earth’s orbit where Earth is moving faster than usual around the Sun, would the length of the solar day change? If so, how? Explain.

44: If Sirius rises at 8:00 p.m. tonight, at what time will it rise tomorrow night, to the nearest minute? Explain.

45: What are three lines of evidence you could use to indicate that the phases of the Moon are not caused by the shadow of Earth falling on the Moon?

46: If the Moon rises at a given location at 6:00 p.m. today, about what time will it rise tomorrow night?

47: Explain why some solar eclipses are total and some are annular.

48: Why do lunar eclipses typically last much longer than solar eclipses?

Figuring for Yourself

49: Suppose Earth took exactly 300.0 days to go around the Sun, and everything else (the day, the month) was the same. What kind of calendar would we have? How would this affect the seasons?

50: Consider a calendar based entirely on the day and the month (the Moon’s period from full phase to full phase). How many days are there in a month? Can you figure out a scheme analogous to leap year to make this calendar work?

51: If a star rises at 8:30 p.m. tonight, approximately what time will it rise two months from now?

52: What is the altitude of the Sun at noon on December 22, as seen from a place on the Tropic of Cancer?

53: Show that the Gregorian calendar will be in error by 1 day in about 3300 years.

Footnotes

1 Eclipse glasses are available in many planetarium and observatory gift stores, and also from the two main U.S. manufacturers: American Paper Optics and Rainbow Symphony.

Glossary

lunar eclipse: an eclipse of the Moon, in which the Moon moves into the shadow of Earth; lunar eclipses can occur only at the time of full moon

solar eclipse: an eclipse of the Sun by the Moon, caused by the passage of the Moon in front of the Sun; solar eclipses can occur only at the time of the new moon

5.1 The Behavior of Light

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:06:11 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain the evidence for Maxwell’s electromagnetic model of light
Describe the relationship between wavelength, frequency, and speed of light
Discuss the particle model of light and the definition of photon
Explain how and why the amount of light we see from an object depends upon its distance

Coded into the light and other kinds of radiation that reach us from objects in the universe is a wide range of information about what those objects are like and how they work. If we can decipher this code and read the messages it contains, we can learn an enormous amount about the cosmos without ever having to leave Earth or its immediate environment.

The visible light and other radiation we receive from the stars and planets is generated by processes at the atomic level—by changes in the way the parts of an atom interact and move. Thus, to appreciate how light is generated, we must explore how atoms work. There is a bit of irony in the fact that in order to understand some of the largest structures in the universe, we must become acquainted with some of the smallest.

Notice that we have twice used the phrase “light and other radiation.” One of the key ideas explored in this chapter is that visible light is not unique; it is merely the most familiar example of a much larger family of radiation that can carry information to us.

The word “radiation” will be used frequently in this book, so it is important to understand what it means. In everyday language, “radiation” is often used to describe certain kinds of energetic subatomic particles released by radioactive materials in our environment. (An example is the kind of radiation used to treat some cancers.) But this is not what we mean when we use the word “radiation” in an astronomy text. Radiation, as used in this book, is a general term for waves (including light waves) that radiate outward from a source.

As we saw in Orbits and Gravity, Newton’s theory of gravity accounts for the motions of planets as well as objects on Earth. Application of this theory to a variety of problems dominated the work of scientists for nearly two centuries. In the nineteenth century, many physicists turned to the study of electricity and magnetism, which are intimately connected with the production of light.

The scientist who played a role in this field comparable to Newton’s role in the study of gravity was physicist James Clerk Maxwell, born and educated in Scotland ([link]). Inspired by a number of ingenious experiments that showed an intimate relationship between electricity and magnetism, Maxwell developed a theory that describes both electricity and magnetism with only a small number of elegant equations. It is this theory that gives us important insights into the nature and behavior of light.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 1. Maxwell unified the rules governing electricity and magnetism into a coherent theory.[/caption]

Maxwell’s Theory of Electromagnetism

We will look at the structure of the atom in more detail later, but we begin by noting that the typical atom consists of several types of particles, a number of which have not only mass but an additional property called electric charge. In the nucleus (central part) of every atom are protons, which are positively charged; outside the nucleus are electrons, which have a negative charge.

Maxwell’s theory deals with these electric charges and their effects, especially when they are moving. In the vicinity of an electron charge, another charge feels a force of attraction or repulsion: opposite charges attract; like charges repel. When charges are not in motion, we observe only this electric attraction or repulsion. If charges are in motion, however (as they are inside every atom and in a wire carrying a current), then we measure another force called magnetism.

Magnetism was well known for much of recorded human history, but its cause was not understood until the nineteenth century. Experiments with electric charges demonstrated that magnetism was the result of moving charged particles. Sometimes, the motion is clear, as in the coils of heavy wire that make an industrial electromagnet. Other times, it is more subtle, as in the kind of magnet you buy in a hardware store, in which many of the electrons inside the atoms are spinning in roughly the same direction; it is the alignment of their motion that causes the material to become magnetic.

Physicists use the word field to describe the action of forces that one object exerts on other distant objects. For example, we say the Sun produces a gravitational field that controls Earth’s orbit, even though the Sun and Earth do not come directly into contact. Using this terminology, we can say that stationary electric charges produce electric fields, and moving electric charges also produce magnetic fields.

Actually, the relationship between electric and magnetic phenomena is even more profound. Experiments showed that changing magnetic fields could produce electric currents (and thus changing electric fields), and changing electric currents could in turn produce changing magnetic fields. So once begun, electric and magnetic field changes could continue to trigger each other.

Maxwell analyzed what would happen if electric charges were oscillating (moving constantly back and forth) and found that the resulting pattern of electric and magnetic fields would spread out and travel rapidly through space. Something similar happens when a raindrop strikes the surface of water or a frog jumps into a pond. The disturbance moves outward and creates a pattern we call a wave in the water ([link]). You might, at first, think that there must be very few situations in nature where electric charges oscillate, but this is not at all the case. As we shall see, atoms and molecules (which consist of charged particles) oscillate back and forth all the time. The resulting electromagnetic disturbances are among the most common phenomena in the universe.

Making Waves.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. An oscillation in a pool of water creates an expanding disturbance called a wave. (credit: modification of work by "vastateparksstaff"/Flickr)[/caption]Maxwell was able to calculate the speed at which an electromagnetic disturbance moves through space; he found that it is equal to the speed of light, which had been measured experimentally. On that basis, he speculated that light was one form of a family of possible electromagnetic disturbances called electromagnetic radiation, a conclusion that was again confirmed in laboratory experiments. When light (reflected from the pages of an astronomy textbook, for example) enters a human eye, its changing electric and magnetic fields stimulate nerve endings, which then transmit the information contained in these changing fields to the brain. The science of astronomy is primarily about analyzing radiation from distant objects to understand what they are and how they work.

The Wave-Like Characteristics of Light

The changing electric and magnetic fields in light are similar to the waves that can be set up in a quiet pool of water. In both cases, the disturbance travels rapidly outward from the point of origin and can use its energy to disturb other things farther away. (For example, in water, the expanding ripples moving away from our frog could disturb the peace of a dragonfly resting on a leaf in the same pool.) In the case of electromagnetic waves, the radiation generated by a transmitting antenna full of charged particles and moving electrons at your local radio station can, sometime later, disturb a group of electrons in your car radio antenna and bring you the news and weather while you are driving to class or work in the morning.

The waves generated by charged particles differ from water waves in some profound ways, however. Water waves require water to travel in. The sound waves we hear, to give another example, are pressure disturbances that require air to travel though. But electromagnetic waves do not require water or air: the fields generate each other and so can move through a vacuum (such as outer space). This was such a disturbing idea to nineteenth-century scientists that they actually made up a substance to fill all of space—one for which there was not a single shred of evidence—just so light waves could have something to travel through: they called it the aether. Today, we know that there is no aether and that electromagnetic waves have no trouble at all moving through empty space (as all the starlight visible on a clear night must surely be doing).

The other difference is that all electromagnetic waves move at the same speed in empty space (the speed of light—approximately 300,000 kilometers per second, or 300,000,000 meters per second, which can also be written as 3 × 10⁸ m/s), which turns out to be the fastest possible speed in the universe. No matter where electromagnetic waves are generated from and no matter what other properties they have, when they are moving (and not interacting with matter), they move at the speed of light. Yet you know from everyday experience that there are different kinds of light. For example, we perceive that light waves differ from one another in a property we call color. Let’s see how we can denote the differences among the whole broad family of electromagnetic waves.

The nice thing about a wave is that it is a repeating phenomenon. Whether it is the up-and-down motion of a water wave or the changing electric and magnetic fields in a wave of light, the pattern of disturbance repeats in a cyclical way. Thus, any wave motion can be characterized by a series of crests and troughs ([link]). Moving from one crest through a trough to the next crest completes one cycle. The horizontal length covered by one cycle is called the wavelength. Ocean waves provide an analogy: the wavelength is the distance that separates successive wave crests.

Characterizing Waves.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="406"] Figure 3. Electromagnetic radiation has wave-like characteristics. The wavelength (λ) is the distance between crests, the frequency (f) is the number of cycles per second, and the speed (c) is the distance the wave covers during a specified period of time (e.g., kilometers per second).[/caption]

For visible light, our eyes perceive different wavelengths as different colors: red, for example, is the longest visible wavelength, and violet is the shortest. The main colors of visible light from longest to shortest wavelength can be remembered using the mnemonic ROY G BIV—for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Other invisible forms of electromagnetic radiation have different wavelengths, as we will see in the next section.

We can also characterize different waves by their frequency, the number of wave cycles that pass by per second. If you count 10 crests moving by each second, for example, then the frequency is 10 cycles per second (cps). In honor of Heinrich Hertz, the physicist who—inspired by Maxwell’s work—discovered radio waves, a cps is also called a hertz (Hz). Take a look at your radio, for example, and you will see the channel assigned to each radio station is characterized by its frequency, usually in units of KHz (kilohertz, or thousands of hertz) or MHz (megahertz, or millions of hertz).

Wavelength (λ) and frequency (f) are related because all electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed. To see how this works, imagine a parade in which everyone is forced by prevailing traffic conditions to move at exactly the same speed. You stand on a corner and watch the waves of marchers come by. First you see row after row of miniature ponies. Because they are not very large and, therefore, have a shorter wavelength, a good number of the ponies can move past you each minute; we can say they have a high frequency. Next, however, come several rows of circus elephants. The elephants are large and marching at the same speed as the ponies, so far fewer of them can march past you per minute: Because they have a wider spacing (longer wavelength), they represent a lower frequency.

The formula for this relationship can be expressed as follows: for any wave motion, the speed at which a wave moves equals the frequency times the wavelength. Waves with longer wavelengths have lower frequencies. Mathematically, we can express this as

$$c=\lambda f$$

where the Greek letter for “l”—lambda, λ—is used to denote wavelength and c is the scientific symbol for the speed of light. Solving for the wavelength, this is expressed as:

$$\lambda=\frac{c}{f}.$$

Deriving and Using the Wave Equation The equation for the relationship between the speed and other characteristics of a wave can be derived from our basic understanding of motion. The average speed of anything that is moving is:

$$\text{average speed}=\frac{\text{distance}}{\text{time}}$$

(So, for example, a car on the highway traveling at a speed of 100 km/h covers 100 km during the time of 1 h.) For an electromagnetic wave to travel the distance of one of its wavelengths, λ, at the speed of light, c, we have c = λ/t. The frequency of a wave is the number of cycles per second. If a wave has a frequency of a million cycles per second, then the time for each cycle to go by is a millionth of a second. So, in general, t = 1/f. Substituting into our wave equation, we get c = λ × f. Now let’s use this to calculate an example. What is the wavelength of visible light that has a frequency of 5.66 × 10¹⁴ Hz?

Solution Solving the wave equation for wavelength, we find:

$$\lambda=\frac{c}{f}$$

Substituting our values gives:

$$\lambda=$$[latex size="18"]\frac{3.00\times 10^8\text{m/s}}{5.66\times 10^{14}\text{Hz}}[/latex]$$=5.30\times 10^{-7}\text{m}$$

This answer can also be written as 530 nm, which is in the yellow-green part of the visible spectrum (nm stands for nanometers, where the term “nano” means “billionths”).

Check Your Learning “Tidal waves,” or tsunamis, are waves caused by earthquakes that travel rapidly through the ocean. If a tsunami travels at the speed of 600 km/h and approaches a shore at a rate of one wave crest every 15 min (4 waves/h), what would be the distance between those wave crests at sea?

Answer:

$$\lambda=\frac{\text{600 km/h}}{\text{4 waves/h}}=150\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{km}$$

Light as a Photon

The electromagnetic wave model of light (as formulated by Maxwell) was one of the great triumphs of nineteenth-century science. In 1887, when Heinrich Hertz actually made invisible electromagnetic waves (what today are called radio waves) on one side of a room and detected them on the other side, it ushered in a new era that led to the modern age of telecommunications. His experiment ultimately led to the technologies of television, cell phones, and today’s wireless networks around the globe.

However, by the beginning of the twentieth century, more sophisticated experiments had revealed that light behaves in certain ways that cannot be explained by the wave model. Reluctantly, physicists had to accept that sometimes light behaves more like a “particle”—or at least a self-contained packet of energy—than a wave. We call such a packet of electromagnetic energy a photon.

The fact that light behaves like a wave in certain experiments and like a particle in others was a very surprising and unlikely idea. After all, our common sense says that waves and particles are opposite concepts. On one hand, a wave is a repeating disturbance that, by its very nature, is not in only one place, but spreads out. A particle, on the other hand, is something that can be in only one place at any given time. Strange as it sounds, though, countless experiments now confirm that electromagnetic radiation can sometimes behave like a wave and at other times like a particle.

Then, again, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that something that always travels at the “speed limit” of the universe and doesn’t need a medium to travel through might not obey our everyday common sense ideas. The confusion that this wave-particle duality of light caused in physics was eventually resolved by the introduction of a more complicated theory of waves and particles, now called quantum mechanics. (This is one of the most interesting fields of modern science, but it is mostly beyond the scope of our book. If you are interested in it, see some of the suggested resources at the end of this chapter.)

In any case, you should now be prepared when scientists (or the authors of this book) sometimes discuss electromagnetic radiation as if it consisted of waves and at other times refer to it as a stream of photons. A photon (being a packet of energy) carries a specific amount of energy. We can use the idea of energy to connect the photon and wave models. How much energy a photon has depends on its frequency when you think about it as a wave. A low-energy radio wave has a low frequency as a wave, while a high-energy X-ray at your dentist’s office is a high-frequency wave. Among the colors of visible light, violet-light photons have the highest energy and red-light photons have the lowest.

Test whether the connection between photons and waves is clear to you. In the above example, which photon would have the longer wavelength as a wave: the radio wave or the X-ray? If you answered the radio wave, you are correct. Radio waves have a lower frequency, so the wave cycles are longer (they are elephants, not miniature ponies).

Propagation of Light

Let’s think for a moment about how light from a lightbulb moves through space. As waves expand, they travel away from the bulb, not just toward your eyes but in all directions. They must therefore cover an ever-widening space. Yet the total amount of light available can’t change once the light has left the bulb. This means that, as the same expanding shell of light covers a larger and larger area, there must be less and less of it in any given place. Light (and all other electromagnetic radiation) gets weaker and weaker as it gets farther from its source.

The increase in the area that the light must cover is proportional to the square of the distance that the light has traveled ([link]). If we stand twice as far from the source, our eyes will intercept two-squared (2 × 2), or four times less light. If we stand 10 times farther from the source, we get 10-squared, or 100 times less light. You can see how this weakening means trouble for sources of light at astronomical distances. One of the nearest stars, Alpha Centauri A, emits about the same total energy as the Sun. But it is about 270,000 times farther away, and so it appears about 73 billion times fainter. No wonder the stars, which close-up would look more or less like the Sun, look like faint pinpoints of light from far away.

Inverse Square Law for Light.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. As light radiates away from its source, it spreads out in such a way that the energy per unit area (the amount of energy passing through one of the small squares) decreases as the square of the distance from its source.[/caption]

This idea—that the apparent brightness of a source (how bright it looks to us) gets weaker with distance in the way we have described—is known as the inverse square law for light propagation. In this respect, the propagation of light is similar to the effects of gravity. Remember that the force of gravity between two attracting masses is also inversely proportional to the square of their separation.

The Inverse Square Law for Light The intensity of a 120-W lightbulb observed from a distance 2 m away is 2.4 W/m². What would be the intensity if this distance was doubled?

Solution If we move twice as far away, then the answer will change according to the inverse square of the distance, so the new intensity will be (1/2)² = 1/4 of the original intensity, or 0.6 W/m².

Check Your Learning How many times brighter or fainter would a star appear if it were moved to:

twice its present distance?
ten times its present distance?
half its present distance?

Answer:

a. $${\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)}^{2}=\frac{1}{4}$$; b. $${\left(\frac{1}{10}\right)}^{2}=\frac{1}{100}$$; c. $${\left(\frac{1}{\text{1/2}}\right)}^{2}=4$$

Key Concepts and Summary

James Clerk Maxwell showed that whenever charged particles change their motion, as they do in every atom and molecule, they give off waves of energy. Light is one form of this electromagnetic radiation. The wavelength of light determines the color of visible radiation. Wavelength (λ) is related to frequency (f) and the speed of light (c) by the equation c = λf. Electromagnetic radiation sometimes behaves like waves, but at other times, it behaves as if it were a particle—a little packet of energy, called a photon. The apparent brightness of a source of electromagnetic energy decreases with increasing distance from that source in proportion to the square of the distance—a relationship known as the inverse square law.

Glossary

electromagnetic radiation: radiation consisting of waves propagated through regularly varying electric and magnetic fields and traveling at the speed of light

frequency: the number of waves that cross a given point per unit time (in radiation)

inverse square law: (for light) the amount of energy (light) flowing through a given area in a given time decreases in proportion to the square of the distance from the source of energy or light

photon: a discrete unit (or “packet”) of electromagnetic energy

wavelength: the distance from crest to crest or trough to trough in a wave

5.2 The Electromagnetic Spectrum

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:06:35 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Understand the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and how they differ from one another
Understand how each part of the spectrum interacts with Earth’s atmosphere
Explain how and why the light emitted by an object depends on its temperature

Objects in the universe send out an enormous range of electromagnetic radiation. Scientists call this range the electromagnetic spectrum, which they have divided into a number of categories. The spectrum is shown in [link], with some information about the waves in each part or band.

Radiation and Earth’s Atmosphere.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="976"] Figure 1. This figure shows the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and how well Earth’s atmosphere transmits them. Note that high-frequency waves from space do not make it to the surface and must therefore be observed from space. Some infrared and microwaves are absorbed by water and thus are best observed from high altitudes. Low-frequency radio waves are blocked by Earth’s ionosphere. (credit: modification of work by STScI/JHU/NASA)[/caption]

Types of Electromagnetic Radiation

Electromagnetic radiation with the shortest wavelengths, no longer than 0.01 nanometer, is categorized as gamma rays (1 nanometer = 10^–9 meters; see Appendix D). The name gamma comes from the third letter of the Greek alphabet: gamma rays were the third kind of radiation discovered coming from radioactive atoms when physicists first investigated their behavior. Because gamma rays carry a lot of energy, they can be dangerous for living tissues. Gamma radiation is generated deep in the interior of stars, as well as by some of the most violent phenomena in the universe, such as the deaths of stars and the merging of stellar corpses. Gamma rays coming to Earth are absorbed by our atmosphere before they reach the ground (which is a good thing for our health); thus, they can only be studied using instruments in space.

Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between 0.01 nanometer and 20 nanometers is referred to as X-rays. Being more energetic than visible light, X-rays are able to penetrate soft tissues but not bones, and so allow us to make images of the shadows of the bones inside us. While X-rays can penetrate a short length of human flesh, they are stopped by the large numbers of atoms in Earth’s atmosphere with which they interact. Thus, X-ray astronomy (like gamma-ray astronomy) could not develop until we invented ways of sending instruments above our atmosphere ([link]).

X-Ray Sky.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. This is a map of the sky tuned to certain types of X-rays (seen from above Earth’s atmosphere). The map tilts the sky so that the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy runs across its center. It was constructed and artificially colored from data gathered by the European ROSAT satellite. Each color (red, yellow, and blue) shows X-rays of different frequencies or energies. For example, red outlines the glow from a hot local bubble of gas all around us, blown by one or more exploding stars in our cosmic vicinity. Yellow and blue show more distant sources of X-rays, such as remnants of other exploded stars or the active center of our Galaxy (in the middle of the picture). (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Radiation intermediate between X-rays and visible light is ultraviolet (meaning higher energy than violet). Outside the world of science, ultraviolet light is sometimes called “black light” because our eyes cannot see it. Ultraviolet radiation is mostly blocked by the ozone layer of Earth’s atmosphere, but a small fraction of ultraviolet rays from our Sun do penetrate to cause sunburn or, in extreme cases of overexposure, skin cancer in human beings. Ultraviolet astronomy is also best done from space.

Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between roughly 400 and 700 nm is called visible light because these are the waves that human vision can perceive. This is also the band of the electromagnetic spectrum that most readily reaches Earth’s surface. These two observations are not coincidental: human eyes evolved to see the kinds of waves that arrive from the Sun most effectively. Visible light penetrates Earth’s atmosphere effectively, except when it is temporarily blocked by clouds.

Between visible light and radio waves are the wavelengths of infrared or heat radiation. Astronomer William Herschel first discovered infrared in 1800 while trying to measure the temperatures of different colors of sunlight spread out into a spectrum. He noticed that when he accidently positioned his thermometer beyond the reddest color, it still registered heating due to some invisible energy coming from the Sun. This was the first hint about the existence of the other (invisible) bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, although it would take many decades for our full understanding to develop.

A heat lamp radiates mostly infrared radiation, and the nerve endings in our skin are sensitive to this band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared waves are absorbed by water and carbon dioxide molecules, which are more concentrated low in Earth’s atmosphere. For this reason, infrared astronomy is best done from high mountaintops, high-flying airplanes, and spacecraft.

After infrared comes the familiar microwave, used in short-wave communication and microwave ovens. (Wavelengths vary from 1 millimeter to 1 meter and are absorbed by water vapor, which makes them effective in heating foods.) The “micro-” prefix refers to the fact that microwaves are small in comparison to radio waves, the next on the spectrum. You may remember that tea—which is full of water—heats up quickly in your microwave oven, while a ceramic cup—from which water has been removed by baking—stays cool in comparison.

All electromagnetic waves longer than microwaves are called radio waves, but this is so broad a category that we generally divide it into several subsections. Among the most familiar of these are radar waves, which are used in radar guns by traffic officers to determine vehicle speeds, and AM radio waves, which were the first to be developed for broadcasting. The wavelengths of these different categories range from over a meter to hundreds of meters, and other radio radiation can have wavelengths as long as several kilometers.

With such a wide range of wavelengths, not all radio waves interact with Earth’s atmosphere in the same way. FM and TV waves are not absorbed and can travel easily through our atmosphere. AM radio waves are absorbed or reflected by a layer in Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere (the ionosphere is a layer of charged particles at the top of our atmosphere, produced by interactions with sunlight and charged particles that are ejected from the Sun).

We hope this brief survey has left you with one strong impression: although visible light is what most people associate with astronomy, the light that our eyes can see is only a tiny fraction of the broad range of waves generated in the universe. Today, we understand that judging some astronomical phenomenon by using only the light we can see is like hiding under the table at a big dinner party and judging all the guests by nothing but their shoes. There’s a lot more to each person than meets our eye under the table. It is very important for those who study astronomy today to avoid being “visible light chauvinists”—to respect only the information seen by their eyes while ignoring the information gathered by instruments sensitive to other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.

[link] summarizes the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and indicates the temperatures and typical astronomical objects that emit each kind of electromagnetic radiation. While at first, some of the types of radiation listed in the table may seem unfamiliar, you will get to know them better as your astronomy course continues. You can return to this table as you learn more about the types of objects astronomers study.

Types of Electromagnetic Radiation
Type of Radiation	Wavelength Range (nm)	Radiated by Objects at This Temperature	Typical Sources
Gamma rays	Less than 0.01	More than 10⁸ K	Produced in nuclear reactions; require very high-energy processes
X-rays	0.01–20	10⁶–10⁸ K	Gas in clusters of galaxies, supernova remnants, solar corona
Ultraviolet	20–400	10⁴–10⁶ K	Supernova remnants, very hot stars
Visible	400–700	10³–10⁴ K	Stars
Infrared	10³–10⁶	10–10³ K	Cool clouds of dust and gas, planets, moons
Microwave	10⁶–10⁹	Less than 10 K	Active galaxies, pulsars, cosmic background radiation
Radio	More than 10⁹	Less than 10 K	Supernova remnants, pulsars, cold gas

Radiation and Temperature

Some astronomical objects emit mostly infrared radiation, others mostly visible light, and still others mostly ultraviolet radiation. What determines the type of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the Sun, stars, and other dense astronomical objects? The answer often turns out to be their temperature.

At the microscopic level, everything in nature is in motion. A solid is composed of molecules and atoms in continuous vibration: they move back and forth in place, but their motion is much too small for our eyes to make out. A gas consists of atoms and/or molecules that are flying about freely at high speed, continually bumping into one another and bombarding the surrounding matter. The hotter the solid or gas, the more rapid the motion of its molecules or atoms. The temperature of something is thus a measure of the average motion energy of the particles that make it up.

This motion at the microscopic level is responsible for much of the electromagnetic radiation on Earth and in the universe. As atoms and molecules move about and collide, or vibrate in place, their electrons give off electromagnetic radiation. The characteristics of this radiation are determined by the temperature of those atoms and molecules. In a hot material, for example, the individual particles vibrate in place or move rapidly from collisions, so the emitted waves are, on average, more energetic. And recall that higher energy waves have a higher frequency. In very cool material, the particles have low-energy atomic and molecular motions and thus generate lower-energy waves.

Check out the NASA briefing or NASA’s 5-minute introductory video to learn more about the electromagnetic spectrum.

Radiation Laws

To understand, in more quantitative detail, the relationship between temperature and electromagnetic radiation, we imagine an idealized object called a blackbody. Such an object (unlike your sweater or your astronomy instructor’s head) does not reflect or scatter any radiation, but absorbs all the electromagnetic energy that falls onto it. The energy that is absorbed causes the atoms and molecules in it to vibrate or move around at increasing speeds. As it gets hotter, this object will radiate electromagnetic waves until absorption and radiation are in balance. We want to discuss such an idealized object because, as you will see, stars behave in very nearly the same way.

The radiation from a blackbody has several characteristics, as illustrated in [link]. The graph shows the power emitted at each wavelength by objects of different temperatures. In science, the word power means the energy coming off per second (and it is typically measured in watts, which you are probably familiar with from buying lightbulbs).

Radiation Laws Illustrated.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="896"] Figure 3. This graph shows in arbitrary units how many photons are given off at each wavelength for objects at four different temperatures. The wavelengths corresponding to visible light are shown by the colored bands. Note that at hotter temperatures, more energy (in the form of photons) is emitted at all wavelengths. The higher the temperature, the shorter the wavelength at which the peak amount of energy is radiated (this is known as Wien’s law).[/caption]

First of all, notice that the curves show that, at each temperature, our blackbody object emits radiation (photons) at all wavelengths (all colors). This is because in any solid or denser gas, some molecules or atoms vibrate or move between collisions slower than average and some move faster than average. So when we look at the electromagnetic waves emitted, we find a broad range, or spectrum, of energies and wavelengths. More energy is emitted at the average vibration or motion rate (the highest part of each curve), but if we have a large number of atoms or molecules, some energy will be detected at each wavelength.

Second, note that an object at a higher temperature emits more power at all wavelengths than does a cooler one. In a hot gas (the taller curves in [link]), for example, the atoms have more collisions and give off more energy. In the real world of stars, this means that hotter stars give off more energy at every wavelength than do cooler stars.

Third, the graph shows us that the higher the temperature, the shorter the wavelength at which the maximum power is emitted. Remember that a shorter wavelength means a higher frequency and energy. It makes sense, then, that hot objects give off a larger fraction of their energy at shorter wavelengths (higher energies) than do cool objects. You may have observed examples of this rule in everyday life. When a burner on an electric stove is turned on low, it emits only heat, which is infrared radiation, but does not glow with visible light. If the burner is set to a higher temperature, it starts to glow a dull red. At a still-higher setting, it glows a brighter orange-red (shorter wavelength). At even higher temperatures, which cannot be reached with ordinary stoves, metal can appear brilliant yellow or even blue-white.

We can use these ideas to come up with a rough sort of “thermometer” for measuring the temperatures of stars. Because many stars give off most of their energy in visible light, the color of light that dominates a star’s appearance is a rough indicator of its temperature. If one star looks red and another looks blue, which one has the higher temperature? Because blue is the shorter-wavelength color, it is the sign of a hotter star. (Note that the temperatures we associate with different colors in science are not the same as the ones artists use. In art, red is often called a “hot” color and blue a “cool” color. Likewise, we commonly see red on faucet or air conditioning controls to indicate hot temperatures and blue to indicate cold temperatures. Although these are common uses to us in daily life, in nature, it’s the other way around.)

We can develop a more precise star thermometer by measuring how much energy a star gives off at each wavelength and by constructing diagrams like [link]. The location of the peak (or maximum) in the power curve of each star can tell us its temperature. The average temperature at the surface of the Sun, which is where the radiation that we see is emitted, turns out to be 5800 K. (Throughout this text, we use the kelvin or absolute temperature scale. On this scale, water freezes at 273 K and boils at 373 K. All molecular motion ceases at 0 K. The various temperature scales are described in Appendix D.) There are stars cooler than the Sun and stars hotter than the Sun.

The wavelength at which maximum power is emitted can be calculated according to the equation

$$\lambda_{\text{max}}=\frac{3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{6}}{T}$$

where the wavelength is in nanometers (one billionth of a meter) and the temperature is in K (the constant 3 x 10^6 has units of nm × K). This relationship is called Wien’s law. For the Sun, the wavelength at which the maximum energy is emitted is 520 nanometers, which is near the middle of that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum called visible light. Characteristic temperatures of other astronomical objects, and the wavelengths at which they emit most of their power, are listed in [link].

Calculating the Temperature of a Blackbody We can use Wien’s law to calculate the temperature of a star provided we know the wavelength of peak intensity for its spectrum. If the emitted radiation from a red dwarf star has a wavelength of maximum power at 1200 nm, what is the temperature of this star, assuming it is a blackbody?

Solution Solving Wien’s law for temperature gives:

$$T=\frac{3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{6}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm K}}{{\lambda}_{\text{max}}}=\frac{3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{6}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm K}}{\text{1200 nm}}=2500\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{K}$$

Check Your Learning What is the temperature of a star whose maximum light is emitted at a much shorter wavelength of 290 nm?

Answer:

$$T=\frac{3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{6}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm K}}{{\lambda}_{\text{max}}}=\frac{3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{6}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm K}}{290\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm}}=10,300\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{K}$$

Since this star has a peak wavelength that is at a shorter wavelength (in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum) than that of our Sun (in the visible part of the spectrum), it should come as no surprise that its surface temperature is much hotter than our Sun’s.

We can also describe our observation that hotter objects radiate more power at all wavelengths in a mathematical form. If we sum up the contributions from all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, we obtain the total energy emitted by a blackbody. What we usually measure from a large object like a star is the energy flux, the power emitted per square meter. The word flux means “flow” here: we are interested in the flow of power into an area (like the area of a telescope mirror). It turns out that the energy flux from a blackbody at temperature T is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature. This relationship is known as the Stefan-Boltzmann law and can be written in the form of an equation as

$$F=\sigma{T}^{4}$$

where F stands for the energy flux and σ (Greek letter sigma) is a constant number (5.67 × 10^-8).

Notice how impressive this result is. Increasing the temperature of a star would have a tremendous effect on the power it radiates. If the Sun, for example, were twice as hot—that is, if it had a temperature of 11,600 K—it would radiate 2⁴, or 16 times more power than it does now. Tripling the temperature would raise the power output 81 times. Hot stars really shine away a tremendous amount of energy.

Calculating the Power of a Star While energy flux tells us how much power a star emits per square meter, we would often like to know how much total power is emitted by the star. We can determine that by multiplying the energy flux by the number of square meters on the surface of the star. Stars are mostly spherical, so we can use the formula 4πR² for the surface area, where R is the radius of the star. The total power emitted by the star (which we call the star’s “absolute luminosity”) can be found by multiplying the formula for energy flux and the formula for the surface area:

$$L=4\pi{R}^{2}\sigma{T}^{4}$$

Two stars have the same size and are the same distance from us. Star A has a surface temperature of 6000 K, and star B has a surface temperature twice as high, 12,000 K. How much more luminous is star B compared to star A?

Solution

$${L}_{\text{A}}=4\pi{{R}_{\text{A}}}^{2}\sigma{{T}_{\text{A}}}^{4}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{and}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{L}_{\text{B}}=4\pi{{R}_{\text{B}}}^{2}\sigma{{T}_{\text{B}}}^{4}$$

Take the ratio of the luminosity of Star A to Star B:

$$\frac{{L}_{\text{B}}}{{L}_{\text{A}}}=\frac{4\pi{{R}_{\text{B}}}^{2}\sigma{{T}_{\text{B}}}^{4}}{4\pi{{R}_{\text{A}}}^{2}\sigma{{T}_{\text{A}}}^{4}}=\frac{{{R}_{\text{B}}}^{2}{{T}_{\text{B}}}^{4}}{{{R}_{\text{A}}}^{2}{{T}_{\text{A}}}^{4}}$$

Because the two stars are the same size, R_A = R_B, leaving

$$\frac{{{T}_{\text{B}}}^{4}}{{{T}_{\text{A}}}^{4}}=\frac{{\left(12,000\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{K}\right)}^{4}}{{\left(6000\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{K}\right)}^{4}}={2}^{4}=16$$

Check Your Learning Two stars with identical diameters are the same distance away. One has a temperature of 8700 K and the other has a temperature of 2900 K. Which is brighter? How much brighter is it?

Answer:

The 8700 K star has triple the temperature, so it is 3⁴ = 81 times brighter.

Key Concepts and Summary

The electromagnetic spectrum consists of gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, infrared, and radio radiation. Many of these wavelengths cannot penetrate the layers of Earth’s atmosphere and must be observed from space, whereas others—such as visible light, FM radio and TV—can penetrate to Earth’s surface. The emission of electromagnetic radiation is intimately connected to the temperature of the source. The higher the temperature of an idealized emitter of electromagnetic radiation, the shorter is the wavelength at which the maximum amount of radiation is emitted. The mathematical equation describing this relationship is known as Wien’s law: λ_max = (3 × 10⁶)/T. The total power emitted per square meter increases with increasing temperature. The relationship between emitted energy flux and temperature is known as the Stefan-Boltzmann law: F = σT⁴.

Glossary

blackbody: an idealized object that absorbs all electromagnetic energy that falls onto it

electromagnetic spectrum: the whole array or family of electromagnetic waves, from radio to gamma rays

energy flux: the amount of energy passing through a unit area (for example, 1 square meter) per second; the units of flux are watts per square meter

gamma rays: photons (of electromagnetic radiation) of energy with wavelengths no longer than 0.01 nanometer; the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation

infrared: electromagnetic radiation of wavelength 10³–10⁶ nanometers; longer than the longest (red) wavelengths that can be perceived by the eye, but shorter than radio wavelengths

microwave: electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 1 meter; longer than infrared but shorter than radio waves

radio waves: all electromagnetic waves longer than microwaves, including radar waves and AM radio waves

Stefan-Boltzmann law: a formula from which the rate at which a blackbody radiates energy can be computed; the total rate of energy emission from a unit area of a blackbody is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature: F = σT⁴

ultraviolet: electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths 10 to 400 nanometers; shorter than the shortest visible wavelengths

visible light: electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of roughly 400–700 nanometers; visible to the human eye

Wien’s law: formula that relates the temperature of a blackbody to the wavelength at which it emits the greatest intensity of radiation

X-rays: electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between 0.01 nanometer and 20 nanometers; intermediate between those of ultraviolet radiation and gamma rays

5.4 The Structure of the Atom

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:06:58 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the structure of atoms and the components of nuclei
Explain the behavior of electrons within atoms and how electrons interact with light to move among energy levels

The idea that matter is composed of tiny particles called atoms is at least 25 centuries old. It took until the twentieth century, however, for scientists to invent instruments that permitted them to probe inside an atom and find that it is not, as had been thought, hard and indivisible. Instead, the atom is a complex structure composed of still smaller particles.

Probing the Atom

The first of these smaller particles was discovered by British physicist James (J. J.) Thomson in 1897. Named the electron, this particle is negatively charged. (It is the flow of these particles that produces currents of electricity, whether in lightning bolts or in the wires leading to your lamp.) Because an atom in its normal state is electrically neutral, each electron in an atom must be balanced by the same amount of positive charge.

The next step was to determine where in the atom the positive and negative charges are located. In 1911 while working at the University of Manchester, England physicist Ernest Rutherford devised an experiment that provided part of the answer to this question. He bombarded an extremely thin piece of gold foil, only about 400 atoms thick, with a beam of alpha particles ([link]). Alpha particles (α particles) are helium atoms that have lost their electrons and thus are positively charged. Most of these particles passed though the gold foil just as if it and the atoms in it were nearly empty space. About 1 in 8000 of the alpha particles, however, completely reversed direction and bounced backward from the foil. Rutherford wrote, “It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.”

Rutherford’s Experiment.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="974"] Figure 1. (a) When Rutherford allowed α particles from a radioactive source to strike a target of gold foil, he found that, although most of them went straight through, some rebounded back in the direction from which they came. (b) From this experiment, he concluded that the atom must be constructed like a miniature solar system, with the positive charge concentrated in the nucleus and the negative charge orbiting in the large volume around the nucleus. Note that this drawing is not to scale; the electron orbits are much larger relative to the size of the nucleus.[/caption]

The only way to account for the particles that reversed direction when they hit the gold foil was to assume that nearly all of the mass, as well as all of the positive charge in each individual gold atom, is concentrated in a tiny center or nucleus. When a positively charged alpha particle strikes a nucleus, it reverses direction, much as a cue ball reverses direction when it strikes another billiard ball. Rutherford’s model placed the other type of charge—the negative electrons—in orbit around this nucleus.

Rutherford’s model required that the electrons be in motion. Positive and negative charges attract each other, so stationary electrons would fall into the positive nucleus. Also, because both the electrons and the nucleus are extremely small, most of the atom is empty, which is why nearly all of Rutherford’s particles were able to pass right through the gold foil without colliding with anything. Rutherford’s model was a very successful explanation of the experiments he conducted, although eventually scientists would discover that even the nucleus itself has structure.

Rutherford was born in New Zealand, but became famous for his work on radioactivity while working at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

The Atomic Nucleus

The simplest possible atom (and the most common one in the Sun and stars) is hydrogen. The nucleus of ordinary hydrogen contains a single proton. Moving around this proton is a single electron. The mass of an electron is nearly 2000 times smaller than the mass of a proton; the electron carries an amount of charge exactly equal to that of the proton but opposite in sign ([link]). Opposite charges attract each other, so it is an electromagnetic force that holds the proton and electron together, just as gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the Sun.

Hydrogen Atom.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="276"] Figure 2. This is a schematic diagram of a hydrogen atom in its lowest energy state, also called the ground state. The proton and electron have equal but opposite charges, which exert an electromagnetic force that binds the hydrogen atom together. In the illustration, the size of the particles is exaggerated so that you can see them; they are not to scale. They are also shown much closer than they would actually be as it would take more than an entire page to show their actual distance to scale.[/caption]

There are many other types of atoms in nature. Helium, for example, is the second-most abundant element in the Sun. Helium has two protons in its nucleus instead of the single proton that characterizes hydrogen. In addition, the helium nucleus contains two neutrons, particles with a mass comparable to that of the proton but with no electric charge. Moving around this nucleus are two electrons, so the total net charge of the helium atom is also zero ([link]).

Helium Atom.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="324"] Figure 3. Here we see a schematic diagram of a helium atom in its lowest energy state. Two protons are present in the nucleus of all helium atoms. In the most common variety of helium, the nucleus also contains two neutrons, which have nearly the same mass as the proton but carry no charge. Two electrons orbit the nucleus.[/caption]From this description of hydrogen and helium, perhaps you have guessed the pattern for building up all the elements (different types of atoms) that we find in the universe. The type of element is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. For example, any atom with six protons is the element carbon, with eight protons is oxygen, with 26 is iron, and with 92 is uranium. On Earth, a typical atom has the same number of electrons as protons, and these electrons follow complex orbital patterns around the nucleus. Deep inside stars, however, it is so hot that the electrons get loose from the nucleus and (as we shall see) lead separate yet productive lives.

The ratio of neutrons to protons increases as the number of protons increases, but each element is unique. The number of neutrons is not necessarily the same for all atoms of a given element. For example, most hydrogen atoms contain no neutrons at all. There are, however, hydrogen atoms that contain one proton and one neutron, and others that contain one proton and two neutrons. The various types of hydrogen nuclei with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of hydrogen ([link]), and all other elements have isotopes as well. You can think of isotopes as siblings in the same element “family”—closely related but with different characteristics and behaviors.

Isotopes of Hydrogen.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="713"] Figure 4. A single proton in the nucleus defines the atom to be hydrogen, but there may be zero, one, or two neutrons. The most common isotope of hydrogen is the one with only a single proton and no neutrons.[/caption]

To explore the structure of atoms, go to the PhET Build and Atom website where you can add protons, neutrons, or electrons to a model and the name of the element you have created will appear. You can also see the net charge, the mass number, whether it is stable or unstable, and whether it is an ion or a neutral atom.

The Bohr Atom

Rutherford’s model for atoms has one serious problem. Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic radiation says that when electrons change either speed or the direction of motion, they must emit energy. Orbiting electrons constantly change their direction of motion, so they should emit a constant stream of energy. Applying Maxwell’s theory to Rutherford’s model, all electrons should spiral into the nucleus of the atom as they lose energy, and this collapse should happen very quickly—in about 10^–16 seconds.

It was Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885–1962) who solved the mystery of how electrons remain in orbit. He was trying to develop a model of the atom that would also explain certain regularities observed in the spectrum of hydrogen. He suggested that the spectrum of hydrogen can be understood if we assume that orbits of only certain sizes are possible for the electron. Bohr further assumed that as long as the electron moves in only one of these allowed orbits, it radiates no energy: its energy would change only if it moved from one orbit to another.

This suggestion, in the words of science historian Abraham Pais, was “one of the most audacious hypotheses ever introduced in physics.” If something equivalent were at work in the everyday world, you might find that, as you went for a walk after astronomy class, nature permitted you to walk two steps per minute, five steps per minute, and 12 steps per minute, but no speeds in between. No matter how you tried to move your legs, only certain walking speeds would be permitted. To make things more bizarre, it would take no effort to walk at any one of the allowed speeds, but it would be difficult to change from one speed to another. Luckily, no such rules apply at the level of human behavior. But at the microscopic level of the atom, experiment after experiment has confirmed the validity of Bohr’s strange idea. Bohr’s suggestions became one of the foundations of the new (and much more sophisticated) model of the subatomic world called quantum mechanics.

In Bohr’s model, if the electron moves from one orbit to another closer to the atomic nucleus, it must give up some energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. If the electron goes from an inner orbit to one farther from the nucleus, however, it requires some additional energy. One way to obtain the necessary energy is to absorb electromagnetic radiation that may be streaming past the atom from an outside source.

A key feature of Bohr’s model is that each of the permitted electron orbits around a given atom has a certain energy value; we therefore can think of each orbit as an energy level. To move from one orbit to another (which will have its own specific energy value) requires a change in the electron’s energy—a change determined by the difference between the two energy values. If the electron goes to a lower level, the energy difference will be given off; if the electron goes to a higher level, the energy difference must be obtained from somewhere else. Each jump (or transition) to a different level has a fixed and definite energy change associated with it.

A crude analogy for this situation might be life in a tower of luxury apartments where the rent is determined by the quality of the view. Such a building has certain, definite numbered levels or floors on which apartments are located. No one can live on floor 5.37 or 22.5. In addition, the rent gets higher as you go up to higher floors. If you want to exchange an apartment on the twentieth floor for one on the second floor, you will not owe as much rent. However, if you want to move from the third floor to the twenty-fifth floor, your rent will increase. In an atom, too, the “cheapest” place for an electron to live is the lowest possible level, and energy is required to move to a higher level.

Here we have one of the situations where it is easier to think of electromagnetic radiation as particles (photons) rather than as waves. As electrons move from one level to another, they give off or absorb little packets of energy. When an electron moves to a higher level, it absorbs a photon of just the right energy (provided one is available). When it moves to a lower level, it emits a photon with the exact amount of energy it no longer needs in its “lower-cost living situation.” The photon and wave perspectives must be equivalent: light is light, no matter how we look at it. Thus, each photon carries a certain amount of energy that is proportional to the frequency (f) of the wave it represents. The value of its energy (E) is given by the formula

$$E=hf$$

where the constant of proportionality, h, is called Planck’s constant.

The constant is named for Max Planck, the German physicist who was one of the originators of the quantum theory ([link]). If metric units are used (that is, if energy is measured in joules and frequency in hertz), then Planck’s constant has the value h = 6.626 × 10^–34 joule-seconds (J-s). Higher-energy photons correspond to higher-frequency waves (which have a shorter wavelength); lower-energy photons are waves of lower frequency.

Niels Bohr (1885–1962) and Max Planck (1858–1947).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="974"] Figure 5. (a) Bohr, shown at his desk in this 1935 photograph, and (b) Planck helped us understand the energy behavior of photons.[/caption]

To take a specific example, consider a calcium atom inside the Sun’s atmosphere in which an electron jumps from a lower level to a higher level. To do this, it needs about 5 × 10^–19 joules of energy, which it can conveniently obtain by absorbing a passing photon of that energy coming from deeper inside the Sun. This photon is equivalent to a wave of light whose frequency is about 7.5 × 10¹⁴ hertz and whose wavelength is about 3.9 × 10^–7 meters (393 nanometers), in the deep violet part of the visible light spectrum. Although it may seem strange at first to switch from picturing light as a photon (or energy packet) to picturing it as a wave, such switching has become second nature to astronomers and can be a handy tool for doing calculations about spectra.

The Energy of a Photon Now that we know how to calculate the wavelength and frequency of a photon, we can use this information, along with Planck’s constant, to determine how much energy each photon carries. How much energy does a red photon of wavelength 630 nm have?

Solution First, as we learned earlier, we can find the frequency of the photon:

$$f=\frac{c}{\lambda}=\frac{3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{8}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m/s}}{630\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-9}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}}=4.8\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{14}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{Hz}$$

Next, we can use Planck’s constant to determine the energy (remember that a Hz is the same as 1/s):

$$E=hf=\left(6.626\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-34}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{J-s}\right)\left(4.8\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{14}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{Hz}\text{(1/s)}\right)=3.2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-19}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{J}$$

Check Your Learning What is the energy of a yellow photon with a frequency of 5.5 × 10¹⁴ Hz?

Answer:

$$E=hf=\left(6.626\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-34}}\text{J-s}\right)\left(5.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{14}\text{Hz}\right)=3.6\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-19}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{J}$$

Key Concepts and Summary

Atoms consist of a nucleus containing one or more positively charged protons. All atoms except hydrogen can also contain one or more neutrons in the nucleus. Negatively charged electrons orbit the nucleus. The number of protons defines an element (hydrogen has one proton, helium has two, and so on) of the atom. Nuclei with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons are different isotopes of the same element. In the Bohr model of the atom, electrons on permitted orbits (or energy levels) don’t give off any electromagnetic radiation. But when electrons go from lower levels to higher ones, they must absorb a photon of just the right energy, and when they go from higher levels to lower ones, they give off a photon of just the right energy. The energy of a photon is connected to the frequency of the electromagnetic wave it represents by Planck’s formula, E = hf.

Glossary

energy level: a particular level, or amount, of energy possessed by an atom or ion above the energy it possesses in its least energetic state; also used to refer to the states of energy an electron can have in an atom

isotope: any of two or more forms of the same element whose atoms have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons

nucleus (of an atom): the massive part of an atom, composed mostly of protons and neutrons, and about which the electrons revolve

5.3 Spectroscopy in Astronomy

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:07:12 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the properties of light
Explain how astronomers learn the composition of a gas by examining its spectral lines
Discuss the various types of spectra

Electromagnetic radiation carries a lot of information about the nature of stars and other astronomical objects. To extract this information, however, astronomers must be able to study the amounts of energy we receive at different wavelengths of light in fine detail. Let’s examine how we can do this and what we can learn.

Properties of Light

Light exhibits certain behaviors that are important to the design of telescopes and other instruments. For example, light can be reflected from a surface. If the surface is smooth and shiny, as with a mirror, the direction of the reflected light beam can be calculated accurately from knowledge of the shape of the reflecting surface. Light is also bent, or refracted, when it passes from one kind of transparent material into another—say, from the air into a glass lens.

Reflection and refraction of light are the basic properties that make possible all optical instruments (devices that help us to see things better)—from eyeglasses to giant astronomical telescopes. Such instruments are generally combinations of glass lenses, which bend light according to the principles of refraction, and curved mirrors, which depend on the properties of reflection. Small optical devices, such as eyeglasses or binoculars, generally use lenses, whereas large telescopes depend almost entirely on mirrors for their main optical elements. We will discuss astronomical instruments and their uses more fully in Astronomical Instruments. For now, we turn to another behavior of light, one that is essential for the decoding of light.

In 1672, in the first paper that he submitted to the Royal Society, Sir Isaac Newton described an experiment in which he permitted sunlight to pass through a small hole and then through a prism. Newton found that sunlight, which looks white to us, is actually made up of a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow ([link]).

Action of a Prism.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. When we pass a beam of white sunlight through a prism, we see a rainbow-colored band of light that we call a continuous spectrum.[/caption]

[link] shows how light is separated into different colors with a prism—a piece of glass in the shape of a triangle with refracting surfaces. Upon entering one face of the prism, the path of the light is refracted (bent), but not all of the colors are bent by the same amount. The bending of the beam depends on the wavelength of the light as well as the properties of the material, and as a result, different wavelengths (or colors of light) are bent by different amounts and therefore follow slightly different paths through the prism. The violet light is bent more than the red. This phenomenon is called dispersion and explains Newton’s rainbow experiment.

Upon leaving the opposite face of the prism, the light is bent again and further dispersed. If the light leaving the prism is focused on a screen, the different wavelengths or colors that make up white light are lined up side by side just like a rainbow ([link]). (In fact, a rainbow is formed by the dispersion of light though raindrops; see The Rainbow feature box.) Because this array of colors is a spectrum of light, the instrument used to disperse the light and form the spectrum is called a spectrometer.

Continuous Spectrum.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 2. When white light passes through a prism, it is dispersed and forms a continuous spectrum of all the colors. Although it is hard to see in this printed version, in a well-dispersed spectrum, many subtle gradations in color are visible as your eye scans from one end (violet) to the other (red).[/caption]

The Value of Stellar Spectra

When Newton described the laws of refraction and dispersion in optics, and observed the solar spectrum, all he could see was a continuous band of colors. If the spectrum of the white light from the Sun and stars were simply a continuous rainbow of colors, astronomers would have little interest in the detailed study of a star’s spectrum once they had learned its average surface temperature. In 1802, however, William Wollaston built an improved spectrometer that included a lens to focus the Sun’s spectrum on a screen. With this device, Wollaston saw that the colors were not spread out uniformly, but instead, some ranges of color were missing, appearing as dark bands in the solar spectrum. He mistakenly attributed these lines to natural boundaries between the colors. In 1815, German physicist Joseph Fraunhofer, upon a more careful examination of the solar spectrum, found about 600 such dark lines (missing colors), which led scientists to rule out the boundary hypothesis ([link]).

Visible Spectrum of the Sun.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 3. Our star’s spectrum is crossed by dark lines produced by atoms in the solar atmosphere that absorb light at certain wavelengths. (credit: modification of work by Nigel Sharp, NOAO/National Solar Observatory at Kitt Peak/AURA, and the National Science Foundation)[/caption]

Later, researchers found that similar dark lines could be produced in the spectra (“spectra” is the plural of “spectrum”) of artificial light sources. They did this by passing their light through various apparently transparent substances—usually containers with just a bit of thin gas in them.

These gases turned out not to be transparent at all colors: they were quite opaque at a few sharply defined wavelengths. Something in each gas had to be absorbing just a few colors of light and no others. All gases did this, but each different element absorbed a different set of colors and thus showed different dark lines. If the gas in a container consisted of two elements, then light passing through it was missing the colors (showing dark lines) for both of the elements. So it became clear that certain lines in the spectrum “go with” certain elements. This discovery was one of the most important steps forward in the history of astronomy.

What would happen if there were no continuous spectrum for our gases to remove light from? What if, instead, we heated the same thin gases until they were hot enough to glow with their own light? When the gases were heated, a spectrometer revealed no continuous spectrum, but several separate bright lines. That is, these hot gases emitted light only at certain specific wavelengths or colors.

When the gas was pure hydrogen, it would emit one pattern of colors; when it was pure sodium, it would emit a different pattern. A mixture of hydrogen and sodium emitted both sets of spectral lines. The colors the gases emitted when they were heated were the very same colors as those they had absorbed when a continuous source of light was behind them. From such experiments, scientists began to see that different substances showed distinctive spectral signatures by which their presence could be detected ([link]). Just as your signature allows the bank to identify you, the unique pattern of colors for each type of atom (its spectrum) can help us identify which element or elements are in a gas.

Continuous Spectrum and Line Spectra from Different Elements.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 4. Each type of glowing gas (each element) produces its own unique pattern of lines, so the composition of a gas can be identified by its spectrum. The spectra of sodium, hydrogen, calcium, and mercury gases are shown here.[/caption]

Types of Spectra

In these experiments, then, there were three different types of spectra. A continuous spectrum (formed when a solid or very dense gas gives off radiation) is an array of all wavelengths or colors of the rainbow. A continuous spectrum can serve as a backdrop from which the atoms of much less dense gas can absorb light. A dark line, or absorption spectrum, consists of a series or pattern of dark lines—missing colors—superimposed upon the continuous spectrum of a source. A bright line, or emission spectrum, appears as a pattern or series of bright lines; it consists of light in which only certain discrete wavelengths are present. ([link] shows an absorption spectrum, whereas [link] shows the emission spectrum of a number of common elements along with an example of a continuous spectrum.)

When we have a hot, thin gas, each particular chemical element or compound produces its own characteristic pattern of spectral lines—its spectral signature. No two types of atoms or molecules give the same patterns. In other words, each particular gas can absorb or emit only certain wavelengths of the light peculiar to that gas. In contrast, absorption spectra occur when passing white light through a cool, thin gas. The temperature and other conditions determine whether the lines are bright or dark (whether light is absorbed or emitted), but the wavelengths of the lines for any element are the same in either case. It is the precise pattern of wavelengths that makes the signature of each element unique. Liquids and solids can also generate spectral lines or bands, but they are broader and less well defined—and hence, more difficult to interpret. Spectral analysis, however, can be quite useful. It can, for example, be applied to light reflected off the surface of a nearby asteroid as well as to light from a distant galaxy.

The dark lines in the solar spectrum thus give evidence of certain chemical elements between us and the Sun absorbing those wavelengths of sunlight. Because the space between us and the Sun is pretty empty, astronomers realized that the atoms doing the absorbing must be in a thin atmosphere of cooler gas around the Sun. This outer atmosphere is not all that different from the rest of the Sun, just thinner and cooler. Thus, we can use what we learn about its composition as an indicator of what the whole Sun is made of. Similarly, we can use the presence of absorption and emission lines to analyze the composition of other stars and clouds of gas in space.

Such analysis of spectra is the key to modern astronomy. Only in this way can we “sample” the stars, which are too far away for us to visit. Encoded in the electromagnetic radiation from celestial objects is clear information about the chemical makeup of these objects. Only by understanding what the stars were made of could astronomers begin to form theories about what made them shine and how they evolved. In 1860, German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff became the first person to use spectroscopy to identify an element in the Sun when he found the spectral signature of sodium gas. In the years that followed, astronomers found many other chemical elements in the Sun and stars. In fact, the element helium was found first in the Sun from its spectrum and only later identified on Earth. (The word “helium” comes from helios, the Greek name for the Sun.)

Why are there specific lines for each element? The answer to that question was not found until the twentieth century; it required the development of a model for the atom. We therefore turn next to a closer examination of the atoms that make up all matter.

The Rainbow

Rainbows are an excellent illustration of the dispersion of sunlight. You have a good chance of seeing a rainbow any time you are between the Sun and a rain shower, as illustrated in [link]. The raindrops act like little prisms and break white light into the spectrum of colors. Suppose a ray of sunlight encounters a raindrop and passes into it. The light changes direction—is refracted—when it passes from air to water; the blue and violet light are refracted more than the red. Some of the light is then reflected at the backside of the drop and reemerges from the front, where it is again refracted. As a result, the white light is spread out into a rainbow of colors.

Rainbow Refraction.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 5. (a) This diagram shows how light from the Sun, which is located behind the observer, can be refracted by raindrops to produce (b) a rainbow. (c) Refraction separates white light into its component colors.[/caption]

Note that violet light lies above the red light after it emerges from the raindrop. When you look at a rainbow, however, the red light is higher in the sky. Why? Look again at [link]. If the observer looks at a raindrop that is high in the sky, the violet light passes over her head and the red light enters her eye. Similarly, if the observer looks at a raindrop that is low in the sky, the violet light reaches her eye and the drop appears violet, whereas the red light from that same drop strikes the ground and is not seen. Colors of intermediate wavelengths are refracted to the eye by drops that are intermediate in altitude between the drops that appear violet and the ones that appear red. Thus, a single rainbow always has red on the outside and violet on the inside.

Canadians in Astronomy

The spectroscopy techniques used in astronomy blur the lines between physics and chemistry. One of the most influential Canadian astronomers was the late Gerhard Herzberg, a physicist who specialized in molecular spectroscopy. His research on detection and examination of free radicals won him the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. [caption id="attachment_205" align="aligncenter" width="241"] Figure 6. Dr. Gerhard Herzberg. (credit: Physics in Canada, Volume 55, No. 4 (1999))[/caption]Born in Hamburg during the early twentieth century, Gerhard wanted to become an astronomer but was advised against the plan. He instead studied physics at the Darmstadt Institute of Technology and received a doctoral degree in physical engineering in 1928. After completing two postdoctoral degrees, Gerhard fled Nazi Germany in 1935. Three months later, he was teaching as a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and soon made his first scientific discovery; identification of the CH+ molecule (a free radical) in interstellar clouds. Dr. Herzberg wrote multiple scientific articles, six books on atomic and molecular spectroscopy, and perfected methods of studying comets and planetary atmospheres that became standards world wide. He assembled research teams in the fields of theoretical and solid state physics for the National Research Council Canada. He was the first to discover water in comets and hydrogen in planetary atmospheres. With accolades piled high, Gerhard left a scientific legacy as the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics shows.

Key Concepts and Summary

A spectrometer is a device that forms a spectrum, often utilizing the phenomenon of dispersion. The light from an astronomical source can consist of a continuous spectrum, an emission (bright line) spectrum, or an absorption (dark line) spectrum. Because each element leaves its spectral signature in the pattern of lines we observe, spectral analyses reveal the composition of the Sun and stars.

Glossary

absorption spectrum: a series or pattern of dark lines superimposed on a continuous spectrum

continuous spectrum: a spectrum of light composed of radiation of a continuous range of wavelengths or colors, rather than only certain discrete wavelengths

dispersion: separation of different wavelengths of white light through refraction of different amounts

emission spectrum: a series or pattern of bright lines superimposed on a continuous spectrum

spectrometer: an instrument for obtaining a spectrum; in astronomy, usually attached to a telescope to record the spectrum of a star, galaxy, or other astronomical object

5.5 Formation of Spectral Lines

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:07:28 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how emission line spectra and absorption line spectra are formed
Describe what ions are and how they are formed
Explain how spectral lines and ionization levels in a gas can help us determine its temperature

We can use Bohr’s model of the atom to understand how spectral lines are formed. The concept of energy levels for the electron orbits in an atom leads naturally to an explanation of why atoms absorb or emit only specific energies or wavelengths of light.

The Hydrogen Spectrum

Let’s look at the hydrogen atom from the perspective of the Bohr model. Suppose a beam of white light (which consists of photons of all visible wavelengths) shines through a gas of atomic hydrogen. A photon of wavelength 656 nanometers has just the right energy to raise an electron in a hydrogen atom from the second to the third orbit. Thus, as all the photons of different energies (or wavelengths or colors) stream by the hydrogen atoms, photons with this particular wavelength can be absorbed by those atoms whose electrons are orbiting on the second level. When they are absorbed, the electrons on the second level will move to the third level, and a number of the photons of this wavelength and energy will be missing from the general stream of white light.

Other photons will have the right energies to raise electrons from the second to the fourth orbit, or from the first to the fifth orbit, and so on. Only photons with these exact energies can be absorbed. All of the other photons will stream past the atoms untouched. Thus, hydrogen atoms absorb light at only certain wavelengths and produce dark lines at those wavelengths in the spectrum we see.

Suppose we have a container of hydrogen gas through which a whole series of photons is passing, allowing many electrons to move up to higher levels. When we turn off the light source, these electrons “fall” back down from larger to smaller orbits and emit photons of light—but, again, only light of those energies or wavelengths that correspond to the energy difference between permissible orbits. The orbital changes of hydrogen electrons that give rise to some spectral lines are shown in [link].

Bohr Model for Hydrogen.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Figure 1. In this simplified model of a hydrogen atom, the concentric circles shown represent permitted orbits or energy levels. An electron in a hydrogen atom can only exist in one of these energy levels (or states). The closer the electron is to the nucleus, the more tightly bound the electron is to the nucleus. By absorbing energy, the electron can move to energy levels farther from the nucleus (and even escape if enough energy is absorbed).[/caption]

Similar pictures can be drawn for atoms other than hydrogen. However, because these other atoms ordinarily have more than one electron each, the orbits of their electrons are much more complicated, and the spectra are more complex as well. For our purposes, the key conclusion is this: each type of atom has its own unique pattern of electron orbits, and no two sets of orbits are exactly alike. This means that each type of atom shows its own unique set of spectral lines, produced by electrons moving between its unique set of orbits. Astronomers and physicists have worked hard to learn the lines that go with each element by studying the way atoms absorb and emit light in laboratories here on Earth. Then they can use this knowledge to identify the elements in celestial bodies. In this way, we now know the chemical makeup of not just any star, but even galaxies of stars so distant that their light started on its way to us long before Earth had even formed.

Energy Levels and Excitation

Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom was a great step forward in our understanding of the atom. However, we know today that atoms cannot be represented by quite so simple a picture. For example, the concept of sharply defined electron orbits is not really correct; however, at the level of this introductory course, the notion that only certain discrete energies are allowable for an atom is very useful. The energy levels we have been discussing can be thought of as representing certain average distances of the electron’s possible orbits from the atomic nucleus.

Ordinarily, an atom is in the state of lowest possible energy, its ground state. In the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, the ground state corresponds to the electron being in the innermost orbit. An atom can absorb energy, which raises it to a higher energy level (corresponding, in the simple Bohr picture, to an electron’s movement to a larger orbit)—this is referred to as excitation. The atom is then said to be in an excited state. Generally, an atom remains excited for only a very brief time. After a short interval, typically a hundred-millionth of a second or so, it drops back spontaneously to its ground state, with the simultaneous emission of light. The atom may return to its lowest state in one jump, or it may make the transition in steps of two or more jumps, stopping at intermediate levels on the way down. With each jump, it emits a photon of the wavelength that corresponds to the energy difference between the levels at the beginning and end of that jump. An energy-level diagram for a hydrogen atom and several possible atomic transitions are shown in [link]. When we measure the energies involved as the atom jumps between levels, we find that the transitions to or from the ground state, called the Lyman series of lines, result in the emission or absorption of ultraviolet photons. But the transitions to or from the first excited state (labeled n = 2 in part (a) of [link]), called the Balmer series, produce emission or absorption in visible light. In fact, it was to explain this Balmer series that Bohr first suggested his model of the atom.

Energy-Level Diagrams for Hydrogen.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) Here we follow the emission or absorption of photons by a hydrogen atom according to the Bohr model. Several different series of spectral lines are shown, corresponding to transitions of electrons from or to certain allowed orbits. Each series of lines that terminates on a specific inner orbit is named for the physicist who studied it. At the top, for example, you see the Balmer series, and arrows show electrons jumping from the second orbit (n = 2) to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth orbits. Each time a “poor” electron from a lower level wants to rise to a higher position in life, it must absorb energy to do so. It can absorb the energy it needs from passing waves (or photons) of light. The next set of arrows (Lyman series) show electrons falling down to the first orbit from different (higher) levels. Each time a “rich” electron goes downward toward the nucleus, it can afford to give off (emit) some energy it no longer needs. (b) At higher and higher energy levels, the levels become more and more crowded together, approaching a limit. The region above the top line represents energies at which the atom is ionized (the electron is no longer attached to the atom). Each series of arrows represents electrons falling from higher levels to lower ones, releasing photons or waves of energy in the process.[/caption]

Atoms that have absorbed specific photons from a passing beam of white light and have thus become excited generally de-excite themselves and emit that light again in a very short time. You might wonder, then, why dark spectral lines are ever produced. In other words, why doesn’t this reemitted light quickly “fill in” the darker absorption lines?

Imagine a beam of white light coming toward you through some cooler gas. Some of the reemitted light is actually returned to the beam of white light you see, but this fills in the absorption lines only to a slight extent. The reason is that the atoms in the gas reemit light in all directions, and only a small fraction of the reemitted light is in the direction of the original beam (toward you). In a star, much of the reemitted light actually goes in directions leading back into the star, which does observers outside the star no good whatsoever.

[link] summarizes the different kinds of spectra we have discussed. An incandescent lightbulb produces a continuous spectrum. When that continuous spectrum is viewed through a thinner cloud of gas, an absorption line spectrum can be seen superimposed on the continuous spectrum. If we look only at a cloud of excited gas atoms (with no continuous source seen behind it), we see that the excited atoms give off an emission line spectrum.

Three Kinds of Spectra.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. When we see a lightbulb or other source of continuous radiation, all the colors are present. When the continuous spectrum is seen through a thinner gas cloud, the cloud’s atoms produce absorption lines in the continuous spectrum. When the excited cloud is seen without the continuous source behind it, its atoms produce emission lines. We can learn which types of atoms are in the gas cloud from the pattern of absorption or emission lines.[/caption]

Atoms in a hot gas are moving at high speeds and continually colliding with one another and with any loose electrons. They can be excited (electrons moving to a higher level) and de-excited (electrons moving to a lower level) by these collisions as well as by absorbing and emitting light. The speed of atoms in a gas depends on the temperature. When the temperature is higher, so are the speed and energy of the collisions. The hotter the gas, therefore, the more likely that electrons will occupy the outermost orbits, which correspond to the highest energy levels. This means that the level where electrons start their upward jumps in a gas can serve as an indicator of how hot that gas is. In this way, the absorption lines in a spectrum give astronomers information about the temperature of the regions where the lines originate.

Use this simulation to play with a hydrogen atom and see what happens when electrons move to higher levels and then give off photons as they go to a lower level.

Ionization

We have described how certain discrete amounts of energy can be absorbed by an atom, raising it to an excited state and moving one of its electrons farther from its nucleus. If enough energy is absorbed, the electron can be completely removed from the atom—this is called ionization. The atom is then said to be ionized. The minimum amount of energy required to remove one electron from an atom in its ground state is called its ionization energy.

Still-greater amounts of energy must be absorbed by the now-ionized atom (called an ion) to remove an additional electron deeper in the structure of the atom. Successively greater energies are needed to remove the third, fourth, fifth—and so on—electrons from the atom. If enough energy is available, an atom can become completely ionized, losing all of its electrons. A hydrogen atom, having only one electron to lose, can be ionized only once; a helium atom can be ionized twice; and an oxygen atom up to eight times. When we examine regions of the cosmos where there is a great deal of energetic radiation, such as the neighborhoods where hot young stars have recently formed, we see a lot of ionization going on.

An atom that has become positively ionized has lost a negative charge—the missing electron—and thus is left with a net positive charge. It therefore exerts a strong attraction on any free electron. Eventually, one or more electrons will be captured and the atom will become neutral (or ionized to one less degree) again. During the electron-capture process, the atom emits one or more photons. Which photons are emitted depends on whether the electron is captured at once to the lowest energy level of the atom or stops at one or more intermediate levels on its way to the lowest available level.

Just as the excitation of an atom can result from a collision with another atom, ion, or electron (collisions with electrons are usually most important), so can ionization. The rate at which such collisional ionizations occur depends on the speeds of the atoms and hence on the temperature of the gas—the hotter the gas, the more of its atoms will be ionized.

The rate at which ions and electrons recombine also depends on their relative speeds—that is, on the temperature. In addition, it depends on the density of the gas: the higher the density, the greater the chance for recapture, because the different kinds of particles are crowded more closely together. From a knowledge of the temperature and density of a gas, it is possible to calculate the fraction of atoms that have been ionized once, twice, and so on. In the Sun, for example, we find that most of the hydrogen and helium atoms in its atmosphere are neutral, whereas most of the calcium atoms, as well as many other heavier atoms, are ionized once.

The energy levels of an ionized atom are entirely different from those of the same atom when it is neutral. Each time an electron is removed from the atom, the energy levels of the ion, and thus the wavelengths of the spectral lines it can produce, change. This helps astronomers differentiate the ions of a given element. Ionized hydrogen, having no electron, can produce no absorption lines.

Key Concepts and Summary

When electrons move from a higher energy level to a lower one, photons are emitted, and an emission line can be seen in the spectrum. Absorption lines are seen when electrons absorb photons and move to higher energy levels. Since each atom has its own characteristic set of energy levels, each is associated with a unique pattern of spectral lines. This allows astronomers to determine what elements are present in the stars and in the clouds of gas and dust among the stars. An atom in its lowest energy level is in the ground state. If an electron is in an orbit other than the least energetic one possible, the atom is said to be excited. If an atom has lost one or more electrons, it is called an ion and is said to be ionized. The spectra of different ions look different and can tell astronomers about the temperatures of the sources they are observing.

Glossary

excitation: the process of giving an atom or an ion an amount of energy greater than it has in its lowest energy (ground) state

ground state: the lowest energy state of an atom

ion: an atom that has become electrically charged by the addition or loss of one or more electrons

ionization: the process by which an atom gains or loses electrons

5.6 The Doppler Effect

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:07:42 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain why the spectral lines of photons we observe from an object will change as a result of the object’s motion toward or away from us
Describe how we can use the Doppler effect to deduce how fast astronomical objects are moving through space

The last two sections introduced you to many new concepts, and we hope that through those, you have seen one major idea emerge. Astronomers can learn about the elements in stars and galaxies by decoding the information in their spectral lines. There is a complicating factor in learning how to decode the message of starlight, however. If a star is moving toward or away from us, its lines will be in a slightly different place in the spectrum from where they would be in a star at rest. And most objects in the universe do have some motion relative to the Sun.

Motion Affects Waves

In 1842, Christian Doppler first measured the effect of motion on waves by hiring a group of musicians to play on an open railroad car as it was moving along the track. He then applied what he learned to all waves, including light, and pointed out that if a light source is approaching or receding from the observer, the light waves will be, respectively, crowded more closely together or spread out. The general principle, now known as the Doppler effect, is illustrated in [link].

Doppler Effect.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 1. (a) A source, S, makes waves whose numbered crests (1, 2, 3, and 4) wash over a stationary observer. (b) The source S now moves toward observer A and away from observer C. Wave crest 1 was emitted when the source was at position S4, crest 2 at position S2, and so forth. Observer A sees waves compressed by this motion and sees a blueshift (if the waves are light). Observer C sees the waves stretched out by the motion and sees a redshift. Observer B, whose line of sight is perpendicular to the source’s motion, sees no change in the waves (and feels left out).[/caption]In part (a) of the figure, the light source (S) is at rest with respect to the observer. The source gives off a series of waves, whose crests we have labeled 1, 2, 3, and 4. The light waves spread out evenly in all directions, like the ripples from a splash in a pond. The crests are separated by a distance, λ, where λ is the wavelength. The observer, who happens to be located in the direction of the bottom of the image, sees the light waves coming nice and evenly, one wavelength apart. Observers located anywhere else would see the same thing.

On the other hand, if the source of light is moving with respect to the observer, as seen in part (b), the situation is more complicated. Between the time one crest is emitted and the next one is ready to come out, the source has moved a bit, toward the bottom of the page. From the point of view of observer A, this motion of the source has decreased the distance between crests—it’s squeezing the crests together, this observer might say.

In part (b), we show the situation from the perspective of three observers. The source is seen in four positions, S₁, S₂, S₃, and S₄, each corresponding to the emission of one wave crest. To observer A, the waves seem to follow one another more closely, at a decreased wavelength and thus increased frequency. (Remember, all light waves travel at the speed of light through empty space, no matter what. This means that motion cannot affect the speed, but only the wavelength and the frequency. As the wavelength decreases, the frequency must increase. If the waves are shorter, more will be able to move by during each second.)

The situation is not the same for other observers. Let’s look at the situation from the point of view of observer C, located opposite observer A in the figure. For her, the source is moving away from her location. As a result, the waves are not squeezed together but instead are spread out by the motion of the source. The crests arrive with an increased wavelength and decreased frequency. To observer B, in a direction at right angles to the motion of the source, no effect is observed. The wavelength and frequency remain the same as they were in part (a) of the figure.

We can see from this illustration that the Doppler effect is produced only by a motion toward or away from the observer, a motion called radial velocity. Sideways motion does not produce such an effect. Observers between A and B would observe some shortening of the light waves for that part of the motion of the source that is along their line of sight. Observers between B and C would observe lengthening of the light waves that are along their line of sight. You may have heard the Doppler effect with sound waves. When a train whistle or police siren approaches you and then moves away, you will notice a decrease in the pitch (which is how human senses interpret sound wave frequency) of the sound waves. Compared to the waves at rest, they have changed from slightly more frequent when coming toward you, to slightly less frequent when moving away from you.

A nice example of this change in the sound of a train whistle can be heard at the end of the classic Beach Boys song “Caroline, No” on their album Pet Sounds. To hear this sound, go to this YouTube version of the song. The sound of the train begins at approximately 2:20.

Color Shifts

When the source of waves moves toward you, the wavelength decreases a bit. If the waves involved are visible light, then the colors of the light change slightly. As wavelength decreases, they shift toward the blue end of the spectrum: astronomers call this a blueshift (since the end of the spectrum is really violet, the term should probably be violetshift, but blue is a more common color). When the source moves away from you and the wavelength gets longer, we call the change in colors a redshift. Because the Doppler effect was first used with visible light in astronomy, the terms “blueshift” and “redshift” became well established. Today, astronomers use these words to describe changes in the wavelengths of radio waves or X-rays as comfortably as they use them to describe changes in visible light.

The greater the motion toward or away from us, the greater the Doppler shift. If the relative motion is entirely along the line of sight, the formula for the Doppler shift of light is

$$\frac{\Delta \lambda}{\lambda}=\frac{v}{c}$$

where λ is the wavelength emitted by the source, Δλ is the difference between λ and the wavelength measured by the observer, c is the speed of light, and v is the relative speed of the observer and the source in the line of sight. The variable v is counted as positive if the velocity is one of recession, and negative if it is one of approach. Solving this equation for the velocity, we find v = c × Δλ/λ.

If a star approaches or recedes from us, the wavelengths of light in its continuous spectrum appear shortened or lengthened, respectively, as do those of the dark lines. However, unless its speed is tens of thousands of kilometers per second, the star does not appear noticeably bluer or redder than normal. The Doppler shift is thus not easily detected in a continuous spectrum and cannot be measured accurately in such a spectrum. The wavelengths of the absorption lines can be measured accurately, however, and their Doppler shift is relatively simple to detect.

The Doppler Effect We can use the Doppler effect equation to calculate the radial velocity of an object if we know three things: the speed of light, the original (unshifted) wavelength of the light emitted, and the difference between the wavelength of the emitted light and the wavelength we observe. For particular absorption or emission lines, we usually know exactly what wavelength the line has in our laboratories on Earth, where the source of light is not moving. We can measure the new wavelength with our instruments at the telescope, and so we know the difference in wavelength due to Doppler shifting. Since the speed of light is a universal constant, we can then calculate the radial velocity of the star.

A particular emission line of hydrogen is originally emitted with a wavelength of 656.3 nm from a gas cloud. At our telescope, we observe the wavelength of the emission line to be 656.6 nm. How fast is this gas cloud moving toward or away from Earth?

Solution Because the light is shifted to a longer wavelength (redshifted), we know this gas cloud is moving away from us. The speed can be calculated using the Doppler shift formula:

$$\begin{array}{ll} \nu &=c\times\frac{\Delta\lambda}{\lambda}=\left(3.0\times{10}^{8}\text{m/s}\right)\left(\frac{0.3\text{nm}}{656.3\text{nm}}\right)=\left(3.0\times{10}^{8}\text{m/s}\right)\left(\frac{0.3\times{10}^{\text{-9}}\text{m}}{656.3\times{10}^{\text{-9}}\text{m}}\right) \\ &=140,000\text{m/s}=140\text{km/s} \end{array}$$

Check Your Learning Suppose a spectral line of hydrogen, normally at 500 nm, is observed in the spectrum of a star to be at 500.1 nm. How fast is the star moving toward or away from Earth?

Answer:

Because the light is shifted to a longer wavelength, the star is moving away from us:

$$\begin{array}{ll} \nu &=c\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\frac{\Delta\lambda}{\lambda}=\left(3.0\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{8}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m/s}\right)\left(\frac{0.1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm}}{500\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{nm}}\right)=\left(3.0\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{8}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m/s}\right)\left(\frac{0.1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-9}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}}{500\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{\text{-9}}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}}\right) \\ & =60,000\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m/s.} \end{array}$$ Its speed is 60,000 m/s.

You may now be asking: if all the stars are moving and motion changes the wavelength of each spectral line, won’t this be a disaster for astronomers trying to figure out what elements are present in the stars? After all, it is the precise wavelength (or color) that tells astronomers which lines belong to which element. And we first measure these wavelengths in containers of gas in our laboratories, which are not moving. If every line in a star’s spectrum is now shifted by its motion to a different wavelength (color), how can we be sure which lines and which elements we are looking at in a star whose speed we do not know?

Take heart. This situation sounds worse than it really is. Astronomers rarely judge the presence of an element in an astronomical object by a single line. It is the pattern of lines unique to hydrogen or calcium that enables us to determine that those elements are part of the star or galaxy we are observing. The Doppler effect does not change the pattern of lines from a given element—it only shifts the whole pattern slightly toward redder or bluer wavelengths. The shifted pattern is still quite easy to recognize. Best of all, when we do recognize a familiar element’s pattern, we get a bonus: the amount the pattern is shifted can enable us to determine the speed of the objects in our line of sight.

The training of astronomers includes much work on learning to decode light (and other electromagnetic radiation). A skillful “decoder” can learn the temperature of a star, what elements are in it, and even its speed in a direction toward us or away from us. That’s really an impressive amount of information for stars that are light-years away.

Key Concepts and Summary

If an atom is moving toward us when an electron changes orbits and produces a spectral line, we see that line shifted slightly toward the blue of its normal wavelength in a spectrum. If the atom is moving away, we see the line shifted toward the red. This shift is known as the Doppler effect and can be used to measure the radial velocities of distant objects.

For Further Exploration

Articles

Augensen, H. & Woodbury, J. “The Electromagnetic Spectrum.” Astronomy (June 1982): 6.

Darling, D. “Spectral Visions: The Long Wavelengths.” Astronomy (August 1984): 16; “The Short Wavelengths.” Astronomy (September 1984): 14.

Gingerich, O. “Unlocking the Chemical Secrets of the Cosmos.” Sky & Telescope (July 1981): 13.

Stencil, R. et al. “Astronomical Spectroscopy.” Astronomy (June 1978): 6.

Websites

Doppler Effect: http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/Lesson-3/The-Doppler-Effect. A shaking bug and the Doppler Effect explained.

Electromagnetic Spectrum: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/emspectrum1.html. An introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum from NASA’s Imagine the Universe; note that you can click the “Advanced” button near the top and get a more detailed discussion.

Rainbows: How They Form and How to See Them: http://www.livescience.com/30235-rainbows-formation-explainer.html. By meteorologist and amateur astronomer Joe Rao.

Videos

Doppler Effect: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2014/07/Doppler_effect_-_classroom_demonstration_video_VP05. ESA video with Doppler ball demonstration and Doppler effect and satellites (4:48).

How a Prism Works to Make Rainbow Colors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGqsi_LDUn0. Short video on how a prism bends light to make a rainbow of colors (2:44).

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPcAWNlVl-8. NASA Mission Science video tour of the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum (eight short videos).

Introductions to Quantum Mechanics

Ford, Kenneth. The Quantum World. 2004. A well-written recent introduction by a physicist/educator.

Gribbin, John. In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat. 1984. Clear, very basic introduction to the fundamental ideas of quantum mechanics, by a British physicist and science writer.

Rae, Alastair. Quantum Physics: A Beginner’s Guide. 2005. Widely praised introduction by a British physicist.

Collaborative Group Activities

Have your group make a list of all the electromagnetic wave technology you use during a typical day.
How many applications of the Doppler effect can your group think of in everyday life? For example, why would the highway patrol find it useful?
Have members of your group go home and “read” the face of your radio set and then compare notes. If you do not have a radio, research “broadcast radio frequencies” to find answers to the following questions. What do all the words and symbols mean? What frequencies can your radio tune to? What is the frequency of your favorite radio station? What is its wavelength?
If your instructor were to give you a spectrometer, what kind of spectra does your group think you would see from each of the following: (1) a household lightbulb, (2) the Sun, (3) the “neon lights of Broadway,” (4) an ordinary household flashlight, and (5) a streetlight on a busy shopping street?
Suppose astronomers want to send a message to an alien civilization that is living on a planet with an atmosphere very similar to that of Earth’s. This message must travel through space, make it through the other planet’s atmosphere, and be noticeable to the residents of that planet. Have your group discuss what band of the electromagnetic spectrum might be best for this message and why. (Some people, including noted physicist Stephen Hawking, have warned scientists not to send such messages and reveal the presence of our civilization to a possible hostile cosmos. Do you agree with this concern?)

Review Questions

1: What distinguishes one type of electromagnetic radiation from another? What are the main categories (or bands) of the electromagnetic spectrum?

2: What is a wave? Use the terms wavelength and frequency in your definition.

3: Is your textbook the kind of idealized object (described in section on radiation laws) that absorbs all the radiation falling on it? Explain. How about the black sweater worn by one of your classmates?

4: Where in an atom would you expect to find electrons? Protons? Neutrons?

5: Explain how emission lines and absorption lines are formed. In what sorts of cosmic objects would you expect to see each?

6: Explain how the Doppler effect works for sound waves and give some familiar examples.

7: What kind of motion for a star does not produce a Doppler effect? Explain.

8: Describe how Bohr’s model used the work of Maxwell.

9: Explain why light is referred to as electromagnetic radiation.

10: Explain the difference between radiation as it is used in most everyday language and radiation as it is used in an astronomical context.

11: What are the differences between light waves and sound waves?

12: Which type of wave has a longer wavelength: AM radio waves (with frequencies in the kilohertz range) or FM radio waves (with frequencies in the megahertz range)? Explain.

13: Explain why astronomers long ago believed that space must be filled with some kind of substance (the “aether”) instead of the vacuum we know it is today.

14: Explain what the ionosphere is and how it interacts with some radio waves.

15: Which is more dangerous to living things, gamma rays or X-rays? Explain.

16: Explain why we have to observe stars and other astronomical objects from above Earth’s atmosphere in order to fully learn about their properties.

17: Explain why hotter objects tend to radiate more energetic photons compared to cooler objects.

18: Explain how we can deduce the temperature of a star by determining its color.

19: Explain what dispersion is and how astronomers use this phenomenon to study a star’s light.

20: Explain why glass prisms disperse light.

21: Explain what Joseph Fraunhofer discovered about stellar spectra.

22: Explain how we use spectral absorption and emission lines to determine the composition of a gas.

23: Explain the results of Rutherford’s gold foil experiment and how they changed our model of the atom.

24: Is it possible for two different atoms of carbon to have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei? Explain.

25: What are the three isotopes of hydrogen, and how do they differ?

26: Explain how electrons use light energy to move among energy levels within an atom.

27: Explain why astronomers use the term “blueshifted” for objects moving toward us and “redshifted” for objects moving away from us.

28: If spectral line wavelengths are changing for objects based on the radial velocities of those objects, how can we deduce which type of atom is responsible for a particular absorption or emission line?

Thought Questions

29: Make a list of some of the many practical consequences of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic waves (television is one example).

30: With what type of electromagnetic radiation would you observe:

A star with a temperature of 5800 K?
A gas heated to a temperature of one million K?
A person on a dark night?

31: Why is it dangerous to be exposed to X-rays but not (or at least much less) dangerous to be exposed to radio waves?

32: Go outside on a clear night, wait 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, and look carefully at the brightest stars. Some should look slightly red and others slightly blue. The primary factor that determines the color of a star is its temperature. Which is hotter: a blue star or a red one? Explain

33: Water faucets are often labeled with a red dot for hot water and a blue dot for cold. Given Wien’s law, does this labeling make sense?

34: Suppose you are standing at the exact center of a park surrounded by a circular road. An ambulance drives completely around this road, with siren blaring. How does the pitch of the siren change as it circles around you?

35: How could you measure Earth’s orbital speed by photographing the spectrum of a star at various times throughout the year? (Hint: Suppose the star lies in the plane of Earth’s orbit.)

36: Astronomers want to make maps of the sky showing sources of X-rays or gamma rays. Explain why those X-rays and gamma rays must be observed from above Earth’s atmosphere.

37: The greenhouse effect can be explained easily if you understand the laws of blackbody radiation. A greenhouse gas blocks the transmission of infrared light. Given that the incoming light to Earth is sunlight with a characteristic temperature of 5800 K (which peaks in the visible part of the spectrum) and the outgoing light from Earth has a characteristic temperature of about 300 K (which peaks in the infrared part of the spectrum), explain how greenhouse gases cause Earth to warm up. As part of your answer, discuss that greenhouse gases block both incoming and outgoing infrared light. Explain why these two effects don’t simply cancel each other, leading to no net temperature change.

38: An idealized radiating object does not reflect or scatter any radiation but instead absorbs all of the electromagnetic energy that falls on it. Can you explain why astronomers call such an object a blackbody? Keep in mind that even stars, which shine brightly in a variety of colors, are considered blackbodies. Explain why.

39: Why are ionized gases typically only found in very high-temperature environments?

40: Explain why each element has a unique spectrum of absorption or emission lines.

Figuring for Yourself

41: What is the wavelength of the carrier wave of a campus radio station, broadcasting at a frequency of 97.2 MHz (million cycles per second or million hertz)?

42: What is the frequency of a red laser beam, with a wavelength of 670 nm, which your astronomy instructor might use to point to slides during a lecture on galaxies?

43: You go to a dance club to forget how hard your astronomy midterm was. What is the frequency of a wave of ultraviolet light coming from a blacklight in the club, if its wavelength is 150 nm?

44: What is the energy of the photon with the frequency you calculated in [link]?

45: If the emitted infrared radiation from Pluto, has a wavelength of maximum intensity at 75,000 nm, what is the temperature of Pluto assuming it follows Wien’s law?

46: What is the temperature of a star whose maximum light is emitted at a wavelength of 290 nm?

Glossary

Doppler effect: the apparent change in wavelength or frequency of the radiation from a source due to its relative motion away from or toward the observer

radial velocity: motion toward or away from the observer; the component of relative velocity that lies in the line of sight

6.1 Telescopes

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:08:10 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the three basic components of a modern system for measuring astronomical sources
Describe the main functions of a telescope
Describe the two basic types of visible-light telescopes and how they form images

Systems for Measuring Radiation

There are three basic components of a modern system for measuring radiation from astronomical sources. First, there is a telescope, which serves as a “bucket” for collecting visible light (or radiation at other wavelengths, as shown in ([link]). Just as you can catch more rain with a garbage can than with a coffee cup, large telescopes gather much more light than your eye can. Second, there is an instrument attached to the telescope that sorts the incoming radiation by wavelength. Sometimes the sorting is fairly crude. For example, we might simply want to separate blue light from red light so that we can determine the temperature of a star. But at other times, we want to see individual spectral lines to determine what an object is made of, or to measure its speed (as explained in the Radiation and Spectra chapter). Third, we need some type of detector, a device that senses the radiation in the wavelength regions we have chosen and permanently records the observations.

Orion Region at Different Wavelengths.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The same part of the sky looks different when observed with instruments that are sensitive to different bands of the spectrum. (a) Visible light: this shows part of the Orion region as the human eye sees it, with dotted lines added to show the figure of the mythical hunter, Orion. (b) X-rays: here, the view emphasizes the point-like X-ray sources nearby. The colors are artificial, changing from yellow to white to blue with increasing energy of the X-rays. The bright, hot stars in Orion are still seen in this image, but so are many other objects located at very different distances, including other stars, star corpses, and galaxies at the edge of the observable universe. (c) Infrared radiation: here, we mainly see the glowing dust in this region. (credit a: modification of work by Howard McCallon/NASA/IRAS; credit b: modification of work by Howard McCallon/NASA/IRAS; credit c: modification of work by Michael F. Corcoran)[/caption]

The history of the development of astronomical telescopes is about how new technologies have been applied to improve the efficiency of these three basic components: the telescopes, the wavelength-sorting device, and the detectors. Let’s first look at the development of the telescope.

Many ancient cultures built special sites for observing the sky ([link]). At these ancient observatories, they could measure the positions of celestial objects, mostly to keep track of time and date. Many of these ancient observatories had religious and ritual functions as well. The eye was the only device available to gather light, all of the colors in the light were observed at once, and the only permanent record of the observations was made by human beings writing down or sketching what they saw.

Two Pre-Telescopic Observatories.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) Machu Picchu is a fifteenth century Incan site located in Peru. (b) Stonehenge, a prehistoric site (3000–2000 BCE), is located in England. (credit a: modification of work by Allard Schmidt)[/caption]

While Hans Lippershey, Zaccharias Janssen, and Jacob Metius are all credited with the invention of the telescope around 1608—applying for patents within weeks of each other—it was Galileo who, in 1610, used this simple tube with lenses (which he called a spyglass) to observe the sky and gather more light than his eyes alone could. Even his small telescope—used over many nights—revolutionized ideas about the nature of the planets and the position of Earth.

How Telescopes Work

Telescopes have come a long way since Galileo’s time. Now they tend to be huge devices; the most expensive cost hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. (To provide some reference point, however, keep in mind that just renovating college football stadiums typically costs hundreds of millions of dollars—with the most expensive recent renovation, at Texas A&M University’s Kyle Field, costing ?450 million.) The reason astronomers keep building bigger and bigger telescopes is that celestial objects—such as planets, stars, and galaxies—send much more light to Earth than any human eye (with its tiny opening) can catch, and bigger telescopes can detect fainter objects. If you have ever watched the stars with a group of friends, you know that there’s plenty of starlight to go around; each of you can see each of the stars. If a thousand more people were watching, each of them would also catch a bit of each star’s light. Yet, as far as you are concerned, the light not shining into your eye is wasted. It would be great if some of this “wasted” light could also be captured and brought to your eye. This is precisely what a telescope does.

The most important functions of a telescope are (1) to collect the faint light from an astronomical source and (2) to focus all the light into a point or an image. Most objects of interest to astronomers are extremely faint: the more light we can collect, the better we can study such objects. (And remember, even though we are focusing on visible light first, there are many telescopes that collect other kinds of electromagnetic radiation.)

Telescopes that collect visible radiation use a lens or mirror to gather the light. Other types of telescopes may use collecting devices that look very different from the lenses and mirrors with which we are familiar, but they serve the same function. In all types of telescopes, the light-gathering ability is determined by the area of the device acting as the light-gathering “bucket.” Since most telescopes have mirrors or lenses, we can compare their light-gathering power by comparing the apertures, or diameters, of the opening through which light travels or reflects.

The amount of light a telescope can collect increases with the size of the aperture. A telescope with a mirror that is 4 meters in diameter can collect 16 times as much light as a telescope that is 1 meter in diameter. (The diameter is squared because the area of a circle equals πd²/4, where d is the diameter of the circle.)

Calculating the Light-Collecting Area What is the area of a 1-m diameter telescope? A 4-m diameter one?

Solution Using the equation for the area of a circle,

$$A=\frac{\pi{d}^{2}}{4}$$

the area of a 1-m telescope is

$$\frac{\pi{d}^{2}}{4}=\frac{\pi{\left(1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}\right)}^{2}}{4}=0.79\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}$$

and the area of a 4-m telescope is

$$\frac{\pi{d}^{2}}{4}=\frac{\pi{\left(4\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}\right)}^{2}}{4}=12.6\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}$$

Check Your Learning Show that the ratio of the two areas is 16:1.

Answer:

$$\frac{12.6\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}}{0.79\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}}=16.$$ Therefore, with 16 times the area, a 4-m telescope collects 16 times the light of a 1-m telescope.

After the telescope forms an image, we need some way to detect and record it so that we can measure, reproduce, and analyze the image in various ways. Before the nineteenth century, astronomers simply viewed images with their eyes and wrote descriptions of what they saw. This was very inefficient and did not lead to a very reliable long-term record; you know from crime shows on television that eyewitness accounts are often inaccurate.

In the nineteenth century, the use of photography became widespread. In those days, photographs were a chemical record of an image on a specially treated glass plate. Today, the image is generally detected with sensors similar to those in digital cameras, recorded electronically, and stored in computers. This permanent record can then be used for detailed and quantitative studies. Professional astronomers rarely look through the large telescopes that they use for their research.

Formation of an Image by a Lens or a Mirror

Whether or not you wear glasses, you see the world through lenses; they are key elements of your eyes. A lens is a transparent piece of material that bends the rays of light passing through it. If the light rays are parallel as they enter, the lens brings them together in one place to form an image ([link]). If the curvatures of the lens surfaces are just right, all parallel rays of light (say, from a star) are bent, or refracted, in such a way that they converge toward a point, called the focus of the lens. At the focus, an image of the light source appears. In the case of parallel light rays, the distance from the lens to the location where the light rays focus, or image, behind the lens is called the focal length of the lens.

Formation of an Image by a Simple Lens.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 3. Parallel rays from a distant source are bent by the convex lens so that they all come together in a single place (the focus) to form an image.[/caption]

As you look at [link], you may ask why two rays of light from the same star would be parallel to each other. After all, if you draw a picture of star shining in all directions, the rays of light coming from the star don’t look parallel at all. But remember that the stars (and other astronomical objects) are all extremely far away. By the time the few rays of light pointed toward us actually arrive at Earth, they are, for all practical purposes, parallel to each other. Put another way, any rays that were not parallel to the ones pointed at Earth are now heading in some very different direction in the universe.

To view the image formed by the lens in a telescope, we use an additional lens called an eyepiece. The eyepiece focuses the image at a distance that is either directly viewable by a human or at a convenient place for a detector. Using different eyepieces, we can change the magnification (or size) of the image and also redirect the light to a more accessible location. Stars look like points of light, and magnifying them makes little difference, but the image of a planet or a galaxy, which has structure, can often benefit from being magnified.

Many people, when thinking of a telescope, picture a long tube with a large glass lens at one end. This design, which uses a lens as its main optical element to form an image, as we have been discussing, is known as a refractor ([link]), and a telescope based on this design is called a refracting telescope. Galileo’s telescopes were refractors, as are today’s binoculars and field glasses. However, there is a limit to the size of a refracting telescope. The largest one ever built was a 49-inch refractor built for the Paris 1900 Exposition, and it was dismantled after the Exposition. Currently, the largest refracting telescope is the 40-inch refractor at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin.

Refracting and Reflecting Telescopes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="722"] Figure 4. Light enters a refracting telescope through a lens at the upper end, which focuses the light near the bottom of the telescope. An eyepiece then magnifies the image so that it can be viewed by the eye, or a detector like a photographic plate can be placed at the focus. The upper end of a reflecting telescope is open, and the light passes through to the mirror located at the bottom of the telescope. The mirror then focuses the light at the top end, where it can be detected. Alternatively, as in this sketch, a second mirror may reflect the light to a position outside the telescope structure, where an observer can have easier access to it. Professional astronomers’ telescopes are more complicated than this, but they follow the same principles of reflection and refraction.[/caption]

One problem with a refracting telescope is that the light must pass through the lens of a refractor. That means the glass must be perfect all the way through, and it has proven very difficult to make large pieces of glass without flaws and bubbles in them. Also, optical properties of transparent materials change a little bit with the wavelengths (or colors) of light, so there is some additional distortion, known as chromatic aberration. Each wavelength focuses at a slightly different spot, causing the image to appear blurry.

In addition, since the light must pass through the lens, the lens can only be supported around its edges (just like the frames of our eyeglasses). The force of gravity will cause a large lens to sag and distort the path of the light rays as they pass through it. Finally, because the light passes through it, both sides of the lens must be manufactured to precisely the right shape in order to produce a sharp image.

A different type of telescope uses a concave primary mirror as its main optical element. The mirror is curved like the inner surface of a sphere, and it reflects light in order to form an image ([link]). Telescope mirrors are coated with a shiny metal, usually silver, aluminum, or, occasionally, gold, to make them highly reflective. If the mirror has the correct shape, all parallel rays are reflected back to the same point, the focus of the mirror. Thus, images are produced by a mirror exactly as they are by a lens.

Telescopes designed with mirrors avoid the problems of refracting telescopes. Because the light is reflected from the front surface only, flaws and bubbles within the glass do not affect the path of the light. In a telescope designed with mirrors, only the front surface has to be manufactured to a precise shape, and the mirror can be supported from the back. For these reasons, most astronomical telescopes today (both amateur and professional) use a mirror rather than a lens to form an image; this type of telescope is called a reflecting telescope. The first successful reflecting telescope was built by Isaac Newton in 1668.

In a reflecting telescope, the concave mirror is placed at the bottom of a tube or open framework. The mirror reflects the light back up the tube to form an image near the front end at a location called the prime focus. The image can be observed at the prime focus, or additional mirrors can intercept the light and redirect it to a position where the observer can view it more easily ([link]). Since an astronomer at the prime focus can block much of the light coming to the main mirror, the use of a small secondary mirror allows more light to get through the system.

Focus Arrangements for Reflecting Telescopes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="815"] Figure 5. Reflecting telescopes have different options for where the light is brought to a focus. With prime focus, light is detected where it comes to a focus after reflecting from the primary mirror. With Newtonian focus, light is reflected by a small secondary mirror off to one side, where it can be detected (see also [link]). Most large professional telescopes have a Cassegrain focus in which light is reflected by the secondary mirror down through a hole in the primary mirror to an observing station below the telescope.[/caption]

Choosing Your Own Telescope

If the astronomy course you are taking whets your appetite for exploring the sky further, you may be thinking about buying your own telescope. Many excellent amateur telescopes are available, and some research is required to find the best model for your needs. Some good sources of information about personal telescopes are the two popular US magazines aimed at amateur astronomers: Sky & Telescope and Astronomy. Both carry regular articles with advice, reviews, and advertisements from reputable telescope dealers.

Some of the factors that determine which telescope is right for you depend upon your preferences:

Will you be setting up the telescope in one place and leaving it there, or do you want an instrument that is portable and can come with you on outdoor excursions? How portable should it be, in terms of size and weight?
Do you want to observe the sky with your eyes only, or do you want to take photographs? (Long-exposure photography, for example, requires a good clock drive to turn your telescope to compensate for Earth’s rotation.)
What types of objects will you be observing? Are you interested primarily in comets, planets, star clusters, or galaxies, or do you want to observe all kinds of celestial sights?

You may not know the answers to some of these questions yet. For this reason, you may want to “test-drive” some telescopes first. Most communities have amateur astronomy clubs that sponsor star parties open to the public. The members of those clubs often know a lot about telescopes and can share their ideas with you. Your instructor may know where the nearest amateur astronomy club meets; or, to find a club near you, use the websites suggested in Appendix B.

Furthermore, you may already have an instrument like a telescope at home (or have access to one through a relative or friend). Many amateur astronomers recommend starting your survey of the sky with a good pair of binoculars. These are easily carried around and can show you many objects not visible (or clear) to the unaided eye.

When you are ready to purchase a telescope, you might find the following ideas useful:

The key characteristic of a telescope is the aperture of the main mirror or lens; when someone says they have a 6-inch or 8-inch telescope, they mean the diameter of the collecting surface. The larger the aperture, the more light you can gather, and the fainter the objects you can see or photograph.
Telescopes of a given aperture that use lenses (refractors) are typically more expensive than those using mirrors (reflectors) because both sides of a lens must be polished to great accuracy. And, because the light passes through it, the lens must be made of high-quality glass throughout. In contrast, only the front surface of a mirror must be accurately polished.
Magnification is not one of the criteria on which to base your choice of a telescope. As we discussed, the magnification of the image is done by a smaller eyepiece, so the magnification can be adjusted by changing eyepieces. However, a telescope will magnify not only the astronomical object you are viewing but also the turbulence of Earth’s atmosphere. If the magnification is too high, your image will shimmer and shake and be difficult to view. A good telescope will come with a variety of eyepieces that stay within the range of useful magnification.
The mount of a telescope (the structure on which it rests) is one of its most critical elements. Because a telescope shows a tiny field of view, which is magnified significantly, even the smallest vibration or jarring of the telescope can move the object you are viewing around or out of your field of view. A sturdy and stable mount is essential for serious viewing or photography (although it clearly affects how portable your telescope can be).
A telescope requires some practice to set up and use effectively. Don’t expect everything to go perfectly on your first try. Take some time to read the instructions. If a local amateur astronomy club is nearby, use it as a resource.

A telescope collects the faint light from astronomical sources and brings it to a focus, where an instrument can sort the light according to wavelength. Light is then directed to a detector, where a permanent record is made. The light-gathering power of a telescope is determined by the diameter of its aperture, or opening—that is, by the area of its largest or primary lens or mirror. The primary optical element in a telescope is either a convex lens (in a refracting telescope) or a concave mirror (in a reflector) that brings the light to a focus. Most large telescopes are reflectors; it is easier to manufacture and support large mirrors because the light does not have to pass through glass.

Glossary

aperture: diameter of the primary lens or mirror of a telescope

chromatic aberration: distortion that causes an image to appear fuzzy when each wavelength coming into a transparent material focuses at a different spot

detector: device sensitive to electromagnetic radiation that makes a record of astronomical observations

eyepiece: magnifying lens used to view the image produced by the objective lens or primary mirror of a telescope

focus: (of telescope) point where the rays of light converged by a mirror or lens meet

prime focus: point in a telescope where the objective lens or primary mirror focuses the light

reflecting telescope: telescope in which the principal light collector is a concave mirror

refracting telescope: telescope in which the principal light collector is a lens or system of lenses

telescope: instrument for collecting visible-light or other electromagnetic radiation

6.2 Telescopes Today

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:08:22 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Recognize the largest visible-light and infrared telescopes in operation today
Discuss the factors relevant to choosing an appropriate telescope site
Define the technique of adaptive optics and describe the effects of the atmosphere on astronomical observations

Since Newton’s time, when the sizes of the mirrors in telescopes were measured in inches, reflecting telescopes have grown ever larger. In 1948, US astronomers built a telescope with a 5-meter (200-inch) diameter mirror on Palomar Mountain in Southern California. It remained the largest visible-light telescope in the world for several decades. The giants of today, however, have primary mirrors (the largest mirrors in the telescope) that are 8- to 10-meters in diameter, and larger ones are being built ([link]).

Large Telescope Mirror.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. This image shows one of the primary mirrors of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, named Yepun, just after it was recoated with aluminum. The mirror is a little over 8 meters in diameter. (credit: ESO/G. Huedepohl)[/caption]

Modern Visible-Light and Infrared Telescopes

The decades starting in 1990 saw telescope building around the globe grow at an unprecedented rate. (See [link], which also includes websites for each telescope in case you want to visit or learn more about them.) Technological advancements had finally made it possible to build telescopes significantly larger than the 5-meter telescope at Palomar at a reasonable cost. New technologies have also been designed to work well in the infrared, and not just visible, wavelengths.

Large Single-Dish Visible-Light and Infrared Telescopes
Aperture (m)	Telescope Name	Location	Status	Website
39	European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)	Cerro Armazonas, Chile	First light 2025 (estimated)	www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt
30	Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT)	Mauna Kea, HI	First light 2025 (estimated)	www.tmt.org
24.5	Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)	Las Campanas Observatory, Chile	First light 2025 (estimated)	www.gmto.org
11.1 × 9.9	Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)	Sutherland, South Africa	2005	www.salt.ac.za
10.4	Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)	La Palma, Canary Islands	First light 2007	http://www.gtc.iac.es
10.0	Keck I and II (two telescopes)	Mauna Kea, HI	Completed 1993–96	www.keckobservatory.org
9.1	Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET)	Mount Locke, TX	Completed 1997	www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/het
8.4	Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) (two telescopes)	Mount Graham, AZ	First light 2004	www.lbto.org
8.4	Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)	The Cerro Pachón, Chile	First light 2021	www.lsst.org
8.3	Subaru Telescope	Mauna Kea, HI	First light 1998	www.naoj.org
8.2	Very Large Telescope (VLT)	Cerro Paranal, Chile	All four telescopes completed 2000	www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal
8.1	Gemini North and Gemini South	Mauna Kea, HI (North) and Cerro Pachón, Chile (South)	First light 1999 (North), First light 2000 (South)	www.gemini.edu
6.5	Magellan Telescopes (two telescopes: Baade and Landon Clay)	Las Campanas, Chile	First light 2000 and 2002	obs.carnegiescience.edu/Magellan
6.5	Multi-Mirror Telescope (MMT)	Mount Hopkins, AZ	Completed 1979	www.mmto.org
6.0	Big Telescope Altazimuth (BTA-6)	Mount Pastukhov, Russia	Completed 1976	w0.sao.ru/Doc-en/Telescopes/bta/descrip.html
5.1	Hale Telescope	Mount Palomar, CA	Completed 1948	www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/about/telescopes/hale.html

The differences between the Palomar telescope and the modern Gemini North telescope (to take an example) are easily seen in [link]. The Palomar telescope is a massive steel structure designed to hold the 14.5-ton primary mirror with a 5-meter diameter. Glass tends to sag under its own weight; hence, a huge steel structure is needed to hold the mirror. A mirror 8 meters in diameter, the size of the Gemini North telescope, if it were built using the same technology as the Palomar telescope, would have to weigh at least eight times as much and would require an enormous steel structure to support it.

Modern Reflecting Telescopes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) The Palomar 5-meter reflector: The Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain has a complex mounting structure that enables the telescope (in the open “tube” pointing upward in this photo) to swing easily into any position. (b) The Gemini North 8-meter telescope: The Gemini North mirror has a larger area than the Palomar mirror, but note how much less massive the whole instrument seems. (credit a: modification of work by Caltech/Palomar Observatory; credit b: modification of work by Gemini Observatory/AURA)[/caption]

The 8-meter Gemini North telescope looks like a featherweight by contrast, and indeed it is. The mirror is only about 8 inches thick and weighs 24.5 tons, less than twice as much as the Palomar mirror. The Gemini North telescope was completed about 50 years after the Palomar telescope. Engineers took advantage of new technologies to build a telescope that is much lighter in weight relative to the size of the primary mirror. The Gemini mirror does sag, but with modern computers, it is possible to measure that sag many times each second and apply forces at 120 different locations to the back of the mirror to correct the sag, a process called active control. Seventeen telescopes with mirrors 6.5 meters in diameter and larger have been constructed since 1990.

The twin 10-meter Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, which were the first of these new-technology instruments, use precision control in an entirely novel way. Instead of a single primary mirror 10 meters in diameter, each Keck telescope achieves its larger aperture by combining the light from 36 separate hexagonal mirrors, each 1.8 meters wide ([link]). Computer-controlled actuators (motors) constantly adjust these 36 mirrors so that the overall reflecting surface acts like a single mirror with just the right shape to collect and focus the light into a sharp image.

Thirty-Six Eyes Are Better Than One.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 3. The mirror of the 10-meter Keck telescope is composed of 36 hexagonal sections. (credit: NASA)[/caption]

Learn more about the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea through this History Channel clip on the telescopes and the work that they do.

In addition to holding the mirror, the steel structure of a telescope is designed so that the entire telescope can be pointed quickly toward any object in the sky. Since Earth is rotating, the telescope must have a motorized drive system that moves it very smoothly from east to west at exactly the same rate that Earth is rotating from west to east, so it can continue to point at the object being observed. All this machinery must be housed in a dome to protect the telescope from the elements. The dome has an opening in it that can be positioned in front of the telescope and moved along with it, so that the light from the objects being observed is not blocked.

George Ellery Hale: Master Telescope Builder

George Ellery Hale ([link]) was a giant among early telescope builders. Not once, but four times, he initiated projects that led to the construction of what was the world’s largest telescope at the time. And he was a master at winning over wealthy benefactors to underwrite the construction of these new instruments.

George Ellery Hale (1868–1938).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 4. Hale’s work led to the construction of several major telescopes, including the 40-inch refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory, and three reflecting telescopes: the 60-inch Hale and 100-inch Hooker telescopes at Mount Wilson Observatory, and the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory.[/caption]

Hale’s training and early research were in solar physics. In 1892, at age 24, he was named associate professor of astral physics and director of the astronomical observatory at the University of Chicago. At the time, the largest telescope in the world was the 36-inch refractor at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California. Taking advantage of an existing glass blank for a 40-inch telescope, Hale set out to raise money for a larger telescope than the one at Lick. One prospective donor was Charles T. Yerkes, who, among other things, ran the trolley system in Chicago.

Hale wrote to Yerkes, encouraging him to support the construction of the giant telescope by saying that “the donor could have no more enduring monument. It is certain that Mr. Lick’s name would not have been nearly so widely known today were it not for the famous observatory established as a result of his munificence.” Yerkes agreed, and the new telescope was completed in May 1897; it remains the largest refractor in the world ([link]).

World’s Largest Refractor.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 5. The Yerkes 40-inch (1-meter) telescope.[/caption]

Even before the completion of the Yerkes refractor, Hale was not only dreaming of building a still larger telescope but was also taking concrete steps to achieve that goal. In the 1890s, there was a major controversy about the relative quality of refracting and reflecting telescopes. Hale realized that 40 inches was close to the maximum feasible aperture for refracting telescopes. If telescopes with significantly larger apertures were to be built, they would have to be reflecting telescopes.

Using funds borrowed from his own family, Hale set out to construct a 60-inch reflector. For a site, he left the Midwest for the much better conditions on Mount Wilson—at the time, a wilderness peak above the small city of Los Angeles. In 1904, at the age of 36, Hale received funds from the Carnegie Foundation to establish the Mount Wilson Observatory. The 60-inch mirror was placed in its mount in December 1908.

Two years earlier, in 1906, Hale had already approached John D. Hooker, who had made his fortune in hardware and steel pipe, with a proposal to build a 100-inch telescope. The technological risks were substantial. The 60-inch telescope was not yet complete, and the usefulness of large reflectors for astronomy had yet to be demonstrated. George Ellery Hale’s brother called him “the greatest gambler in the world.” Once again, Hale successfully obtained funds, and the 100-inch telescope was completed in November 1917. (It was with this telescope that Edwin Hubble was able to establish that the spiral nebulae were separate islands of stars—or galaxies—quite removed from our own Milky Way.)

Hale was not through dreaming. In 1926, he wrote an article in Harper’s Magazine about the scientific value of a still larger telescope. This article came to the attention of the Rockefeller Foundation, which granted ?6 million for the construction of a 200-inch telescope. Hale died in 1938, but the 200-inch (5-meter) telescope on Palomar Mountain was dedicated 10 years later and is now named in Hale’s honor.

Picking the Best Observing Sites

A telescope like the Gemini or Keck telescope costs about ?100 million to build. That kind of investment demands that the telescope be placed in the best possible site. Since the end of the nineteenth century, astronomers have realized that the best observatory sites are on mountains, far from the lights and pollution of cities. Although a number of urban observatories remain, especially in the large cities of Europe, they have become administrative centers or museums. The real action takes place far away, often on desert mountains or isolated peaks in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where we find the staff’s living quarters, computers, electronic and machine shops, and of course the telescopes themselves. A large observatory today requires a supporting staff of 20 to 100 people in addition to the astronomers.

The performance of a telescope is determined not only by the size of its mirror but also by its location. Earth’s atmosphere, so vital to life, presents challenges for the observational astronomer. In at least four ways, our air imposes limitations on the usefulness of telescopes:

The most obvious limitation is weather conditions such as clouds, wind, and rain. At the best sites, the weather is clear as much as 75% of the time.
Even on a clear night, the atmosphere filters out a certain amount of starlight, especially in the infrared, where the absorption is due primarily to water vapor. Astronomers therefore prefer dry sites, generally found at high altitudes.
The sky above the telescope should be dark. Near cities, the air scatters the glare from lights, producing an illumination that hides the faintest stars and limits the distances that can be probed by telescopes. (Astronomers call this effect light pollution.) Observatories are best located at least 100 miles from the nearest large city.
Finally, the air is often unsteady; light passing through this turbulent air is disturbed, resulting in blurred star images. Astronomers call these effects “bad seeing.” When seeing is bad, images of celestial objects are distorted by the constant twisting and bending of light rays by turbulent air.

The best observatory sites are therefore high, dark, and dry. The world’s largest telescopes are found in such remote mountain locations as the Andes Mountains of Chile ([link]), the desert peaks of Arizona, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and Mauna Kea in Hawaii, a dormant volcano with an altitude of 13,700 feet (4200 meters).

Light pollution is a problem not just for professional astronomers but for everyone who wants to enjoy the beauty of the night sky. In addition research is now showing that it can disrupt the life cycle of animals with whom we share the urban and suburban landscape. And the light wasted shining into the sky leads to unnecessary municipal expenses and use of fossil fuels. Concerned people have formed an organization, the International Dark-Sky Association, whose website is full of good information. A citizen science project called Globe at Night allows you to measure the light levels in your community by counting stars and to compare it to others around the world. And, if you get interested in this topic and want to do a paper for your astronomy course or another course while you are in college, the Dark Night Skies guide can point you to a variety of resources on the topic.

High and Dry Site.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 6. Cerro Paranal, a mountain summit 2.7 kilometers above sea level in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is the site of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. This photograph shows the four 8-meter telescope buildings on the site and vividly illustrates that astronomers prefer high, dry sites for their instruments. The 4.1-meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) can be seen in the distance on the next mountain peak. (credit: ESO)[/caption]

The Resolution of a Telescope

In addition to gathering as much light as they can, astronomers also want to have the sharpest images possible. Resolution refers to the precision of detail present in an image: that is, the smallest features that can be distinguished. Astronomers are always eager to make out more detail in the images they study, whether they are following the weather on Jupiter or trying to peer into the violent heart of a “cannibal galaxy” that recently ate its neighbor for lunch.

One factor that determines how good the resolution will be is the size of the telescope. Larger apertures produce sharper images. Until very recently, however, visible-light and infrared telescopes on Earth’s surface could not produce images as sharp as the theory of light said they should.

The problem—as we saw earlier in this chapter—is our planet’s atmosphere, which is turbulent. It contains many small-scale blobs or cells of gas that range in size from inches to several feet. Each cell has a slightly different temperature from its neighbor, and each cell acts like a lens, bending (refracting) the path of the light by a small amount. This bending slightly changes the position where each light ray finally reaches the detector in a telescope. The cells of air are in motion, constantly being blown through the light path of the telescope by winds, often in different directions at different altitudes. As a result, the path followed by the light is constantly changing.

For an analogy, think about watching a parade from a window high up in a skyscraper. You decide to throw some confetti down toward the marchers. Even if you drop a handful all at the same time and in the same direction, air currents will toss the pieces around, and they will reach the ground at different places. As we described earlier, we can think of the light from the stars as a series of parallel beams, each making its way through the atmosphere. Each path will be slightly different, and each will reach the detector of the telescope at a slightly different place. The result is a blurred image, and because the cells are being blown by the wind, the nature of the blur will change many times each second. You have probably noticed this effect as the “twinkling” of stars seen from Earth. The light beams are bent enough that part of the time they reach your eye, and part of the time some of them miss, thereby making the star seem to vary in brightness. In space, however, the light of the stars is steady.

Astronomers search the world for locations where the amount of atmospheric blurring, or turbulence, is as small as possible. It turns out that the best sites are in coastal mountain ranges and on isolated volcanic peaks in the middle of an ocean. Air that has flowed long distances over water before it encounters land is especially stable.

The resolution of an image is measured in units of angle on the sky, typically in units of arcseconds. One arcsecond is 1/3600 degree, and there are 360 degrees in a full circle. So we are talking about tiny angles on the sky. To give you a sense of just how tiny, we might note that 1 arcsecond is how big a quarter would look when seen from a distance of 5 kilometers. The best images obtained from the ground with traditional techniques reveal details as small as several tenths of an arcsecond across. This image size is remarkably good. One of the main reasons for launching the Hubble Space Telescope was to escape Earth’s atmosphere and obtain even sharper images.

But since we can’t put every telescope into space, astronomers have devised a technique called adaptive optics that can beat Earth’s atmosphere at its own game of blurring. This technique (which is most effective in the infrared region of the spectrum with our current technology) makes use of a small flexible mirror placed in the beam of a telescope. A sensor measures how much the atmosphere has distorted the image, and as often as 500 times per second, it sends instructions to the flexible mirror on how to change shape in order to compensate for distortions produced by the atmosphere. The light is thus brought back to an almost perfectly sharp focus at the detector. [link] shows just how effective this technique is. With adaptive optics, ground-based telescopes can achieve resolutions of 0.1 arcsecond or a little better in the infrared region of the spectrum. This impressive figure is the equivalent of the resolution that the Hubble Space Telescope achieves in the visible-light region of the spectrum.

Power of Adaptive Optics.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 7. One of the clearest pictures of Jupiter ever taken from the ground, this image was produced with adaptive optics using an 8-meter-diameter telescope at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Adaptive optics uses infrared wavelengths to remove atmospheric blurring, resulting in a much clearer image. (credit: modification of work by ESO, F.Marchis, M.Wong (UC Berkeley); E.Marchetti, P.Amico, S.Tordo (ESO))[/caption]

How Astronomers Really Use Telescopes

In the popular view (and some bad movies), an astronomer spends most nights in a cold observatory peering through a telescope, but this is not very accurate today. Most astronomers do not live at observatories, but near the universities or laboratories where they work. An astronomer might spend only a week or so each year observing at the telescope and the rest of the time measuring or analyzing the data acquired from large project collaborations and dedicated surveys. Many astronomers use radio telescopes for space experiments, which work just as well during the daylight hours. Still others work at purely theoretical problems using supercomputers and never observe at a telescope of any kind.

Even when astronomers are observing with large telescopes, they seldom peer through them. Electronic detectors permanently record the data for detailed analysis later. At some observatories, observations may be made remotely, with the astronomer sitting at a computer thousands of miles away from the telescope.

Time on major telescopes is at a premium, and an observatory director will typically receive many more requests for telescope time than can be accommodated during the year. Astronomers must therefore write a convincing proposal explaining how they would like to use the telescope and why their observations will be important to the progress of astronomy. A committee of astronomers is then asked to judge and rank the proposals, and time is assigned only to those with the greatest merit. Even if your proposal is among the high-rated ones, you may have to wait many months for your turn. If the skies are cloudy on the nights you have been assigned, it may be more than a year before you get another chance.

Some older astronomers still remember long, cold nights spent alone in an observatory dome, with only music from a tape recorder or an all-night radio station for company. The sight of the stars shining brilliantly hour after hour through the open slit in the observatory dome was unforgettable. So, too, was the relief as the first pale light of dawn announced the end of a 12-hour observation session. Astronomy is much easier today, with teams of observers working together, often at their computers, in a warm room. Those who are more nostalgic, however, might argue that some of the romance has gone from the field, too.

New technologies for creating and supporting lightweight mirrors have led to the construction of a number of large telescopes since 1990. The site for an astronomical observatory must be carefully chosen for clear weather, dark skies, low water vapor, and excellent atmospheric seeing (low atmospheric turbulence). The resolution of a visible-light or infrared telescope is degraded by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere. The technique of adaptive optics, however, can make corrections for this turbulence in real time and produce exquisitely detailed images.

Glossary

adaptive optics: systems used with telescopes that can compensate for distortions in an image introduced by the atmosphere, thus resulting in sharper images

resolution: detail in an image; specifically, the smallest angular (or linear) features that can be distinguished

seeing: unsteadiness of Earth’s atmosphere, which blurs telescopic images; good seeing means the atmosphere is steady

6.3 Visible-Light Detectors and Instruments

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:08:34 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the difference between photographic plates and charge-coupled devices
Describe the unique difficulties associated with infrared observations and their solutions
Describe how a spectrometer works

After a telescope collects radiation from an astronomical source, the radiation must be detected and measured. The first detector used for astronomical observations was the human eye, but it suffers from being connected to an imperfect recording and retrieving device—the human brain. Photography and modern electronic detectors have eliminated the quirks of human memory by making a permanent record of the information from the cosmos.

The eye also suffers from having a very short integration time; it takes only a fraction of a second to add light energy together before sending the image to the brain. One important advantage of modern detectors is that the light from astronomical objects can be collected by the detector over longer periods of time; this technique is called “taking a long exposure.” Exposures of several hours are required to detect very faint objects in the cosmos. Before the light reaches the detector, astronomers today normally use some type of instrument to sort the light according to wavelength. The instrument may be as simple as colored filters, which transmit light within a specified range of wavelengths. A red transparent plastic is an everyday example of a filter that transmits only the red light and blocks the other colors. After the light passes through a filter, it forms an image that astronomers can then use to measure the apparent brightness and color of objects. We will show you many examples of such images in the later chapters of this book, and we will describe what we can learn from them. Alternatively, the instrument between telescope and detector may be one of several devices that spread the light out into its full rainbow of colors so that astronomers can measure individual lines in the spectrum. Such an instrument (which you learned about in the chapter on Radiation and Spectra) is called a spectrometer because it allows astronomers to measure (to meter) the spectrum of a source of radiation. Whether a filter or a spectrometer, both types of wavelength-sorting instruments still have to use detectors to record and measure the properties of light.

Photographic and Electronic Detectors

Throughout most of the twentieth century, photographic film or glass plates served as the prime astronomical detectors, whether for photographing spectra or direct images of celestial objects. In a photographic plate, a light-sensitive chemical coating is applied to a piece of glass that, when developed, provides a lasting record of the image. At observatories around the world, vast collections of photographs preserve what the sky has looked like during the past 100 years. Photography represents a huge improvement over the human eye, but it still has limitations. Photographic films are inefficient: only about 1% of the light that actually falls on the film contributes to the chemical change that makes the image; the rest is wasted. Astronomers today have much more efficient electronic detectors to record astronomical images. Most often, these are charge-coupled devices (CCDs), which are similar to the detectors used in video camcorders or in digital cameras (like the one more and more students have on their cell phones) (see [link]). In a CCD, photons of radiation hitting any part of the detector generate a stream of charged particles (electrons) that are stored and counted at the end of the exposure. Each place where the radiation is counted is called a pixel (picture element), and modern detectors can count the photons in millions of pixels (megapixels, or MPs).

Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. (a) This CCD is a mere 300-micrometers thick (thinner than a human hair) yet holds more than 21 million pixels. (b) This matrix of 42 CCDs serves the Kepler telescope. (credit a: modification of work by US Department of Energy; credit b: modification of work by NASA and Ball Aerospace)[/caption]

Because CCDs typically record as much as 60–70% of all the photons that strike them, and the best silicon and infrared CCDs exceed 90% sensitivity, we can detect much fainter objects. Among these are many small moons around the outer planets, icy dwarf planets beyond Pluto, and dwarf galaxies of stars. CCDs also provide more accurate measurements of the brightness of astronomical objects than photography, and their output is digital—in the form of numbers that can go directly into a computer for analysis.

Canadians in Astronomy Charge-coupled devices are not only used for detailed astronomical observations but are also the basis for most digital photography. Canadian physicist Willard S. Boyle (and American George E. Smith) created the first CCD in 1969 at Bell Labs. They shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for this new “electronic eye” along with Charles K. Kao for his work on fibre optic technology.[caption id="attachment_244" align="aligncenter" width="207"] Figure 2. Willard S. Boyle. ( credit: © Prolineserver 2010, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons (cc-by-sa-3.0))[/caption]Willard Boyle was born in 1924 in Amherst, Nova Scotia. He completed his education at McGill University with a Doctorate in Physics in 1950 after flying Spitfire fighter planes for the Royal Canadian Navy. Besides inventing the CCD, Willard was a co-creator of the first continuously operating ruby laser. He also worked as the Director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at Bellcom (a division of Bell Labs) and supported the Apollo space program. Specifically, Willard aided in the selection of certain lunar landing sites during the 1960s. Willard worked on 18 patents during his career at Bell Labs and won several other awards for his work. In 2010, he was appointed a Companion to the Order of Canada before passing in 2011.

Infrared Observations

Observing the universe in the infrared band of the spectrum presents some additional challenges. The infrared region extends from wavelengths near 1 micrometer (µm), which is about the long wavelength sensitivity limit of both CCDs and photography, to 100 micrometers or longer. Recall from the discussion on radiation and spectra that infrared is “heat radiation” (given off at temperatures that we humans are comfortable with). The main challenge to astronomers using infrared is to distinguish between the tiny amount of heat radiation that reaches Earth from stars and galaxies, and the much greater heat radiated by the telescope itself and our planet’s atmosphere.

Typical temperatures on Earth’s surface are near 300 K, and the atmosphere through which observations are made is only a little cooler. According to Wien’s law (from the chapter on Radiation and Spectra), the telescope, the observatory, and even the sky are radiating infrared energy with a peak wavelength of about 10 micrometers. To infrared eyes, everything on Earth is brightly aglow—including the telescope and camera ([link]). The challenge is to detect faint cosmic sources against this sea of infrared light. Another way to look at this is that an astronomer using infrared must always contend with the situation that a visible-light observer would face if working in broad daylight with a telescope and optics lined with bright fluorescent lights.

Infrared Eyes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. Infrared waves can penetrate places in the universe from which light is blocked, as shown in this infrared image where the plastic bag blocks visible light but not infrared. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC))[/caption]

To solve this problem, astronomers must protect the infrared detector from nearby radiation, just as you would shield photographic film from bright daylight. Since anything warm radiates infrared energy, the detector must be isolated in very cold surroundings; often, it is held near absolute zero (1 to 3 K) by immersing it in liquid helium. The second step is to reduce the radiation emitted by the telescope structure and optics, and to block this heat from reaching the infrared detector.

Check out The Infrared Zoo to get a sense of what familiar objects look like with infrared radiation. Slide the slider to change the wavelength of radiation for the picture, and click the arrow to see other animals.

Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy is one of the astronomer’s most powerful tools, providing information about the composition, temperature, motion, and other characteristics of celestial objects. More than half of the time spent on most large telescopes is used for spectroscopy.

The many different wavelengths present in light can be separated by passing them through a spectrometer to form a spectrum. The design of a simple spectrometer is illustrated in [link]. Light from the source (actually, the image of a source produced by the telescope) enters the instrument through a small hole or narrow slit, and is collimated (made into a beam of parallel rays) by a lens. The light then passes through a prism, producing a spectrum: different wavelengths leave the prism in different directions because each wavelength is bent by a different amount when it enters and leaves the prism. A second lens placed behind the prism focuses the many different images of the slit or entrance hole onto a CCD or other detecting device. This collection of images (spread out by color) is the spectrum that astronomers can then analyze at a later point. As spectroscopy spreads the light out into more and more collecting bins, fewer photons go into each bin, so either a larger telescope is needed or the integration time must be greatly increased—usually both.

Prism Spectrometer.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="976"] Figure 4. The light from the telescope is focused on a slit. A prism (or grating) disperses the light into a spectrum, which is then photographed or recorded electronically.[/caption]

In practice, astronomers today are more likely to use a different device, called a grating, to disperse the spectrum. A grating is a piece of material with thousands of grooves on its surface. While it functions completely differently, a grating, like a prism, also spreads light out into a spectrum.

Visible-light detectors include the human eye, photographic film, and charge-coupled devices (CCDs). Detectors that are sensitive to infrared radiation must be cooled to very low temperatures since everything in and near the telescope gives off infrared waves. A spectrometer disperses the light into a spectrum to be recorded for detailed analysis.

Glossary

charge-coupled device (CCD): array of high-sensitivity electronic detectors of electromagnetic radiation, used at the focus of a telescope (or camera lens) to record an image or spectrum

6.4 Radio Telescopes

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:08:49 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe how radio waves from space are detected
Identify the world’s largest radio telescopes
Define the technique of interferometry and discuss the benefits of interferometers over single-dish telescopes

In addition to visible and infrared radiation, radio waves from astronomical objects can also be detected from the surface of Earth. In the early 1930s, Karl G. Jansky, an engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories, was experimenting with antennas for long-range radio communication when he encountered some mysterious static—radio radiation coming from an unknown source ([link]). He discovered that this radiation came in strongest about four minutes earlier on each successive day and correctly concluded that since Earth’s sidereal rotation period (how long it takes us to rotate relative to the stars) is four minutes shorter than a solar day, the radiation must be originating from some region fixed on the celestial sphere. Subsequent investigation showed that the source of this radiation was part of the Milky Way Galaxy; Jansky had discovered the first source of cosmic radio waves.

First Radio Telescope.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. This rotating radio antenna was used by Jansky in his serendipitous discovery of radio radiation from the Milky Way.[/caption]

In 1936, Grote Reber, who was an amateur astronomer interested in radio communications, used galvanized iron and wood to build the first antenna specifically designed to receive cosmic radio waves. Over the years, Reber built several such antennas and used them to carry out pioneering surveys of the sky for celestial radio sources; he remained active in radio astronomy for more than 30 years. During the first decade, he worked practically alone because professional astronomers had not yet recognized the vast potential of radio astronomy.

Detection of Radio Energy from Space

It is important to understand that radio waves cannot be “heard”: they are not the sound waves you hear coming out of the radio receiver in your home or car. Like light, radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, but unlike light, we cannot detect them with our senses—we must rely on electronic equipment to pick them up. In commercial radio broadcasting, we encode sound information (music or a newscaster’s voice) into radio waves. These must be decoded at the other end and then turned back into sound by speakers or headphones.

The radio waves we receive from space do not, of course, have music or other program information encoded in them. If cosmic radio signals were translated into sound, they would sound like the static you hear when scanning between stations. Nevertheless, there is information in the radio waves we receive—information that can tell us about the chemistry and physical conditions of the sources of the waves.

Just as vibrating charged particles can produce electromagnetic waves (see the Radiation and Spectra chapter), electromagnetic waves can make charged particles move back and forth. Radio waves can produce a current in conductors of electricity such as metals. An antenna is such a conductor: it intercepts radio waves, which create a feeble current in it. The current is then amplified in a radio receiver until it is strong enough to measure or record. Like your television or radio, receivers can be tuned to select a single frequency (channel). In astronomy, however, it is more common to use sophisticated data-processing techniques that allow thousands of separate frequency bands to be detected simultaneously. Thus, the astronomical radio receiver operates much like a spectrometer on a visible-light or infrared telescope, providing information about how much radiation we receive at each wavelength or frequency. After computer processing, the radio signals are recorded on magnetic disks for further analysis.

Radio waves are reflected by conducting surfaces, just as light is reflected from a shiny metallic surface, and according to the same laws of optics. A radio-reflecting telescope consists of a concave metal reflector (called a dish), analogous to a telescope mirror. The radio waves collected by the dish are reflected to a focus, where they can then be directed to a receiver and analyzed. Because humans are such visual creatures, radio astronomers often construct a pictorial representation of the radio sources they observe. [link] shows such a radio image of a distant galaxy, where radio telescopes reveal vast jets and complicated regions of radio emissions that are completely invisible in photographs taken with light.

Radio Image.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. This image has been constructed of radio observations at the Very Large Array of a galaxy called Cygnus A. Colors have been added to help the eye sort out regions of different radio intensities. Red regions are the most intense, blue the least. The visible galaxy would be a small dot in the center of the image. The radio image reveals jets of expelled material (more than 160,000 light-years long) on either side of the galaxy. (credit: NRAO/AUI)[/caption]

Radio astronomy is a young field compared with visible-light astronomy, but it has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades. The world’s largest radio reflectors that can be pointed to any direction in the sky have apertures of 100 meters. One of these has been built at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia ([link]). [link] lists some of the major radio telescopes of the world.

Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. This fully steerable radio telescope in West Virginia went into operation in August 2000. Its dish is about 100 meters across. (credit: modification of work by “b3nscott”/Flickr)[/caption]

Major Radio Observatories of the World
Observatory	Location	Description	Website
Individual Radio Dishes
Arecibo Observatory	Arecibo, Puerto Rico	305-m fixed dish	www.naic.edu
Green Bank Telescope (GBT)	Green Bank, WV	110 × 100-m steerable dish	www.science.nrao.edu/facilities/gbt
Effelsberg 100-m Telescope	Bonn, Germany	100-m steerable dish	www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/en/effelsberg
Lovell Telescope	Manchester, England	76-m steerable dish	www.jb.man.ac.uk/aboutus/lovell
Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC)	Tidbinbilla, Australia	70-m steerable dish	www.cdscc.nasa.gov
Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC)	Barstow, CA	70-m steerable dish	www.gdscc.nasa.gov
Parkes Observatory	Parkes, Australia	64-m steerable dish	www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au
Arrays of Radio Dishes
Square Kilometre Array (SKA)	South Africa and Western Australia	Thousands of dishes, km² collecting area, partial array in 2020	www.skatelescope.org
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)	Atacama desert, Northern Chile	66 7-m and 12-m dishes	www.almaobservatory.org
Very Large Array (VLA)	Socorro, New Mexico	27-element array of 25-m dishes (36-km baseline)	www.science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT)	Westerbork, the Netherlands	12-element array of 25-m dishes (1.6-km baseline)	www.astron.nl/radio-observatory/public/public-0
Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)	Ten US sites, HI to the Virgin Islands	10-element array of 25-m dishes (9000 km baseline)	www.science.nrao.edu/facilities/vlba
Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA)	Several sites in Australia	8-element array (seven 22-m dishes plus Parkes 64 m)	www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au
Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN)	Cambridge, England, and other British sites	Network of seven dishes (the largest is 32 m)	www.e-merlin.ac.uk
Millimeter-wave Telescopes
IRAM	Granada, Spain	30-m steerable mm-wave dish	www.iram-institute.org
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)	Mauna Kea, HI	15-m steerable mm-wave dish	www.eaobservatory.org/jcmt
Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO)	Minamimaki, Japan	6-element array of 10-m wave dishes	www.nro.nao.ac.jp/en
Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO)	Cassel, CA	6-element array of 5-m wave dishes	www.sri.com/research-development/specialized-facilities/hat-creek-radio-observatory

Radio Interferometry

As we discussed earlier, a telescope’s ability to show us fine detail (its resolution) depends upon its aperture, but it also depends upon the wavelength of the radiation that the telescope is gathering. The longer the waves, the harder it is to resolve fine detail in the images or maps we make. Because radio waves have such long wavelengths, they present tremendous challenges for astronomers who need good resolution. In fact, even the largest radio dishes on Earth, operating alone, cannot make out as much detail as the typical small visible-light telescope used in a college astronomy lab. To overcome this difficulty, radio astronomers have learned to sharpen their images by linking two or more radio telescopes together electronically. Two or more telescopes linked together in this way are called an interferometer.

“Interferometer” may seem like a strange term because the telescopes in an interferometer work cooperatively; they don’t “interfere” with each other. Interference, however, is a technical term for the way that multiple waves interact with each other when they arrive in our instruments, and this interaction allows us to coax more detail out of our observations. The resolution of an interferometer depends upon the separation of the telescopes, not upon their individual apertures. Two telescopes separated by 1 kilometer provide the same resolution as would a single dish 1 kilometer across (although they are not, of course, able to collect as much radiation as a radio-wave bucket that is 1 kilometer across). To get even better resolution, astronomers combine a large number of radio dishes into an interferometer array. In effect, such an array works like a large number of two-dish interferometers, all observing the same part of the sky together. Computer processing of the results permits the reconstruction of a high-resolution radio image. The most extensive such instrument in the United States is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array (VLA) near Socorro, New Mexico. It consists of 27 movable radio telescopes (on railroad tracks), each having an aperture of 25 meters, spread over a total span of about 36 kilometers. By electronically combining the signals from all of its individual telescopes, this array permits the radio astronomer to make pictures of the sky at radio wavelengths comparable to those obtained with a visible-light telescope, with a resolution of about 1 arcsecond.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA) in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile ([link]), at an altitude of 16,400 feet, consists of 12 7-meter and 54 12-meter telescopes, and can achieve baselines up to 16 kilometers. Since it became operational in 2013, it has made observations at resolutions down to 6 milliarcseconds (0.006 arcseconds), a remarkable achievement for radio astronomy.

Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. Located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile, ALMA currently provides the highest resolution for radio observations. (credit: ESO/S. Guisard)[/caption]

Watch this documentary that explains the work that went into designing and building ALMA, discusses some of its first images, and explores its future.

Initially, the size of interferometer arrays was limited by the requirement that all of the dishes be physically wired together. The maximum dimensions of the array were thus only a few tens of kilometers. However, larger interferometer separations can be achieved if the telescopes do not require a physical connection. Astronomers, with the use of current technology and computing power, have learned to time the arrival of electromagnetic waves coming from space very precisely at each telescope and combine the data later. If the telescopes are as far apart as California and Australia, or as West Virginia and Crimea in Ukraine, the resulting resolution far surpasses that of visible-light telescopes.

The United States operates the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), made up of 10 individual telescopes stretching from the Virgin Islands to Hawaii ([link]). The VLBA, completed in 1993, can form astronomical images with a resolution of 0.0001 arcseconds, permitting features as small as 10 astronomical units (AU) to be distinguished at the center of our Galaxy.

Very Long Baseline Array.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 5. This map shows the distribution of 10 antennas that constitute an array of radio telescopes stretching across the United States and its territories.[/caption]

Recent advances in technology have also made it possible to do interferometry at visible-light and infrared wavelengths. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, three observatories with multiple telescopes each began using their dishes as interferometers, combining their light to obtain a much greater resolution. In addition, a dedicated interferometric array was built on Mt. Wilson in California. Just as in radio arrays, these observations allow astronomers to make out more detail than a single telescope could provide.

Visible-Light Interferometers
Longest Baseline (m)	Telescope Name	Location	Mirrors	Status
400	CHARA Array (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy)	Mount Wilson, CA	Six 1-m telescopes	Operational since 2004
200	Very Large Telescope	Cerro Paranal, Chile	Four 8.2-m telescopes	Completed 2000
85	Keck I and II telescopes	Mauna Kea, HI	Two 10-m telescopes	Operated from 2001 to 2012
22.8	Large Binocular Telescope	Mount Graham, AZ	Two 8.4-m telescopes	First light 2004

Radar Astronomy

Radar is the technique of transmitting radio waves to an object in our solar system and then detecting the radio radiation that the object reflects back. The time required for the round trip can be measured electronically with great precision. Because we know the speed at which radio waves travel (the speed of light), we can determine the distance to the object or a particular feature on its surface (such as a mountain).

Radar observations have been used to determine the distances to planets and how fast things are moving in the solar system (using the Doppler effect, discussed in the Radiation and Spectra chapter). Radar waves have played important roles in navigating spacecraft throughout the solar system. In addition, as will be discussed in later chapters, radar observations have determined the rotation periods of Venus and Mercury, probed tiny Earth-approaching asteroids, and allowed us to investigate the mountains and valleys on the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the large moons of Jupiter.

Any radio dish can be used as a radar telescope if it is equipped with a powerful transmitter as well as a receiver. The most spectacular facility in the world for radar astronomy is the 1000-foot (305-meter) telescope at Arecibo in Puerto Rico ([link]). The Arecibo telescope is too large to be pointed directly at different parts of the sky. Instead, it is constructed in a huge natural “bowl” (more than a mere dish) formed by several hills, and it is lined with reflecting metal panels. A limited ability to track astronomical sources is achieved by moving the receiver system, which is suspended on cables 100 meters above the surface of the bowl. An even larger (500-meter) radar telescope is currently under construction. It is the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China and is expected to be completed in 2016.

Largest Radio and Radar Dish.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 6. The Arecibo Observatory, with its 1000-foot radio dish-filling valley in Puerto Rico, is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, operated by SRI International, USRA, and UMET under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. (credit: National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Cornell U., NSF)[/caption]

In the 1930s, radio astronomy was pioneered by Karl G. Jansky and Grote Reber. A radio telescope is basically a radio antenna (often a large, curved dish) connected to a receiver. Significantly enhanced resolution can be obtained with interferometers, including interferometer arrays like the 27-element VLA and the 66-element ALMA. Expanding to very long baseline interferometers, radio astronomers can achieve resolutions as precise as 0.0001 arcsecond. Radar astronomy involves transmitting as well as receiving. The largest radar telescope currently in operation is a 305-meter bowl at Arecibo.

Glossary

interference: process in which waves mix together such that their crests and troughs can alternately reinforce and cancel one another

interferometer: instrument that combines electromagnetic radiation from one or more telescopes to obtain a resolution equivalent to what would be obtained with a single telescope with a diameter equal to the baseline separating the individual separate telescopes

interferometer array: combination of multiple radio dishes to, in effect, work like a large number of two-dish interferometers

radar: technique of transmitting radio waves to an object and then detecting the radiation that the object reflects back to the transmitter; used to measure the distance to, and motion of, a target object or to form images of it

6.5 Observations outside Earth’s Atmosphere

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:09:04 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

List the advantages of making astronomical observations from space
Explain the importance of the Hubble Space Telescope
Describe some of the major space-based observatories astronomers use

Earth’s atmosphere blocks most radiation at wavelengths shorter than visible light, so we can only make direct ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray observations from space (though indirect gamma ray observations can be made from Earth). Getting above the distorting effects of the atmosphere is also an advantage at visible and infrared wavelengths. The stars don’t “twinkle” in space, so the amount of detail you can observe is limited only by the size of your instrument. On the other hand, it is expensive to place telescopes into space, and repairs can present a major challenge. This is why astronomers continue to build telescopes for use on the ground as well as for launching into space.

Airborne and Space Infrared Telescopes

Water vapor, the main source of atmospheric interference for making infrared observations, is concentrated in the lower part of Earth’s atmosphere. For this reason, a gain of even a few hundred meters in elevation can make an important difference in the quality of an infared observatory site. Given the limitations of high mountains, most of which attract clouds and violent storms, and the fact that the ability of humans to perform complex tasks degrades at high altitudes, it was natural for astronomers to investigate the possibility of observing infrared waves from airplanes and ultimately from space.

Infrared observations from airplanes have been made since the 1960s, starting with a 15-centimeter telescope on board a Learjet. From 1974 through 1995, NASA operated a 0.9-meter airborne telescope flying regularly out of the Ames Research Center south of San Francisco. Observing from an altitude of 12 kilometers, the telescope was above 99% of the atmospheric water vapor. More recently, NASA (in partnership with the German Aerospace Center) has constructed a much larger 2.5-meter telescope, called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which flies in a modified Boeing 747SP ([link]).

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. SOFIA allows observations to be made above most of Earth’s atmospheric water vapor. (credit: NASA)[/caption]

To find out more about SOFIA, watch this video provided by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Getting even higher and making observations from space itself have important advantages for infrared astronomy. First is the elimination of all interference from the atmosphere. Equally important is the opportunity to cool the entire optical system of the instrument in order to nearly eliminate infrared radiation from the telescope itself. If we tried to cool a telescope within the atmosphere, it would quickly become coated with condensing water vapor and other gases, making it useless. Only in the vacuum of space can optical elements be cooled to hundreds of degrees below freezing and still remain operational.

The first orbiting infrared observatory, launched in 1983, was the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), built as a joint project by the United States, the Netherlands, and Britain. IRAS was equipped with a 0.6-meter telescope cooled to a temperature of less than 10 K. For the first time, the infrared sky could be seen as if it were night, rather than through a bright foreground of atmospheric and telescope emissions. IRAS carried out a rapid but comprehensive survey of the entire infrared sky over a 10-month period, cataloging about 350,000 sources of infrared radiation. Since then, several other infrared telescopes have operated in space with much better sensitivity and resolution due to improvements in infrared detectors. The most powerful of these infrared telescopes is the 0.85-meter Spitzer Space Telescope, which launched in 2003. A few of its observations are shown in [link]. With infrared observations, astronomers can detect cooler parts of cosmic objects, such as the dust clouds around star nurseries and the remnants of dying stars, that visible-light images don’t reveal.

Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. These infrared images—a region of star formation, the remnant of an exploded star, and a region where an old star is losing its outer shell—show just a few of the observations made and transmitted back to Earth from the SST. Since our eyes are not sensitive to infrared rays, we don’t perceive colors from them. The colors in these images have been selected by astronomers to highlight details like the composition or temperature in these regions. (credit “Flame nebula”: modification of work by NASA (X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/K.Getman, E.Feigelson, M.Kuhn & the MYStIX team; Infrared:NASA/JPL-Caltech); credit “Cassiopeia A”: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech; credit “Helix nebula”: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech)[/caption]

Hubble Space Telescope

In April 1990, a great leap forward in astronomy was made with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With an aperture of 2.4 meters, this is the largest telescope put into space so far. (Its aperture was limited by the size of the payload bay in the Space Shuttle that served as its launch vehicle.) It was named for Edwin Hubble, the astronomer who discovered the expansion of the universe in the 1920s (whose work we will discuss in the chapters on Galaxies).

HST is operated jointly by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. It was the first orbiting observatory designed to be serviced by Shuttle astronauts and, over the years since it was launched, they made several visits to improve or replace its initial instruments and to repair some of the systems that operate the spacecraft ([link])—though this repair program has now been discontinued, and no more visits or improvements will be made.

With the Hubble, astronomers have obtained some of the most detailed images of astronomical objects from the solar system outward to the most distant galaxies. Among its many great achievements is the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, an image of a small region of the sky observed for almost 100 hours. It contains views of about 10,000 galaxies, some of which formed when the universe was just a few percent of its current age ([link]).

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided an image of a specific region of space built from data collected between September 24, 2003, and January 16, 2004. These data allow us to search for galaxies that existed approximately 13 billion years ago. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

The HST’s mirror was ground and polished to a remarkable degree of accuracy. If we were to scale up its 2.4-meter mirror to the size of the entire continental United States, there would be no hill or valley larger than about 6 centimeters in its smooth surface. Unfortunately, after it was launched, scientists discovered that the primary mirror had a slight error in its shape, equal to roughly 1/50 the width of a human hair. Small as that sounds, it was enough to ensure that much of the light entering the telescope did not come to a clear focus and that all the images were blurry. (In a misplaced effort to save money, a complete test of the optical system had not been carried out before launch, so the error was not discovered until HST was in orbit.)

The solution was to do something very similar to what we do for astronomy students with blurry vision: put corrective optics in front of their eyes. In December 1993, in one of the most exciting and difficult space missions ever flown, astronauts captured the orbiting telescope and brought it back into the shuttle payload bay. There they installed a package containing compensating optics as well as a new, improved camera before releasing HST back into orbit. The telescope now works as it was intended to, and further missions to it were able to install even more advanced instruments to take advantage of its capabilities.

High-Energy Observatories

Ultraviolet, X-ray, and direct gamma-ray (high-energy electromagnetic wave) observations can be made only from space. Such observations first became possible in 1946, with V2 rockets captured from Germany after World War II. The US Naval Research Laboratory put instruments on these rockets for a series of pioneering flights, used initially to detect ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Since then, many other rockets have been launched to make X-ray and ultraviolet observations of the Sun, and later of other celestial objects.

Beginning in the 1960s, a steady stream of high-energy observatories has been launched into orbit to reveal and explore the universe at short wavelengths. Among recent X-ray telescopes is the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched in 1999 ([link]). It is producing X-ray images with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. Designing instruments that can collect and focus energetic radiation like X-rays and gamma rays is an enormous technological challenge. The 2002 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Riccardo Giacconi, a pioneer in the field of building and launching sophisticated X-ray instruments. In 2008, NASA launched the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, designed to measure cosmic gamma rays at energies greater than any previous telescope, and thus able to collect radiation from some of the most energetic events in the universe.

Chandra X-Ray Satellite.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 4. Chandra, the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, was developed by NASA and launched in July 1999. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

One major challenge is to design “mirrors” to reflect such penetrating radiation as X-rays and gamma rays, which normally pass straight through matter. However, although the technical details of design are more complicated, the three basic components of an observing system, as we explained earlier in this chapter, are the same at all wavelengths: a telescope to gather up the radiation, filters or instruments to sort the radiation according to wavelength, and some method of detecting and making a permanent record of the observations. [link] lists some of the most important active space observatories that humanity has launched.

Gamma-ray detections can also be made from Earth’s surface by using the atmosphere as the primary detector. When a gamma ray hits our atmosphere, it accelerates charged particles (mostly electrons) in the atmosphere. Those energetic particles hit other particles in the atmosphere and give off their own radiation. The effect is a cascade of light and energy that can be detected on the ground. The VERITAS array in Arizona and the H.E.S.S. array in Namibia are two such ground-based gamma-ray observatories.

Recent Observatories in Space
Observatory	Date Operation Began	Bands of the Spectrum	Notes	Website
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)	1990	visible, UV, IR	2.4-m mirror; images and spectra	www.hubblesite.org
Chandra X-Ray Observatory	1999	X-rays	X-ray images and spectra	www.chandra.si.edu
XMM-Newton	1999	X-rays	X-ray spectroscopy	http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton
International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)	2002	X- and gamma-rays	higher resolution gamma-ray images	http://sci.esa.int/integral/
Spitzer Space Telescope	2003	IR	0.85-m telescope	www.spitzer.caltech.edu
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope	2008	gamma-rays	first high-energy gamma-ray observations	fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov
Kepler	2009	visible-light	planet finder	http://kepler.nasa.gov
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)	2009	IR	whole-sky map, asteroid searches	www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main
Gaia	2013	visible-light	Precise map of the Milky Way	http://sci.esa.int/gaia/

Infrared observations are made with telescopes aboard aircraft and in space, as well as from ground-based facilities on dry mountain peaks. Ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray observations must be made from above the atmosphere. Many orbiting observatories have been flown to observe in these bands of the spectrum in the last few decades. The largest-aperture telescope in space is the Hubble Space telescope (HST), the most significant infrared telescope is Spitzer, and Chandra and Fermi are the premier X-ray and gamma-ray observatories, respectively.

6.6 The Future of Large Telescopes

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:09:20 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the next generation of ground- and space-based observatories
Explain some of the challenges involved in building these observatories

If you’ve ever gone on a hike, you have probably been eager to see what lies just around the next bend in the path. Researchers are no different, and astronomers and engineers are working on the technologies that will allow us to explore even more distant parts of the universe and to see them more clearly.

The premier space facility planned for the next decade is the James Webb Space Telescope ([link]), which (in a departure from tradition) is named after one of the early administrators of NASA instead of a scientist. This telescope will have a mirror 6 meters in diameter, made up, like the Keck telescopes, of 36 small hexagons. These will have to unfold into place once the telescope reaches its stable orbit point, some 1.5 million kilometers from Earth (where no astronauts can currently travel if it needs repair.) The telescope is scheduled for launch in 2018 and should have the sensitivity needed to detect the very first generation of stars, formed when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. With the ability to measure both visible and infrared wavelengths, it will serve as the successor to both HST and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. This image shows some of the mirrors of the JWST as they underwent cryogenic testing. The mirrors were exposed to extreme temperatures in order to gather accurate measurements on changes in their shape as they heated and cooled. (credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham/Emmett Given)[/caption]

Watch this video to learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope and how it will build upon the work that Hubble has allowed us to begin in exploring the universe.

On the ground, astronomers have started building the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), an 8.4-meter telescope with a significantly larger field of view than any existing telescopes. It will rapidly scan the sky to find transients, phenomena that change quickly, such as exploding stars and chunks of rock that orbit near Earth. The LSST is expected to see first light in 2021.

The international gamma-ray community is planning the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), two arrays of telescopes, one in each hemisphere, which will indirectly measure gamma rays from the ground. The CTA will measure gamma-ray energies a thousand times as great as the Fermi telescope can detect.

Several groups of astronomers around the globe interested in studying visible light and infrared are exploring the feasibility of building ground-based telescopes with mirrors larger than 30 meters across. Stop and think what this means: 30 meters is one-third the length of a football field. It is technically impossible to build and transport a single astronomical mirror that is 30 meters or larger in diameter. The primary mirror of these giant telescopes will consist of smaller mirrors, all aligned so that they act as a very large mirror in combination. These include the Thirty-Meter Telescope for which construction has begun at the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

The most ambitious of these projects is the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) ([link]). (Astronomers try to outdo each other not only with the size of these telescopes, but also their names!) The design of the E-ELT calls for a 39.3-meter primary mirror, which will follow the Keck design and be made up of 798 hexagonal mirrors, each 1.4 meters in diameter and all held precisely in position so that they form a continuous surface. Construction on the site in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile started in 2014. The E-ELT, along with the Thirty Meter Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope, which are being built by international consortia led by US astronomers, will combine light-gathering power with high-resolution imaging. These powerful new instruments will enable astronomers to tackle many important astronomical problems. For example, they should be able to tell us when, where, and how often planets form around other stars. They should even be able to provide us images and spectra of such planets and thus, perhaps, give us the first real evidence (from the chemistry of these planets’ atmospheres) that life exists elsewhere.

Artist’s Conception of the European Extremely Large Telescope.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. The primary mirror in this telescope is 39.3 meters across. The telescope is under construction in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. (credit: ESO/L. Calçada)[/caption]

Check out this fun diagram comparing the sizes of the largest planned and existing telescopes to a regulation basketball and tennis court.

New and even larger telescopes are on the drawing boards. The James Webb Space Telescope, a 6-meter successor to Hubble, is currently scheduled for launch in 2018. Gamma-ray astronomers are planning to build the CTA to measure very energetic gamma rays. Astronomers are building the LSST to observe with an unprecedented field of view and a new generation of visible-light/infrared telescopes with apertures of 24.5 to 39 meters in diameter.

For Further Exploration

Articles

Blades, J. C. “Fixing the Hubble One Last Time.” Sky & Telescope (October 2008): 26. On the last Shuttle service mission and what the Hubble was then capable of doing.

Brown, A. “How Gaia will Map a Billion Stars.” Astronomy (December 2014): 32. Nice review of the mission to do photometry and spectroscopy of all stars above a certain brightness.

Irion, R. “Prime Time.” Astronomy (February 2001): 46. On how time is allotted on the major research telescopes.

Jedicke, Peter & Robert. “The Coming Giant Sky Patrols.” Sky & Telescope (September 2008): 30. About giant telescopes to survey the sky continuously.

Lazio, Joseph, et al. “Tuning in to the Universe: 21^st Century Radio Astronomy.” Sky & Telescope (July 2008): 21. About ALMA and the Square Kilometer Array.

Lowe, Jonathan. “Mirror, Mirror.” Sky & Telescope (December 2007): 22. On the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona.

Lowe, Jonathan. “Next Light: Tomorrow’s Monster Telescopes.” Sky & Telescope (April 2008): 20. About plans for extremely large telescopes on the ground.

Mason, Todd & Robin. “Palomar’s Big Eye.” Sky & Telescope (December 2008): 36. On the Hale 200-inch telescope.

Subinsky, Raymond. “Who Really Invented the Telescope.” Astronomy (August 2008): 84. Brief historical introduction, focusing on Hans Lippershey.

Websites

Websites for major telescopes are given in [link], [link], [link], and [link].

Videos

Astronomy from the Stratosphere: SOFIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV98BcBBA9c. A talk by Dr. Dana Backman (1:15:32)

Galaxies Viewed in Full Spectrum of Light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=368K0iQv8nE. Scientists with the Spitzer Observatory show how a galaxy looks different at different wavelengths (6:22)

Lifting the Cosmic Veil: Highlights from a Decade of the Spitzer Space Telescope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkrNQcwkY78. A talk by Dr. Michael Bicay (1:42:44)

Collaborative Group Activities

Most large telescopes get many more proposals for observing projects than there is night observing time available in a year. Suppose your group is the telescope time allocation committee reporting to an observatory director. What criteria would you use in deciding how to give out time on the telescope? What steps could you take to make sure all your colleagues thought the process was fair and people would still talk to you at future astronomy meetings?
Your group is a committee of nervous astronomers about to make a proposal to the government ministers of your small European country to chip in with other countries to build the world’s largest telescope in the high, dry desert of the Chilean Andes Mountains. You expect the government ministers to be very skeptical about supporting this project. What arguments would you make to convince them to participate?
The same government ministers we met in the previous activity ask you to draw up a list of the pros and cons of having the world’s largest telescope in the mountains of Chile (instead of a mountain in Europe). What would your group list in each column?
Your group should discuss and make a list of all the ways in which an observing session at a large visible-light telescope and a large radio telescope might differ. (Hint: Bear in mind that because the Sun is not especially bright at many radio wavelengths, observations with radio telescopes can often be done during the day.)
Another “environmental threat” to astronomy (besides light pollution) comes from the spilling of terrestrial communications into the “channels”—wavelengths and frequencies—previously reserved for radio astronomy. For example, the demand for cellular phones means that more and more radio channels will be used for this purpose. The faint signals from cosmic radio sources could be drowned in a sea of earthly conversation (translated and sent as radio waves). Assume your group is a congressional committee being lobbied by both radio astronomers, who want to save some clear channels for doing astronomy, and the companies that stand to make a lot of money from expanding cellular phone use. What arguments would sway you to each side?
When the site for the new Thirty-Meter Telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea was dedicated, a group of native Hawaiians announced opposition to the project because astronomers were building too many telescopes on a mountain that native Hawaiians consider a sacred site. You can read more about this controversy at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/science/space/hawaii-court-rescinds-permit-to-build-thirty-meter-telescope.html?_r=0 and at http://www.nature.com/news/the-mountain-top-battle-over-the-thirty-meter-telescope-1.18446. Once your group has the facts, discuss the claims of each side in the controversy. How do you think it should be resolved?
If you could propose to use a large modern telescope, what would you want to find out? What telescope would you use and why?
Light pollution (spilled light in the night sky making it difficult to see the planets and stars) used to be an issue that concerned mostly astronomers. Now spilled light at night is also of concern to environmentalists and those worrying about global warming. Can your group come up with some non-astronomical reasons to be opposed to light pollution?

Review Questions

1: What are the three basic components of a modern astronomical instrument? Describe each in one to two sentences.

2: Name the two spectral windows through which electromagnetic radiation easily reaches the surface of Earth and describe the largest-aperture telescope currently in use for each window.

3: List the largest-aperture single telescope currently in use in each of the following bands of the electromagnetic spectrum: radio, X-ray, gamma ray.

4: When astronomers discuss the apertures of their telescopes, they say bigger is better. Explain why.

5: The Hooker telescope at Palomar Observatory has a diameter of 5 m, and the Keck I telescope has a diameter of 10 m. How much more light can the Keck telescope collect than the Hooker telescope in the same amount of time?

6: What is meant by “reflecting” and “refracting” telescopes?

7: Why are the largest visible-light telescopes in the world made with mirrors rather than lenses?

8: Compare the eye, photographic film, and CCDs as detectors for light. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

9: What is a charge-coupled device (CCD), and how is it used in astronomy?

10: Why is it difficult to observe at infrared wavelengths? What do astronomers do to address this difficulty?

11: Radio and radar observations are often made with the same antenna, but otherwise they are very different techniques. Compare and contrast radio and radar astronomy in terms of the equipment needed, the methods used, and the kind of results obtained.

12: Look back at [link] of Cygnus A and read its caption again. The material in the giant lobes at the edges of the image had to have been ejected from the center at least how many years ago?

13: Why do astronomers place telescopes in Earth’s orbit? What are the advantages for the different regions of the spectrum?

14: What was the problem with the Hubble Space Telescope and how was it solved?

15: Describe the techniques radio astronomers use to obtain a resolution comparable to what astronomers working with visible light can achieve.

16: What kind of visible-light and infrared telescopes on the ground are astronomers planning for the future? Why are they building them on the ground and not in space?

17: Describe one visible-light or infrared telescope that astronomers are planning to launch into space in the future.

Thought Questions

18: What happens to the image produced by a lens if the lens is “stopped down” (the aperture reduced, thereby reducing the amount of light passing through the lens) with an iris diaphragm—a device that covers its periphery?

19: What would be the properties of an ideal astronomical detector? How closely do the actual properties of a CCD approach this ideal?

20: Many decades ago, the astronomers on the staff of Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories each received about 60 nights per year for their observing programs. Today, an astronomer feels fortunate to get 10 nights per year on a large telescope. Can you suggest some reasons for this change?

21: The largest observatory complex in the world is on Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain on Earth. What are some factors astronomers consider when selecting an observatory site? Don’t forget practical ones. Should astronomers, for example, consider building an observatory on Denali (Mount McKinley) or Mount Everest?

22: Suppose you are looking for sites for a visible-light observatory, an infrared observatory, and a radio observatory. What are the main criteria of excellence for each? What sites are actually considered the best today?

23: Radio astronomy involves wavelengths much longer than those of visible light, and many orbiting observatories have probed the universe for radiation of very short wavelengths. What sorts of objects and physical conditions would you expect to be associated with emission of radiation at very long and very short wavelengths?

24: The dean of a university located near the ocean (who was not a science major in college) proposes building an infrared telescope right on campus and operating it in a nice heated dome so that astronomers will be comfortable on cold winter nights. Criticize this proposal, giving your reasoning.

Figuring for Yourself

25: What is the area, in square meters, of a 10-m telescope?

26: Approximately 9000 stars are visible to the naked eye in the whole sky (imagine that you could see around the entire globe and both the northern and southern hemispheres), and there are about 41,200 square degrees on the sky. How many stars are visible per square degree? Per square arcsecond?

27: Theoretically (that is, if seeing were not an issue), the resolution of a telescope is inversely proportional to its diameter. How much better is the resolution of the ALMA when operating at its longest baseline than the resolution of the Arecibo telescope?

28: In broad daylight, the size of your pupil is typically 3 mm. In dark situations, it expands to about 7 mm. How much more light can it gather?

29: How much more light can be gathered by a telescope that is 8 m in diameter than by your fully dark-adapted eye at 7 mm?

30: How much more light can the Keck telescope (with its 10-m diameter mirror) gather than an amateur telescope whose mirror is 25 cm (0.25 m) across?

31: People are often bothered when they discover that reflecting telescopes have a second mirror in the middle to bring the light out to an accessible focus where big instruments can be mounted. “Don’t you lose light?” people ask. Well, yes, you do, but there is no better alternative. You can estimate how much light is lost by such an arrangement. The primary mirror (the one at the bottom in [link]) of the Gemini North telescope is 8 m in diameter. The secondary mirror at the top is about 1 m in diameter. Use the formula for the area of a circle to estimate what fraction of the light is blocked by the secondary mirror.

32: Telescopes can now be operated remotely from a warm room, but until about 25 years ago, astronomers worked at the telescope to guide it so that it remained pointed in exactly the right place. In a large telescope, like the Palomar 200-inch telescope, astronomers sat in a cage at the top of the telescope, where the secondary mirror is located, as shown in [link]. Assume for the purpose of your calculation that the diameter of this cage was 40 inches. What fraction of the light is blocked?

33: The HST cost about ?1.7 billion for construction and ?300 million for its shuttle launch, and it costs ?250 million per year to operate. If the telescope lasts for 20 years, what is the total cost per year? Per day? If the telescope can be used just 30% of the time for actual observations, what is the cost per hour and per minute for the astronomer’s observing time on this instrument? What is the cost per person in the United States? Was your investment in the Hubble Space telescope worth it?

34: How much more light can the James Webb Space Telescope (with its 6-m diameter mirror) gather than the Hubble Space Telescope (with a diameter of 2.4 m)?

35: The Palomar telescope’s 5-m mirror weighs 14.5 tons. If a 10-m mirror were constructed of the same thickness as Palomar’s (only bigger), how much would it weigh?

7.1 Overview of Our Planetary System

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:10:00 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe how the objects in our solar system are identified, explored, and characterized
Describe the types of small bodies in our solar system, their locations, and how they formed
Model the solar system with distances from everyday life to better comprehend distances in space

The solar system¹ consists of the Sun and many smaller objects: the planets, their moons and rings, and such “debris” as asteroids, comets, and dust. Decades of observation and spacecraft exploration have revealed that most of these objects formed together with the Sun about 4.5 billion years ago. They represent clumps of material that condensed from an enormous cloud of gas and dust. The central part of this cloud became the Sun, and a small fraction of the material in the outer parts eventually formed the other objects.

During the past 50 years, we have learned more about the solar system than anyone imagined before the space age. In addition to gathering information with powerful new telescopes, we have sent spacecraft directly to many members of the planetary system. (Planetary astronomy is the only branch of our science in which we can, at least vicariously, travel to the objects we want to study.) With evocative names such as Voyager, Pioneer, Curiosity, and Pathfinder, our robot explorers have flown past, orbited, or landed on every planet, returning images and data that have dazzled both astronomers and the public. In the process, we have also investigated two dwarf planets, hundreds of fascinating moons, four ring systems, a dozen asteroids, and several comets (smaller members of our solar system that we will discuss later).

Our probes have penetrated the atmosphere of Jupiter and landed on the surfaces of Venus, Mars, our Moon, Saturn’s moon Titan, the asteroids Eros and Itokawa, and the Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (usually referred to as 67P). Humans have set foot on the Moon and returned samples of its surface soil for laboratory analysis ([link]). We have even discovered other places in our solar system that might be able to support some kind of life.

Astronauts on the Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The lunar lander and surface rover from the Apollo 15 mission are seen in this view of the one place beyond Earth that has been explored directly by humans. (credit: modification of work by David R. Scott, NASA)[/caption]

View this gallery of NASA images that trace the history of the Apollo mission.

An Inventory

The Sun, a star that is brighter than about 80% of the stars in the Galaxy, is by far the most massive member of the solar system, as shown in [link]. It is an enormous ball about 1.4 million kilometers in diameter, with surface layers of incandescent gas and an interior temperature of millions of degrees. The Sun will be discussed in later chapters as our first, and best-studied, example of a star.

Mass of Members of the Solar System
Object	Percentage of Total Mass of Solar System
Sun	99.80
Jupiter	0.10
Comets	0.0005–0.03 (estimate)
All other planets and dwarf planets	0.04
Moons and rings	0.00005
Asteroids	0.000002 (estimate)
Cosmic dust	0.0000001 (estimate)

[link] also shows that most of the material of the planets is actually concentrated in the largest one, Jupiter, which is more massive than all the rest of the planets combined. Astronomers were able to determine the masses of the planets centuries ago using Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Newton’s law of gravity to measure the planets’ gravitational effects on one another or on moons that orbit them (see Orbits and Gravity). Today, we make even more precise measurements of their masses by tracking their gravitational effects on the motion of spacecraft that pass near them.

Canadians in Space Dr. Robert Thirsk was born in historic New Westminister, British Columbia. After he received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary, Bob went on to obtain a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and then a Doctorate of Medicine from McGill in 1982. He was selected to become an astronaut in 1983 and served as backup payload specialist to Marc Garneau next year. Not quite finished with schooling, Dr. Thirsk received a Master of Business Administration from MIT Sloan School of Management in 1998. [caption id="attachment_272" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Figure 2. Dr. Robert Thirsk, Canadian Astronaut (credit: C.S.A.)[/caption]Bob's first spaceflight was in 1996 during The Life and Microgravity Spacelab Mission (LMS). During the 17 day mission, he was directly involved with 41 experiments which ranged from investigating the effects of space flight on plants and animals to protein crystallization. He followed this with mission specialist training at NASA's Johnson Space Center and certification as a Flight Engineer for Soyuz spacecraft near Moscow in preparation for a second space journey in 2009. It was a long duration expedition and the first for a Canadian. Bob joined with five other international crew members on the ISS for a total of 188 days. Dr. Thirsk retired from the CSA in 2012 and for the next two years worked for the Canadian Institute of Health Research before becoming Chancellor of the University of Calgary.

Beside Earth, five other planets were known to the ancients—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—and two were discovered after the invention of the telescope: Uranus and Neptune. The eight planets all revolve in the same direction around the Sun. They orbit in approximately the same plane, like cars traveling on concentric tracks on a giant, flat racecourse. Each planet stays in its own “traffic lane,” following a nearly circular orbit about the Sun and obeying the “traffic” laws discovered by Galileo, Kepler, and Newton. Besides these planets, we have also been discovering smaller worlds beyond Neptune that are called trans-Neptunian objects or TNOs (see [link]). The first to be found, in 1930, was Pluto, but others have been discovered during the twenty-first century. One of them, Eris, is about the same size as Pluto and has at least one moon (Pluto has five known moons.) The largest TNOs are also classed as dwarf planets, as is the largest asteroid, Ceres. (Dwarf planets will be discussed further in the chapter on Rings, Moons, and Pluto). To date, more than 1750 of these TNOs have been discovered.

Orbits of the Planets.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. All eight major planets orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane. The five currently known dwarf planets are also shown: Eris, Haumea, Pluto, Ceres, and Makemake. Note that Pluto’s orbit is not in the plane of the planets.[/caption]

Each of the planets and dwarf planets also rotates (spins) about an axis running through it, and in most cases the direction of rotation is the same as the direction of revolution about the Sun. The exceptions are Venus, which rotates backward very slowly (that is, in a retrograde direction), and Uranus and Pluto, which also have strange rotations, each spinning about an axis tipped nearly on its side. We do not yet know the spin orientations of Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.

The four planets closest to the Sun (Mercury through Mars) are called the inner or terrestrial planets. Often, the Moon is also discussed as a part of this group, bringing the total of terrestrial objects to five. (We generally call Earth’s satellite “the Moon,” with a capital M, and the other satellites “moons,” with lowercase m’s.) The terrestrial planets are relatively small worlds, composed primarily of rock and metal. All of them have solid surfaces that bear the records of their geological history in the forms of craters, mountains, and volcanoes ([link]).

Surface of Mercury.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. The pockmarked face of the terrestrial world of Mercury is more typical of the inner planets than the watery surface of Earth. This black-and-white image, taken with the Mariner 10 spacecraft, shows a region more than 400 kilometers wide. (credit: modification of work by NASA/John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)[/caption]

The next four planets (Jupiter through Neptune) are much larger and are composed primarily of lighter ices, liquids, and gases. We call these four the jovian planets (after “Jove,” another name for Jupiter in mythology) or giant planets—a name they richly deserve ([link]). More than 1400 Earths could fit inside Jupiter, for example. These planets do not have solid surfaces on which future explorers might land. They are more like vast, spherical oceans with much smaller, dense cores.

The Four Giant Planets.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 5. This montage shows the four giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Below them, Earth is shown to scale. (credit: modification of work by NASA, Solar System Exploration)[/caption]

Near the outer edge of the system lies Pluto, which was the first of the distant icy worlds to be discovered beyond Neptune (Pluto was visited by a spacecraft, the NASA New Horizons mission, in 2015 [see [link]]). [link] summarizes some of the main facts about the planets.

Pluto Close-up.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 6. This intriguing image from the New Horizons spacecraft, taken when it flew by the dwarf planet in July 2015, shows some of its complex surface features. The rounded white area is temporarily being called the Sputnik Plain, after humanity’s first spacecraft. (credit: modification of work by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)[/caption]

The Planets
Name	Distance from Sun (AU)²	Revolution Period (y)	Diameter (km)	Mass (10²³ kg)	Density (g/cm³)³
Mercury	0.39	0.24	4,878	3.3	5.4
Venus	0.72	0.62	12,120	48.7	5.2
Earth	1.00	1.00	12,756	59.8	5.5
Mars	1.52	1.88	6,787	6.4	3.9
Jupiter	5.20	11.86	142,984	18,991	1.3
Saturn	9.54	29.46	120,536	5686	0.7
Uranus	19.18	84.07	51,118	866	1.3
Neptune	30.06	164.82	49,660	1030	1.6

Comparing Densities Let’s compare the densities of several members of the solar system. The density of an object equals its mass divided by its volume. The volume (V) of a sphere (like a planet) is calculated using the equation

$$V=\frac{4}{3}\pi{R}^{3}$$

where π (the Greek letter pi) has a value of approximately 3.14. Although planets are not perfect spheres, this equation works well enough. The masses and diameters of the planets are given in [link]. For data on selected moons, see Appendix G. Let’s use Saturn’s moon Mimas as our example, with a mass of 4 × 10¹⁹ kg and a diameter of approximately 400 km (radius, 200 km = 2 × 10⁵ m).

Solution The volume of Mimas is

$$\frac{4}{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}3.14\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\left(2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}\right)}^{3}=3.3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{16}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}.$$

Density is mass divided by volume:

$$\frac{{4\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{19}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{kg}}{{3.3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{16}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}}={1.2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{kg/m}}^{3}.$$

Note that the density of water in these units is 1000 kg/m³, so Mimas must be made mainly of ice, not rock. (Note that the density of Mimas given in Appendix G is 1.2, but the units used there are different. In that table, we give density in units of

g/cm³, for which the density of water equals 1. Can you show, by converting units, that 1 g/cm³ is the same as 1000 kg/m³?)

Check Your Learning Calculate the average density of our own planet, Earth. Show your work. How does it compare to the density of an ice moon like Mimas? See [link] for data.

Answer:

For a sphere,

$$\text{density}=\frac{\text{mass}}{\left(\frac{4}{3}\pi\:R^{3}\right)}{\text{kg/m}}^{3}.$$

For Earth, then,

$$\text{density}=\frac{6\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{24}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{kg}}{4.2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}2.6\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{20}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}}=5.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{kg/m}}^{3}.$$

This density is four to five times greater than Mimas’. In fact, Earth is the densest of the planets.

Learn more about NASA’s mission to Pluto and see high-resolution images of Pluto’s moon Charon.

Smaller Members of the Solar System

Most of the planets are accompanied by one or more moons; only Mercury and Venus move through space alone. There are more than 180 known moons orbiting planets and dwarf planets (see Appendix G for a listing of the larger ones), and undoubtedly many other small ones remain undiscovered. The largest of the moons are as big as small planets and just as interesting. In addition to our Moon, they include the four largest moons of Jupiter (called the Galilean moons, after their discoverer) and the largest moons of Saturn and Neptune (confusingly named Titan and Triton).

Each of the giant planets also has rings made up of countless small bodies ranging in size from mountains to mere grains of dust, all in orbit about the equator of the planet. The bright rings of Saturn are, by far, the easiest to see. They are among the most beautiful sights in the solar system ([link]). But, all four ring systems are interesting to scientists because of their complicated forms, influenced by the pull of the moons that also orbit these giant planets.

Saturn and Its Rings.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 7. This 2007 Cassini image shows Saturn and its complex system of rings, taken from a distance of about 1.2 million kilometers. This natural-color image is a composite of 36 images taken over the course of 2.5 hours. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)[/caption]

The solar system has many other less-conspicuous members. Another group is the asteroids, rocky bodies that orbit the Sun like miniature planets, mostly in the space between Mars and Jupiter (although some do cross the orbits of planets like Earth—see [link]). Most asteroids are remnants of the initial population of the solar system that existed before the planets themselves formed. Some of the smallest moons of the planets, such as the moons of Mars, are very likely captured asteroids.

Asteroid Eros.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 8. This small Earth-crossing asteroid image was taken by the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft from an altitude of about 100 kilometers. This view of the heavily cratered surface is about 10 kilometers wide. The spacecraft orbited Eros for a year before landing gently on its surface. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JHUAPL)[/caption]

Another class of small bodies is composed mostly of ice, made of frozen gases such as water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide; these objects are called comets (see [link]). Comets also are remnants from the formation of the solar system, but they were formed and continue (with rare exceptions) to orbit the Sun in distant, cooler regions—stored in a sort of cosmic deep freeze. This is also the realm of the larger icy worlds, called dwarf planets.

Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 9. This image shows Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as 67P, near its closest approach to the Sun in 2015, as seen from the Rosetta spacecraft. Note the jets of gas escaping from the solid surface. (credit: modification of work by ESA/Rosetta/NAVACAM, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0)[/caption]

Finally, there are countless grains of broken rock, which we call cosmic dust, scattered throughout the solar system. When these particles enter Earth’s atmosphere (as millions do each day) they burn up, producing a brief flash of light in the night sky known as a meteor (meteors are often referred to as shooting stars). Occasionally, some larger chunk of rocky or metallic material survives its passage through the atmosphere and lands on Earth. Any piece that strikes the ground is known as a meteorite. (You can see meteorites on display in many natural history museums and can sometimes even purchase pieces of them from gem and mineral dealers.)

Carl Sagan: Solar System Advocate

The best-known astronomer in the world during the 1970s and 1980s, Carl Sagan devoted most of his professional career to studying the planets and considerable energy to raising public awareness of what we can learn from exploring the solar system (see [link]). Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934, Sagan became interested in astronomy as a youngster; he also credits science fiction stories for sustaining his fascination with what’s out in the universe.

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="732"] Figure 10. Sagan was Tyson’s inspiration to become a scientist. (credit “Sagan”: modification of work by NASA, JPL; credit “Tyson”: modification of work by Bruce F. Press)[/caption]

In the early 1960s, when many scientists still thought Venus might turn out to be a hospitable place, Sagan calculated that the thick atmosphere of Venus could act like a giant greenhouse, keeping the heat in and raising the temperature enormously. He showed that the seasonal changes astronomers had seen on Mars were caused, not by vegetation, but by wind-blown dust. He was a member of the scientific teams for many of the robotic missions that explored the solar system and was instrumental in getting NASA to put a message-bearing plaque aboard the Pioneer spacecraft, as well as audio-video records on the Voyager spacecraft—all of them destined to leave our solar system entirely and send these little bits of Earth technology out among the stars.

To encourage public interest and public support of planetary exploration, Sagan helped found The Planetary Society, now the largest space-interest organization in the world. He was a tireless and eloquent advocate of the need to study the solar system close-up and the value of learning about other worlds in order to take better care of our own.

Sagan simulated conditions on early Earth to demonstrate how some of life’s fundamental building blocks might have formed from the “primordial soup” of natural compounds on our planet. In addition, he and his colleagues developed computer models showing the consequences of nuclear war for Earth would be even more devastating than anyone had thought (this is now called the nuclear winter hypothesis) and demonstrating some of the serious consequences of continued pollution of our atmosphere.

Sagan was perhaps best known, however, as a brilliant popularizer of astronomy and the author of many books on science, including the best-selling Cosmos, and several evocative tributes to solar system exploration such as The Cosmic Connection and Pale Blue Dot. His book The Demon Haunted World, completed just before his death in 1996, is perhaps the best antidote to fuzzy thinking about pseudo-science and irrationality in print today. An intriguing science fiction novel he wrote, titled Contact, which became a successful film as well, is still recommended by many science instructors as a scenario for making contact with life elsewhere that is much more reasonable than most science fiction.

Sagan was a master, too, of the television medium. His 13-part public television series, Cosmos, was seen by an estimated 500 million people in 60 countries and has become one of the most-watched series in the history of public broadcasting. A few astronomers scoffed at a scientist who spent so much time in the public eye, but it is probably fair to say that Sagan’s enthusiasm and skill as an explainer won more friends for the science of astronomy than anyone or anything else in the second half of the twentieth century.

In the two decades since Sagan’s death, no other scientist has achieved the same level of public recognition. Perhaps closest is the director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who followed in Sagan’s footsteps by making an updated version of the Cosmos program in 2014. Tyson is quick to point out that Sagan was his inspiration to become a scientist, telling how Sagan invited him to visit for a day at Cornell when he was a high school student looking for a career. However, the media environment has fragmented a great deal since Sagan’s time. It is interesting to speculate whether Sagan could have adapted his communication style to the world of cable television, Twitter, Facebook, and podcasts.

Two imaginative videos provide a tour of the solar system objects we have been discussing. Shane Gellert’s I Need Some Space uses NASA photography and models to show the various worlds with which we share our system. In the more science fiction-oriented Wanderers video, we see some of the planets and moons as tourist destinations for future explorers, with commentary taken from recordings by Carl Sagan.

A Scale Model of the Solar System

Astronomy often deals with dimensions and distances that far exceed our ordinary experience. What does 1.4 billion kilometers—the distance from the Sun to Saturn—really mean to anyone? It can be helpful to visualize such large systems in terms of a scale model.

In our imaginations, let us build a scale model of the solar system, adopting a scale factor of 1 billion (10⁹)—that is, reducing the actual solar system by dividing every dimension by a factor of 10⁹. Earth, then, has a diameter of 1.3 centimeters, about the size of a grape. The Moon is a pea orbiting this at a distance of 40 centimeters, or a little more than a foot away. The Earth-Moon system fits into a standard backpack.

In this model, the Sun is nearly 1.5 meters in diameter, about the average height of an adult, and our Earth is at a distance of 150 meters—about one city block—from the Sun. Jupiter is five blocks away from the Sun, and its diameter is 15 centimeters, about the size of a very large grapefruit. Saturn is 10 blocks from the Sun; Uranus, 20 blocks; and Neptune, 30 blocks. Pluto, with a distance that varies quite a bit during its 249-year orbit, is currently just beyond 30 blocks and getting farther with time. Most of the moons of the outer solar system are the sizes of various kinds of seeds orbiting the grapefruit, oranges, and lemons that represent the outer planets.

In our scale model, a human is reduced to the dimensions of a single atom, and cars and spacecraft to the size of molecules. Sending the Voyager spacecraft to Neptune involves navigating a single molecule from the Earth–grape toward a lemon 5 kilometers away with an accuracy equivalent to the width of a thread in a spider’s web.

If that model represents the solar system, where would the nearest stars be? If we keep the same scale, the closest stars would be tens of thousands of kilometers away. If you built this scale model in the city where you live, you would have to place the representations of these stars on the other side of Earth or beyond.

By the way, model solar systems like the one we just presented have been built in cities throughout the world. In Sweden, for example, Stockholm’s huge Globe Arena has become a model for the Sun, and Pluto is represented by a 12-centimeter sculpture in the small town of Delsbo, 300 kilometers away. Another model solar system is in Washington on the Mall between the White House and Congress (perhaps proving they are worlds apart?).

Names in the Solar System

We humans just don’t feel comfortable until something has a name. Types of butterflies, new elements, and the mountains of Venus all need names for us to feel we are acquainted with them. How do we give names to objects and features in the solar system?

Planets and moons are named after gods and heroes in Greek and Roman mythology (with a few exceptions among the moons of Uranus, which have names drawn from English literature). When William Herschel, a German immigrant to England, first discovered the planet we now call Uranus, he wanted to name it Georgium Sidus (George’s star) after King George III of his adopted country. This caused such an outcry among astronomers in other nations, however, that the classic tradition was upheld—and has been maintained ever since. Luckily, there were a lot of minor gods in the ancient pantheon, so plenty of names are left for the many small moons we are discovering around the giant planets. (Appendix G lists the larger moons).

Comets are often named after their discoverers (offering an extra incentive to comet hunters). Asteroids are named by their discoverers after just about anyone or anything they want. Recently, asteroid names have been used to recognize people who have made significant contributions to astronomy, including the three original authors of this book.

That was pretty much all the naming that was needed while our study of the solar system was confined to Earth. But now, our spacecraft have surveyed and photographed many worlds in great detail, and each world has a host of features that also need names. To make sure that naming things in space remains multinational, rational, and somewhat dignified, astronomers have given the responsibility of approving names to a special committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the body that includes scientists from every country that does astronomy.

This IAU committee has developed a set of rules for naming features on other worlds. For example, craters on Venus are named for women who have made significant contributions to human knowledge and welfare. Volcanic features on Jupiter’s moon Io, which is in a constant state of volcanic activity, are named after gods of fire and thunder from the mythologies of many cultures. Craters on Mercury commemorate famous novelists, playwrights, artists, and composers. On Saturn’s moon Tethys, all the features are named after characters and places in Homer’s great epic poem, The Odyssey. As we explore further, it may well turn out that more places in the solar system need names than Earth history can provide. Perhaps by then, explorers and settlers on these worlds will be ready to develop their own names for the places they may (if but for a while) call home.

You may be surprised to know that the meaning of the word planet has recently become controversial because we have discovered many other planetary systems that don’t look very much like our own. Even within our solar system, the planets differ greatly in size and chemical properties. The biggest dispute concerns Pluto, which is much smaller than the other eight major planets. The category of dwarf planet was invented to include Pluto and similar icy objects beyond Neptune. But is a dwarf planet also a planet? Logically, it should be, but even this simple issue of grammar has been the subject of heated debate among both astronomers and the general public.

Key Concepts and Summary

Our solar system currently consists of the Sun, eight planets, five dwarf planets, nearly 200 known moons, and a host of smaller objects. The planets can be divided into two groups: the inner terrestrial planets and the outer giant planets. Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake do not fit into either category; as icy dwarf planets, they exist in an ice realm on the fringes of the main planetary system. The giant planets are composed mostly of liquids and gases. Smaller members of the solar system include asteroids (including the dwarf planet Ceres), which are rocky and metallic objects found mostly between Mars and Jupiter; comets, which are made mostly of frozen gases and generally orbit far from the Sun; and countless smaller grains of cosmic dust. When a meteor survives its passage through our atmosphere and falls to Earth, we call it a meteorite.

Footnotes

1 The generic term for a group of planets and other bodies circling a star is planetary system. Ours is called the solar system because our Sun is sometimes called Sol. Strictly speaking, then, there is only one solar system; planets orbiting other stars are in planetary systems.
2 An AU (or astronomical unit) is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
3 We give densities in units where the density of water is 1 g/cm³. To get densities in units of kg/m³, multiply the given value by 1000.

Glossary

asteroid: a stony or metallic object orbiting the Sun that is smaller than a major planet but that shows no evidence of an atmosphere or of other types of activity associated with comets

comet: a small body of icy and dusty matter that revolves about the Sun; when a comet comes near the Sun, some of its material vaporizes, forming a large head of tenuous gas and often a tail

giant planet: any of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in our solar system, or planets of roughly that mass and composition in other planetary systems

meteor: a small piece of solid matter that enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up, popularly called a shooting star because it is seen as a small flash of light

meteorite: a portion of a meteor that survives passage through an atmosphere and strikes the ground

terrestrial planet: any of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, or Mars; sometimes the Moon is included in the list

7.2 Composition and Structure of Planets

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:10:12 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the characteristics of the giant planets, terrestrial planets, and small bodies in the solar system
Explain what influences the temperature of a planet’s surface
Explain why there is geological activity on some planets and not on others

The fact that there are two distinct kinds of planets—the rocky terrestrial planets and the gas-rich jovian planets—leads us to believe that they formed under different conditions. Certainly their compositions are dominated by different elements. Let us look at each type in more detail.

The Giant Planets

The two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have nearly the same chemical makeup as the Sun; they are composed primarily of the two elements hydrogen and helium, with 75% of their mass being hydrogen and 25% helium. On Earth, both hydrogen and helium are gases, so Jupiter and Saturn are sometimes called gas planets. But, this name is misleading. Jupiter and Saturn are so large that the gas is compressed in their interior until the hydrogen becomes a liquid. Because the bulk of both planets consists of compressed, liquefied hydrogen, we should really call them liquid planets.

Under the force of gravity, the heavier elements sink toward the inner parts of a liquid or gaseous planet. Both Jupiter and Saturn, therefore, have cores composed of heavier rock, metal, and ice, but we cannot see these regions directly. In fact, when we look down from above, all we see is the atmosphere with its swirling clouds ([link]). We must infer the existence of the denser core inside these planets from studies of each planet’s gravity.

Jupiter.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This true-color image of Jupiter was taken from the Cassini spacecraft in 2000. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)[/caption]

Uranus and Neptune are much smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, but each also has a core of rock, metal, and ice. Uranus and Neptune were less efficient at attracting hydrogen and helium gas, so they have much smaller atmospheres in proportion to their cores.

Chemically, each giant planet is dominated by hydrogen and its many compounds. Nearly all the oxygen present is combined chemically with hydrogen to form water (H₂O). Chemists call such a hydrogen-dominated composition reduced. Throughout the outer solar system, we find abundant water (mostly in the form of ice) and reducing chemistry.

The Terrestrial Planets

The terrestrial planets are quite different from the giants. In addition to being much smaller, they are composed primarily of rocks and metals. These, in turn, are made of elements that are less common in the universe as a whole. The most abundant rocks, called silicates, are made of silicon and oxygen, and the most common metal is iron. We can tell from their densities (see [link]) that Mercury has the greatest proportion of metals (which are denser) and the Moon has the lowest. Earth, Venus, and Mars all have roughly similar bulk compositions: about one third of their mass consists of iron-nickel or iron-sulfur combinations; two thirds is made of silicates. Because these planets are largely composed of oxygen compounds (such as the silicate minerals of their crusts), their chemistry is said to be oxidized.

When we look at the internal structure of each of the terrestrial planets, we find that the densest metals are in a central core, with the lighter silicates near the surface. If these planets were liquid, like the giant planets, we could understand this effect as the result the sinking of heavier elements due to the pull of gravity. This leads us to conclude that, although the terrestrial planets are solid today, at one time they must have been hot enough to melt.

Differentiation is the process by which gravity helps separate a planet’s interior into layers of different compositions and densities. The heavier metals sink to form a core, while the lightest minerals float to the surface to form a crust. Later, when the planet cools, this layered structure is preserved. In order for a rocky planet to differentiate, it must be heated to the melting point of rocks, which is typically more than 1300 K.

Moons, Asteroids, and Comets

Chemically and structurally, Earth’s Moon is like the terrestrial planets, but most moons are in the outer solar system, and they have compositions similar to the cores of the giant planets around which they orbit. The three largest moons—Ganymede and Callisto in the jovian system, and Titan in the saturnian system—are composed half of frozen water, and half of rocks and metals. Most of these moons differentiated during formation, and today they have cores of rock and metal, with upper layers and crusts of very cold and—thus very hard—ice ([link]).

Ganymede.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. This view of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede was taken in June 1996 by the Galileo spacecraft. The brownish gray color of the surface indicates a dusty mixture of rocky material and ice. The bright spots are places where recent impacts have uncovered fresh ice from underneath. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL)[/caption]

Most of the asteroids and comets, as well as the smallest moons, were probably never heated to the melting point. However, some of the largest asteroids, such as Vesta, appear to be differentiated; others are fragments from differentiated bodies. Because most asteroids and comets retain their original composition, they represent relatively unmodified material dating back to the time of the formation of the solar system. In a sense, they act as chemical fossils, helping us to learn about a time long ago whose traces have been erased on larger worlds.

Temperatures: Going to Extremes

Generally speaking, the farther a planet or moon is from the Sun, the cooler its surface. The planets are heated by the radiant energy of the Sun, which gets weaker with the square of the distance. You know how rapidly the heating effect of a fireplace or an outdoor radiant heater diminishes as you walk away from it; the same effect applies to the Sun. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, has a blistering surface temperature that ranges from 280–430 °C on its sunlit side, whereas the surface temperature on Pluto is only about –220 °C, colder than liquid air.

Mathematically, the temperatures decrease approximately in proportion to the square root of the distance from the Sun. Pluto is about 30 AU at its closest to the Sun (or 100 times the distance of Mercury) and about 49 AU at its farthest from the Sun. Thus, Pluto’s temperature is less than that of Mercury by the square root of 100, or a factor of 10: from 500 K to 50 K.

In addition to its distance from the Sun, the surface temperature of a planet can be influenced strongly by its atmosphere. Without our atmospheric insulation (the greenhouse effect, which keeps the heat in), the oceans of Earth would be permanently frozen. Conversely, if Mars once had a larger atmosphere in the past, it could have supported a more temperate climate than it has today. Venus is an even more extreme example, where its thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide acts as insulation, reducing the escape of heat built up at the surface, resulting in temperatures greater than those on Mercury. Today, Earth is the only planet where surface temperatures generally lie between the freezing and boiling points of water. As far as we know, Earth is the only planet to support life.

There’s No Place Like Home

In the classic film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, the heroine, concludes after her many adventures in “alien” environments that “there’s no place like home.” The same can be said of the other worlds in our solar system. There are many fascinating places, large and small, that we might like to visit, but humans could not survive on any without a great deal of artificial assistance.

A thick carbon dioxide atmosphere keeps the surface temperature on our neighbor Venus at a sizzling 700 K (near 900 °F). Mars, on the other hand, has temperatures generally below freezing, with air (also mostly carbon dioxide) so thin that it resembles that found at an altitude of 30 kilometers (100,000 feet) in Earth’s atmosphere. And the red planet is so dry that it has not had any rain for billions of years.

The outer layers of the jovian planets are neither warm enough nor solid enough for human habitation. Any bases we build in the systems of the giant planets may well have to be in space or one of their moons—none of which is particularly hospitable to a luxury hotel with a swimming pool and palm trees. Perhaps we will find warmer havens deep inside the clouds of Jupiter or in the ocean under the frozen ice of its moon Europa.

All of this suggests that we had better take good care of Earth because it is the only site where life as we know it could survive. Recent human activity may be reducing the habitability of our planet by adding pollutants to the atmosphere, especially the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Human civilization is changing our planet dramatically, and these changes are not necessarily for the better. In a solar system that seems unready to receive us, making Earth less hospitable to life may be a grave mistake.

Geological Activity

The crusts of all of the terrestrial planets, as well as of the larger moons, have been modified over their histories by both internal and external forces. Externally, each has been battered by a slow rain of projectiles from space, leaving their surfaces pockmarked by impact craters of all sizes (see [link]). We have good evidence that this bombardment was far greater in the early history of the solar system, but it certainly continues to this day, even if at a lower rate. The collision of more than 20 large pieces of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter in the summer of 1994 (see [link]) is one dramatic example of this process.

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="977"] Figure 3. In this image of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 taken on May 17, 1994, by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, you can see about 20 icy fragments into which the comet broke. The comet was approximately 660 million kilometers from Earth, heading on a collision course with Jupiter. (credit: modification of work by NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (STScl), E. Smith (STScl))[/caption]

[link] shows the aftermath of these collisions, when debris clouds larger than Earth could be seen in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Jupiter with Huge Dust Clouds.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. The Hubble Space Telescope took this sequence of images of Jupiter in summer 1994, when fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collided with the giant planet. Here we see the site hit by fragment G, from five minutes to five days after impact. Several of the dust clouds generated by the collisions became larger than Earth. (credit: modification of work by H. Hammel, NASA)[/caption]

During the time all the planets have been subject to such impacts, internal forces on the terrestrial planets have buckled and twisted their crusts, built up mountain ranges, erupted as volcanoes, and generally reshaped the surfaces in what we call geological activity. (The prefix geo means “Earth,” so this is a bit of an “Earth-chauvinist” term, but it is so widely used that we bow to tradition.) Among the terrestrial planets, Earth and Venus have experienced the most geological activity over their histories, although some of the moons in the outer solar system are also surprisingly active. In contrast, our own Moon is a dead world where geological activity ceased billions of years ago.

Geological activity on a planet is the result of a hot interior. The forces of volcanism and mountain building are driven by heat escaping from the interiors of planets. As we will see, each of the planets was heated at the time of its birth, and this primordial heat initially powered extensive volcanic activity, even on our Moon. But, small objects such as the Moon soon cooled off. The larger the planet or moon, the longer it retains its internal heat, and therefore the more we expect to see surface evidence of continuing geological activity. The effect is similar to our own experience with a hot baked potato: the larger the potato, the more slowly it cools. If we want a potato to cool quickly, we cut it into small pieces.

For the most part, the history of volcanic activity on the terrestrial planets conforms to the predictions of this simple theory. The Moon, the smallest of these objects, is a geologically dead world. Although we know less about Mercury, it seems likely that this planet, too, ceased most volcanic activity about the same time the Moon did. Mars represents an intermediate case. It has been much more active than the Moon, but less so than Earth. Earth and Venus, the largest terrestrial planets, still have molten interiors even today, some 4.5 billion years after their birth.

Key Concepts and Summary

The giant planets have dense cores roughly 10 times the mass of Earth, surrounded by layers of hydrogen and helium. The terrestrial planets consist mostly of rocks and metals. They were once molten, which allowed their structures to differentiate (that is, their denser materials sank to the center). The Moon resembles the terrestrial planets in composition, but most of the other moons—which orbit the giant planets—have larger quantities of frozen ice within them. In general, worlds closer to the Sun have higher surface temperatures. The surfaces of terrestrial planets have been modified by impacts from space and by varying degrees of geological activity.

Glossary

differentiation: gravitational separation of materials of different density into layers in the interior of a planet or moon

7.3 Dating Planetary Surfaces

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:10:25 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how astronomers can tell whether a planetary surface is geologically young or old
Describe different methods for dating planets

How do we know the age of the surfaces we see on planets and moons? If a world has a surface (as opposed to being mostly gas and liquid), astronomers have developed some techniques for estimating how long ago that surface solidified. Note that the age of these surfaces is not necessarily the age of the planet as a whole. On geologically active objects (including Earth), vast outpourings of molten rock or the erosive effects of water and ice, which we call planet weathering, have erased evidence of earlier epochs and present us with only a relatively young surface for investigation.

Counting the Craters

One way to estimate the age of a surface is by counting the number of impact craters. This technique works because the rate at which impacts have occurred in the solar system has been roughly constant for several billion years. Thus, in the absence of forces to eliminate craters, the number of craters is simply proportional to the length of time the surface has been exposed. This technique has been applied successfully to many solid planets and moons ([link]).

Our Cratered Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This composite image of the Moon’s surface was made from many smaller images taken between November 2009 and February 2011 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and shows craters of many different sizes. (credit: modification of work by NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)[/caption]

Bear in mind that crater counts can tell us only the time since the surface experienced a major change that could modify or erase preexisting craters. Estimating ages from crater counts is a little like walking along a sidewalk in a snowstorm after the snow has been falling steadily for a day or more. You may notice that in front of one house the snow is deep, while next door the sidewalk may be almost clear. Do you conclude that less snow has fallen in front of Ms. Jones’ house than Mr. Smith’s? More likely, you conclude that Jones has recently swept the walk clean and Smith has not. Similarly, the numbers of craters indicate how long it has been since a planetary surface was last “swept clean” by ongoing lava flows or by molten materials ejected when a large impact happened nearby.

Still, astronomers can use the numbers of craters on different parts of the same world to provide important clues about how regions on that world evolved. On a given planet or moon, the more heavily cratered terrain will generally be older (that is, more time will have elapsed there since something swept the region clean).

Radioactive Rocks

Another way to trace the history of a solid world is to measure the age of individual rocks. After samples were brought back from the Moon by Apollo astronauts, the techniques that had been developed to date rocks on Earth were applied to rock samples from the Moon to establish a geological chronology for the Moon. Furthermore, a few samples of material from the Moon, Mars, and the large asteroid Vesta have fallen to Earth as meteorites and can be examined directly (see the chapter on Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System).

Scientists measure the age of rocks using the properties of natural radioactivity. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, physicists began to understand that some atomic nuclei are not stable but can split apart (decay) spontaneously into smaller nuclei. The process of radioactive decay involves the emission of particles such as electrons, or of radiation in the form of gamma rays (see the chapter on Radiation and Spectra).

For any one radioactive nucleus, it is not possible to predict when the decay process will happen. Such decay is random in nature, like the throw of dice: as gamblers have found all too often, it is impossible to say just when the dice will come up 7 or 11. But, for a very large number of dice tosses, we can calculate the odds that 7 or 11 will come up. Similarly, if we have a very large number of radioactive atoms of one type (say, uranium), there is a specific time period, called its half-life, during which the chances are fifty-fifty that decay will occur for any of the nuclei.

A particular nucleus may last a shorter or longer time than its half-life, but in a large sample, almost exactly half of the nuclei will have decayed after a time equal to one half-life. Half of the remaining nuclei will have decayed after two half-lives pass, leaving only one half of a half—or one quarter—of the original sample ([link]).

Radioactive Decay.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Figure 2. This graph shows (in pink) the amount of a radioactive sample that remains after several half-lives have passed. After one half-life, half the sample is left; after two half-lives, one half of the remainder (or one quarter) is left; and after three half-lives, one half of that (or one eighth) is left. Note that, in reality, the decay of radioactive elements in a rock sample would not cause any visible change in the appearance of the rock; the splashes of color are shown here for conceptual purposes only.[/caption]

If you had 1 gram of pure radioactive nuclei with a half-life of 100 years, then after 100 years you would have 1/2 gram; after 200 years, 1/4 gram; after 300 years, only 1/8 gram; and so forth. However, the material does not disappear. Instead, the radioactive atoms are replaced with their decay products. Sometimes the radioactive atoms are called parents and the decay products are called daughter elements.

We first met the physicist Ernest Rutherford when we talked about the structure of the atom. His work in 1911 showed the existence of the nucleus, but he was already famous due to the work which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances. He did this research while working at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This was the first Nobel Prize awarded to a Canadian. Similarly, Harriet Brooks was the first Canadian female nuclear physicist. Ernest Rutherford guided her graduate research work and regarded her as being next to Marie Curie in the quality of her work. She graduated in 1898 and was amongst the first to discover radon and to try to determine its atomic mass. ²

In this way, radioactive elements with half-lives we have determined can provide accurate nuclear clocks. By comparing how much of a radioactive parent element is left in a rock to how much of its daughter products have accumulated, we can learn how long the decay process has been going on and hence how long ago the rock formed. [link] summarizes the decay reactions used most often to date lunar and terrestrial rocks.

Radioactive Decay Reaction Used to Date Rocks¹
Parent	Daughter	Half-Life (billions of years)
Samarium-147	Neodymium-143	106
Rubidium-87	Strontium-87	48.8
Thorium-232	Lead-208	14.0
Uranium-238	Lead-206	4.47
Potassium-40	Argon-40	1.31

PBS provides an evolution series excerpt that explains how we use radioactive elements to date Earth.

This Science Channel video features Bill Nye the Science Guy showing how scientists have used radioactive dating to determine the age of Earth.

When astronauts first flew to the Moon, one of their most important tasks was to bring back lunar rocks for radioactive age-dating. Until then, astronomers and geologists had no reliable way to measure the age of the lunar surface. Counting craters had let us calculate relative ages (for example, the heavily cratered lunar highlands were older than the dark lava plains), but scientists could not measure the actual age in years. Some thought that the ages were as young as those of Earth’s surface, which has been resurfaced by many geological events. For the Moon’s surface to be so young would imply active geology on our satellite. Only in 1969, when the first Apollo samples were dated, did we learn that the Moon is an ancient, geologically dead world. Using such dating techniques, we have been able to determine the ages of both Earth and the Moon: each was formed about 4.5 billion years ago (although, as we shall see, Earth probably formed earlier).

We should also note that the decay of radioactive nuclei generally releases energy in the form of heat. Although the energy from a single nucleus is not very large (in human terms), the enormous numbers of radioactive nuclei in a planet or moon (especially early in its existence) can be a significant source of internal energy for that world. Geologists estimate that about half of Earth’s current internal heat budget comes from the decay of radioactive isotopes in its interior.

Key Concepts and Summary

The ages of the surfaces of objects in the solar system can be estimated by counting craters: on a given world, a more heavily cratered region will generally be older than one that is less cratered. We can also use samples of rocks with radioactive elements in them to obtain the time since the layer in which the rock formed last solidified. The half-life of a radioactive element is the time it takes for half the sample to decay; we determine how many half-lives have passed by how much of a sample remains the radioactive element and how much has become the decay product. In this way, we have estimated the age of the Moon and Earth to be roughly 4.5 billion years.

Footnotes

1 The number after each element is its atomic weight, equal to the number of protons plus neutrons in its nucleus. This specifies the isotope of the element; different isotopes of the same element differ in the number of neutrons.
Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (1992). Harriet Brooks: Pioneer Nuclear Scientist. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780773563186.

Glossary

half-life: time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to disintegrate

radioactivity: process by which certain kinds of atomic nuclei decay naturally, with the spontaneous emission of subatomic particles and gamma rays

7.4 Origin of the Solar System

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:10:37 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the characteristics of planets that are used to create formation models of the solar system
Describe how the characteristics of extrasolar systems help us to model our own solar system
Explain the importance of collisions in the formation of the solar system

Much of astronomy is motivated by a desire to understand the origin of things: to find at least partial answers to age-old questions of where the universe, the Sun, Earth, and we ourselves came from. Each planet and moon is a fascinating place that may stimulate our imagination as we try to picture what it would be like to visit. Taken together, the members of the solar system preserve patterns that can tell us about the formation of the entire system. As we begin our exploration of the planets, we want to introduce our modern picture of how the solar system formed.

The recent discovery of hundreds of planets in orbit around other stars has shown astronomers that many exoplanetary systems can be quite different from our own solar system. For example, it is common for these systems to include planets intermediate in size between our terrestrial and giant planets. These are often called superearths. Some exoplanet systems even have giant planets close to the star, reversing the order we see in our system. In The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets outside the Solar System, we will look at these exoplanet systems. But for now, let us focus on theories of how our own particular system has formed and evolved.

Looking for Patterns

One way to approach our question of origin is to look for regularities among the planets. We found, for example, that all the planets lie in nearly the same plane and revolve in the same direction around the Sun. The Sun also spins in the same direction about its own axis. Astronomers interpret this pattern as evidence that the Sun and planets formed together from a spinning cloud of gas and dust that we call the solar nebula ([link]).

Solar Nebula.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Figure 1. This artist’s conception of the solar nebula shows the flattened cloud of gas and dust from which our planetary system formed. Icy and rocky planetesimals (precursors of the planets) can be seen in the foreground. The bright center is where the Sun is forming. (credit: William K. Hartmann, Planetary Science Institute)[/caption]

The composition of the planets gives another clue about origins. Spectroscopic analysis allows us to determine which elements are present in the Sun and the planets. The Sun has the same hydrogen-dominated composition as Jupiter and Saturn, and therefore appears to have been formed from the same reservoir of material. In comparison, the terrestrial planets and our Moon are relatively deficient in the light gases and the various ices that form from the common elements oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Instead, on Earth and its neighbors, we see mostly the rarer heavy elements such as iron and silicon. This pattern suggests that the processes that led to planet formation in the inner solar system must somehow have excluded much of the lighter materials that are common elsewhere. These lighter materials must have escaped, leaving a residue of heavy stuff.

The reason for this is not hard to guess, bearing in mind the heat of the Sun. The inner planets and most of the asteroids are made of rock and metal, which can survive heat, but they contain very little ice or gas, which evaporate when temperatures are high. (To see what we mean, just compare how long a rock and an ice cube survive when they are placed in the sunlight.) In the outer solar system, where it has always been cooler, the planets and their moons, as well as icy dwarf planets and comets, are composed mostly of ice and gas.

The Evidence from Far Away

A second approach to understanding the origins of the solar system is to look outward for evidence that other systems of planets are forming elsewhere. We cannot look back in time to the formation of our own system, but many stars in space are much younger than the Sun. In these systems, the processes of planet formation might still be accessible to direct observation. We observe that there are many other “solar nebulas” or circumstellar disks—flattened, spinning clouds of gas and dust surrounding young stars. These disks resemble our own solar system’s initial stages of formation billions of years ago ([link]).

Atlas of Planetary Nurseries.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. These Hubble Space Telescope photos show sections of the Orion Nebula, a relatively close-by region where stars are currently forming. Each image shows an embedded circumstellar disk orbiting a very young star. Seen from different angles, some are energized to glow by the light of a nearby star while others are dark and seen in silhouette against the bright glowing gas of the Orion Nebula. Each is a contemporary analog of our own solar nebula—a location where planets are probably being formed today. (credit: modification of work by NASA/ESA, L. Ricci (ESO))[/caption]

Building Planets

Circumstellar disks are a common occurrence around very young stars, suggesting that disks and stars form together. Astronomers can use theoretical calculations to see how solid bodies might form from the gas and dust in these disks as they cool. These models show that material begins to coalesce first by forming smaller objects, precursors of the planets, which we call planetesimals.

Today’s fast computers can simulate the way millions of planetesimals, probably no larger than 100 kilometers in diameter, might gather together under their mutual gravity to form the planets we see today. We are beginning to understand that this process was a violent one, with planetesimals crashing into each other and sometimes even disrupting the growing planets themselves. As a consequence of those violent impacts (and the heat from radioactive elements in them), all the planets were heated until they were liquid and gas, and therefore differentiated, which helps explain their present internal structures.

The process of impacts and collisions in the early solar system was complex and, apparently, often random. The solar nebula model can explain many of the regularities we find in the solar system, but the random collisions of massive collections of planetesimals could be the reason for some exceptions to the “rules” of solar system behavior. For example, why do the planets Uranus and Pluto spin on their sides? Why does Venus spin slowly and in the opposite direction from the other planets? Why does the composition of the Moon resemble Earth in many ways and yet exhibit substantial differences? The answers to such questions probably lie in enormous collisions that took place in the solar system long before life on Earth began.

Today, some 4.5 billion years after its origin, the solar system is—thank goodness—a much less violent place. As we will see, however, some planetesimals have continued to interact and collide, and their fragments move about the solar system as roving “transients” that can make trouble for the established members of the Sun’s family, such as our own Earth. (We discuss this “troublemaking” in Comets and Asteroids: Debris of the Solar System.)

A great variety of infographics at space.com let you explore what it would be like to live on various worlds in the solar system.

Key Concepts and Summary

Regularities among the planets have led astronomers to hypothesize that the Sun and the planets formed together in a giant, spinning cloud of gas and dust called the solar nebula. Astronomical observations show tantalizingly similar circumstellar disks around other stars. Within the solar nebula, material first coalesced into planetesimals; many of these gathered together to make the planets and moons. The remainder can still be seen as comets and asteroids. Probably all planetary systems have formed in similar ways, but many exoplanet systems have evolved along quite different paths, as we will see in Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System.

For Further Exploration

Articles

Davidson, K. “Carl Sagan’s Coming of Age.” Astronomy. (November 1999): 40. About the noted popularizer of science and how he developed his interest in astronomy. Garget, J. “Mysterious Microworlds.” Astronomy. (July 2005): 32. A quick tour of a number of the moons in the solar system.

Hartmann, W. “The Great Solar System Revision.” Astronomy. (August 1998): 40. How our views have changed over the past 25 years.

Kross, J. “What’s in a Name?” Sky & Telescope. (May 1995): 28. How worlds are named.

Rubin, A. “Secrets of Primitive Meteorites.” Scientific American. (February 2013): 36. What meteorites can teach us about the environment in which the solar system formed.

Soter, S. “What Is a Planet?” Scientific American. (January 2007): 34. The IAU’s new definition of a planet in our solar system, and what happened to Pluto as a result.

Talcott, R. “How the Solar System Came to Be.” Astronomy. (November 2012): 24. On the formation period of the Sun and the planets.

Wood, J. “Forging the Planets: The Origin of our Solar System.” Sky & Telescope. (January 1999): 36. Good overview.

Websites

Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/. Outlines the rules for naming bodies and features in the solar system.

Planetary Photojournal: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html. This NASA site features thousands of the best images from planetary exploration, with detailed captions and excellent indexing. You can find images by world, feature name, or mission, and download them in a number of formats. And the images are copyright-free because your tax dollars paid for them.

The following sites present introductory information and pictures about each of the worlds of our solar system:

NASA/JPL Solar System Exploration pages: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/index.cfm.
National Space Science Data Center Lunar and Planetary Science pages: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/.
Nine [now 8] Planets Solar System Tour: http://www.nineplanets.org/.
Planetary Society solar system pages: http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/compare/.
Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm.

Videos

Brown Dwarfs and Free Floating Planets: When You Are Just Too Small to Be a Star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXCDsb4n4KU. A nontechnical talk by Gibor Basri of the University of California at Berkeley, discussing some of the controversies about the meaning of the word “planet” (1:32:52).

In the Land of Enchantment: The Epic Story of the Cassini Mission to Saturn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx135n8VFxY. A public lecture by Dr. Carolyn Porco that focuses mainly on the exploration of Saturn and its moons, but also presents an eloquent explanation of why we explore the solar system (1:37:52).

Origins of the Solar System: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/origins-solar-system.html. A video from PBS that focuses on the evidence from meteorites, narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson (13:02).

To Scale: The Solar System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=84&v=zR3Igc3Rhfg. Constructing a scale model of the solar system in the Nevada desert (7:06).

Collaborative Group Activities

Discuss and make a list of the reasons why we humans might want to explore the other worlds in the solar system. Does your group think such missions of exploration are worth the investment? Why?
Your instructor will assign each group a world. Your task is to think about what it would be like to be there. (Feel free to look ahead in the book to the relevant chapters.) Discuss where on or around your world we would establish a foothold and what we would need to survive there.
In the There’s No Place Like Home feature, we discuss briefly how human activity is transforming our planet’s overall environment. Can you think of other ways that this is happening?
Some scientists criticized Carl Sagan for “wasting his research time” popularizing astronomy. To what extent do you think scientists should spend their time interpreting their field of research for the public? Why or why not? Are there ways that scientists who are not as eloquent or charismatic as Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson can still contribute to the public understanding of science?
Your group has been named to a special committee by the International Astronomical Union to suggest names of features (such as craters, trenches, and so on) on a newly explored asteroid. Given the restriction that any people after whom features are named must no longer be alive, what names or types of names would you suggest? (Keep in mind that you are not restricted to names of people, by the way.)
A member of your group has been kidnapped by a little-known religious cult that worships the planets. They will release him only if your group can tell which of the planets are currently visible in the sky during the evening and morning. You are forbidden from getting your instructor involved. How and where else could you find out the information you need? (Be as specific as you can. If your instructor says it’s okay, feel free to answer this question using online or library resources.)
In the Carl Sagan: Solar System Advocate feature, you learned that science fiction helped spark and sustain his interest in astronomy. Did any of the members of your group get interested in astronomy as a result of a science fiction story, movie, or TV show? Did any of the stories or films you or your group members saw take place on the planets of our solar system? Can you remember any specific ones that inspired you? If no one in the group is into science fiction, perhaps you can interview some friends or classmates who are and report back to the group.
A list of NASA solar system spacecraft missions can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/content/solar-missions-list. Your instructor will assign each group a mission. Look up when the mission was launched and executed, and describe the mission goals, the basic characteristics of the spacecraft (type of instruments, propellant, size, and so on), and what was learned from the mission. If time allows, each group should present its findings to the rest of the class.
What would be some of the costs or risks of developing a human colony or base on another planetary body? What technologies would need to be developed? What would people need to give up to live on a different world in our solar system?

Review Questions

1: Venus rotates backward and Uranus and Pluto spin about an axis tipped nearly on its side. Based on what you learned about the motion of small bodies in the solar system and the surfaces of the planets, what might be the cause of these strange rotations?

2: What is the difference between a differentiated body and an undifferentiated body, and how might that influence a body’s ability to retain heat for the age of the solar system?

3: What does a planet need in order to retain an atmosphere? How does an atmosphere affect the surface of a planet and the ability of life to exist?

4: Which type of planets have the most moons? Where did these moons likely originate?

5: What is the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?

6: Explain our ideas about why the terrestrial planets are rocky and have less gas than the giant planets.

7: Do all planetary systems look the same as our own?

8: What is comparative planetology and why is it useful to astronomers?

9: What changed in our understanding of the Moon and Moon-Earth system as a result of humans landing on the Moon’s surface?

10: If Earth was to be hit by an extraterrestrial object, where in the solar system could it come from and how would we know its source region?

11: List some reasons that the study of the planets has progressed more in the past few decades than any other branch of astronomy.

12: Imagine you are a travel agent in the next century. An eccentric billionaire asks you to arrange a “Guinness Book of Solar System Records” kind of tour. Where would you direct him to find the following (use this chapter and Appendix F and Appendix G):

the least-dense planet
the densest planet
the largest moon in the solar system
excluding the jovian planets, the planet where you would weigh the most on its surface (Hint: Weight is directly proportional to surface gravity.)
the smallest planet
the planet that takes the longest time to rotate
the planet that takes the shortest time to rotate
the planet with a diameter closest to Earth’s
the moon with the thickest atmosphere
the densest moon
the most massive moon

13: What characteristics do the worlds in our solar system have in common that lead astronomers to believe that they all formed from the same “mother cloud” (solar nebula)?

14: How do terrestrial and giant planets differ? List as many ways as you can think of.

15: Why are there so many craters on the Moon and so few on Earth?

16: How do asteroids and comets differ?

17: How and why is Earth’s Moon different from the larger moons of the giant planets?

18: Where would you look for some “original” planetesimals left over from the formation of our solar system?

19: Describe how we use radioactive elements and their decay products to find the age of a rock sample. Is this necessarily the age of the entire world from which the sample comes? Explain.

20: What was the solar nebula like? Why did the Sun form at its center?

Thought Questions

21: What can we learn about the formation of our solar system by studying other stars? Explain.

22: Earlier in this chapter, we modeled the solar system with Earth at a distance of about one city block from the Sun. If you were to make a model of the distances in the solar system to match your height, with the Sun at the top of your head and Pluto at your feet, which planet would be near your waist? How far down would the zone of the terrestrial planets reach?

23: Seasons are a result of the inclination of a planet’s axial tilt being inclined from the normal of the planet’s orbital plane. For example, Earth has an axis tilt of 23.4° (Appendix F). Using information about just the inclination alone, which planets might you expect to have seasonal cycles similar to Earth, although different in duration because orbital periods around the Sun are different?

24: Again using Appendix F, which planet(s) might you expect not to have significant seasonal activity? Why?

25: Again using Appendix F, which planets might you expect to have extreme seasons? Why?

26: Using some of the astronomical resources in your college library or the Internet, find five names of features on each of three other worlds that are named after real people. In a sentence or two, describe each of these people and what contributions they made to the progress of science or human thought.

27: Explain why the planet Venus is differentiated, but asteroid Fraknoi, a very boring and small member of the asteroid belt, is not.

28: Would you expect as many impact craters per unit area on the surface of Venus as on the surface of Mars? Why or why not?

29: Interview a sample of 20 people who are not taking an astronomy class and ask them if they can name a living astronomer. What percentage of those interviewed were able to name one? Typically, the two living astronomers the public knows these days are Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Why are they better known than most astronomers? How would your result have differed if you had asked the same people to name a movie star or a professional basketball player?

30: Using Appendix G, complete the following table that describes the characteristics of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, starting from Jupiter and moving outward in distance.

Table A
Moon	Semimajor Axis (km³)	Diameter	Density (g/cm³)
Io
Europa
Ganymede
Callisto

This system has often been described as a mini solar system. Why might this be so? If Jupiter were to represent the Sun and the Galilean moons represented planets, which moons could be considered more terrestrial in nature and which ones more like gas/ice giants? Why? (Hint: Use the values in your table to help explain your categorization.)

Figuring for Yourself

31: Calculate the density of Jupiter. Show your work. Is it more or less dense than Earth? Why?

32: Calculate the density of Saturn. Show your work. How does it compare with the density of water? Explain how this can be.

33: What is the density of Jupiter’s moon Europa (see Appendix G for data on moons)? Show your work.

34: Look at Appendix F and Appendix G and indicate the moon with a diameter that is the largest fraction of the diameter of the planet or dwarf planet it orbits.

35: Barnard’s Star, the second closest star to us, is about 56 trillion (5.6 × 10¹²) km away. Calculate how far it would be using the scale model of the solar system given in Overview of Our Planetary System.

36: A radioactive nucleus has a half-life of 5 × 10⁸ years. Assuming that a sample of rock (say, in an asteroid) solidified right after the solar system formed, approximately what fraction of the radioactive element should be left in the rock today?

Glossary

planetesimals: objects, from tens to hundreds of kilometers in diameter, that formed in the solar nebula as an intermediate step between tiny grains and the larger planetary objects we see today; the comets and some asteroids may be leftover planetesimals

solar nebula: the cloud of gas and dust from which the solar system formed

8.1 The Global Perspective

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:11:17 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the components of Earth’s interior and explain how scientists determined its structure
Specify the origin, size, and extent of Earth’s magnetic field

Earth is a medium-size planet with a diameter of approximately 12,760 kilometers ([link]). As one of the inner or terrestrial planets, it is composed primarily of heavy elements such as iron, silicon, and oxygen—very different from the composition of the Sun and stars, which are dominated by the light elements hydrogen and helium. Earth’s orbit is nearly circular, and Earth is warm enough to support liquid water on its surface. It is the only planet in our solar system that is neither too hot nor too cold, but “just right” for the development of life as we know it. Some of the basic properties of Earth are summarized in [link].

Blue Marble.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This image of Earth from space, taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts, is known as the “Blue Marble.” This is one of the rare images of a full Earth taken during the Apollo program; most images show only part of Earth’s disk in sunlight. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Some Properties of Earth
Property	Measurement
Semimajor axis	1.00 AU
Period	1.00 year
Mass	5.98 × 10²⁴ kg
Diameter	12,756 km
Radius	6378 km
Escape velocity	11.2 km/s
Rotational period	23 h 56 m 4 s
Surface area	5.1 × 10⁸ km²
Density	5.514 g/cm³
Atmospheric pressure	1.00 bar

Earth’s Interior

The interior of a planet—even our own Earth—is difficult to study, and its composition and structure must be determined indirectly. Our only direct experience is with the outermost skin of Earth^’s crust, a layer no more than a few kilometers deep. It is important to remember that, in many ways, we know less about our own planet 5 kilometers beneath our feet than we do about the surfaces of Venus and Mars.

Earth is composed largely of metal and silicate rock (see the Composition and Structure of Planets section). Most of this material is in a solid state, but some of it is hot enough to be molten. The structure of material in Earth’s interior has been probed in considerable detail by measuring the transmission of seismic waves through Earth. These are waves that spread through the interior of Earth from earthquakes or explosion sites.

Seismic waves travel through a planet rather like sound waves through a struck bell. Just as the sound frequencies vary depending on the material the bell is made of and how it is constructed, so a planet^’s response depends on its composition and structure. By monitoring the seismic waves in different locations, scientists can learn about the layers through which the waves have traveled. Some of these vibrations travel along the surface; others pass directly through the interior. Seismic studies have shown that Earth’s interior consists of several distinct layers with different compositions, illustrated in [link]. As waves travel through different materials in Earth’s interior, the waves—just like light waves in telescope lenses—bend (or refract) so that some seismic stations on Earth receive the waves and others are in “shadows.” Detecting the waves in a network of seismographs helps scientists construct a model of Earth’s interior, showing liquid and solid layers. This type of seismic imaging is not unlike that used in ultrasound, a type of imaging used to see inside the body.

Interior Structure of Earth.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 2. The crust, mantle, and inner and outer cores (liquid and solid, respectively) as shown as revealed by seismic studies.[/caption]

The top layer is the crust, the part of Earth we know best ([link]). Oceanic crust covers 55% of Earth’s surface and lies mostly submerged under the oceans. It is typically about 6 kilometers thick and is composed of volcanic rocks called basalt. Produced by the cooling of volcanic lava, basalts are made primarily of the elements silicon, oxygen, iron, aluminum, and magnesium. The continental crust covers 45% of the surface, some of which is also beneath the oceans. The continental crust is 20 to 70 kilometers thick and is composed predominantly of a different volcanic class of silicates (rocks made of silicon and oxygen) called granite. These crustal rocks, both oceanic and continental, typically have densities of about 3 g/cm³. (For comparison, the density of water is 1 g/cm³.) The crust is the easiest layer for geologists to study, but it makes up only about 0.3% of the total mass of Earth.

Earth’s Crust.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. This computer-generated image shows the surface of Earth’s crust as determined from satellite images and ocean floor radar mapping. Oceans and lakes are shown in blue, with darker areas representing depth. Dry land is shown in shades of green and brown, and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are depicted in shades of white. (credit: modification of work by C. Amante, B. W. Eakins, National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA)[/caption]

The largest part of the solid Earth, called the mantle, stretches from the base of the crust downward to a depth of 2900 kilometers. The mantle is more or less solid, but at the temperatures and pressures found there, mantle rock can deform and flow slowly. The density in the mantle increases downward from about 3.5 g/cm³ to more than 5 g/cm³ as a result of the compression produced by the weight of overlying material. Samples of upper mantle material are occasionally ejected from volcanoes, permitting a detailed analysis of its chemistry.

Beginning at a depth of 2900 kilometers, we encounter the dense metallic core of Earth. With a diameter of 7000 kilometers, our core is substantially larger than the entire planet Mercury. The outer core is liquid, but the innermost part of the core (about 2400 kilometers in diameter) is probably solid. In addition to iron, the core probably also contains substantial quantities of nickel and sulfur, all compressed to a very high density.

The separation of Earth into layers of different densities is an example of differentiation, the process of sorting the major components of a planet by density. The fact that Earth is differentiated suggests that it was once warm enough for its interior to melt, permitting the heavier metals to sink to the center and form the dense core. Evidence for differentiation comes from comparing the planet’s bulk density (5.5 g/cm³) with the surface materials (3 g/cm³) to suggest that denser material must be buried in the core.

Magnetic Field and Magnetosphere

We can find additional clues about Earth’s interior from its magnetic field. Our planet behaves in some ways as if a giant bar magnet were inside it, aligned approximately with the rotational poles of Earth. This magnetic field is generated by moving material in Earth’s liquid metallic core. As the liquid metal inside Earth circulates, it sets up a circulating electric current. When many charged particles are moving together like that—in the laboratory or on the scale of an entire planet—they produce a magnetic field.

Earth’s magnetic field extends into surrounding space. When a charged particle encounters a magnetic field in space, it becomes trapped in the magnetic zone. Above Earth’s atmosphere, our field is able to trap small quantities of electrons and other atomic particles. This region, called the magnetosphere, is defined as the zone within which Earth’s magnetic field dominates over the weak interplanetary magnetic field that extends outward from the Sun ([link]).

Earth’s Magnetosphere.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. A cross-sectional view of our magnetosphere (or zone of magnetic influence), as revealed by numerous spacecraft missions. Note how the wind of charged particles from the Sun “blows” the magnetic field outward like a wind sock.[/caption]

Where do the charged particles trapped in our magnetosphere come from? They flow outward from the hot surface of the Sun; this is called the solar wind. It not only provides particles for Earth’s magnetic field to trap, it also stretches our field in the direction pointing away from the Sun. Typically, Earth’s magnetosphere extends about 60,000 kilometers, or 10 Earth radii, in the direction of the Sun. But, in the direction away from the Sun, the magnetic field can reach as far as the orbit of the Moon, and sometimes farther.

The magnetosphere was discovered in 1958 by instruments on the first US Earth satellite, Explorer 1, which recorded the ions (charged particles) trapped in its inner part. The regions of high-energy ions in the magnetosphere are often called the Van Allen belts in recognition of the University of Iowa professor who built the scientific instrumentation for Explorer 1. Since 1958, hundreds of spacecraft have explored various regions of the magnetosphere. You can read more about its interaction with the Sun in a later chapter.

Key Concepts and Summary

Earth is the prototype terrestrial planet. Its interior composition and structure are probed using seismic waves. Such studies reveal that Earth has a metal core and a silicate mantle. The outer layer, or crust, consists primarily of oceanic basalt and continental granite. A global magnetic field, generated in the core, produces Earth’s magnetosphere, which can trap charged atomic particles.

Glossary

basalt: igneous rock produced by the cooling of lava; makes up most of Earth’s oceanic crust and is found on other planets that have experienced extensive volcanic activity

core: the central part of the planet; consists of higher density material

crust: the outer layer of a terrestrial planet

granite: a type of igneous silicate rock that makes up most of Earth’s continental crust

magnetosphere: the region around a planet in which its intrinsic magnetic field dominates the interplanetary field carried by the solar wind; hence, the region within which charged particles can be trapped by the planetary magnetic field

mantle: the largest part of Earth’s interior; lies between the crust and the core

seismic wave: a vibration that travels through the interior of Earth or any other object; on Earth, these are generally caused by earthquakes

8.2 Earth’s Crust

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:11:29 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Denote the primary types of rock that constitute Earth’s crust
Explain the theory of plate tectonics
Describe the difference between rift and subduction zones
Describe the relationship between fault zones and mountain building
Explain the various types of volcanic activity occurring on Earth

Let us now examine our planet’s outer layers in more detail. Earth’s crust is a dynamic place. Volcanic eruptions, erosion, and large-scale movements of the continents rework the surface of our planet constantly. Geologically, ours is the most active planet. Many of the geological processes described in this section have taken place on other planets as well, but usually in their distant pasts. Some of the moons of the giant planets also have impressive activity levels. For example, Jupiter’s moon Io has a remarkable number of active volcanoes.

Composition of the Crust

Earth’s crust is largely made up of oceanic basalt and continental granite. These are both igneous rock, the term used for any rock that has cooled from a molten state. All volcanically produced rock is igneous ([link]).

Formation of Igneous Rock as Liquid Lava Cools and Freezes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. This is a lava flow from a basaltic eruption. Basaltic lava flows quickly and can move easily over distances of more than 20 kilometers. (credit: USGS)[/caption]

Two other kinds of rock are familiar to us on Earth, although it turns out that neither is common on other planets. Sedimentary rocks are made of fragments of igneous rock or the shells of living organisms deposited by wind or water and cemented together without melting. On Earth, these rocks include the common sandstones, shales, and limestones. Metamorphic rocks are produced when high temperature or pressure alters igneous or sedimentary rock physically or chemically (the word metamorphic means “changed in form”). Metamorphic rocks are produced on Earth because geological activity carries surface rocks down to considerable depths and then brings them back up to the surface. Without such activity, these changed rocks would not exist at the surface.

There is a fourth very important category of rock that can tell us much about the early history of the planetary system: primitive rock, which has largely escaped chemical modification by heating. Primitive rock represents the original material out of which the planetary system was made. No primitive material is left on Earth because the entire planet was heated early in its history. To find primitive rock, we must look to smaller objects such as comets, asteroids, and small planetary moons. We can sometimes see primitive rock in samples that fall to Earth from these smaller objects.

A block of quartzite on Earth is composed of materials that have gone through all four of these states. Beginning as primitive material before Earth was born, it was heated in the early Earth to form igneous rock, transformed chemically and redeposited (perhaps many times) to form sedimentary rock, and finally changed several kilometers below Earth’s surface into the hard, white metamorphic stone we see today.

Plate Tectonics

Geology is the study of Earth’s crust and the processes that have shaped its surface throughout history. (Although geo- means “related to Earth,” astronomers and planetary scientists also talk about the geology of other planets.) Heat escaping from the interior provides energy for the formation of our planet’s mountains, valleys, volcanoes, and even the continents and ocean basins themselves. But not until the middle of the twentieth century did geologists succeed in understanding just how these landforms are created. Plate tectonics is a theory that explains how slow motions within the mantle of Earth move large segments of the crust, resulting in a gradual “drifting” of the continents as well as the formation of mountains and other large-scale geological features. Plate tectonics is a concept as basic to geology as evolution by natural selection is to biology or gravity is to understanding the orbits of planets. Looking at it from a different perspective, plate tectonics is a mechanism for Earth to transport heat efficiently from the interior, where it has accumulated, out to space. It is a cooling system for the planet. All planets develop a heat transfer process as they evolve; mechanisms may differ from that on Earth as a result of chemical makeup and other constraints.

Earth’s crust and upper mantle (to a depth of about 60 kilometers) are divided into about a dozen tectonic plates that fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle ([link]). In some places, such as the Atlantic Ocean, the plates are moving apart; in others, such as off the western coast of South America, they are being forced together. The power to move the plates is provided by slow convection of the mantle, a process by which heat escapes from the interior through the upward flow of warmer material and the slow sinking of cooler material. (Convection, in which energy is transported from a warm region, such as the interior of Earth, to a cooler region, such as the upper mantle, is a process we encounter often in astronomy—in stars as well as planets. It is also important in boiling water for coffee while studying for astronomy exams.)

Earth’s Continental Plates.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 2. This map shows the major plates into which the crust of Earth is divided. Arrows indicate the motion of the plates at average speeds of 4 to 5 centimeters per year, similar to the rate at which your hair grows.[/caption]

The US Geological Survey provides a map of recent earthquakes and shows the boundaries of the tectonic plates and where earthquakes occur in relation to these boundaries. You can look close-up at the United States or zoom out for a global view.

As the plates slowly move, they bump into each other and cause dramatic changes in Earth’s crust over time. Four basic kinds of interactions between crustal plates are possible at their boundaries: (1) they can pull apart, (2) one plate can burrow under another, (3) they can slide alongside each other, or (4) they can jam together. Each of these activities is important in determining the geology of Earth.

Alfred Wegener: Catching the Drift of Plate Tectonics

When studying maps or globes of Earth, many students notice that the coast of North and South America, with only minor adjustments, could fit pretty well against the coast of Europe and Africa. It seems as if these great landmasses could once have been together and then were somehow torn apart. The same idea had occurred to others (including Francis Bacon as early as 1620), but not until the twentieth century could such a proposal be more than speculation. The scientist who made the case for continental drift in 1920 was a German meteorologist and astronomer named Alfred Wegener ([link]).

Alfred Wegener (1880–1930).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 3. Wegener proposed a scientific theory for the slow shifting of the continents.[/caption]

Born in Berlin in 1880, Wegener was, from an early age, fascinated by Greenland, the world’s largest island, which he dreamed of exploring. He studied at the universities in Heidelberg, Innsbruck, and Berlin, receiving a doctorate in astronomy by reexamining thirteenth-century astronomical tables. But, his interests turned more and more toward Earth, particularly its weather. He carried out experiments using kites and balloons, becoming so accomplished that he and his brother set a world record in 1906 by flying for 52 hours in a balloon.

Wegener first conceived of continental drift in 1910 while examining a world map in an atlas, but it took 2 years for him to assemble sufficient data to propose the idea in public. He published the results in book form in 1915. Wegener’s evidence went far beyond the congruence in the shapes of the continents. He proposed that the similarities between fossils found only in South America and Africa indicated that these two continents were joined at one time. He also showed that resemblances among living animal species on different continents could best be explained by assuming that the continents were once connected in a supercontinent he called Pangaea (from Greek elements meaning “all land”).

Wegener’s suggestion was met with a hostile reaction from most scientists. Although he had marshaled an impressive list of arguments for his hypothesis, he was missing a mechanism. No one could explain how solid continents could drift over thousands of miles. A few scientists were sufficiently impressed by Wegener’s work to continue searching for additional evidence, but many found the notion of moving continents too revolutionary to take seriously. Developing an understanding of the mechanism (plate tectonics) would take decades of further progress in geology, oceanography, and geophysics.

Wegener was disappointed in the reception of his suggestion, but he continued his research and, in 1924, he was appointed to a special meteorology and geophysics professorship created especially for him at the University of Graz (where he was, however, ostracized by most of the geology faculty). Four years later, on his fourth expedition to his beloved Greenland, he celebrated his fiftieth birthday with colleagues and then set off on foot toward a different camp on the island. He never made it; he was found a few days later, dead of an apparent heart attack.

Critics of science often point to the resistance to the continental drift hypothesis as an example of the flawed way that scientists regard new ideas. (Many people who have advanced crackpot theories have claimed that they are being ridiculed unjustly, just as Wegener was.) But we think there is a more positive light in which to view the story of Wegener’s suggestion. Scientists in his day maintained a skeptical attitude because they needed more evidence and a clear mechanism that would fit what they understood about nature. Once the evidence and the mechanism were clear, Wegener’s hypothesis quickly became the centerpiece of our view of a dynamic Earth.

See how the drift of the continents has changed the appearance of our planet’s crust.

Rift and Subduction Zones

Plates pull apart from each other along rift zones, such as the Mid-Atlantic ridge, driven by upwelling currents in the mantle ([link]). A few rift zones are found on land. The best known is the central African rift—an area where the African continent is slowly breaking apart. Most rift zones, however, are in the oceans. Molten rock rises from below to fill the space between the receding plates; this rock is basaltic lava, the kind of igneous rock that forms most of the ocean basins.

Rift Zone and Subduction Zone.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. Rift and subduction zones are the regions (mostly beneath the oceans) where new crust is formed and old crust is destroyed as part of the cycle of plate tectonics.[/caption]

From a knowledge of how the seafloor is spreading, we can calculate the average age of the oceanic crust. About 60,000 kilometers of active rifts have been identified, with average separation rates of about 4 centimeters per year. The new area added to Earth each year is about 2 square kilometers, enough to renew the entire oceanic crust in a little more than 100 million years. This is a very short interval in geological time—less than 3% of the age of Earth. The present ocean basins thus turn out to be among the youngest features on our planet. As new crust is added to Earth, the old crust must go somewhere. When two plates come together, one plate is often forced beneath another in what is called a subduction zone ([link]). In general, the thick continental masses cannot be subducted, but the thinner oceanic plates can be rather readily thrust down into the upper mantle. Often a subduction zone is marked by an ocean trench; a fine example of this type of feature is the deep Japan trench along the coast of Asia. The subducted plate is forced down into regions of high pressure and temperature, eventually melting several hundred kilometers below the surface. Its material is recycled into a downward-flowing convection current, ultimately balancing the flow of material that rises along rift zones. The amount of crust destroyed at subduction zones is approximately equal to the amount formed at rift zones.

All along the subduction zone, earthquakes and volcanoes mark the death throes of the plate. Some of the most destructive earthquakes in history have taken place along subduction zones, including the 1923 Yokohama earthquake and fire that killed 100,000 people, the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake that resulted in the meltdown of three nuclear power reactors in Japan.

Fault Zones and Mountain Building

Along much of their length, the crustal plates slide parallel to each other. These plate boundaries are marked by cracks or faults. Along active fault zones, the motion of one plate with respect to the other is several centimeters per year, about the same as the spreading rates along rifts.

One of the most famous faults is the San Andreas Fault in California, which lies at the boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate ([link]). This fault runs from the Gulf of California to the Pacific Ocean northwest of San Francisco. The Pacific plate, to the west, is moving northward, carrying Los Angeles, San Diego, and parts of the southern California coast with it. In several million years, Los Angeles may be an island off the coast of San Francisco.

San Andreas Fault.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 5. We see part of a very active region in California where one crustal plate is sliding sideways with respect to the other. The fault is marked by the valley running up the right side of the photo. Major slippages along this fault can produce extremely destructive earthquakes. (credit: John Wiley)[/caption]

Unfortunately for us, the motion along fault zones does not take place smoothly. The creeping motion of the plates against each other builds up stresses in the crust that are released in sudden, violent slippages that generate earthquakes. Because the average motion of the plates is constant, the longer the interval between earthquakes, the greater the stress and the more energy released when the surface finally moves.

For example, the part of the San Andreas Fault near the central California town of Parkfield has slipped every 25 years or so during the past century, moving an average of about 1 meter each time. In contrast, the average interval between major earthquakes in the Los Angeles region is about 150 years, and the average motion is about 7 meters. The last time the San Andreas fault slipped in this area was in 1857; tension has been building ever since, and sometime soon it is bound to be released. Sensitive instruments placed within the Los Angeles basin show that the basin is distorting and contracting in size as these tremendous pressures build up beneath the surface.

Fault Zones and Plate Motion After scientists mapped the boundaries between tectonic plates in Earth’s crust and measured the annual rate at which the plates move (which is about 5 cm/year), we could estimate quite a lot about the rate at which the geology of Earth is changing. As an example, let’s suppose that the next slippage along the San Andreas Fault in southern California takes place in the year 2017 and that it completely relieves the accumulated strain in this region. How much slippage is required for this to occur?

Solution The speed of motion of the Pacific plate relative to the North American plate is 5 cm/y. That’s 500 cm (or 5 m) per century. The last southern California earthquake was in 1857. The time from 1857 to 2017 is

160 y, or 1.6 centuries, so the slippage to relieve the strain completely would be

5 m/century × 1.6 centuries = 8.0 m. Check Your Learning If the next major southern California earthquake occurs in 2047 and only relieves one-half of the accumulated strain, how much slippage will occur?

Answer:

The difference in time from 1857 to 2047 is 190 y, or 1.9 centuries. Because only half the strain is released, this is equivalent to half the annual rate of motion. The total slippage comes to

0.5 × 5 m/century × 1.9 centuries = 4.75 m.

When two continental masses are moving on a collision course, they push against each other under great pressure. Earth buckles and folds, dragging some rock deep below the surface and raising other folds to heights of many kilometers. This is the way many, but not all, of the mountain ranges on Earth were formed. The Alps, for example, are a result of the African plate bumping into the Eurasian plate. As we will see, however, quite different processes produced the mountains on other planets.

Once a mountain range is formed by upthrusting of the crust, its rocks are subject to erosion by water and ice. The sharp peaks and serrated edges have little to do with the forces that make the mountains initially. Instead, they result from the processes that tear down mountains. Ice is an especially effective sculptor of rock ([link]). In a world without moving ice or running water (such as the Moon or Mercury), mountains remain smooth and dull.

Mountains on Earth.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 6. The Torres del Paine are a young region of Earth’s crust where sharp mountain peaks are being sculpted by glaciers. We owe the beauty of our young, steep mountains to the erosion by ice and water. (credit: David Morrison)[/caption]

Volcanoes

Volcanoes mark locations where lava rises to the surface. One example is mid ocean ridges, which are long undersea mountain ranges formed by lava rising from Earth’s mantle at plate boundaries. A second major kind of volcanic activity is associated with subduction zones, and volcanoes sometimes also appear in regions where continental plates are colliding. In each case, the volcanic activity gives us a way to sample some of the material from deeper within our planet.

Other volcanic activity occurs above mantle “hot spots”—areas far from plate boundaries where heat is nevertheless rising from the interior of Earth. One of the best-known hot spot is under the island of Hawaii, where it currently supplies the heat to maintain three active volcanoes, two on land and one under the ocean. The Hawaii hot spot has been active for at least 100 million years. As Earth’s plates have moved during that time, the hot spot has generated a 3500-kilometer-long chain of volcanic islands. The tallest Hawaiian volcanoes are among the largest individual mountains on Earth, more than 100 kilometers in diameter and rising 9 kilometers above the ocean floor. One of the Hawaiian volcanic mountains, the now-dormant Mauna Kea, has become one of the world’s great sites for doing astronomy.

The US Geological Service provides an interactive map of the famous “ring of fire,” which is the chain of volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean, and shows the Hawaiian “hot spot” enclosed within.

Not all volcanic eruptions produce mountains. If lava flows rapidly from long cracks, it can spread out to form lava plains. The largest known terrestrial eruptions, such as those that produced the Snake River basalts in the northwestern United States or the Deccan plains in India, are of this type. Similar lava plains are found on the Moon and the other terrestrial planets.

Key Concepts and Summary

Terrestrial rocks can be classified as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. A fourth type, primitive rock, is not found on Earth. Our planet’s geology is dominated by plate tectonics, in which crustal plates move slowly in response to mantle convection. The surface expression of plate tectonics includes continental drift, recycling of the ocean floor, mountain building, rift zones, subduction zones, faults, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions of lava from the interior.

Glossary

convection: movement caused within a gas or liquid by the tendency of hotter, and therefore less dense material, to rise and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat

fault: in geology, a crack or break in the crust of a planet along which slippage or movement can take place, accompanied by seismic activity

igneous rock: rock produced by cooling from a molten state

metamorphic rock: rock produced by physical and chemical alteration (without melting) under high temperature and pressure

plate tectonics: the motion of segments or plates of the outer layer of a planet over the underlying mantle

primitive rock: rock that has not experienced great heat or pressure and therefore remains representative of the original condensed materials from the solar nebula

rift zone: in geology, a place where the crust is being torn apart by internal forces generally associated with the injection of new material from the mantle and with the slow separation of tectonic plates

sedimentary rock: rock formed by the deposition and cementing of fine grains of material, such as pieces of igneous rock or the shells of living things

subduction: the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of Earth’s crust into the mantle beneath another plate

volcano: a place where material from a planet’s mantle erupts on its surface

8.3 Earth’s Atmosphere

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:11:44 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Differentiate between Earth’s various atmospheric layers
Describe the chemical composition and possible origins of our atmosphere
Explain the difference between weather and climate

We live at the bottom of the ocean of air that envelops our planet. The atmosphere, weighing down upon Earth’s surface under the force of gravity, exerts a pressure at sea level that scientists define as 1 bar (a term that comes from the same root as barometer, an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure). A bar of pressure means that each square centimeter of Earth’s surface has a weight equivalent to 1.03 kilograms pressing down on it. Humans have evolved to live at this pressure; make the pressure a lot lower or higher and we do not function well.

The total mass of Earth’s atmosphere is about 5 × 10¹⁸ kilograms. This sounds like a large number, but it is only about a millionth of the total mass of Earth. The atmosphere represents a smaller fraction of Earth than the fraction of your mass represented by the hair on your head.

Structure of the Atmosphere

The structure of the atmosphere is illustrated in [link]. Most of the atmosphere is concentrated near the surface of Earth, within about the bottom 10 kilometers where clouds form and airplanes fly. Within this region—called the troposphere—warm air, heated by the surface, rises and is replaced by descending currents of cooler air; this is an example of convection. This circulation generates clouds and wind. Within the troposphere, temperature decreases rapidly with increasing elevation to values near 50 °C below freezing at its upper boundary, where the stratosphere begins. Most of the stratosphere, which extends to about 50 kilometers above the surface, is cold and free of clouds.

Structure of Earth’s Atmosphere.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="483"] Figure 1. Height increases up the left side of the diagram, and the names of the different atmospheric layers are shown at the right. In the upper ionosphere, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun can strip electrons from their atoms, leaving the atmosphere ionized. The curving red line shows the temperature (see the scale on the x-axis).[/caption]

Near the top of the stratosphere is a layer of ozone (O₃), a heavy form of oxygen with three atoms per molecule instead of the usual two. Because ozone is a good absorber of ultraviolet light, it protects the surface from some of the Sun’s dangerous ultraviolet radiation, making it possible for life to exist on Earth. The breakup of ozone adds heat to the stratosphere, reversing the decreasing temperature trend in the troposphere. Because ozone is essential to our survival, we reacted with justifiable concern to evidence that became clear in the 1980s that atmospheric ozone was being destroyed by human activities. By international agreement, the production of industrial chemicals that cause ozone depletion, called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, has been phased out. As a result, ozone loss has stopped and the “ozone hole” over the Antarctic is shrinking gradually. This is an example of how concerted international action can help maintain the habitability of Earth.

Visit NASA’s scientific visualization studio for a short video of what would have happened to Earth’s ozone layer by 2065 if CFCs had not been regulated.

At heights above 100 kilometers, the atmosphere is so thin that orbiting satellites can pass through it with very little friction. Many of the atoms are ionized by the loss of an electron, and this region is often called the ionosphere. At these elevations, individual atoms can occasionally escape completely from the gravitational field of Earth. There is a continuous, slow leaking of atmosphere—especially of lightweight atoms, which move faster than heavy ones. Earth’s atmosphere cannot, for example, hold on for long to hydrogen or helium, which escape into space. Earth is not the only planet to experience atmosphere leakage. Atmospheric leakage also created Mars’ thin atmosphere. Venus’ dry atmosphere evolved because its proximity to the Sun vaporized and dissociated any water, with the component gases lost to space.

Atmospheric Composition and Origin

At Earth’s surface, the atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen (N₂), 21% oxygen (O₂), and 1% argon (Ar), with traces of water vapor (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and other gases. Variable amounts of dust particles and water droplets are also found suspended in the air. A complete census of Earth’s volatile materials, however, should look at more than the gas that is now present. Volatile materials are those that evaporate at a relatively low temperature. If Earth were just a little bit warmer, some materials that are now liquid or solid might become part of the atmosphere. Suppose, for example, that our planet were heated to above the boiling point of water (100 °C, or 373 K); that’s a large change for humans, but a small change compared to the range of possible temperatures in the universe. At 100 °C, the oceans would boil and the resulting water vapor would become a part of the atmosphere.

To estimate how much water vapor would be released, note that there is enough water to cover the entire Earth to a depth of about 300 meters. Because the pressure exerted by 10 meters of water is equal to about 1 bar, the average pressure at the ocean floor is about 300 bars. Water weighs the same whether in liquid or vapor form, so if the oceans boiled away, the atmospheric pressure of the water would still be 300 bars. Water would therefore greatly dominate Earth’s atmosphere, with nitrogen and oxygen reduced to the status of trace constituents.

On a warmer Earth, another source of additional atmosphere would be found in the sedimentary carbonate rocks of the crust. These minerals contain abundant carbon dioxide. If all these rocks were heated, they would release about 70 bars of CO₂, far more than the current CO₂ pressure of only 0.0005 bar. Thus, the atmosphere of a warm Earth would be dominated by water vapor and carbon dioxide, with a surface pressure nearing 400 bars.

Several lines of evidence show that the composition of Earth’s atmosphere has changed over our planet’s history. Scientists can infer the amount of atmospheric oxygen, for example, by studying the chemistry of minerals that formed at various times. We examine this issue in more detail later in this chapter.

Today we see that CO₂, H₂O, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and other gases are released from deeper within Earth through the action of volcanoes. (For CO₂, the primary source today is the burning of fossil fuels, which releases far more CO₂ than that from volcanic eruptions.) Much of this apparently new gas, however, is recycled material that has been subducted through plate tectonics. But where did our planet’s original atmosphere come from?

Three possibilities exist for the original source of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans: (1) the atmosphere could have been formed with the rest of Earth as it accumulated from debris left over from the formation of the Sun; (2) it could have been released from the interior through volcanic activity, subsequent to the formation of Earth; or (3) it may have been derived from impacts by comets and asteroids from the outer parts of the solar system. Current evidence favors a combination of the interior and impact sources.

Weather and Climate

All planets with atmospheres have weather, which is the name we give to the circulation of the atmosphere. The energy that powers the weather is derived primarily from the sunlight that heats the surface. Both the rotation of the planet and slower seasonal changes cause variations in the amount of sunlight striking different parts of Earth. The atmosphere and oceans redistribute the heat from warmer to cooler areas. Weather on any planet represents the response of its atmosphere to changing inputs of energy from the Sun (see [link] for a dramatic example).

Storm from Space.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 2. This satellite image shows Hurricane Irene in 2011, shortly before the storm hit land in New York City. The combination of Earth’s tilted axis of rotation, moderately rapid rotation, and oceans of liquid water can lead to violent weather on our planet. (credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project)[/caption]

Climate is a term used to refer to the effects of the atmosphere that last through decades and centuries. Changes in climate (as opposed to the random variations in weather from one year to the next) are often difficult to detect over short time periods, but as they accumulate, their effect can be devastating. One saying is that “Climate is what you expect, and weather is what you get.” Modern farming is especially sensitive to temperature and rainfall; for example, calculations indicate that a drop of only 2 °C throughout the growing season would cut the wheat production by half in Canada and the United States. At the other extreme, an increase of 2 °C in the average temperature of Earth would be enough to melt many glaciers, including much of the ice cover of Greenland, raising sea level by as much as 10 meters, flooding many coastal cities and ports, and putting small islands completely under water. The best documented changes in Earth’s climate are the great ice ages, which have lowered the temperature of the Northern Hemisphere periodically over the past half million years or so ([link]). The last ice age, which ended about 14,000 years ago, lasted some 20,000 years. At its height, the ice was almost 2 kilometers thick over Boston and stretched as far south as New York City.

Ice Age.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. This computer-generated image shows the frozen areas of the Northern Hemisphere during past ice ages from the vantage point of looking down on the North Pole. The area in black indicates the most recent glaciation (coverage by glaciers), and the area in gray shows the maximum level of glaciation ever reached. (credit: modification of work by Hannes Grobe/AWI)[/caption]

These ice ages were primarily the result of changes in the tilt of Earth’s rotational axis, produced by the gravitational effects of the other planets. We are less certain about evidence that at least once (and perhaps twice) about a billion years ago, the entire ocean froze over, a situation called snowball Earth.

The development and evolution of life on Earth has also produced changes in the composition and temperature of our planet’s atmosphere, as we shall see in the next section.

Watch this short excerpt from the National Geographic documentary Earth: The Biography. In this segment, Dr. Iain Stewart explains the fluid nature of our atmosphere.

Key Concepts and Summary

The atmosphere has a surface pressure of 1 bar and is composed primarily of N₂ and O₂, plus such important trace gases as H₂O, CO₂, and O₃. Its structure consists of the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and ionosphere. Changing the composition of the atmosphere also influences the temperature. Atmospheric circulation (weather) is driven by seasonally changing deposition of sunlight. Many longer term climate variations, such as the ice ages, are related to changes in the planet’s orbit and axial tilt.

Glossary

bar: a force of 100,000 Newtons acting on a surface area of 1 square meter; the average pressure of Earth’s atmosphere at sea level is 1.013 bars

ozone: (O₃) a heavy molecule of oxygen that contains three atoms rather than the more normal two

stratosphere: the layer of Earth’s atmosphere above the troposphere and below the ionosphere

troposphere: the lowest level of Earth’s atmosphere, where most weather takes place

8.4 Life, Chemical Evolution, and Climate Change

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:12:01 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Outline the origins and subsequent diversity of life on Earth
Explain the ways that life and geological activity have influenced the evolution of the atmosphere
Describe the causes and effects of the atmospheric greenhouse effect and global warming
Describe the impact of human activity on our planet’s atmosphere and ecology

As far as we know, Earth seems to be the only planet in the solar system with life. The origin and development of life are an important part of our planet’s story. Life arose early in Earth’s history, and living organisms have been interacting with their environment for billions of years. We recognize that life-forms have evolved to adapt to the environment on Earth, and we are now beginning to realize that Earth itself has been changed in important ways by the presence of living matter. The study of the coevolution of life and our planet is one of the subjects of the modern science of astrobiology.

The Origin of Life

The record of the birth of life on Earth has been lost in the restless motions of the crust. According to chemical evidence, by the time the oldest surviving rocks were formed about 3.9 billion years ago, life already existed. At 3.5 billion years ago, life had achieved the sophistication to build large colonies called stromatolites, a form so successful that stromatolites still grow on Earth today ([link]). But, few rocks survive from these ancient times, and abundant fossils have been preserved only during the past 600 million years—less than 15% of our planet’s history.

Cross-Sections of Fossil Stromatolites.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 1. This polished cross-section of a fossilized colony of stromatolites dates to the Precambrian Era. The layered, domelike structures are mats of sediment trapped in shallow waters by large numbers of blue-green bacteria that can photosynthesize. Such colonies of microorganisms date back more than 3 billion years. (credit: James St. John)[/caption]

There is little direct evidence about the actual origin of life. We know that the atmosphere of early Earth, unlike today’s, contained abundant carbon dioxide and some methane, but no oxygen gas. In the absence of oxygen, many complex chemical reactions are possible that lead to the production of amino acids, proteins, and other chemical building blocks of life. Therefore, it seems likely that these chemical building blocks were available very early in Earth’s history and they would have combined to make living organisms.

For tens of millions of years after Earth’s formation, life (perhaps little more than large molecules, like the viruses of today) probably existed in warm, nutrient-rich seas, living off accumulated organic chemicals. When this easily accessible food became depleted, life began the long evolutionary road that led to the vast numbers of different organisms on Earth today. As it did so, life began to influence the chemical composition of the atmosphere.

In addition to the study of life’s history as revealed by chemical and fossil evidence in ancient rocks, scientists use tools from the rapidly advancing fields of genetics and genomics—the study of the genetic code that is shared by all life on Earth. While each individual has a unique set of genes (which is why genetic “fingerprinting” is so useful for the study of crime), we also have many genetic traits in common. Your genome, the complete map of the DNA in your body, is identical at the 99.9% level to that of Julius Caesar or Marie Curie. At the 99% level, human and chimpanzee genomes are the same. By looking at the gene sequences of many organisms, we can determine that all life on Earth is descended from a common ancestor, and we can use the genetic variations among species as a measure of how closely different species are related.

These genetic analysis tools have allowed scientists to construct what is called the “tree of life” ([link]). This diagram illustrates the way organisms are related by examining one sequence of the nucleic acid RNA that all species have in common. This figure shows that life on Earth is dominated by microscopic creatures that you have probably never heard of. Note that the plant and animal kingdoms are just two little branches at the far right. Most of the diversity of life, and most of our evolution, has taken place at the microbial level. Indeed, it may surprise you to know that there are more microbes in a bucket of soil than there are stars in the Galaxy. You may want to keep this in mind when, later in this book, we turn to the search for life on other worlds. The “aliens” that are most likely to be out there are microbes.

Tree of Life.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. This chart shows the main subdivisions of life on Earth and how they are related. Note that the animal and plant kingdoms are just short branches on the far right, along with the fungi. The most fundamental division of Earth’s living things is onto three large domains called bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. Most of the species listed are microscopic. (credit: modification of work by Eric Gaba)[/caption]

Such genetic studies lead to other interesting conclusions as well. For example, it appears that the earliest surviving terrestrial life-forms were all adapted to live at high temperatures. Some biologists think that life might actually have begun in locations on our planet that were extremely hot. Yet another intriguing possibility is that life began on Mars (which cooled sooner) rather than Earth and was “seeded” onto our planet by meteorites traveling from Mars to Earth. Mars rocks are still making their way to Earth, but so far none has shown evidence of serving as a “spaceship” to carry microorganisms from Mars to Earth.

The Evolution of the Atmosphere

One of the key steps in the evolution of life on Earth was the development of blue-green algae, a very successful life-form that takes in carbon dioxide from the environment and releases oxygen as a waste product. These successful microorganisms proliferated, giving rise to all the lifeforms we call plants. Since the energy for making new plant material from chemical building blocks comes from sunlight, we call the process photosynthesis.

Studies of the chemistry of ancient rocks show that Earth’s atmosphere lacked abundant free oxygen until about 2 billion years ago, despite the presence of plants releasing oxygen by photosynthesis. Apparently, chemical reactions with Earth’s crust removed the oxygen gas as quickly as it formed. Slowly, however, the increasing evolutionary sophistication of life led to a growth in the plant population and thus increased oxygen production. At the same time, it appears that increased geological activity led to heavy erosion on our planet’s surface. Tthis buried much of the plant carbon before it could recombine with oxygen to form CO₂.

Free oxygen began accumulating in the atmosphere about 2 billion years ago, and the increased amount of this gas led to the formation of Earth’s ozone layer (recall that ozone is a triple molecule of oxygen, O₃), which protects the surface from deadly solar ultraviolet light. Before that, it was unthinkable for life to venture outside the protective oceans, so the landmasses of Earth were barren.

The presence of oxygen, and hence ozone, thus allowed colonization of the land. It also made possible a tremendous proliferation of animals, which lived by taking in and using the organic materials produced by plants as their own energy source.

As animals evolved in an environment increasingly rich in oxygen, they were able to develop techniques for breathing oxygen directly from the atmosphere. We humans take it for granted that plenty of free oxygen is available in Earth’s atmosphere, and we use it to release energy from the food we take in. Although it may seem funny to think of it this way, we are lifeforms that have evolved to breathe in the waste product of plants. It is plants and related microbes that are the primary producers, using sunlight to create energy-rich “food” for the rest of us.

On a planetary scale, one of the consequences of life has been a decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide. In the absence of life, Earth would probably have an atmosphere dominated by CO₂, like Mars or Venus. But living things, in combination with high levels of geological activity, have effectively stripped our atmosphere of most of this gas.

The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming

We have a special interest in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere because of the key role this gas plays in retaining heat from the Sun through a process called the greenhouse effect. To understand how the greenhouse effect works, consider the fate of sunlight that strikes the surface of Earth. The light penetrates our atmosphere, is absorbed by the ground, and heats the surface layers. At the temperature of Earth’s surface, that energy is then reemitted as infrared or heat radiation ([link]). However, the molecules of our atmosphere, which allow visible light through, are good at absorbing infrared energy. As a result, CO₂ (along with methane and water vapor) acts like a blanket, trapping heat in the atmosphere and impeding its flow back to space. To maintain an energy balance, the temperature of the surface and lower atmosphere must increase until the total energy radiated by Earth to space equals the energy received from the Sun. The more CO₂ there is in our atmosphere, the higher the temperature at which Earth’s surface reaches a new balance.

How the Greenhouse Effect Works.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 3. Sunlight that penetrates to Earth’s lower atmosphere and surface is reradiated as infrared or heat radiation, which is trapped by greenhouse gases such as water vapor, methane, and CO2 in the atmosphere. The result is a higher surface temperature for our planet.[/caption]

The greenhouse effect in a planetary atmosphere is similar to the heating of a gardener’s greenhouse or the inside of a car left out in the Sun with the windows rolled up. In these examples, the window glass plays the role of greenhouse gases, letting sunlight in but reducing the outward flow of heat radiation. As a result, a greenhouse or car interior winds up much hotter than would be expected from the heating of sunlight alone. On Earth, the current greenhouse effect elevates the surface temperature by about 23 °C. Without this greenhouse effect, the average surface temperature would be well below freezing and Earth would be locked in a global ice age.

That’s the good news; the bad news is that the heating due to the greenhouse effect is increasing. Modern industrial society depends on energy extracted from burning fossil fuels. In effect, we are exploiting the energy-rich material created by photosynthesis tens of millions of years ago. As these ancient coal and oil deposits are oxidized (burned using oxygen), large quantities of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. The problem is exacerbated by the widespread destruction of tropical forests, which we depend on to extract CO₂ from the atmosphere and replenish our supply of oxygen. In the past century of increased industrial and agricultural development, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere increased by about 30% and continues to rise at more than 0.5% per year.

Before the end of the present century, Earth’s CO₂ level is predicted to reach twice the value it had before the industrial revolution ([link]). The consequences of such an increase for Earth’s surface and atmosphere (and the creatures who live there) are likely to be complex changes in climate, and may be catastrophic for many species. Many groups of scientists are now studying the effects of such global warming with elaborate computer models, and climate change has emerged as the greatest known threat (barring nuclear war) to both industrial civilization and the ecology of our planet.

Increase of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide over Time.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 4. Scientists expect that the amount of CO2 will double its preindustrial level before the end of the twenty-first century. Measurements of the isotopic signatures of this added CO2 demonstrate that it is mostly coming from burning fossil fuels. (credit: modification of work by NOAA)[/caption]

This short PBS video explains the physics of the greenhouse effect.

Already climate change is widely apparent. Around the world, temperature records are constantly set and broken; all but one of the hottest recorded years have taken place since 2000. Glaciers are retreating, and the Arctic Sea ice is now much thinner than when it was first explored with nuclear submarines in the 1950s. Rising sea levels (from both melting glaciers and expansion of the water as its temperature rises) pose one of the most immediate threats, and many coastal cities have plans to build dikes or seawalls to hold back the expected flooding. The rate of temperature increase is without historical precedent, and we are rapidly entering “unknown territory” where human activities are leading to the highest temperatures on Earth in more than 50 million years.

Human Impacts on Our Planet

Earth is so large and has been here for so long that some people have trouble accepting that humans are really changing the planet, its atmosphere, and its climate. They are surprised to learn, for example, that the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels is 100 times greater than that emitted by volcanoes. But, the data clearly tell the story that our climate is changing rapidly, and that almost all of the change is a result of human activity.

This is not the first time that humans have altered our environment dramatically. Some of the greatest changes were caused by our ancestors, before the development of modern industrial society. If aliens had visited Earth 50,000 years ago, they would have seen much of the planet supporting large animals of the sort that now survive only in Africa. The plains of Australia were occupied by giant marsupials such as diprododon and zygomaturus (the size of our elephants today), and a species of kangaroo that stood 10 feet high. North America and North Asia hosted mammoths, saber tooth cats, mastodons, giant sloths, and even camels. The Islands of the Pacific teemed with large birds, and vast forests covered what are now the farms of Europe and China. Early human hunters killed many large mammals and marsupials, early farmers cut down most of the forests, and the Polynesian expansion across the Pacific doomed the population of large birds.

An even greater mass extinction is underway as a result of rapid climate change. In recognition of our impact on the environment, scientists have proposed giving a new name to the current epoch, the anthropocine, when human activity started to have a significant global impact. Although not an officially approved name, the concept of “anthropocine” is useful for recognizing that we humans now represent the dominant influence on our planet’s atmosphere and ecology, for better or for worse.

Key Concepts and Summary

Life originated on Earth at a time when the atmosphere lacked O₂ and consisted mostly of CO₂. Later, photosynthesis gave rise to free oxygen and ozone. Modern genomic analysis lets us see how the wide diversity of species on the planet are related to each other. CO₂ and methane in the atmosphere heat the surface through the greenhouse effect; today, increasing amounts of atmospheric CO₂ are leading to the global warming of our planet.

Glossary

greenhouse gas: a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range; on Earth, these atmospheric gases primarily include carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor

greenhouse effect: the blanketing (absorption) of infrared radiation near the surface of a planet—for example, by CO₂ in its atmosphere

photosynthesis: a complex sequence of chemical reactions through which some living things can use sunlight to manufacture products that store energy (such as carbohydrates), releasing oxygen as one by-product

8.5 Cosmic Influences on the Evolution of Earth

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:12:14 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain the scarcity of impact craters on Earth compared with other planets and moons
Describe the evidence for recent impacts on Earth
Detail how a massive impact changed the conditions for life on Earth, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs
Describe how impacts have influenced the evolution of life on Earth
Discuss the search for objects that could potentially collide with our planet

In discussing Earth’s geology earlier in this chapter, we dealt only with the effects of internal forces, expressed through the processes of plate tectonics and volcanism. On the Moon, in contrast, we see primarily craters, produced by the impacts of interplanetary debris such as asteroids and comets. Why don’t we see more evidence on Earth of the kinds of impact craters that are so prominent on the Moon and other worlds?

Where Are the Craters on Earth?

It is not possible that Earth escaped being struck by the interplanetary debris that has pockmarked the Moon. From a cosmic perspective, the Moon is almost next door. Our atmosphere does make small pieces of cosmic debris burn up (which we see as meteors—commonly called shooting stars). But, the layers of our air provide no shield against the large impacts that form craters several kilometers in diameter and are common on the Moon. In the course of its history, Earth must therefore have been impacted as heavily as the Moon. The difference is that, on Earth, these craters are destroyed by our active geology before they can accumulate. As plate tectonics constantly renews our crust, evidence of past cratering events is slowly erased. Only in the past few decades have geologists succeeded in identifying the eroded remnants of many impact craters ([link]). Even more recent is our realization that, over the history of Earth, these impacts have had an important influence on the evolution of life.

Ouarkziz Impact Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 1. Located in Algeria, this crater (the round feature in the center) is the result of a meteor impact during the Cretaceous period. Although the crater has experienced heavy erosion, this image from the International Space Station shows the circular pattern resulting from impact. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Recent Impacts

The collision of interplanetary debris with Earth is not a hypothetical idea. Evidence of relatively recent impacts can be found on our planet’s surface. One well-studied historic collision took place on June 30, 1908, near the Tunguska River in Siberia. In this desolate region, there was a remarkable explosion in the atmosphere about 8 kilometers above the surface. The shock wave flattened more than a thousand square kilometers of forest ([link]). Herds of reindeer and other animals were killed, and a man at a trading post 80 kilometers from the blast was thrown from his chair and knocked unconscious. The blast wave spread around the world, as recorded by instruments designed to measure changes in atmospheric pressure.

Aftermath of the Tunguska Explosion.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. This photograph, taken 21 years after the blast, shows a part of the forest that was destroyed by the 5-megaton explosion, resulting when a stony projectile about the size of a small office building (40 meters in diameter) collided with our planet. (credit: modification of work by Leonid Kulik)[/caption]

Despite this violence, no craters were formed by the Tunguska explosion. Shattered by atmospheric pressure, the stony projectile with a mass of approximately 10,000 tons disintegrated above our planet’s surface to create a blast equivalent to a 5-megaton nuclear bomb. Had it been smaller or more fragile, the impacting body would have dissipated its energy at high altitude and probably attracted no attention. Today, such high-altitude atmospheric explosions are monitored regularly by military surveillance systems.

If it had been larger or made of stronger material (such as metal), the Tunguska projectile would have penetrated all the way to the surface of Earth and exploded to form a crater. Instead, only the heat and shock of the atmospheric explosion reached the surface, but the devastation it left behind in Siberia bore witness to the power of such impacts. Imagine if the same rocky impactor had exploded over New York City in 1908; history books might today record it as one of the most deadly events in human history.

Tens of thousands of people witnessed directly the explosion of a smaller (20-meter) projectile over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on an early winter morning in 2013. It exploded at a height of 21 kilometers in a burst of light brighter than the Sun, and the shockwave of the 0.5-megaton explosion broke tens of thousands of windows and sent hundreds of people to the hospital. Rock fragments (meteorites) were easily collected by people in the area after the blast because they landed on fresh snow.

Dr. David Morrison, one of the original authors of this textbook, provides a nontechnical talk about the Chelyabinsk explosion, and impacts in general.

The best-known recent crater on Earth was formed about 50,000 years ago in Arizona. The projectile in this case was a lump of iron about 40 meters in diameter. Now called Meteor Crater and a major tourist attraction on the way to the Grand Canyon, the crater is about a mile across and has all the features associated with similar-size lunar impact craters ([link]). Meteor Crater is one of the few impact features on Earth that remains relatively intact; some older craters are so eroded that only a trained eye can distinguish them. Nevertheless, more than 150 have been identified. (See the list of suggested online sites at the end of this chapter if you want to find out more about these other impact scars.)

Meteor Crater in Arizona.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 3. Here we see a 50,000-year-old impact crater made by the collision of a 40-meter lump of iron with our planet. Although impact craters are common on less active bodies such as the Moon, this is one of the very few well-preserved craters on Earth. (modification of work by D. Roddy/USGS)[/caption]

Mass Extinction

The impact that produced Meteor Crater would have been dramatic indeed to any humans who witnessed it (from a safe distance) since the energy release was equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb. But such explosions are devastating only in their local areas; they have no global consequences. Much larger (and rarer) impacts, however, can disturb the ecological balance of the entire planet and thus influence the course of evolution. The best-documented large impact took place 65 million years ago, at the end of what is now called the Cretaceous period of geological history. This time in the history of life on Earth was marked by a mass extinction, in which more than half of the species on our planet died out. There are a dozen or more mass extinctions in the geological record, but this particular event (nicknamed the “great dying”) has always intrigued paleontologists because it marks the end of the dinosaur age. For tens of millions of years these great creatures had flourished and dominated. Then, they suddenly disappeared (along with many other species), and thereafter mammals began the development and diversification that ultimately led to all of us. The object that collided with Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period struck a shallow sea in what is now the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Its mass must have been more than a trillion tons, determined from study of a worldwide layer of sediment deposited from the dust cloud that enveloped the planet after its impact. First identified in 1979, this sediment layer is rich in the rare metal iridium and other elements that are relatively abundant in asteroids and comets, but exceedingly rare in Earth’s crust. Even though it was diluted by the material that the explosion excavated from the surface of Earth, this cosmic component can still be identified. In addition, this layer of sediment contains many minerals characteristic of the temperatures and pressures of a gigantic explosion.

The impact that led to the extinction of dinosaurs released energy equivalent to 5 billion Hiroshima-size nuclear bombs and excavated a crater 200 kilometers across and deep enough to penetrate through Earth’s crust. This large crater, named Chicxulub for a small town near its center, has subsequently been buried in sediment, but its outlines can still be identified ([link]). The explosion that created the Chicxulub crater lifted about 100 trillion tons of dust into the atmosphere. We can determine this amount by measuring the thickness of the sediment layer that formed when this dust settled to the surface.

Site of the Chicxulub Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 4. This map shows the location of the impact crater created 65 million years ago on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. The crater is now buried under more than 500 meters of sediment. (credit: modification of work by “Carport”/Wikimedia)[/caption]

Such a quantity of airborne material would have blocked sunlight completely, plunging Earth into a period of cold and darkness that lasted several months. Many plants dependent on sunlight would have died, leaving plant-eating animals without a food supply. Other worldwide effects included large-scale fires (started by the hot, flying debris from the explosion) that destroyed much of the planet’s forests and grasslands, and a long period in which rainwater around the globe was acidic. It was these environmental effects, rather than the explosion itself, that were responsible for the mass extinction, including the demise of the dinosaurs.

Impacts and the Evolution of Life

It is becoming clear that many—perhaps most—mass extinctions in Earth’s long history resulted from a variety of other causes, but in the case of the dinosaur killer, the cosmic impact certainly played a critical role and may have been the “final straw” in a series of climactic disturbances that resulted in the “great dying.”

A catastrophe for one group of living things, however, may create opportunities for another group. Following each mass extinction, there is a sudden evolutionary burst as new species develop to fill the ecological niches opened by the event. Sixty-five million years ago, our ancestors, the mammals, began to thrive when so many other species died out. We are the lucky beneficiaries of this process.

Impacts by comets and asteroids represent the only mechanisms we know of that could cause truly global catastrophes and seriously influence the evolution of life all over the planet. As paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard noted, such a perspective changes fundamentally our view of biological evolution. The central issues for the survival of a species must now include more than just its success in competing with other species and adapting to slowly changing environments, as envisioned by Darwin’s idea of natural selection. Also required is an ability to survive random global catastrophes due to impacts.

Still earlier in its history, Earth was subject to even larger impacts from the leftover debris of planet formation. We know that the Moon was struck repeatedly by objects larger than 100 kilometers in diameter—1000 times more massive than the object that wiped out most terrestrial life 65 million years ago. Earth must have experienced similar large impacts during its first 700 million years of existence. Some of them were probably violent enough to strip the planet of most its atmosphere and to boil away its oceans. Such events would sterilize the planet, destroying any life that had begun. Life may have formed and been wiped out several times before our own microbial ancestors took hold sometime about 4 billion years ago.

The fact that the oldest surviving microbes on Earth are thermophiles (adapted to very high temperatures) can also be explained by such large impacts. An impact that was just a bit too small to sterilize the planet would still have destroyed anything that lived in what we consider “normal” environments, and only the creatures adapted to high temperatures would survive. Thus, the oldest surviving terrestrial lifeforms are probably the remnants of a sort of evolutionary bottleneck caused by repeated large impacts early in the planet’s history.

Impacts in Our Future?

The impacts by asteroids and comets that have had such a major influence on life are not necessarily a thing of the past. In the full scope of planetary history, 65 million years ago was just yesterday. Earth actually orbits the Sun within a sort of cosmic shooting gallery, and although major impacts are rare, they are by no means over. Humanity could suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs, or lose a city to the much more frequent impacts like the one over Tunguska, unless we figure out a way to predict the next big impact and to protect our planet. The fact that our solar system is home to some very large planets in outer orbits may be beneficial to us; the gravitational fields of those planets can be very effective at pulling in cosmic debris and shielding us from larger, more frequent impacts. Beginning in the 1990s, a few astronomers began to analyze the cosmic impact hazard and to persuade the government to support a search for potentially hazardous asteroids. Several small but sophisticated wide-field telescopes are now used for this search, which is called the NASA Spaceguard Survey. Already we know that there are currently no asteroids on a collision course with Earth that are as big (10–15 kilometers) as the one that killed the dinosaurs. The Spaceguard Survey now concentrates on finding smaller potential impactors. By 2015, the search had netted more than 15,000 near-Earth-asteroids, including most of those larger than 1 kilometer. None of those discovered so far poses any danger to us. Of course, we cannot make a similar statement about the asteroids that have not yet been discovered, but these will be found and evaluated one by one for their potential hazard. These asteroid surveys are one of the few really life-and-death projects carried out by astronomers, with a potential to help to save our planet from future major impacts.

The Torino Impact Hazard Scale is a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets. It is a communication tool for astronomers and the public to assess the seriousness of collision predictions by combining probability statistics and known kinetic damage potentials into a single threat value.

Purdue University’s “Impact: Earth” calculator lets you input the characteristics of an approaching asteroid to determine the effect of its impact on our planet.

Key Concepts and Summary

Earth, like the Moon and other planets, has been influenced by the impacts of cosmic debris, including such recent examples as Meteor Crater and the Tunguska explosion. Larger past impacts are implicated in some mass extinctions, including the large impact 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period that wiped out the dinosaurs and many other species. Today, astronomers are working to predict the next impact in advance, while other scientists are coming to grips with the effect of impacts on the evolution and diversity of life on Earth.

For Further Exploration

Articles

Earth

Collins, W., et al. “The Physical Science behind Climate Change.” Scientific American (August 2007): 64. Why scientists are now confident that human activities are changing our planet’s climate.

Glatzmaier, G., & Olson, P. “Probing the Geodynamo.” Scientific American (April 2005): 50. Experiments and modeling that tell us about the source and reversals of Earth’s magnetic field. Gurnis, M. “Sculpting the Earth from Inside Out.” Scientific American (March 2001): 40. On motions that lift and lower the continents.

Hartmann, W. “Piecing Together Earth’s Early History.” Astronomy (June 1989): 24. Jewitt, D., & Young, E. “Oceans from the Skies.” Scientific American (March 2015): 36. How did Earth get its water after its initial hot period?

Impacts

Boslaugh, M. “In Search of Death-Plunge Asteroids.” Astronomy (July 2015): 28. On existing and proposed programs to search for earth-crossing asteroids.

Brusatte, S. “What Killed the Dinosaurs?” Scientific American (December 2015): 54. The asteroid hit Earth at an already vulnerable time.

Chyba, C. “Death from the Sky: Tunguska.” Astronomy (December 1993): 38. Excellent review article.

Durda, D. “The Chelyabinsk Super-Meteor.” Sky & Telescope (June 2013): 24. A nice summary with photos and eyewitness reporting.

Gasperini, L., et al. “The Tunguska Mystery.” Scientific American (June 2008): 80. A more detailed exploration of the site of the 1908 impact over Siberia.

Kring, D. “Blast from the Past.” Astronomy (August 2006): 46. Six-page introduction to Arizona’s meteor crater.

Websites

Earth

Astronaut Photography of Earth from Space: http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/. A site with many images and good information.

Exploration of the Earth’s Magnetosphere: http://phy6.org/Education/Intro.html. An educational website by Dr. Daniel Stern.

NASA Goddard: Earth from Space: Fifteen Amazing Things in 15 Years: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/earth-from-space-15-amazing-things-in-15-years. Images and videos that reveal things about our planet and its atmosphere.

U.S. Geological Survey: Earthquake Information Center: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/

Views of the Solar System: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm. Overview of Earth.

Impacts

B612 Foundation : https://b612foundation.org/. Set up by several astronauts for research and education about the asteroid threat to Earth and to build a telescope in space to search for dangerous asteroids. Lunar and Planetary Institute: Introduction to Terrestrial Impact Craters: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/craters/. Includes images.

Meteor Crater Tourist Site: http://meteorcrater.com/.

NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab Near Earth Object Program: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/.

What Are Near-Earth-Objects: http://spaceguardcentre.com/what-are-neos/. From the British Spaceguard Centre.

Videos

Earth

All Alone in the Night: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120305.html. Flying over Earth at night (2:30).

Earth Globes Movies (including Earth at night): http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/earth/.

Earth: The Operator’s Manual: http://earththeoperatorsmanual.com/feature-video/earth-the-operators-manual. A National Science Foundation–sponsored miniseries on climate change and energy, with geologist Richard Alley (53:43).

PBS NOVA Videos about Earth: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/. Programs and information about planet Earth. Click full episodes on the menu at left to be taken to a nice array of videos.

U. S. National Weather Service: http://earth.nullschool.net. Real Time Globe of Earth showing wind patterns which can be zoomed and moved to your preferred view.

Impacts

Chelyabinsk Meteor: Can We Survive a Bigger Impact?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-e6xyUZLLs . Talk by Dr. David Morrison (1:34:48).

Large Asteroid Impact Simulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU. Large asteroid impact simulation from the Discovery Channel (4:45). Meteor Hits Russia February 15, 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU. Archive of eyewitness footage (10:11).

Sentinel Mission: Finding an Asteroid Headed for Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efz8c3ijD_A. Public lecture by astronaut Ed Lu (1:08:57).

Collaborative Group Activities

If we can predict that lots of ground movement takes place along subduction zones and faults, then why do so many people live there? Should we try to do anything to discourage people from living in these areas? What inducement would your group offer people to move? Who would pay for the relocation? (Note that two of the original authors of this book live quite close to the San Andreas and Hayward faults. If they wrote this chapter and haven’t moved, what are the chances others living in these kinds of areas will move?)
After your group reads the feature box on Alfred Wegener: Catching the Drift of Plate Tectonics, discuss some reasons his idea did not catch on right away among scientists. From your studies in this course and in other science courses (in college and before), can you cite other scientific ideas that we now accept but that had controversial beginnings? Can you think of any scientific theories that are still controversial today? If your group comes up with some, discuss ways scientists could decide whether each theory on your list is right.
Suppose we knew that a large chunk of rock or ice (about the same size as the one that hit 65 million years ago) will impact Earth in about 5 years. What could or should we do about it? (The film Deep Impact dealt with this theme.) Does your group think that the world as a whole should spend more money to find and predict the orbits of cosmic debris near Earth?
Carl Sagan pointed out that any defensive weapon that we might come up with to deflect an asteroid away from Earth could be used as an offensive weapon by an unstable dictator in the future to cause an asteroid not heading our way to come toward Earth. The history of human behavior, he noted, has shown that most weapons that are built (even with the best of motives) seem to wind up being used. Bearing this in mind, does your group think we should be building weapons to protect Earth from asteroid or comet impact? Can we afford not to build them? How can we safeguard against these collisions?
Is there evidence of climate change in your area over the past century? How would you distinguish a true climate change from the random variations in weather that take place from one year to the next?

Review Questions

1: What is the thickest interior layer of Earth? The thinnest?

2: What are Earth’s core and mantle made of? Explain how we know.

3: Describe the differences among primitive, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock, and relate these differences to their origins.

4: Explain briefly how the following phenomena happen on Earth, relating your answers to the theory of plate tectonics

earthquakes
continental drift
mountain building
volcanic eruptions
creation of the Hawaiian island chain

5: What is the source of Earth’s magnetic field?

6: Why is the shape of the magnetosphere not spherical like the shape of Earth?

7: Although he did not present a mechanism, what were the key points of Alfred Wegener’s proposal for the concept of continental drift?

8: List the possible interactions between Earth’s crustal plates that can occur at their boundaries.

9: List, in order of decreasing altitude, the principle layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

10: In which atmospheric layer are almost all water-based clouds formed?

11: What is, by far, the most abundant component of Earth’s atmosphere?

12: In which domain of living things do you find humankind?

13: Describe three ways in which the presence of life has affected the composition of Earth’s atmosphere.

14: Briefly describe the greenhouse effect.

15: How do impacts by comets and asteroids influence Earth’s geology, its atmosphere, and the evolution of life?

16: Why are there so many impact craters on our neighbor world, the Moon, and so few on Earth?

17: Detail some of the anthropogenic changes to Earth’s climate and their potential impact on life.

Thought Questions

18: If you wanted to live where the chances of a destructive earthquake were small, would you pick a location near a fault zone, near a mid ocean ridge, near a subduction zone, or on a volcanic island such as Hawaii? What are the relative risks of earthquakes at each of these locations?

19: Which type of object would likely cause more damage if it struck near an urban area: a small metallic object or a large stony/icy one?

20: If all life were destroyed on Earth by a large impact, would new life eventually form to take its place? Explain how conditions would have to change for life to start again on our planet.

21: Why is a decrease in Earth’s ozone harmful to life?

22: Why are we concerned about the increases in CO₂ and other gases that cause the greenhouse effect in Earth’s atmosphere? What steps can we take in the future to reduce the levels of CO₂ in our atmosphere? What factors stand in the way of taking the steps you suggest? (You may include technological, economic, and political factors in your answer.)

23: Do you think scientists should make plans to defend Earth from future asteroid impacts? Is it right to intervene in the same evolutionary process that made the development of mammals (including us) possible after the big impact 65 million years ago?

Figuring for Yourself

24: Europe and North America are moving apart by about 5 m per century. As the continents separate, new ocean floor is created along the mid-Atlantic Rift. If the rift is 5000 km long, what is the total area of new ocean floor created in the Atlantic each century? (Remember that 1 km = 1000 m.)

25: Over the entire Earth, there are 60,000 km of active rift zones, with average separation rates of 5 m/century. How much area of new ocean crust is created each year over the entire planet? (This area is approximately equal to the amount of ocean crust that is subducted since the total area of the oceans remains about the same.)

26: With the information from [link], you can calculate the average age of the ocean floor. First, find the total area of the ocean floor (equal to about 60% of the surface area of Earth). Then compare this with the area created (or destroyed) each year. The average lifetime is the ratio of these numbers: the total area of ocean crust compared to the amount created (or destroyed) each year.

27: What is the volume of new oceanic basalt added to Earth’s crust each year? Assume that the thickness of the new crust is 5 km, that there are 60,000 km of rifts, and that the average speed of plate motion is 4 cm/y. What fraction of Earth’s entire volume does this annual addition of new material represent?

28: Suppose a major impact that produces a mass extinction takes place on Earth once every 5 million years. Suppose further that if such an event occurred today, you and most other humans would be killed (this would be true even if the human species as a whole survived). Such impact events are random, and one could take place at any time. Calculate the probability that such an impact will occur within the next 50 years (within your lifetime).

29: How do the risks of dying from the impact of an asteroid or comet compare with other risks we are concerned about, such as dying in a car accident or from heart disease or some other natural cause? (Hint: To find the annual risk, go to the library or internet and look up the annual number of deaths from a particular cause in a particular country, and then divide by the population of that country.)

30: What fraction of Earth’s volume is taken up by the core?

31: Approximately what percentage of Earth’s radius is represented by the crust?

32: What is the drift rate of the Pacific plate over the Hawaiian hot spot?

33: What is the percent increase of atmospheric CO₂ in the past 20 years?

34: Estimate the mass of the object that formed Meteor Crater in Arizona.

Glossary

mass extinction: the sudden disappearance in the fossil record of a large number of species of life, to be replaced by fossils of new species in subsequent layers; mass extinctions are indicators of catastrophic changes in the environment, such as might be produced by a large impact on Earth

9.1 General Properties of the Moon

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:12:57 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Discuss what has been learned from both manned and robotic lunar exploration
Describe the composition and structure of the Moon

The Moon has only one-eightieth the mass of Earth and about one-sixth Earth’s surface gravity—too low to retain an atmosphere ([link]). Moving molecules of a gas can escape from a planet just the way a rocket does, and the lower the gravity, the easier it is for the gas to leak away into space. While the Moon can acquire a temporary atmosphere from impacting comets, this atmosphere is quickly lost by freezing onto the surface or by escape to surrounding space. The Moon today is dramatically deficient in a wide range of volatiles, those elements and compounds that evaporate at relatively low temperatures. Some of the Moon’s properties are summarized in [link], along with comparative values for Mercury.

Two Sides of the Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The left image shows part of the hemisphere that faces Earth; several dark maria are visible. The right image shows part of the hemisphere that faces away from Earth; it is dominated by highlands. The resolution of this image is several kilometers, similar to that of high-powered binoculars or a small telescope. (credit: modification of work by NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)[/caption]

Properties of the Moon and Mercury
Property	Moon	Mercury
Mass (Earth = 1)	0.0123	0.055
Diameter (km)	3476	4878
Density (g/cm³)	3.3	5.4
Surface gravity (Earth = 1)	0.17	0.38
Escape velocity (km/s)	2.4	4.3
Rotation period (days)	27.3	58.65
Surface area (Earth = 1)	0.27	0.38

Exploration of the Moon

Most of what we know about the Moon today derives from the US Apollo program, which sent nine piloted spacecraft to our satellite between 1968 and 1972, landing 12 astronauts on its surface ([link]). Before the era of spacecraft studies, astronomers had mapped the side of the Moon that faces Earth with telescopic resolution of about 1 kilometer, but lunar geology hardly existed as a scientific subject. All that changed beginning in the early 1960s. Initially, Russia took the lead in lunar exploration with Luna 3, which returned the first photos of the lunar far side in 1959, and then with Luna 9, which landed on the surface in 1966 and transmitted pictures and other data to Earth. However, these efforts were overshadowed on July 20, 1969, when the first American astronaut set foot on the Moon.

[link] summarizes the nine Apollo flights: six that landed and three others that circled the Moon but did not land. The initial landings were on flat plains selected for safety reasons. But with increasing experience and confidence, NASA targeted the last three missions to more geologically interesting locales. The level of scientific exploration also increased with each mission, as the astronauts spent longer times on the Moon and carried more elaborate equipment. Finally, on the last Apollo landing, NASA included one scientist, geologist Jack Schmitt, among the astronauts ([link]).

Apollo Flights to the Moon
Flight	Date	Landing Site	Main Accomplishment
Apollo 8	Dec. 1968	—	First humans to fly around the Moon
Apollo 10	May 1969	—	First spacecraft rendezvous in lunar orbit
Apollo 11	July 1969	Mare Tranquillitatis	First human landing on the Moon; 22 kilograms of samples returned
Apollo 12	Nov. 1969	Oceanus Procellarum	First Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP); visit to Surveyor 3 lander
Apollo 13	Apr. 1970	—	Landing aborted due to explosion in command module
Apollo 14	Jan. 1971	Mare Nubium	First “rickshaw” on the Moon
Apollo 15	July 1971	Mare Imbrium/Hadley	First “rover;” visit to Hadley Rille; astronauts traveled 24 kilometers
Apollo 16	Apr. 1972	Descartes	First landing in highlands; 95 kilograms of samples returned
Apollo 17	Dec. 1972	Taurus-Littrow highlands	Geologist among the crew; 111 kilograms of samples returned

Scientist on the Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. Geologist (and later US senator) Harrison “Jack” Schmitt in front of a large boulder in the Littrow Valley at the edge of the lunar highlands. Note how black the sky is on the airless Moon. No stars are visible because the surface is brightly lit by the Sun, and the exposure therefore is not long enough to reveal stars.[/caption]

In addition to landing on the lunar surface and studying it at close range, the Apollo missions accomplished three objectives of major importance for lunar science. First, the astronauts collected nearly 400 kilograms of samples for detailed laboratory analysis on Earth ([link]). These samples have revealed as much about the Moon and its history as all other lunar studies combined. Second, each Apollo landing after the first one deployed an Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP), which continued to operate for years after the astronauts departed. Third, the orbiting Apollo command modules carried a wide range of instruments to photograph and analyze the lunar surface from above.

Handling Moon Rocks.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 3. Lunar samples collected in the Apollo Project are analyzed and stored in NASA facilities at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Here, a technician examines a rock sample using gloves in a sealed environment to avoid contaminating the sample. (credit: NASA JSC)[/caption]

The last human left the Moon in December 1972, just a little more than three years after Neil Armstrong took his “giant leap for mankind.” The program of lunar exploration was cut off midstride due to political and economic pressures. It had cost just about ?100 per American, spread over 10 years—the equivalent of one large pizza per person per year. Yet for many people, the Moon landings were one of the central events in twentieth-century history.

The giant Apollo rockets built to travel to the Moon were left to rust on the lawns of NASA centers in Florida, Texas, and Alabama, although recently, some have at least been moved indoors to museums ([link]). Today, neither NASA nor Russia have plans to send astronauts to the Moon, and China appears to be the nation most likely to attempt this feat. (In a bizarre piece of irony, a few people even question whether we went to the Moon at all, proposing instead that the Apollo program was a fake, filmed on a Hollywood sound stage. See the Link to Learning box below for some scientists’ replies to such claims.) However, scientific interest in the Moon is stronger than ever, and more than half a dozen scientific spacecraft—sent from NASA, ESA, Japan, India, and China—have orbited or landed on our nearest neighbor during the past decade.

Read The Great Moon Hoax about the claim that NASA never succeeded in putting people on the Moon.

Moon Rocket on Display.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 4. One of the unused Saturn 5 rockets built to go to the Moon is now a tourist attraction at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, although it has been moved indoors since this photo was taken. (credit: modification of work by David Morrison)[/caption]

Lunar exploration has become an international enterprise with many robotic spacecraft focusing on lunar science. The USSR sent a number in the 1960s, including robot sample returns. [link] lists some of the most recent lunar missions.

Some International Missions to the Moon
Launch Year	Spacecraft	Type of Mission	Agency
1994	Clementine	Orbiter	US (USAF/NASA)
1998	Lunar Prospector	Orbiter	US (NASA)
2003	SMART-1	Orbiter	Europe (ESA)
2007	SELENE 1	Orbiter	Japan (JAXA)
2007	Chang’e 1	Orbiter	China (CNSA)
2008	Chandrayaan-1	Orbiter	India (ISRO)
2009	LRO	Orbiter	US (NASA)
2009	LCROSS	Impactor	US (NASA)
2010	Chang’e 2	Orbiter	China (CNSA)
2011	GRAIL	Twin orbiters	US (NASA)
2013	LADEE	Orbiter	US (NASA)
2013	Chang’e 3	Lander/Rover	China (CNSA)

Composition and Structure of the Moon

The composition of the Moon is not the same as that of Earth. With an average density of only 3.3 g/cm³, the Moon must be made almost entirely of silicate rock. Compared to Earth, it is depleted in iron and other metals. It is as if the Moon were composed of the same silicates as Earth’s mantle and crust, with the metals and the volatiles selectively removed. These differences in composition between Earth and Moon provide important clues about the origin of the Moon, a topic we will cover in detail later in this chapter.

Studies of the Moon’s interior carried out with seismometers taken to the Moon as part of the Apollo program confirm the absence of a large metal core. The twin GRAIL spacecraft launched into lunar orbit in 2011 provided even more precise tracking of the interior structure. We also know from the study of lunar samples that water and other volatiles have been depleted from the lunar crust. The tiny amounts of water detected in these samples were originally attributed to small leaks in the container seal that admitted water vapor from Earth’s atmosphere. However, scientists have now concluded that some chemically bound water is present in the lunar rocks.

Most dramatically, water ice has been detected in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles. In 2009, NASA crashed a small spacecraft called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the crater Cabeus near the Moon’s south pole. The impact at 9,000 kilometers per hour released energy equivalent to 2 tons of dynamite, blasting a plume of water vapor and other chemicals high above the surface. This plume was visible to telescopes in orbit around the Moon, and the LCROSS spacecraft itself made measurements as it flew through the plume. A NASA spacecraft called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) also measured the very low temperatures inside several lunar craters, and its sensitive cameras were even able to image crater interiors by starlight.

The total quantity of water ice in the Moon’s polar craters is estimated to be hundreds of billions of tons. As liquid, this would only be enough water to fill a lake 100 miles across, but compared with the rest of the dry lunar crust, so much water is remarkable. Presumably, this polar water was carried to the Moon by comets and asteroids that hit its surface. Some small fraction of the water froze in a few extremely cold regions (cold traps) where the Sun never shines, such as the bottom of deep craters at the Moon’s poles. One reason this discovery could be important is that it raises the possibility of future human habitation near the lunar poles, or even of a lunar base as a way-station on routes to Mars and the rest of the solar system. If the ice could be mined, it would yield both water and oxygen for human support, and it could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, a potent rocket fuel.

Key Concepts and Summary

Most of what we know about the Moon derives from the Apollo program, including 400 kilograms of lunar samples still being intensively studied. The Moon has one-eightieth the mass of Earth and is severely depleted in both metals and volatile materials. It is made almost entirely of silicates like those in Earth’s mantle and crust. However, more recent spacecraft have found evidence of a small amount of water near the lunar poles, most likely deposited by comet and asteroid impacts.

9.2 The Lunar Surface

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:13:09 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Differentiate between the major surface features of the Moon
Describe the history of the lunar surface
Describe the properties of the lunar “soil”

General Appearance

If you look at the Moon through a telescope, you can see that it is covered by impact craters of all sizes. The most conspicuous of the Moon’s surface features—those that can be seen with the unaided eye and that make up the feature often called “the man in the Moon”—are vast splotches of darker lava flows. Centuries ago, early lunar observers thought that the Moon had continents and oceans and that it was a possible abode of life. They called the dark areas “seas” (maria in Latin, or mare in the singular, pronounced “mah ray”). Their names, Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds), Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility), and so on, are still in use today. In contrast, the “land” areas between the seas are not named. Thousands of individual craters have been named, however, mostly for great scientists and philosophers ([link]). Among the most prominent craters are those named for Plato, Copernicus, Tycho, and Kepler. Galileo only has a small crater, however, reflecting his low standing among the Vatican scientists who made some of the first lunar maps.

We know today that the resemblance of lunar features to terrestrial ones is superficial. Even when they look somewhat similar, the origins of lunar features such as craters and mountains are very different from their terrestrial counterparts. The Moon’s relative lack of internal activity, together with the absence of air and water, make most of its geological history unlike anything we know on Earth.

Sunrise on the Central Mountain Peaks of Tycho Crater, as Imaged by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Figure 1. Tycho, about 82 kilometers in diameter, is one of the youngest of the very large lunar craters. The central mountain rises 12 kilometers above the crater floor. (credit: modification of work by NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)[/caption]

Lunar History

To trace the detailed history of the Moon or of any planet, we must be able to estimate the ages of individual rocks. Once lunar samples were brought back by the Apollo astronauts, the radioactive dating techniques that had been developed for Earth were applied to them. The solidification ages of the samples ranged from about 3.3 to 4.4 billion years old, substantially older than most of the rocks on Earth. For comparison, as we saw in the chapter on Earth, Moon, and Sky, both Earth and the Moon were formed between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago.

Most of the crust of the Moon (83%) consists of silicate rocks called anorthosites; these regions are known as the lunar highlands. They are made of relatively low-density rock that solidified on the cooling Moon like slag floating on the top of a smelter. Because they formed so early in lunar history (between 4.1 and 4.4 billion years ago), the highlands are also extremely heavily cratered, bearing the scars of all those billions of years of impacts by interplanetary debris ([link]).

Lunar Highlands.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 2. The old, heavily cratered lunar highlands make up 83% of the Moon’s surface. (credit: Apollo 11 Crew, NASA)[/caption]

Unlike the mountains on Earth, the Moon’s highlands do not have any sharp folds in their ranges. The highlands have low, rounded profiles that resemble the oldest, most eroded mountains on Earth ([link]). Because there is no atmosphere or water on the Moon, there has been no wind, water, or ice to carve them into cliffs and sharp peaks, the way we have seen them shaped on Earth. Their smooth features are attributed to gradual erosion, mostly due to impact cratering from meteorites.

Lunar Mountain.

[caption id="attachment_344" align="aligncenter" width="298"] Figure 3. This photo of Mt. Hadley on the edge of Mare Imbrium was taken by Dave Scott, one of the Apollo 15 astronauts. Note the smooth contours of the lunar mountains, which have not been sculpted by water or ice. (credit: NASA/Apollo Lunar Surface Journal)[/caption]

The maria are much less cratered than the highlands, and cover just 17% of the lunar surface, mostly on the side of the Moon that faces Earth ([link]).

Lunar Maria.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 4. About 17% of the Moon’s surface consists of the maria—flat plains of basaltic lava. This view of Mare Imbrium also shows numerous secondary craters and evidence of material ejected from the large crater Copernicus on the upper horizon. Copernicus is an impact crater almost 100 kilometers in diameter that was formed long after the lava in Imbrium had already been deposited. (credit: NASA, Apollo 17)[/caption]

Today, we know that the maria consist mostly of dark-colored basalt (volcanic lava) laid down in volcanic eruptions billions of years ago. Eventually, these lava flows partly filled the huge depressions called impact basins, which had been produced by collisions of large chunks of material with the Moon relatively early in its history. The basalt on the Moon ([link]) is very similar in composition to the crust under the oceans of Earth or to the lavas erupted by many terrestrial volcanoes. The youngest of the lunar impact basins is Mare Orientale, shown in [link].

Rock from a Lunar Mare.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 5. In this sample of basalt from the mare surface, you can see the holes left by gas bubbles, which are characteristic of rock formed from lava. All lunar rocks are chemically distinct from terrestrial rocks, a fact that has allowed scientists to identify a few lunar samples among the thousands of meteorites that reach Earth. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Mare Orientale.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 6. The youngest of the large lunar impact basins is Orientale, formed 3.8 billion years ago. Its outer ring is about 1000 kilometers in diameter, roughly the distance between New York City and Detroit, Michigan. Unlike most of the other basins, Orientale has not been completely filled in with lava flows, so it retains its striking “bull’s-eye” appearance. It is located on the edge of the Moon as seen from Earth. (credit: NASA)[/caption]

Volcanic activity may have begun very early in the Moon’s history, although most evidence of the first half billion years is lost. What we do know is that the major mare volcanism, which involved the release of lava from hundreds of kilometers below the surface, ended about 3.3 billion years ago. After that, the Moon’s interior cooled, and volcanic activity was limited to a very few small areas. The primary forces altering the surface come from the outside, not the interior.

On the Lunar Surface

“The surface is fine and powdery. I can pick it up loosely with my toe. But I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine sandy particles.” —Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 astronaut, immediately after stepping onto the Moon for the first time.

The surface of the Moon is buried under a fine-grained soil of tiny, shattered rock fragments. The dark basaltic dust of the lunar maria was kicked up by every astronaut footstep, and thus eventually worked its way into all of the astronauts’ equipment. The upper layers of the surface are porous, consisting of loosely packed dust into which their boots sank several centimeters ([link]). This lunar dust, like so much else on the Moon, is the product of impacts. Each cratering event, large or small, breaks up the rock of the lunar surface and scatters the fragments. Ultimately, billions of years of impacts have reduced much of the surface layer to particles about the size of dust or sand.

Footprint on Moon Dust.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 7. Apollo photo of an astronaut’s boot print in the lunar soil. (credit: NASA)[/caption]

In the absence of any air, the lunar surface experiences much greater temperature extremes than the surface of Earth, even though Earth is virtually the same distance from the Sun. Near local noon, when the Sun is highest in the sky, the temperature of the dark lunar soil rises above the boiling point of water. During the long lunar night (which, like the lunar day, lasts two Earth weeks¹), the temperature drops to about 100 K (–173 °C). The extreme cooling is a result not only of the absence of air but also of the porous nature of the Moon’s dusty soil, which cools more rapidly than solid rock would.

Learn how the moon’s craters and maria were formed by watching a video produced by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team about the evolution of the Moon, tracing it from its origin about 4.5 billion years ago to the Moon we see today. See a simulation of how the Moon’s craters and maria were formed through periods of impact, volcanic activity, and heavy bombardment.

Key Concepts and Summary

The Moon, like Earth, was formed about 4.5 billion year ago. The Moon’s heavily cratered highlands are made of rocks more than 4 billion years old. The darker volcanic plains of the maria were erupted primarily between 3.3 and 3.8 billion years ago. Generally, the surface is dominated by impacts, including continuing small impacts that produce its fine-grained soil.

Footnotes

1 You can see the cycle of day and night on the side of the Moon facing us in the form of the Moon’s phases. It takes about 14 days for the side of the Moon facing us to go from full moon (all lit up) to new moon (all dark). There is more on this in Chapter 4: Earth, Moon, and Sky.

Glossary

highlands: the lighter, heavily cratered regions of the Moon, which are generally several kilometers higher than the maria

mare: (plural: maria) Latin for “sea;” the name applied to the dark, relatively smooth features that cover 17% of the Moon’s surface

3.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:21:45 +0000

International Space Station.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. This space habitat and laboratory orbits Earth once every 90 minutes. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

How would you find a new planet at the outskirts of our solar system that is too dim to be seen with the unaided eye and is so far away that it moves very slowly among the stars? This was the problem confronting astronomers during the nineteenth century as they tried to pin down a full inventory of our solar system.

If we could look down on the solar system from somewhere out in space, interpreting planetary motions would be much simpler. But the fact is, we must observe the positions of all the other planets from our own moving planet. Scientists of the Renaissance did not know the details of Earth’s motions any better than the motions of the other planets. Their problem, as we saw in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy, was that they had to deduce the nature of all planetary motion using only their earthbound observations of the other planets’ positions in the sky. To solve this complex problem more fully, better observations and better models of the planetary system were needed.

4.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:24:03 +0000

Southern Summer.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. As captured with a fish-eye lens aboard the Atlantis Space Shuttle on December 9, 1993, Earth hangs above the Hubble Space Telescope as it is repaired. The reddish continent is Australia, its size and shape distorted by the special lens. Because the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are opposite those in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in Australia on this December day. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

If Earth’s orbit is nearly a perfect circle (as we saw in earlier chapters), why is it hotter in summer and colder in winter in many places around the globe? And why are the seasons in Australia or Peru the opposite of those in the United States or Europe?

The story is told that Galileo, as he left the Hall of the Inquisition following his retraction of the doctrine that Earth rotates and revolves about the Sun, said under his breath, “But nevertheless it moves.” Historians are not sure whether the story is true, but certainly Galileo knew that Earth was in motion, whatever church authorities said.

It is the motions of Earth that produce the seasons and give us our measures of time and date. The Moon’s motions around us provide the concept of the month and the cycle of lunar phases. In this chapter we examine some of the basic phenomena of our everyday world in their astronomical context.

5.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:25:20 +0000

Our Sun in Ultraviolet Light.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1313"] Figure 1. This photograph of the Sun was taken at several different wavelengths of ultraviolet, which our eyes cannot see, and then color coded so it reveals activity in our Sun’s atmosphere that cannot be observed in visible light. This is why it is important to observe the Sun and other astronomical objects in wavelengths other than the visible band of the spectrum. This image was taken by a satellite from above Earth’s atmosphere, which is necessary since Earth’s atmosphere absorbs much of the ultraviolet light coming from space. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

The nearest star is so far away that the fastest spacecraft humans have built would take almost 100,000 years to get there. Yet we very much want to know what material this neighbor star is composed of and how it differs from our own Sun. How can we learn about the chemical makeup of stars that we cannot hope to visit or sample?

In astronomy, most of the objects that we study are completely beyond our reach. The temperature of the Sun is so high that a spacecraft would be fried long before it reached it, and the stars are much too far away to visit in our lifetimes with the technology now available. Even light, which travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second (km/s), takes more than 4 years to reach us from the nearest star. If we want to learn about the Sun and stars, we must rely on techniques that allow us to analyze them from a distance.

6.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:26:44 +0000

Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. This artist’s impression shows the Hubble above Earth, with the rectangular solar panels that provide it with power seen to the left and right.[/caption]

If you look at the sky when you are far away from city lights, there seem to be an overwhelming number of stars up there. In reality, only about 9000 stars are visible to the unaided eye (from both hemispheres of our planet). The light from most stars is so weak that by the time it reaches Earth, it cannot be detected by the human eye. How can we learn about the vast majority of objects in the universe that our unaided eyes simply cannot see?

In this chapter, we describe the tools astronomers use to extend their vision into space. We have learned almost everything we know about the universe from studying electromagnetic radiation, as discussed in the chapter on Radiation and Spectra. In the twentieth century, our exploration of space made it possible to detect electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths, from gamma rays to radio waves. The different wavelengths carry different kinds of information, and the appearance of any given object often depends on the wavelength at which the observations are made.

7.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:27:46 +0000

“Self-Portrait” of Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. This picture was taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars in 2012. The image is reconstructed digitally from 55 different images taken by a camera on the rover’s extended mast, so that the many positions of the mast (which acted like a selfie stick) are edited out. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)[/caption]

Surrounding the Sun is a complex system of worlds with a wide range of conditions: eight major planets, many dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and countless smaller objects. Thanks largely to visits by spacecraft, we can now envision the members of the solar system as other worlds like our own, each with its own chemical and geological history, and unique sights that interplanetary tourists may someday visit. Some have called these past few decades the “golden age of planetary exploration,” comparable to the golden age of exploration in the fifteenth century, when great sailing ships plied Earth’s oceans and humanity became familiar with our own planet’s surface.

In this chapter, we discuss our planetary system and introduce the idea of comparative planetology—studying how the planets work by comparing them with one another. We want to get to know the planets not only for what we can learn about them, but also to see what they can tell us about the origin and evolution of the entire solar system. In the upcoming chapters, we describe the better-known members of the solar system and begin to compare them to the thousands of planets that have been discovered recently, orbiting other stars.

8.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:29:19 +0000

Active Geology.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. This image, taken from the International Space Station in 2006, shows a plume of ash coming from the Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands. Although the plume was only visible for around two hours, such events are a testament to the dynamic nature of Earth’s crust. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

Airless worlds in our solar system seem peppered with craters large and small. Earth, on the other hand, has few craters, but a thick atmosphere and much surface activity. Although impacts occurred on Earth at the same rate, craters have since been erased by forces in the planet’s crust and atmosphere. What can the comparison between the obvious persistent cratering on so many other worlds, and the different appearance of Earth, tell us about the history of our planet?

As our first step in exploring the solar system in more detail, we turn to the most familiar planet, our own Earth. The first humans to see Earth as a blue sphere floating in the blackness of space were the astronauts who made the first voyage around the Moon in 1968. For many people, the historic images showing our world as a small, distant globe represent a pivotal moment in human history, when it became difficult for educated human beings to view our world without a global perspective. In this chapter, we examine the composition and structure of our planet with its envelope of ocean and atmosphere. We ask how our terrestrial environment came to be the way it is today, and how it compares with other planets.

9.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:31:33 +0000

Apollo 11 Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on the Surface of the Moon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. Because there is no atmosphere, ocean, or geological activity on the Moon today, the footprints you see in the image will likely be preserved in the lunar soil for millions of years (credit: modification of work by NASA/ Neil A. Armstrong).[/caption]

The Moon is the only other world human beings have ever visited. What is it like to stand on the surface of our natural satellite? And what can we learn from going there and bringing home pieces of a different world?

We begin our discussion of the planets as cratered worlds with two relatively simple objects: the Moon and Mercury. Unlike Earth, the Moon is geologically dead, a place that has exhausted its internal energy sources. Because its airless surface preserves events that happened long ago, the Moon provides a window on earlier epochs of solar system history. The planet Mercury is in many ways similar to the Moon, which is why the two are discussed together: both are relatively small, lacking in atmospheres, deficient in geological activity, and dominated by the effects of impact cratering. Still, the processes that have molded their surfaces are not unique to these two worlds. We shall see that they have acted on many other members of the planetary system as well.

9.3 Impact Craters

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:13:22 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Compare and contrast ideas about how lunar craters form
Explain the process of impact crater formation
Discuss the use of crater counts to determine relative ages of lunar landforms

The Moon provides an important benchmark for understanding the history of our planetary system. Most solid worlds show the effects of impacts, often extending back to the era when a great deal of debris from our system’s formation process was still present. On Earth, this long history has been erased by our active geology. On the Moon, in contrast, most of the impact history is preserved. If we can understand what has happened on the Moon, we may be able to apply this knowledge to other worlds. The Moon is especially interesting because it is not just any moon, but our Moon—a nearby world that has shared the history of Earth for more than 4 billion years and preserved a record that, for Earth, has been destroyed by our active geology.

Volcanic Versus Impact Origin of Craters

Until the middle of the twentieth century, scientists did not generally recognize that lunar craters were the result of impacts. Since impact craters are extremely rare on Earth, geologists did not expect them to be the major feature of lunar geology. They reasoned (perhaps unconsciously) that since the craters we have on Earth are volcanic, the lunar craters must have a similar origin. One of the first geologists to propose that lunar craters were the result of impacts was Grove K. Gilbert, a scientist with the US Geological Survey in the 1890s. He pointed out that the large lunar craters—mountain-rimmed, circular features with floors generally below the level of the surrounding plains—are larger and have different shapes from known volcanic craters on Earth. Terrestrial volcanic craters are smaller and deeper and almost always occur at the tops of volcanic mountains ([link]). The only alternative to explain the Moon’s craters was an impact origin. His careful reasoning, although not accepted at the time, laid the foundations for the modern science of lunar geology.

Volcanic and Impact Craters.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 1. Profiles of a typical terrestrial volcanic crater and a typical lunar impact crater are quite different.[/caption]Gilbert concluded that the lunar craters were produced by impacts, but he didn’t understand why all of them were circular and not oval. The reason lies in the escape velocity, the minimum speed that a body must reach to permanently break away from the gravity of another body; it is also the minimum speed that a projectile approaching Earth or the Moon will hit with. Attracted by the gravity of the larger body, the incoming chunk strikes with at least escape velocity, which is 11 kilometers per second for Earth and 2.4 kilometers per second (5400 miles per hour) for the Moon. To this escape velocity is added whatever speed the projectile already had with respect to Earth or Moon, typically 10 kilometers per second or more. At these speeds, the energy of impact produces a violent explosion that excavates a large volume of material in a symmetrical way. Photographs of bomb and shell craters on Earth confirm that explosion craters are always essentially circular. Only following World War I did scientists recognize the similarity between impact craters and explosion craters, but, sadly, Gilbert did not live to see his impact hypothesis widely accepted.

The Cratering Process

Let’s consider how an impact at these high speeds produces a crater. When such a fast projectile strikes a planet, it penetrates two or three times its own diameter before stopping. During these few seconds, its energy of motion is transferred into a shock wave (which spreads through the target body) and into heat (which vaporizes most of the projectile and some of the surrounding target). The shock wave fractures the rock of the target, while the expanding silicate vapor generates an explosion similar to that of a nuclear bomb detonated at ground level ([link]). The size of the excavated crater depends primarily on the speed of impact, but generally it is 10 to 15 times the diameter of the projectile.

Stages in the Formation of an Impact Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) The impact occurs. (b) The projectile vaporizes and a shock wave spreads through the lunar rock. (c) Ejecta are thrown out of the crater. (d) Most of the ejected material falls back to fill the crater, forming an ejecta blanket.[/caption]An impact explosion of the sort described above leads to a characteristic kind of crater, as shown in [link]. The central cavity is initially bowl-shaped (the word “crater” comes from the Greek word for “bowl”), but the rebound of the crust partially fills it in, producing a flat floor and sometimes creating a central peak. Around the rim, landslides create a series of terraces.

Typical Impact Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 3. King Crater on the far side of the Moon, a fairly recent lunar crater 75 kilometers in diameter, shows most of the features associated with large impact structures. (credit: NASA/JSC/Arizona State University)[/caption]

The rim of the crater is turned up by the force of the explosion, so it rises above both the floor and the adjacent terrain. Surrounding the rim is an ejecta blanket consisting of material thrown out by the explosion. This debris falls back to create a rough, hilly region, typically about as wide as the crater diameter. Additional, higher-speed ejecta fall at greater distances from the crater, often digging small secondary craters where they strike the surface ([link]).

Some of these streams of ejecta can extend for hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from the crater, creating the bright crater rays that are prominent in lunar photos taken near full phase. The brightest lunar crater rays are associated with large young craters such as Kepler and Tycho.

Observing the Moon

The Moon is one of the most beautiful sights in the sky, and it is the only object close enough to reveal its topography (surface features such as mountains and valleys) without a visit from a spacecraft. A fairly small amateur telescope easily shows craters and mountains on the Moon as small as a few kilometers across.

Even as seen through a good pair of binoculars, we can observe that the appearance of the Moon’s surface changes dramatically with its phase. At full phase, it shows almost no topographic detail, and you must look closely to see more than a few craters. This is because sunlight illuminates the surface straight on, and in this flat lighting, no shadows are cast. Much more revealing is the view near first or third quarter, when sunlight streams in from the side, causing topographic features to cast sharp shadows. It is almost always more rewarding to study a planetary surface under such oblique lighting, when the maximum information about surface relief can be obtained.

The flat lighting at full phase does, however, accentuate brightness contrasts on the Moon, such as those between the maria and highlands. Notice in [link] that several of the large mare craters seem to be surrounded by white material and that the light streaks or rays that can stretch for hundreds of kilometers across the surface are clearly visible. These lighter features are ejecta, splashed out from the crater-forming impact.

Appearance of the Moon at Different Phases.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="917"] Figure 4. (a) Illumination from the side brings craters and other topographic features into sharp relief, as seen on the far left side. (b) At full phase, there are no shadows, and it is more difficult to see such features. However, the flat lighting at full phase brings out some surface features, such as the bright rays of ejecta that stretch out from a few large young craters. (credit: modification of work by Luc Viatour)[/caption]

By the way, there is no danger in looking at the Moon with binoculars or telescopes. The reflected sunlight is never bright enough to harm your eyes. In fact, the sunlit surface of the Moon has about the same brightness as a sunlit landscape of dark rock on Earth. Although the Moon looks bright in the night sky, its surface is, on average, much less reflective than Earth’s, with its atmosphere and white clouds. This difference is nicely illustrated by the photo of the Moon passing in front of Earth taken from the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft ([link]). Since the spacecraft took the image from a position inside the orbit of Earth, we see both objects fully illuminated (full Moon and full Earth). By the way, you cannot see much detail on the Moon because the exposure has been set to give a bright image of Earth, not the Moon.

The Moon Crossing the Face of Earth.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="917"] Figure 5. In this 2015 image from the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft, both objects are fully illuminated, but the Moon looks darker because it has a much lower average reflectivity than Earth. (credit: modification of work by NASA, DSCOVR EPIC team)[/caption]

One interesting thing about the Moon that you can see without binoculars or telescopes is popularly called “the new Moon in the old Moon’s arms.” Look at the Moon when it is a thin crescent, and you can often make out the faint circle of the entire lunar disk, even though the sunlight shines on only the crescent. The rest of the disk is illuminated not by sunlight but by earthlight—sunlight reflected from Earth. The light of the full Earth on the Moon is about 50 times brighter than that of the full Moon shining on Earth.

Using Crater Counts

If a world has had little erosion or internal activity, like the Moon during the past 3 billion years, it is possible to use the number of impact craters on its surface to estimate the age of that surface. By “age” here we mean the time since a major disturbance occurred on that surface (such as the volcanic eruptions that produced the lunar maria).

We cannot directly measure the rate at which craters are being formed on Earth and the Moon, since the average interval between large crater-forming impacts is longer than the entire span of human history. Our best-known example of such a large crater, Meteor Crater in Arizona ([link]), is about 50,000 years old. However, the cratering rate can be estimated from the number of craters on the lunar maria or calculated from the number of potential “projectiles” (asteroids and comets) present in the solar system today. Both lines of reasoning lead to about the same estimations.

Meteor Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 6. This aerial photo of Meteor Crater in Arizona shows the simple form of a meteorite impact crater. The crater’s rim diameter is about 1.2 kilometers. (credit: Shane Torgerson)[/caption]

For the Moon, these calculations indicate that a crater 1 kilometer in diameter should be produced about every 200,000 years, a 10-kilometer crater every few million years, and one or two 100-kilometer craters every billion years. If the cratering rate has stayed the same, we can figure out how long it must have taken to make all the craters we see in the lunar maria. Our calculations show that it would have taken several billion years. This result is similar to the age determined for the maria from radioactive dating of returned samples—3.3 to 3.8 billion years old.

The fact that these two calculations agree suggests that astronomers’ original assumption was right: comets and asteroids in approximately their current numbers have been impacting planetary surfaces for billions of years. Calculations carried out for other planets (and their moons) indicate that they also have been subject to about the same number of interplanetary impacts during this time.

We have good reason to believe, however, that earlier than 3.8 billion years ago, the impact rates must have been a great deal higher. This becomes immediately evident when comparing the numbers of craters on the lunar highlands with those on the maria. Typically, there are 10 times more craters on the highlands than on a similar area of maria. Yet the radioactive dating of highland samples showed that they are only a little older than the maria, typically 4.2 billion years rather than 3.8 billion years. If the rate of impacts had been constant throughout the Moon’s history, the highlands would have had to be at least 10 times older. They would thus have had to form 38 billion years ago—long before the universe itself began. In science, when an assumption leads to an implausible conclusion, we must go back and re-examine that assumption—in this case, the constant impact rate. The contradiction is resolved if the impact rate varied over time, with a much heavier bombardment earlier than 3.8 billion years ago ([link]). This “heavy bombardment” produced most of the craters we see today in the highlands.

Cratering Rates over Time.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="482"] Figure 7. The number of craters being made on the Moon’s surface has varied with time over the past 4.3 billion years.[/caption]

This idea we have been exploring—that large impacts (especially during the early history of the solar system) played a major role in shaping the worlds we see—is not unique to our study of the Moon. As you read through the other chapters about the planets, you will see further indications that a number of the present-day characteristics of our system may be due to its violent past.

Key Concepts and Summary

A century ago, Grove Gilbert suggested that the lunar craters were caused by impacts, but the cratering process was not well understood until more recently. High-speed impacts produce explosions and excavate craters 10 to 15 times the size of the impactor with raised rims, ejecta blankets, and often central peaks. Cratering rates have been roughly constant for the past 3 billion years but earlier were much greater. Crater counts can be used to derive approximate ages for geological features on the Moon and other worlds with solid surfaces.

9.4 The Origin of the Moon

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:13:33 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the top three early hypotheses of the formation of the Moon
Summarize the current “giant impact” concept of how the Moon formed

It is characteristic of modern science to ask how things originated. Understanding the origin of the Moon has proven to be challenging for planetary scientists, however. Part of the difficulty is simply that we know so much about the Moon (quite the opposite of our usual problem in astronomy). As we will see, one key problem is that the Moon is both tantalizingly similar to Earth and frustratingly different.

Ideas for the Origin of the Moon

Most of the earlier hypotheses for the Moon’s origin followed one of three general ideas:

The fission theory—the Moon was once part of Earth, but somehow separated from it early in their history.
The sister theory—the Moon formed together with (but independent of) Earth, as we believe many moons of the outer planets formed.
The capture theory—the Moon formed elsewhere in the solar system and was captured by Earth.

Unfortunately, there seem to be fundamental problems with each of these ideas. Perhaps the easiest hypothesis to reject is the capture theory. Its primary drawback is that no one knows of any way that early Earth could have captured such a large moon from elsewhere. One body approaching another cannot go into orbit around it without a substantial loss of energy; this is the reason that spacecraft destined to orbit other planets are equipped with retro-rockets. Furthermore, if such a capture did take place, the captured object would go into a very eccentric orbit rather than the nearly circular orbit our Moon occupies today. Finally, there are too many compositional similarities between Earth and the Moon, particularly an identical fraction of the major isotopes¹ of oxygen, to justify seeking a completely independent origin.

The fission hypothesis, which states that the Moon separated from Earth, was suggested in the late nineteenth century. Modern calculations have shown that this sort of spontaneous fission or splitting is impossible. Furthermore, it is difficult to understand how a Moon made out of terrestrial material in this way could have developed the many distinctive chemical differences now known to characterize our neighbor.

Scientists were therefore left with the sister hypothesis—that the Moon formed alongside Earth—or with some modification of the fission hypothesis that can find a more acceptable way for the lunar material to have separated from Earth. But the more we learned about our Moon, the less these old ideas seem to fit the bill.

The Giant Impact Hypothesis

In an effort to resolve these apparent contradictions, scientists developed a fourth hypothesis for the origin of the Moon, one that involves a giant impact early in Earth’s history. There is increasing evidence that large chunks of material—objects of essentially planetary mass—were orbiting in the inner solar system at the time that the terrestrial planets formed. The giant impact hypothesis envisions Earth being struck obliquely by an object approximately one-tenth Earth’s mass—a “bullet” about the size of Mars. This is very nearly the largest impact Earth could experience without being shattered.

Such an impact would disrupt much of Earth and eject a vast amount of material into space, releasing almost enough energy to break the planet apart. Computer simulations indicate that material totaling several percent of Earth’s mass could be ejected in such an impact. Most of this material would be from the stony mantles of Earth and the impacting body, not from their metal cores. This ejected rock vapor then cooled and formed a ring of material orbiting Earth. It was this ring that ultimately condensed into the Moon.

While we do not have any current way of showing that the giant impact hypothesis is the correct model of the Moon’s origin, it does offer potential solutions to most of the major problems raised by the chemistry of the Moon. First, since the Moon’s raw material is derived from the mantles of Earth and the projectile, the absence of metals is easily understood. Second, most of the volatile elements would have been lost during the high-temperature phase following the impact, explaining the lack of these materials on the Moon. Yet, by making the Moon primarily of terrestrial mantle material, it is also possible to understand similarities such as identical abundances of various oxygen isotopes.

Key Concepts and Summary

The three standard hypotheses for the origin of the Moon were the fission hypothesis, the sister hypothesis, and the capture hypothesis. All have problems, and they have been supplanted by the giant impact hypothesis, which ascribes the origin of the Moon to the impact of a Mars-sized projectile with Earth 4.5 billion years ago. The debris from the impact made a ring around Earth which condensed and formed the Moon.

Footnotes

1 Remember from the Radiation and Spectra chapter that the term isotope means a different “version” of an element. Specifically, different isotopes of the same element have equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons (as in carbon-12 versus carbon-14.)

9.5 Mercury

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:13:47 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Characterize the orbit of Mercury around the Sun
Describe Mercury’s structure and composition
Explain the relationship between Mercury’s orbit and rotation
Describe the topography and features of Mercury’s surface
Summarize our ideas about the origin and evolution of Mercury

The planet Mercury is similar to the Moon in many ways. Like the Moon, it has no atmosphere, and its surface is heavily cratered. As described later in this chapter, it also shares with the Moon the likelihood of a violent birth.

Mercury’s Orbit

Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun, and, in accordance with Kepler’s third law, it has the shortest period of revolution about the Sun (88 of our days) and the highest average orbital speed (48 kilometers per second). It is appropriately named for the fleet-footed messenger god of the Romans. Because Mercury remains close to the Sun, it can be difficult to pick out in the sky. As you might expect, it’s best seen when its eccentric orbit takes it as far from the Sun as possible.

The semimajor axis of Mercury’s orbit—that is, the planet’s average distance from the Sun—is 58 million kilometers, or 0.39 AU. However, because its orbit has the high eccentricity of 0.206, Mercury’s actual distance from the Sun varies from 46 million kilometers at perihelion to 70 million kilometers at aphelion (the ideas and terms that describe orbits were introduced in Orbits and Gravity).

Composition and Structure

Mercury’s mass is one-eighth that of Earth, making it the smallest terrestrial planet. Mercury is the smallest planet (except for the dwarf planets), having a diameter of 4878 kilometers, less than half that of Earth. Mercury’s density is 5.4 g/cm³, much greater than the density of the Moon, indicating that the composition of those two objects differs substantially.

Mercury’s composition is one of the most interesting things about it and makes it unique among the planets. Mercury’s high density tells us that it must be composed largely of heavier materials such as metals. The most likely models for Mercury’s interior suggest a metallic iron-nickel core amounting to 60% of the total mass, with the rest of the planet made up primarily of silicates. The core has a diameter of 3500 kilometers and extends out to within 700 kilometers of the surface. We could think of Mercury as a metal ball the size of the Moon surrounded by a rocky crust 700 kilometers thick ([link]). Unlike the Moon, Mercury does have a weak magnetic field. The existence of this field is consistent with the presence of a large metal core, and it suggests that at least part of the core must be liquid in order to generate the observed magnetic field.¹

Mercury’s Internal Structure.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="383"] Figure 1. The interior of Mercury is dominated by a metallic core about the same size as our Moon.[/caption]

Densities of Worlds The average density of a body equals its mass divided by its volume. For a sphere, density is:

$$\text{density}=\frac{\text{mass}}{\frac{4}{3}\pi{R}^{3}}$$

Astronomers can measure both mass and radius accurately when a spacecraft flies by a body.

Using the information in this chapter, we can calculate the approximate average density of the Moon.

Solution For a sphere,

$$\text{density}=\frac{\text{mass}}{\frac{4}{3}\pi{R}^{3}}=\frac{7.35\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{22}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{kg}}{4.2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}5.2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{18}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}}=3.4\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{kg/m}}^{3}$$

[link] gives a value of 3.3 g/cm³, which is 3.3 × 10³ kg/m³. Check Your Learning Using the information in this chapter, calculate the average density of Mercury. Show your work. Does your calculation agree with the figure we give in this chapter?

Answer:

$$\text{density}=\frac{\text{mass}}{\frac{4}{3}\pi{R}^{3}}=\frac{3.3\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{23}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{kg}}{4.2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}1.45\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{19}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}}=5.4\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{kg/m}}^{3}$$

That matches the value given in [link] when g/cm³ is converted into kg/m³.

Mercury’s Strange Rotation

Visual studies of Mercury’s indistinct surface markings were once thought to indicate that the planet kept one face to the Sun (as the Moon does to Earth). Thus, for many years, it was widely believed that Mercury’s rotation period was equal to its revolution period of 88 days, making one side perpetually hot while the other was always cold. Radar observations of Mercury in the mid-1960s, however, showed conclusively that Mercury does not keep one side fixed toward the Sun. If a planet is turning, one side seems to be approaching Earth while the other is moving away from it. The resulting Doppler shift spreads or broadens the precise transmitted radar-wave frequency into a range of frequencies in the reflected signal ([link]). The degree of broadening provides an exact measurement of the rotation rate of the planet.

Doppler Radar Measures Rotation.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="669"] Figure 2. When a radar beam is reflected from a rotating planet, the motion of one side of the planet’s disk toward us and the other side away from us causes Doppler shifts in the reflected signal. The effect is to cause both a redshift and a blueshift, widening the spread of frequencies in the radio beam.[/caption]

Mercury’s period of rotation (how long it takes to turn with respect to the distant stars) is 59 days, which is just two-thirds of the planet’s period of revolution. Subsequently, astronomers found that a situation where the spin and the orbit of a planet (its year) are in a 2:3 ratio turns out to be stable. (See [link] for more on the effects of having such a long day on Mercury.)

Mercury, being close to the Sun, is very hot on its daylight side; but because it has no appreciable atmosphere, it gets surprisingly cold during the long nights. The temperature on the surface climbs to 700 K (430 °C) at noontime. After sunset, however, the temperature drops, reaching 100 K (–170 °C) just before dawn. (It is even colder in craters near the poles that receive no sunlight at all.) The range in temperature on Mercury is thus 600 K (or 600 °C), a greater difference than on any other planet.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Mercury rotates three times for each two orbits around the Sun. It is the only planet that exhibits this relationship between its spin and its orbit, and there are some interesting consequences for any observers who might someday be stationed on the surface of Mercury.

Here on Earth, we take for granted that days are much shorter than years. Therefore, the two astronomical ways of defining the local “day”—how long the planet takes to rotate and how long the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky—are the same on Earth for most practical purposes. But this is not the case on Mercury. While Mercury rotates (spins once) in 59 Earth days, the time for the Sun to return to the same place in Mercury’s sky turns out to be two Mercury years, or 176 Earth days. (Note that this result is not intuitively obvious, so don’t be upset if you didn’t come up with it.) Thus, if one day at noon a Mercury explorer suggests to her companion that they should meet at noon the next day, this could mean a very long time apart!

To make things even more interesting, recall that Mercury has an eccentric orbit, meaning that its distance from the Sun varies significantly during each mercurian year. By Kepler’s law, the planet moves fastest in its orbit when closest to the Sun. Let’s examine how this affects the way we would see the Sun in the sky during one 176-Earth-day cycle. We’ll look at the situation as if we were standing on the surface of Mercury in the center of a giant basin that astronomers call Caloris ([link]).

At the location of Caloris, Mercury is most distant from the Sun at sunrise; this means the rising Sun looks smaller in the sky (although still more than twice the size it appears from Earth). As the Sun rises higher and higher, it looks bigger and bigger; Mercury is now getting closer to the Sun in its eccentric orbit. At the same time, the apparent motion of the Sun slows down as Mercury’s faster motion in orbit begins to catch up with its rotation.

At noon, the Sun is now three times larger than it looks from Earth and hangs almost motionless in the sky. As the afternoon wears on, the Sun appears smaller and smaller, and moves faster and faster in the sky. At sunset, a full Mercury year (or 88 Earth days after sunrise), the Sun is back to its smallest apparent size as it dips out of sight. Then it takes another Mercury year before the Sun rises again. (By the way, sunrises and sunsets are much more sudden on Mercury, since there is no atmosphere to bend or scatter the rays of sunlight.)

Astronomers call locations like the Caloris Basin the “hot longitudes” on Mercury because the Sun is closest to the planet at noon, just when it is lingering overhead for many Earth days. This makes these areas the hottest places on Mercury.

We bring all this up not because the exact details of this scenario are so important but to illustrate how many of the things we take for granted on Earth are not the same on other worlds. As we’ve mentioned before, one of the best things about taking an astronomy class should be ridding you forever of any “Earth chauvinism” you might have. The way things are on our planet is just one of the many ways nature can arrange reality.

The Surface of Mercury

The first close-up look at Mercury came in 1974, when the US spacecraft Mariner 10 passed 9500 kilometers from the surface of the planet and transmitted more than 2000 photographs to Earth, revealing details with a resolution down to 150 meters. Subsequently, the planet was mapped in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft, which was launched in 2004 and made multiple flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury before settling into orbit around Mercury in 2011. It ended its life in 2015, when it was commanded to crash into the surface of the planet.

Mercury’s surface strongly resembles the Moon in appearance ([link] and [link]). It is covered with thousands of craters and larger basins up to 1300 kilometers in diameter. Some of the brighter craters are rayed, like Tycho and Copernicus on the Moon, and many have central peaks. There are also scarps (cliffs) more than a kilometer high and hundreds of kilometers long, as well as ridges and plains.

MESSENGER instruments measured the surface composition and mapped past volcanic activity. One of its most important discoveries was the verification of water ice (first detected by radar) in craters near the poles, similar to the situation on the Moon, and the unexpected discovery of organic (carbon-rich) compounds mixed with the water ice.

Scientists working with data from the MESSENGER mission put together a rotating globe of Mercury, in false color, showing some of the variations in the composition of the planet’s surface. You can watch it spin.

Mercury’s Topography.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. The topography of Mercury’s northern hemisphere is mapped in great detail from MESSENGER data. The lowest regions are shown in purple and blue, and the highest regions are shown in red. The difference in elevation between the lowest and highest regions shown here is roughly 10 kilometers. The permanently shadowed low-lying craters near the north pole contain radar-bright water ice. (credit: modification of work by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)[/caption]

Caloris Basin.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 4. This partially flooded impact basin is the largest known structural feature on Mercury. The smooth plains in the interior of the basin have an area of almost two million square kilometers. Compare this photo with [link], the Orientale Basin on the Moon. (credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)[/caption]

Most of the mercurian features have been named in honor of artists, writers, composers, and other contributors to the arts and humanities, in contrast with the scientists commemorated on the Moon. Among the named craters are Bach, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Van Gogh, and Scott Joplin. There is no evidence of plate tectonics on Mercury. However, the planet’s distinctive long scarps can sometimes be seen cutting across craters; this means the scarps must have formed later than the craters ([link]). These long, curved cliffs appear to have their origin in the slight compression of Mercury’s crust. Apparently, at some point in its history, the planet shrank, wrinkling the crust, and it must have done so after most of the craters on its surface had already formed.

If the standard cratering chronology applies to Mercury, this shrinkage must have taken place during the last 4 billion years and not during the solar system’s early period of heavy bombardment.

Discovery Scarp on Mercury.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 5. This long cliff, nearly 1 kilometer high and more than 100 kilometers long, cuts across several craters. Astronomers conclude that the compression that made “wrinkles” like this in the plank’s surface must have taken place after the craters were formed. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL/Northwestern University)[/caption]

The Origin of Mercury

The problem with understanding how Mercury formed is the reverse of the problem posed by the composition of the Moon. We have seen that, unlike the Moon, Mercury is composed mostly of metal. However, astronomers think that Mercury should have formed with roughly the same ratio of metal to silicate as that found on Earth or Venus. How did it lose so much of its rocky material?

The most probable explanation for Mercury’s silicate loss may be similar to the explanation for the Moon’s lack of a metal core. Mercury is likely to have experienced several giant impacts very early in its youth, and one or more of these may have torn away a fraction of its mantle and crust, leaving a body dominated by its iron core.

You can follow some of NASA’s latest research on Mercury and see some helpful animations on the MESSENGER web page.

Today, astronomers recognize that the early solar system was a chaotic place, with the final stages of planet formation characterized by impacts of great violence. Some objects of planetary mass have been destroyed, whereas others could have fragmented and then re-formed, perhaps more than once. Both the Moon and Mercury, with their strange compositions, bear testimony to the catastrophes that must have characterized the solar system during its youth.

Key Concepts and Summary

Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun and the fastest moving. Mercury is similar to the Moon in having a heavily cratered surface and no atmosphere, but it differs in having a very large metal core. Early in its evolution, it apparently lost part of its silicate mantle, probably due to one or more giant impacts. Long scarps on its surface testify to a global compression of Mercury’s crust during the past 4 billion years.

For Further Exploration

Articles

The Moon

Bakich, Michael. “Asia’s New Assault on the Moon.” Astronomy (August 2009): 50. The Japanese Selene and Chinese Chang’e 1 missions.

Beatty, J. “NASA Slams the Moon.” Sky & Telescope (February 2010): 28. The impact of the LCROSS mission on the Moon and what we learned from it.

Bell, T. “Warning: Dust Ahead.” Astronomy (March 2006): 46. What we know about lunar dust and the problems it can cause. Dorminey, B. “Secrets beneath the Moon’s Surface.” Astronomy (March 2011): 24. A nice timeline of the Moon’s evolution and the story of how we are finding out more about its internal structure.

Jayawardhana, R. “Deconstructing the Moon.” Astronomy (September 1998): 40. An update on the giant impact hypothesis for forming the Moon.

Register, B. “The Fate of the Moon Rocks.” Astronomy (December 1985): 15. What was done with the rocks the astronauts brought back from the Moon.

Schmitt, H. “Exploring Taurus–Littrow: Apollo 17.” National Geographic (September 1973). First-person account given by the only scientist to walk on the Moon.

Schmitt, H. “From the Moon to Mars.” Scientific American (July 2009): 36. The only scientist to walk on the Moon reflects on the science from Apollo and future missions to Mars.

Schultz, P. “New Clues to the Moon’s Distant Past.” Astronomy (December 2011): 34. Summary of results and ideas from the LCROSS and LRO missions.

Shirao, M. “Kayuga’s High Def Highlights.” Sky & Telescope (February 2010): 20. Results from the Japanese mission to the Moon, with high definition TV cameras.

Wadhwa, M. “What Are We Learning from the Moon Rocks?” Astronomy (June 2013): 54. Very nice discussion of how the rocks tell us about Moon’s composition, age, and origin.

Wood, Charles. “The Moon’s Far Side: Nearly a New World.” Sky & Telescope (January 2007): 48. This article compares what we know about the two sides and why they are different.

Zimmerman, R. “How Much Water is on the Moon?” Astronomy (January 2014): 50. Results from the LRO’s instruments and good overview of issue.

Mercury

Beatty, J. “Mercury Gets a Second Look.” Sky & Telescope (March 2009): 26. The October 2008 MESSENGER mission flyby.

Beatty, J. “Reunion with Mercury.” Sky & Telescope (May 2008): 24. The January 2008 MESSENGER encounter with Mercury.

“Mercury: Meet the Planet Nearest the Sun.” Sky & Telescope (March 2014): 39. Four-page pictorial introduction, including the new MESSENGER probe full map of the planet provided.

Oberg, J. “Torrid Mercury’s Icy Poles.” Astronomy (December 2013): 30. A nice overview of results from MESSENGER mission, including the ice in polar craters.

Sheehan, W., and Dobbins, T. “Mesmerized by Mercury.” Sky & Telescope (June 2000): 109. History of Mercury observations and how amateur astronomers can contribute.

Talcott, R. “Surprises from MESSENGER’s Historic Mercury Fly-by.” Astronomy (March 2009): 28.

Talcott, R. “Mercury Reveals its Hidden Side.” Astronomy (May 2008): 26. Results and image from the MESSENGER mission flyby of January 2008.

Websites

The Moon

Apollo Lunar Surface Journal: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/. Information, interviews, maps, photos, video and audio clips, and much more on each of the Apollo landing missions.

Lunar & Planetary Institute: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/. Lunar Science and Exploration web pages.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Page: http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

NASA’s Guide to Moon Missions and Information: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html.

Origin of the Moon: http://www.psi.edu/projects/moon/moon.html. By William Hartmann, who, with a colleague, first suggested the giant impact hypothesis for how the Moon formed, in 1975.

Sky & Telescope magazine’s observing guides and articles about the Moon: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/moon/.

To the Moon: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tothemoon/. PBS program on the Apollo landings.

We Choose the Moon: http://wechoosethemoon.org/. A recreation of the Apollo 11 mission.

Mercury

Mercury Unveiled by G. Jeffrey Taylor (summarizing the Mariner 10 Mission): http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Jan97/MercuryUnveiled.html.

MESSENGER Mission Website: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/.

NASA Planetary Data Center Mercury Page: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/mercurypage.html.

Views of the Solar System Mercury Page: http://solarviews.com/eng/mercury.htm.

Footnotes

1 Recall from the Radiation and Spectra chapter that magnetism is an effect of moving electric charges. In atoms of metals, the outer electrons are easier to dislodge and they can form a current when the metal is in liquid form and can flow.

10.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:33:20 +0000

Spirit Rover on Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. This May 2004 image shows the tracks made by the Mars Exploration Spirit rover on the surface of the red planet. Spirit was active on Mars between 2004 and 2010, twenty times longer than its planners had expected. It “drove” over 7.73 kilometers in the process of examining the martian landscape. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL/Cornell)[/caption]

The Moon and Mercury are geologically dead. In contrast, the larger terrestrial planets—Earth, Venus, and Mars—are more active and interesting worlds. We have already discussed Earth, and we now turn to Venus and Mars. These are the nearest planets and the most accessible to spacecraft. Not surprisingly, the greatest effort in planetary exploration has been devoted to these fascinating worlds. In the chapter, we discuss some of the results of more than four decades of scientific exploration of Mars and Venus. Mars is exceptionally interesting, with evidence that points to habitable conditions in the past. Even today, we are discovering things about Mars that make it the most likely place where humans might set up a habitat in the future. However, our robot explorers have clearly shown that neither Venus nor Mars has conditions similar to Earth. How did it happen that these three neighboring terrestrial planets have diverged so dramatically in their evolution?

10.1 The Nearest Planets: An Overview

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:14:20 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain why it’s difficult to learn about Venus from Earth-based observation alone
Describe the history of our interest in Mars before the Space Age
Compare the basic physical properties of Earth, Mars, and Venus, including their orbits

As you might expect from close neighbors, Mars and Venus are among the brightest objects in the night sky. The average distance of Mars from the Sun is 227 million kilometers (1.52 AU), or about half again as far from the Sun as Earth. Venus’ orbit is very nearly circular, at a distance of 108 million kilometers (0.72 AU) from the Sun. Like Mercury, Venus sometimes appears as an “evening star” and sometimes as a “morning star.” Venus approaches Earth more closely than does any other planet: at its nearest, it is only 40 million kilometers from us. The closest Mars ever gets to Earth is about 56 million kilometers.

Appearance

Venus appears very bright, and even a small telescope reveals that it goes through phases like the Moon. Galileo discovered that Venus displays a full range of phases, and he used this as an argument to show that Venus must circle the Sun and not Earth. The planet’s actual surface is not visible because it is shrouded by dense clouds that reflect about 70% of the sunlight that falls on them, frustrating efforts to study the underlying surface, even with cameras in orbit around the planet ([link]).

Venus as Photographed by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This ultraviolet image shows an upper-atmosphere cloud structure that would be invisible at visible wavelengths. Note that there is not even a glimpse of the planet’s surface. (credit: modification of work by NASA)[/caption]

In contrast, Mars is more tantalizing as seen through a telescope ([link]). The planet is distinctly red, due (as we now know) to the presence of iron oxides in its soil. This color may account for its association with war (and blood) in the legends of early cultures. The best resolution obtainable from telescopes on the ground is about 100 kilometers, or about the same as what we can see on the Moon with the unaided eye. At this resolution, no hint of topographic structure can be detected: no mountains, no valleys, not even impact craters. On the other hand, bright polar ice caps can be seen easily, together with dusky surface markings that sometimes change in outline and intensity from season to season.

Mars as Seen from Earth’s Surface.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. These are among the best Earth-based photos of Mars, taken in 1988 when the planet was exceptionally close to Earth. The polar caps and dark surface markings are evident, but not topographic features. (credit: modification of work by Steve Larson, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona)[/caption]

For a few decades around the turn of the twentieth century, some astronomers believed that they saw evidence of an intelligent civilization on Mars. The controversy began in 1877, when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835–1910) announced that he could see long, faint, straight lines on Mars that he called canale, or channels. In English-speaking countries, the term was mistakenly translated as “canals,” implying an artificial origin.

Even before Schiaparelli’s observations, astronomers had watched the bright polar caps change size with the seasons and had seen variations in the dark surface features. With a little imagination, it was not difficult to picture the canals as long fields of crops bordering irrigation ditches that brought water from the melting polar ice to the parched deserts of the red planet. (They assumed the polar caps were composed of water ice, which isn’t exactly true, as we will see shortly.)

Until has death in 1916, the most effective proponent of intelligent life on Mars was Percival Lowell, a self-made American astronomer and member of the wealthy Lowell family of Boston (see the feature box on Percival Lowell: Dreaming of an Inhabited Mars). A skilled author and speaker, Lowell made what seemed to the public to be a convincing case for intelligent Martians, who had constructed the huge canals to preserve their civilization in the face of a deteriorating climate ([link]).

Lowell’s Mars Globe.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. One of the remarkable globes of Mars prepared by Percival Lowell, showing a network of dozens of canals, oases, and triangular water reservoirs that he claimed were visible on the red planet.[/caption]

The argument for a race of intelligent Martians, however, hinged on the reality of the canals, a matter that remained in serious dispute among astronomers. The canal markings were always difficult to study, glimpsed only occasionally because atmospheric conditions caused the tiny image of Mars to shimmer in the telescope. Lowell saw canals everywhere (even a few on Venus), but many other observers could not see them at all and remained unconvinced of their existence. When telescopes larger than Lowell’s failed to confirm the presence of canals, the skeptics felt vindicated. Now it is generally accepted that the straight lines were an optical illusion, the result of the human mind’s tendency to see order in random features that are glimpsed dimly at the limits of the eye’s resolution. When we see small, dim dots of surface markings, our minds tend to connect those dots into straight lines.

Percival Lowell: Dreaming of an Inhabited Mars

Percival Lowell was born into the well-to-do Massachusetts family about whom John Bossidy made the famous toast:

And this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots
And the Cabots talk only to God.

Percival’s brother Lawrence became president of Harvard University, and his sister, Amy, became a distinguished poet. Percival was already interested in astronomy as a boy: he made observations of Mars at age 13. His undergraduate thesis at Harvard dealt with the origin of the solar system, but he did not pursue this interest immediately. Instead, he entered the family business and traveled extensively in Asia. In 1892, however, he decided to dedicate himself to carrying on Schiaparelli’s work and solving the mysteries of the martian canals.

In 1894, with the help of astronomers at Harvard but using his own funds, Lowell built an observatory on a high plateau in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he hoped the seeing would be clear enough to show him Mars in unprecedented detail. He and his assistants quickly accumulated a tremendous number of drawings and maps, purporting to show a vast network of martian canals (see [link]). He elaborated his ideas about the inhabitants of the red planet in several books, including Mars (1895) and Mars and Its Canals (1906), and in hundreds of articles and speeches.

As Lowell put it,

A mind of no mean order would seem to have presided over the system we see—a mind certainly of considerably more comprehensiveness than that which presides over the various departments of our own public works. Party politics, at all events, have had no part in them; for the system is planet-wide. . . . Certainly what we see hints at the existence of beings who are in advance of, not behind us, in the journey of life.

Lowell’s views captured the public imagination and inspired many novels and stories, the most famous of which was H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds (1897). In this famous “invasion” novel, the thirsty inhabitants of a dying planet Mars (based entirely on Lowell’s ideas) come to conquer Earth with advanced technology.

Although the Lowell Observatory first became famous for its work on the martian canals, both Lowell and the observatory eventually turned to other projects as well. He became interested in the search for a ninth (and then undiscovered) planet in the solar system. In 1930, Pluto was found at the Lowell Observatory, and it is not a coincidence that the name selected for the new planet starts with Lowell’s initials. It was also at the Lowell Observatory that the first measurements were made of the great speed at which galaxies are moving away from us, observations that would ultimately lead to our modern view of an expanding universe.

Lowell ([link]) continued to live at his observatory, marrying at age 53 and publishing extensively. He relished the debate his claims about Mars caused far more than the astronomers on the other side, who often complained that Lowell’s work was making planetary astronomy a less respectable field. At the same time, the public fascination with the planets fueled by Lowell’s work (and its interpreters) may, several generations later, have helped fan support for the space program and the many missions whose results grace the pages of our text.

Percival Lowell (1855–1916).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 4. This 1914 photograph shows Percival Lowell observing Venus with his 24-inch telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona.[/caption]

In October 1938, the Mercury Theater of the Air on radio dramatized The War of the Worlds as a series of radio news reports. This broadcast scared many people into thinking that Lowell’s Martians were really invading New Jersey, and caused something of a panic. You can listen to the original radio broadcast if you scroll down to “War of the Worlds.”

Rotation of the Planets

Astronomers have determined the rotation period of Mars with great accuracy by watching the motion of permanent surface markings; its sidereal day is 24 hours 37 minutes 23 seconds, just a little longer than the rotation period of Earth. This high precision is not obtained by watching Mars for a single rotation, but by noting how many turns it makes over a long period of time. Good observations of Mars date back more than 200 years, a period during which tens of thousands of martian days have passed. As a result, the rotation period can be calculated to within a few hundredths of a second.

The rotational axis of Mars has a tilt of about 25°, similar to the tilt of Earth’s axis. Thus, Mars experiences seasons very much like those on Earth. Because of the longer martian year (almost two Earth years), however, each season there lasts about six of our months.

The situation with Venus is different. Since no surface detail can be seen through Venus’ clouds, its rotation period can be found only by bouncing radar signals off the planet (as explained for Mercury in the Cratered Worlds chapter). The first radar observations of Venus’ rotation were made in the early 1960s. Later, topographical surface features were identified on the planet that showed up in the reflected radar signals. The rotation period of Venus, precisely determined from the motion of such “radar features” across its disk, is 243 days. Even more surprising than how long Venus takes to rotate is the fact that it spins in a backward or retrograde direction (east to west).

Stop for a moment and think about how odd this slow rotation makes the calendar on Venus. The planet takes 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun and 243 Earth days to spin on its axis. So the day on Venus (as defined by its spinning once) is longer than the year! As a result, the time the Sun takes to return to the same place in Venus’ sky—another way we might define the meaning of a day—turns out to be 117 Earth days. (If you say “See you tomorrow” on Venus, you’ll have a long time to wait.) Although we do not know the reason for Venus’ slow backward rotation, we can guess that it may have suffered one or more extremely powerful collisions during the formation process of the solar system.

Basic Properties of Venus and Mars

Before discussing each planet individually, let us compare some of their basic properties with each other and with Earth ([link]). Venus is in many ways Earth’s twin, with a mass 0.82 times the mass of Earth and an almost identical density. The average amount of geological activity has been also relatively high, almost as high as on Earth. On the other hand, with a surface pressure nearly 100 times greater than ours, Venus’ atmosphere is not at all like that of Earth. The surface of Venus is also remarkably hot, with a temperature of 730 K (over 850 °F), hotter than the self-cleaning cycle of your oven. One of the major challenges presented by Venus is to understand why the atmosphere and surface environment of this twin have diverged so sharply from those of our own planet.

Properties of Earth, Venus, and Mars
Property	Earth	Venus	Mars
Semimajor axis (AU)	1.00	0.72	1.52
Period (year)	1.00	0.61	1.88
Mass (Earth = 1)	1.00	0.82	0.11
Diameter (km)	12,756	12,102	6,790
Density (g/cm³)	5.5	5.3	3.9
Surface gravity (Earth = 1)	1.00	0.91	0.38
Escape velocity (km/s)	11.2	10.4	5.0
Rotation period (hours or days)	23.9 h	243 d	24.6 h
Surface area (Earth = 1)	1.00	0.90	0.28
Atmospheric pressure (bar)	1.00	90	0.007

Mars, by contrast, is rather small, with a mass only 0.11 times the mass of Earth. It is larger than either the Moon or Mercury, however, and, unlike them, it retains a thin atmosphere. Mars is also large enough to have supported considerable geological activity in the distant past. But the most fascinating thing about Mars is that long ago it probably had a thick atmosphere and seas of liquid water—the conditions we associate with development of life. There is even a chance that some form of life persists today in protected environments below the martian surface.

Key Concepts and Summary

Venus, the nearest planet, is a great disappointment through the telescope because of its impenetrable cloud cover. Mars is more tantalizing, with dark markings and polar caps. Early in the twentieth century, it was widely believed that the “canals” of Mars indicated intelligent life there. Mars has only 11% the mass of Earth, but Venus is nearly our twin in size and mass. Mars rotates in 24 hours and has seasons like Earth; Venus has a retrograde rotation period of 243 days. Both planets have been extensively explored by spacecraft.

10.2 The Geology of Venus

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:14:39 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the general features of the surface of Venus
Explain what the study of craters on Venus tells us about the age of its surface
Compare tectonic activity and volcanoes on Venus with those of Earth
Explain why the surface of Venus is inhospitable to human life

Since Venus has about the same size and composition as Earth, we might expect its geology to be similar. This is partly true, but Venus does not exhibit the same kind of plate tectonics as Earth, and we will see that its lack of erosion results in a very different surface appearance.

Spacecraft Exploration of Venus

Nearly 50 spacecraft have been launched to Venus, but only about half were successful. Although the 1962 US Mariner 2 flyby was the first, the Soviet Union launched most of the subsequent missions to Venus. In 1970, Venera 7 became the first probe to land and broadcast data from the surface of Venus. It operated for 23 minutes before succumbing to the high surface temperature. Additional Venera probes and landers followed, photographing the surface and analyzing the atmosphere and soil.

To understand the geology of Venus, however, we needed to make a global study of its surface, a task made very difficult by the perpetual cloud layers surrounding the planet. The problem resembles the challenge facing air traffic controllers at an airport, when the weather is so cloudy or smoggy that they can’t locate the incoming planes visually. The solution is similar in both cases: use a radar instrument to probe through the obscuring layer. The first global radar map was made by the US Pioneer Venus orbiter in the late 1970s, followed by better maps from the twin Soviet Venera 15 and 16 radar orbiters in the early 1980s. However, most of our information on the geology of Venus is derived from the US Magellan spacecraft, which mapped Venus with a powerful imaging radar. Magellan produced images with a resolution of 100 meters, much better than that of previous missions, yielding our first detailed look at the surface of our sister planet ([link]). (The Magellan spacecraft returned more data to Earth than all previous planetary missions combined; each 100 minutes of data transmission from the spacecraft provided enough information, if translated into characters, to fill two 30-volume encyclopedias.)

Radar Map of Venus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This composite image has a resolution of about 3 kilometers. Colors have been added to indicate elevation, with blue meaning low and brown and white high. The large continent Aphrodite stretches around the equator, where the bright (therefore rough) surface has been deformed by tectonic forces in the crust of Venus. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL/USGS)[/caption]

Consider for a moment how good Magellan’s resolution of 100 meters really is. It means the radar images from Venus can show anything on the surface larger than a football field. Suddenly, a whole host of topographic features on Venus became accessible to our view. As you look at the radar images throughout this chapter, bear in mind that these are constructed from radar reflections, not from visible-light photographs. For example, bright features on these radar images are an indication of rough terrain, whereas darker regions are smoother.

Probing Through the Clouds of Venus

The radar maps of Venus reveal a planet that looks much the way Earth might look if our planet’s surface were not constantly being changed by erosion and deposition of sediment. Because there is no water or ice on Venus and the surface wind speeds are low, almost nothing obscures or erases the complex geological features produced by the movements of Venus’ crust, by volcanic eruptions, and by impact craters. Having finally penetrated below the clouds of Venus, we find its surface to be naked, revealing the history of hundreds of millions of years of geological activity.

About 75% of the surface of Venus consists of lowland lava plains. Superficially, these plains resemble the basaltic ocean basins of Earth, but they were not produced in quite the same way. There is no evidence of subduction zones on Venus, indicating that, unlike Earth, this planet never experienced plate tectonics. Although convection (the rising of hot materials) in its mantle generated great stresses in the crust of Venus, they did not start large continental plates moving. The formation of the lava plains of Venus more nearly resembles that of the lunar maria. Both were the result of widespread lava eruptions without the crustal spreading associated with plate tectonics.

Rising above the lowland lava plains are two full-scale continents of mountainous terrain. The largest continent on Venus, called Aphrodite, is about the size of Africa (you can see it stand out in [link]). Aphrodite stretches along the equator for about one-third of the way around the planet. Next in size is the northern highland region Ishtar, which is about the size of Australia. Ishtar contains the highest region on the planet, the Maxwell Mountains, which rise 11 kilometers above the surrounding lowlands. (The Maxwell Mountains are the only feature on Venus named after a man. They commemorate James Clerk Maxwell, whose theory of electromagnetism led to the invention of radar. All other features are named for women, either from history or mythology.)

Craters and the Age of the Venus Surface

One of the first questions astronomers addressed with the high-resolution Magellan images was the age of the surface of Venus. Remember that the age of a planetary surface is rarely the age of the world it is on. A young age merely implies an active geology in that location. Such ages can be derived from counting impact craters. [link] is an example of what these craters look like on the Venus radar images. The more densely cratered the surface, the greater its age. The largest crater on Venus (called Mead) is 275 kilometers in diameter, slightly larger than the largest known terrestrial crater (Chicxulub), but much smaller than the lunar impact basins.

Impact Craters on Venus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) These large impact craters are in the Lavinia region of Venus. Because they are rough, the crater rims and ejecta appear brighter in these radar images than do the smoother surrounding lava plains. The largest of these craters has a diameter of 50 kilometers. (b) This small, complex crater is named after writer Gertrude Stein. The triple impact was caused by the breaking apart of the incoming asteroid during its passage through the thick atmosphere of Venus. The projectile had an initial diameter of between 1 and 2 kilometers. (credit a: modification of work by NASA/JPL; credit b: modification of work by NASA/JPL)[/caption]

You might think that the thick atmosphere of Venus would protect the surface from impacts, burning up the projectiles long before they could reach the surface. But this is the case for only smaller projectiles. Crater statistics show very few craters less than 10 kilometers in diameter, indicating that projectiles smaller than about 1 kilometer (the size that typically produces a 10-kilometer crater) were stopped by the atmosphere. Those craters with diameters from 10 to 30 kilometers are frequently distorted or multiple, apparently because the incoming projectile broke apart in the atmosphere before it could strike the ground as shown in the Stein crater in [link]. If we limit ourselves to impacts that produce craters with diameters of 30 kilometers or larger, however, then crater counts are as useful on Venus for measuring surface age as they are on airless bodies such as the Moon.

The large craters in the venusian plains indicate an average surface age that is only between 300 and 600 million years. These results indicate that Venus is indeed a planet with persistent geological activity, intermediate between that of Earth’s ocean basins (which are younger and more active) and that of its continents (which are older and less active).

Almost all of the large craters on Venus look fresh, with little degradation or filling in by either lava or windblown dust. This is one way we know that the rates of erosion or sediment deposition are very low. We have the impression that relatively little has happened since the venusian plains were last resurfaced by large-scale volcanic activity. Apparently Venus experienced some sort of planet-wide volcanic convulsion between 300 and 600 million years ago, a mysterious event that is unlike anything in terrestrial history.

Volcanoes on Venus

Like Earth, Venus is a planet that has experienced widespread volcanism. In the lowland plains, volcanic eruptions are the principal way the surface is renewed, with large flows of highly fluid lava destroying old craters and generating a fresh surface. In addition, numerous younger volcanic mountains and other structures are associated with surface hot spots—places where convection in the planet’s mantle transports the interior heat to the surface.

The largest individual volcano on Venus, called Sif Mons, is about 500 kilometers across and 3 kilometers high—broader but lower than the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Loa. At its top is a volcanic crater, or caldera, about 40 kilometers across, and its slopes show individual lava flows up to 500 kilometers long. Thousands of smaller volcanoes dot the surface, down to the limit of visibility of the Magellan images, which correspond to cones or domes about the size of a shopping mall parking lot. Most of these seem similar to terrestrial volcanoes. Other volcanoes have unusual shapes, such as the “pancake domes” illustrated in [link].

Pancake-Shaped Volcanoes on Venus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 3. These remarkable circular domes, each about 25 kilometers across and about 2 kilometers tall, are the result of eruptions of highly viscous (sludgy) lava that spreads out evenly in all directions. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL)[/caption]

All of the volcanism is the result of eruption of lava onto the surface of the planet. But the hot lava rising from the interior of a planet does not always make it to the surface. On both Earth and Venus, this upwelling lava can collect to produce bulges in the crust. Many of the granite mountain ranges on Earth, such as the Sierra Nevada in California, involve such subsurface volcanism. These bulges are common on Venus, where they produce large circular or oval features called coronae (singular: corona) ([link]).

The “Miss Piggy” Corona.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 4. Fotla Corona is located in the plains to the south of Aphrodite Terra. Curved fracture patterns show where the material beneath has put stress on the surface. A number of pancake and dome volcanoes are also visible. Fotla was a Celtic fertility goddess. Some students see a resemblance between this corona and Miss Piggy of the Muppets (her left ear, at the top of the picture, is the pancake volcano in the upper center of the image). (credit: NASA/JPL)[/caption]

Tectonic Activity

Convection currents of molten material in the mantle of Venus push and stretch the crust. Such forces are called tectonic, and the geological features that result from these forces are called tectonic features. On Venus’ lowland plains, tectonic forces have broken the lava surface to create remarkable patterns of ridges and cracks ([link]). In a few places, the crust has even torn apart to generate rift valleys. The circular features associated with coronae are tectonic ridges and cracks, and most of the mountains of Venus also owe their existence to tectonic forces.

Ridges and Cracks.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 5. This region of the Lakshmi Plains on Venus has been fractured by tectonic forces to produce a cross-hatched grid of cracks and ridges. Be sure to notice the fainter linear features that run perpendicular to the brighter ones. As this is a radar image, the brightness of the ridges indicates their relative height. This image shows a region about 80 kilometers wide and 37 kilometers high. Lakshmi is a Hindu goddess of prosperity. (credit: modification of work by Magellan Team, JPL, NASA)[/caption]

The Ishtar continent, which has the highest elevations on Venus, is the most dramatic product of these tectonic forces. Ishtar and its tall Maxwell Mountains resemble the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan Mountains on Earth. Both are the product of compression of the crust, and both are maintained by the continuing forces of mantle convection.

On Venus’ Surface

The successful Venera landers of the 1970s found themselves on an extraordinarily inhospitable planet, with a surface pressure of 90 bars and a temperature hot enough to melt lead and zinc. Despite these unpleasant conditions, the spacecraft were able to photograph their surroundings and collect surface samples for chemical analysis before their instruments gave out. The diffuse sunlight striking the surface was tinted red by the clouds, and the illumination level was equivalent to a heavy overcast on Earth.

The probes found that the rock in the landing areas is igneous, primarily basalts. Examples of the Venera photographs are shown in [link]. Each picture shows a flat, desolate landscape with a variety of rocks, some of which may be ejecta from impacts. Other areas show flat, layered lava flows. There have been no further landings on Venus since the 1970s.

Surface of Venus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 6. These views of the surface of Venus are from the Venera 13 spacecraft. Everything is orange because the thick atmosphere of Venus absorbs the bluer colors of light. The horizon is visible in the upper corner of each image. (credit: NASA)[/caption]

Key Concepts and Summary

Venus has been mapped by radar, especially with the Magellan spacecraft. Its crust consists of 75% lowland lava plains, numerous volcanic features, and many large coronae, which are the expression of subsurface volcanism. The planet has been modified by widespread tectonics driven by mantle convection, forming complex patterns of ridges and cracks and building high continental regions such as Ishtar. The surface is extraordinarily inhospitable, with pressure of 90 bars and temperature of 730 K, but several Russian Venera landers investigated it successfully.

Glossary

tectonic: geological features that result from stresses and pressures in the crust of a planet; tectonic forces can lead to earthquakes and motion of the crust

10.3 The Massive Atmosphere of Venus

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:14:52 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the general composition and structure of the atmosphere on Venus
Explain how the greenhouse effect has led to high temperatures on Venus

The thick atmosphere of Venus produces the high surface temperature and shrouds the surface in a perpetual red twilight. Sunlight does not penetrate directly through the heavy clouds, but the surface is fairly well lit by diffuse light (about the same as the light on Earth under a heavy overcast). The weather at the bottom of this deep atmosphere remains perpetually hot and dry, with calm winds. Because of the heavy blanket of clouds and atmosphere, one spot on the surface of Venus is similar to any other as far as weather is concerned.

Composition and Structure of the Atmosphere

The most abundant gas on Venus is carbon dioxide (CO₂), which accounts for 96% of the atmosphere. The second most common gas is nitrogen. The predominance of carbon dioxide over nitrogen is not surprising when you recall that Earth’s atmosphere would also be mostly carbon dioxide if this gas were not locked up in marine sediments (see the discussion of Earth’s atmosphere in Earth as a Planet).

[link] compares the compositions of the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, and Earth. Expressed in this way, as percentages, the proportions of the major gases are very similar for Venus and Mars, but in total quantity, their atmospheres are dramatically different. With its surface pressure of 90 bars, the venusian atmosphere is more than 10,000 times more massive than its martian counterpart. Overall, the atmosphere of Venus is very dry; the absence of water is one of the important ways that Venus differs from Earth.

Atmospheric Composition of Earth, Venus, and Mars
Gas	Earth	Venus	Mars
Carbon dioxide (CO₂)	0.03%	96%	95.3%
Nitrogen (N₂)	78.1%	3.5%	2.7%
Argon (Ar)	0.93%	0.006%	1.6%
Oxygen (O₂)	21.0%	0.003%	0.15%
Neon (Ne)	0.002%	0.001%	0.0003%

The atmosphere of Venus has a huge troposphere (region of convection) that extends up to at least 50 kilometers above the surface ([link]). Within the troposphere, the gas is heated from below and circulates slowly, rising near the equator and descending over the poles. Being at the base of the atmosphere of Venus is something like being a kilometer or more below the ocean surface on Earth. There, the mass of water evens out temperature variations and results in a uniform environment—the same effect the thick atmosphere has on Venus.

Venus’ Atmosphere.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 1. The layers of the massive atmosphere of Venus shown here are based on data from the Pioneer and Venera entry probes. Height is measured along the left axis, the bottom scale shows temperature, and the red line allows you to read off the temperature at each height. Notice how steeply the temperature rises below the clouds, thanks to the planet’s huge greenhouse effect.[/caption]

In the upper troposphere, between 30 and 60 kilometers above the surface, a thick cloud layer is composed primarily of sulfuric acid droplets. Sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) is formed from the chemical combination of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and water (H₂O). In the atmosphere of Earth, sulfur dioxide is one of the primary gases emitted by volcanoes, but it is quickly diluted and washed out by rainfall. In the dry atmosphere of Venus, this unpleasant substance is apparently stable. Below 30 kilometers, the Venus atmosphere is clear of clouds.

Surface Temperature on Venus

The high surface temperature of Venus was discovered by radio astronomers in the late 1950s and confirmed by the Mariner and Venera probes. How can our neighbor planet be so hot? Although Venus is somewhat closer to the Sun than is Earth, its surface is hundreds of degrees hotter than you would expect from the extra sunlight it receives. Scientists wondered what could be heating the surface of Venus to a temperature above 700 K. The answer turned out to be the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect works on Venus just as it does on Earth, but since Venus has so much more CO₂—almost a million times more—the effect is much stronger. The thick CO₂ acts as a blanket, making it very difficult for the infrared (heat) radiation from the ground to get back into space. As a result, the surface heats up. The energy balance is only restored when the planet is radiating as much energy as it receives from the Sun, but this can happen only when the temperature of the lower atmosphere is very high. One way of thinking of greenhouse heating is that it must raise the surface temperature of Venus until this energy balance is achieved.

Has Venus always had such a massive atmosphere and high surface temperature, or might it have evolved to such conditions from a climate that was once more nearly earthlike? The answer to this question is of particular interest to us as we look at the increasing levels of CO₂ in Earth’s atmosphere. As the greenhouse effect becomes stronger on Earth, are we in any danger of transforming our own planet into a hellish place like Venus?

Let us try to reconstruct the possible evolution of Venus from an earthlike beginning to its present state. Venus may once have had a climate similar to that of Earth, with moderate temperatures, water oceans, and much of its CO₂ dissolved in the ocean or chemically combined with the surface rocks. Then we allow for modest additional heating—by gradual increase in the energy output of the Sun, for example. When we calculate how Venus’ atmosphere would respond to such effects, it turns out that even a small amount of extra heat can lead to increased evaporation of water from the oceans and the release of gas from surface rocks.

This in turn means a further increase in the atmospheric CO₂ and H₂O, gases that would amplify the greenhouse effect in Venus’ atmosphere. That would lead to still more heat near Venus’ surface and the release of further CO₂ and H₂O. Unless some other processes intervene, the temperature thus continues to rise. Such a situation is called the runaway greenhouse effect.

We want to emphasize that the runaway greenhouse effect is not just a large greenhouse effect; it is an evolutionary process. The atmosphere evolves from having a small greenhouse effect, such as on Earth, to a situation where greenhouse warming is a major factor, as we see today on Venus. Once the large greenhouse conditions develop, the planet establishes a new, much hotter equilibrium near its surface.

Reversing the situation is difficult because of the role water plays. On Earth, most of the CO₂ is either chemically bound in the rocks of our crust or dissolved by the water in our oceans. As Venus got hotter and hotter, its oceans evaporated, eliminating that safety valve. But the water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere will not last forever in the presence of ultraviolet light from the Sun. The light element hydrogen can escape from the atmosphere, leaving the oxygen behind to combine chemically with surface rock. The loss of water is therefore an irreversible process: once the water is gone, it cannot be restored. There is evidence that this is just what happened to the water once present on Venus.

We don’t know if the same runaway greenhouse effect could one day happen on Earth. Although we are uncertain about the point at which a stable greenhouse effect breaks down and turns into a runaway greenhouse effect, Venus stands as clear testament to the fact that a planet cannot continue heating indefinitely without a major change in its oceans and atmosphere. It is a conclusion that we and our descendants will surely want to pay close attention to.

Key Concepts and Summary

The atmosphere of Venus is 96% CO₂. Thick clouds at altitudes of 30 to 60 kilometers are made of sulfuric acid, and a CO₂ greenhouse effect maintains the high surface temperature. Venus presumably reached its current state from more earthlike initial conditions as a result of a runaway greenhouse effect, which included the loss of large quantities of water.

Glossary

runaway greenhouse effect: the process by which the greenhouse effect, rather than remaining stable or being lessened through intervention, continues to grow at an increasing rate

10.4 The Geology of Mars

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:15:03 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Discuss the main missions that have explored Mars
Explain what we have learned from examination of meteorites from Mars
Describe the various features found on the surface of Mars
Compare the volcanoes and canyons on Mars with those of Earth
Describe the general conditions on the surface of Mars

Mars is more interesting to most people than Venus because it is more hospitable. Even from the distance of Earth, we can see surface features on Mars and follow the seasonal changes in its polar caps ([link]). Although the surface today is dry and cold, evidence collected by spacecraft suggests that Mars once had blue skies and lakes of liquid water. Even today, it is the sort of place we can imagine astronauts visiting and perhaps even setting up permanent bases.

Mars Photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. This is one of the best photos of Mars taken from our planet, obtained in June 2001 when Mars was only 68 million kilometers away. The resolution is about 20 kilometers—much better than can be obtained with ground-based telescopes but still insufficient to reveal the underlying geology of Mars. (credit: modification of work by NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))[/caption]

Spacecraft Exploration of Mars

Mars has been intensively investigated by spacecraft. More than 50 spacecraft have been launched toward Mars, but only about half were fully successful. The first visitor was the US Mariner 4, which flew past Mars in 1965 and transmitted 22 photos to Earth. These pictures showed an apparently bleak planet with abundant impact craters. In those days, craters were unexpected; some people who were romantically inclined still hoped to see canals or something like them. In any case, newspaper headlines sadly announced that Mars was a “dead planet.”

In 1971, NASA’s Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, mapping the entire surface of Mars at a resolution of about 1 kilometer and discovering a great variety of geological features, including volcanoes, huge canyons, intricate layers on the polar caps, and channels that appeared to have been cut by running water. Geologically, Mars didn’t look so dead after all.

The twin Viking spacecraft of the 1970s were among the most ambitious and successful of all planetary missions. Two orbiters surveyed the planet and served to relay communications for two landers on the surface. After an exciting and sometimes frustrating search for a safe landing spot, the Viking 1 lander touched down on the surface of Chryse Planitia (the Plains of Gold) on July 20, 1976, exactly 7 years after Neil Armstrong’s historic first step on the Moon. Two months later, Viking 2 landed with equal success in another plain farther north, called Utopia. The landers photographed the surface with high resolution and carried out complex experiments searching for evidence of life, while the orbiters provided a global perspective on Mars geology.

Mars languished unvisited for two decades after Viking. Two more spacecraft were launched toward Mars, by NASA and the Russian Space Agency, but both failed before reaching the planet. The situation changed in the 1990s as NASA began a new exploration program using spacecraft that were smaller and less expensive than Viking. The first of the new missions, appropriately called Pathfinder, landed the first wheeled, solar-powered rover on the martian surface on July 4, 1997 ([link]). An orbiter called Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) arrived a few months later and began high-resolution photography of the entire surface over more than one martian year. The most dramatic discovery by this spacecraft, which is still operating, was evidence of gullies apparently cut by surface water, as we will discuss later. These missions were followed in 2003 by the NASA Mars Odyssey orbiter, and the ESA Mars Express orbiter, both carrying high-resolution cameras. A gamma-ray spectrometer on Odyssey discovered a large amount of subsurface hydrogen (probably in the form of frozen water). Subsequent orbiters included the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to evaluate future landing sites, MAVEN to study the upper atmosphere, and India’s Mangalayaan, also focused on study of Mars’ thin layers of air. Several of these orbiters are also equipped to communicate with landers and rovers on the surface and serve as data relays to Earth.

Surface View from Mars Pathfinder.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 2. The scene from the Pathfinder lander shows a windswept plain, sculpted long ago when water flowed out of the martian highlands and into the depression where the spacecraft landed. The Sojourner rover, the first wheeled vehicle on Mars, is about the size of a microwave oven. Its flat top contains solar cells that provided electricity to run the vehicle. You can see the ramp from the lander and the path the rover took to the larger rock that the mission team nicknamed “Yogi.” (credit: NASA/JPL)[/caption]

In 2003, NASA began a series of highly successful Mars landers. Twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), named Spirit and Opportunity, have been successful far beyond their planned lifetimes. The design goal for the rovers was 600 meters of travel; in fact, they have traveled jointly more than 50 kilometers. After scouting around its rim, Opportunity drove down the steep walls into an impact crater called Victoria, then succeeded with some difficulty in climbing back out to resume its route ([link]). Dust covering the rovers’ solar cells caused a drop in power, but when a seasonal dust storm blew away the dust, the rovers resumed full operation. In order to survive winter, the rovers were positioned on slopes to maximize solar heating and power generation. In 2006, Spirit lost power on one of its wheels, and subsequently became stuck in the sand, where it continued operation as a fixed ground station. Meanwhile, in 2008, Phoenix (a spacecraft “reborn” of spare parts from a previous Mars mission that had failed) landed near the edge of the north polar cap, at latitude 68°, and directly measured water ice in the soil.

Victoria Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 3. (a) This crater in Meridiani Planum is 800 meters wide, making it slightly smaller than Meteor crater on Earth. Note the dune field in the interior. (b) This image shows the view from the Opportunity rover as it scouted the rim of Victoria crater looking for a safe route down into the interior. (credit a: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Cornell/Phio State University; credit b: modification of work by NASA/JPL/Cornell)[/caption]

In 2011, NASA launched its largest (and most expensive) Mars mission since Viking (see [link]). The 1-ton rover Curiosity, the size of a subcompact car, has plutonium-powered electrical generators, so that it is not dependent on sunlight for power. Curiosity made a pinpoint landing on the floor of Gale crater, a site selected for its complex geology and evidence that it had been submerged by water in the past. Previously, Mars landers had been sent to flat terrains with few hazards, as required by their lower targeting accuracy. The scientific goals of Curiosity include investigations of climate and geology, and assessment of the habitability of past and present Mars environments. It does not carry a specific life detection instrument, however. So far, scientists have not been able to devise a simple instrument that could distinguish living from nonliving materials on Mars.

The Curiosity rover required a remarkably complex landing sequence and NASA made a video about it called “7 Minutes of Terror” that went viral on the Internet.

A dramatic video summary of the first two years of Curiosity’s exploration of the martian surface can be viewed as well.

Martian Samples

Much of what we know of the Moon, including the circumstances of its origin, comes from studies of lunar samples, but spacecraft have not yet returned martian samples to Earth for laboratory analysis. It is with great interest, therefore, that scientists have discovered that samples of martian material are nevertheless already here on Earth, available for study. These are all members of a rare class of meteorites ([link])—rocks that have fallen from space.

Martian Meteorite.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 4. This fragment of basalt, ejected from Mars in a crater-forming impact, eventually arrived on Earth’s surface. (credit: NASA)[/caption]How would rocks have escaped from Mars? Many impacts have occurred on the red planet, as shown by its heavily cratered surface. Fragments blasted from large impacts can escape from Mars, whose surface gravity is only 38% of Earth’s. A long time later (typically a few million years), a very small fraction of these fragments collide with Earth and survive their passage through our atmosphere, just like other meteorites. (We’ll discuss meteorites in more detail in the chapter on Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System.) By the way, rocks from the Moon have also reached our planet as meteorites, although we were able to demonstrate their lunar origin only by comparison with samples returned by the Apollo missions

Most of the martian meteorites are volcanic basalts; most of them are also relatively young—about 1.3 billion years old. We know from details of their composition that they are not from Earth or the Moon. Besides, there was no volcanic activity on the Moon to form them as recently as 1.3 billon years ago. It would be very difficult for ejecta from impacts on Venus to escape through its thick atmosphere. By the process of elimination, the only reasonable origin seems to be Mars, where the Tharsis volcanoes were active at that time.

The martian origin of these meteorites was confirmed by the analysis of tiny gas bubbles trapped inside several of them. These bubbles match the atmospheric properties of Mars as first measured directly by Viking. It appears that some atmospheric gas was trapped in the rock by the shock of the impact that ejected it from Mars and started it on its way toward Earth.

One of the most exciting results from analysis of these martian samples has been the discovery of both water and organic (carbon-based) compounds in them, which suggests that Mars may once have had oceans and perhaps even life on its surface. As we have already hinted, there is other evidence for the presence of flowing water on Mars in the remote past, and even extending to the present.

In this and the following sections, we will summarize the picture of Mars as revealed by all these exploratory missions and by about 40 samples from Mars.

Global Properties of Mars

Mars has a diameter of 6790 kilometers, just over half the diameter of Earth, giving it a total surface area very nearly equal to the continental (land) area of our planet. Its overall density of 3.9 g/cm³ suggests a composition consisting primarily of silicates but with a small metal core. The planet has no global magnetic field, although there are areas of strong surface magnetization that indicate that there was a global field billions of years ago. Apparently, the red planet has no liquid material in its core today that would conduct electricity.

Thanks to the Mars Global Surveyor, we have mapped the entire planet, as shown in [link]. A laser altimeter on board made millions of separate measurements of the surface topography to a precision of a few meters—good enough to show even the annual deposition and evaporation of the polar caps. Like Earth, the Moon, and Venus, the surface of Mars has continental or highland areas as well as widespread volcanic plains. The total range in elevation from the top of the highest mountain (Olympus Mons) to the bottom of the deepest basin (Hellas) is 31 kilometers.

Mars Map from Laser Ranging.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 5. These globes are highly precise topographic maps, reconstructed from millions of individual elevation measurements made with the Mars Global Surveyor. Color is used to indicate elevation. The hemisphere on the left includes the Tharsis bulge and Olympus Mons, the highest mountain on Mars; the hemisphere on the right includes the Hellas basin, which has the lowest elevation on Mars. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL)[/caption]

Approximately half the planet consists of heavily cratered highland terrain, found primarily in the southern hemisphere. The other half, which is mostly in the north, contains younger, lightly cratered volcanic plains at an average elevation about 5 kilometers lower than the highlands. Remember that we saw a similar pattern on Earth, the Moon, and Venus. A geological division into older highlands and younger lowland plains seems to be characteristic of all the terrestrial planets except Mercury.

Lying across the north-south division of Mars is an uplifted continent the size of North America. This is the 10-kilometer-high Tharsis bulge, a volcanic region crowned by four great volcanoes that rise still higher into the martian sky.

Volcanoes on Mars

The lowland plains of Mars look very much like the lunar maria, and they have about the same density of impact craters. Like the lunar maria, they probably formed between 3 and 4 billion years ago. Apparently, Mars experienced extensive volcanic activity at about the same time the Moon did, producing similar basaltic lavas.

The largest volcanic mountains of Mars are found in the Tharsis area (you can see them in [link]), although smaller volcanoes dot much of the surface. The most dramatic volcano on Mars is Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus), with a diameter larger than 500 kilometers and a summit that towers more than 20 kilometers above the surrounding plains—three times higher than the tallest mountain on Earth ([link]). The volume of this immense volcano is nearly 100 times greater than that of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Placed on Earth’s surface, Olympus would more than cover the entire state of Missouri.

Olympus Mons.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Figure 6. The largest volcano on Mars, and probably the largest in the solar system, is Olympus Mons, illustrated in this computer-generated rendering based on data from the Mars Global Surveyor’s laser altimeter. Placed on Earth, the base of Olympus Mons would completely cover the state of Missouri; the caldera, the circular opening at the top, is 65 kilometers across, about the size of Los Angeles. (credit: NASA/Corbis)[/caption]

Images taken from orbit allow scientists to search for impact craters on the slopes of these volcanoes in order to estimate their age. Many of the volcanoes show a fair number of such craters, suggesting that they ceased activity a billion years or more ago. However, Olympus Mons has very, very few impact craters. Its present surface cannot be more than about 100 million years old; it may even be much younger. Some of the fresh-looking lava flows might have been formed a hundred years ago, or a thousand, or a million, but geologically speaking, they are quite young. This leads geologists to the conclusion that Olympus Mons possibly remains intermittently active today—something future Mars land developers may want to keep in mind.

Martian Cracks and Canyons

The Tharsis bulge has many interesting geological features in addition to its huge volcanoes. In this part of the planet, the surface itself has bulged upward, forced by great pressures from below, resulting in extensive tectonic cracking of the crust. Among the most spectacular tectonic features on Mars are the canyons called the Valles Marineris (or Mariner Valleys, named after Mariner 9, which first revealed them to us), which are shown in [link]. They extend for about 5000 kilometers (nearly a quarter of the way around Mars) along the slopes of the Tharsis bulge. If it were on Earth, this canyon system would stretch all the way from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. The main canyon is about 7 kilometers deep and up to 100 kilometers wide, large enough for the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River to fit comfortably into one of its side canyons.

Heavily Eroded Canyonlands on Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 7. This image shows the Valles Marineris canyon complex, which is 3000 kilometers wide and 8 kilometers deep. (credit: NASA/JPL/USGS)[/caption]

An excellent 4-minute video tour of Valles Marineris, narrated by planetary scientist Phil Christensen, is available for viewing.

The term “canyon” is somewhat misleading here because the Valles Marineris canyons have no outlets and were not cut by running water. They are basically tectonic cracks, produced by the same crustal tensions that caused the Tharsis uplift. However, water has played a later role in shaping the canyons, primarily by seeping from deep springs and undercutting the cliffs. This undercutting led to landslides that gradually widened the original cracks into the great valleys we see today ([link]). Today, the primary form of erosion in the canyons is probably wind.

Martian Landslides.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 8. This Viking orbiter image shows Ophir Chasma, one of the connected valleys of the Valles Marineris canyon system. Look carefully and you can see enormous landslides whose debris is piled up underneath the cliff wall, which tower up to 10 kilometers above the canyon floor. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL/USGS)[/caption]

While the Tharsis bulge and Valles Marineris are impressive, in general, we see fewer tectonic structures on Mars than on Venus. In part, this may reflect a lower general level of geological activity, as would be expected for a smaller planet. But it is also possible that evidence of widespread faulting has been buried by wind-deposited sediment over much of Mars. Like Earth, Mars may have hidden part of its geological history under a cloak of soil.

The View on the Martian Surface

The first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars were Vikings 1 and 2 and Mars Pathfinder. All sent back photos that showed a desolate but strangely beautiful landscape, including numerous angular rocks interspersed with dune like deposits of fine-grained, reddish soil ([link]).

Three Martian Landing Sites.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 9. The Mars landers Viking 1 in Chryse, Pathfinder in Ares Valley, and Viking 2 in Utopia, all photographed their immediate surroundings. It is apparent from the similarity of these three photos that each spacecraft touched down on a flat, windswept plain littered with rocks ranging from tiny pebbles up to meter-size boulders. It is probable that most of Mars looks like this on the surface. (credit “Viking 1”: modification of work by Van der Hoorn/NASA; credit “Pathfinder”: modification of work by NASA; credit “Viking 2”: modification of work by NASA; credit Mars: modification of work by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)[/caption]

All three of these landers were targeted to relatively flat, lowland terrain. Instruments on the landers found that the soil consisted of clays and iron oxides, as had long been expected from the red color of the planet. All the rocks measured appeared to be of volcanic origin and roughly the same composition. Later landers were targeted to touch down in areas that apparently were flooded sometime in the past, where sedimentary rock layers, formed in the presence of water, are common. (Although we should note that nearly all the planet is blanketed in at least a thin layer of wind-blown dust).

The Viking landers included weather stations that operated for several years, providing a perspective on martian weather. The temperatures they measured varied greatly with the seasons, due to the absence of moderating oceans and clouds. Typically, the summer maximum at Viking 1 was 240 K (–33 °C), dropping to 190 K (–83 °C) at the same location just before dawn. The lowest air temperatures, measured farther north by Viking 2, were about 173 K (–100 °C). During the winter, Viking 2 also photographed water frost deposits on the ground ([link]). We make a point of saying “water frost” here because at some locations on Mars, it gets cold enough for carbon dioxide (dry ice) to freeze out of the atmosphere as well.

Water Frost in Utopia.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 10. This image of surface frost was photographed at the Viking 2 landing site during late winter. (credit: NASA/JPL)[/caption]

Most of the winds measured on Mars are only a few kilometers per hour. However, Mars is capable of great windstorms that can shroud the entire planet with windblown dust. Such high winds can strip the surface of some of its loose, fine dust, leaving the rock exposed. The later rovers found that each sunny afternoon the atmosphere became turbulent as heat rose off the surface. This turbulence generated dust devils, which play an important role in lifting the fine dust into the atmosphere. As the dust devils strip off the top layer of light dust and expose darker material underneath, they can produce fantastic patterns on the ground ([link]).

Wind on Mars plays an important role in redistributing surface material. [link] shows a beautiful area of dark sand dunes on top of lighter material. Much of the material stripped out of the martian canyons has been dumped in extensive dune fields like this, mostly at high latitudes.

Dust Devil Tracks and Sand Dunes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 11. (a) This high-resolution photo from the Mars Global Surveyor shows the dark tracks of several dust devils that have stripped away a thin coating of light-colored dust. This view is of an area about 3 kilometers across. Dust devils are one of the most important ways that dust gets redistributed by the martian winds. They may also help keep the solar panels of our rovers free of dust. (b) These windblown sand dunes on Mars overlay a lighter sandy surface. Each dune in this high-resolution view is about 1 kilometer across. (credit a: modification of work by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; credit b: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)[/caption]

Key Concepts and Summary

Most of what we know about Mars is derived from spacecraft: highly successful orbiters, landers, and rovers. We have also been able to study a few martian rocks that reached Earth as meteorites. Mars has heavily cratered highlands in its southern hemisphere, but younger, lower volcanic plains over much of its northern half. The Tharsis bulge, as big as North America, includes several huge volcanoes; Olympus Mons is more than 20 kilometers high and 500 kilometers in diameter. The Valles Marineris canyons are tectonic features widened by erosion. Early landers revealed only barren, windswept plains, but later missions have visited places with more geological (and scenic) variety. Landing sites have been selected in part to search for evidence of past water.

10.5 Water and Life on Mars

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:15:18 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the general composition of the atmosphere on Mars
Explain what we know about the polar ice caps on Mars and how we know it
Describe the evidence for the presence of water in the past history of Mars
Summarize the evidence for and against the possibility of life on Mars

Of all the planets and moons in the solar system, Mars seems to be the most promising place to look for life, both fossil microbes and (we hope) some forms of life deeper underground that still survive today. But where (and how) should we look for life? We know that the one requirement shared by all life on Earth is liquid water. Therefore, the guiding principle in assessing habitability on Mars and elsewhere has been to “follow the water.” That is the perspective we take in this section, to follow the water on the red planet and hope it will lead us to life.

Atmosphere and Clouds on Mars

The atmosphere of Mars today has an average surface pressure of only 0.007 bar, less than 1% that of Earth. (This is how thin the air is about 30 kilometers above Earth’s surface.) Martian air is composed primarily of carbon dioxide (95%), with about 3% nitrogen and 2% argon. The proportions of different gases are similar to those in the atmosphere of Venus (see [link]), but a lot less of each gas is found in the thin air on Mars.

While winds on Mars can reach high speeds, they exert much less force than wind of the same velocity would on Earth because the atmosphere is so thin. The wind is able, however, to loft very fine dust particles, which can sometimes develop planet-wide dust storms. It is this fine dust that coats almost all the surface, giving Mars its distinctive red color. In the absence of surface water, wind erosion plays a major role in sculpting the martian surface ([link]).

Wind Erosion on Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 1. These long straight ridges, called yardangs, are aligned with the dominant wind direction. This is a high-resolution image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and is about 1 kilometer wide. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)[/caption]

The issue of how strong the winds on Mars can be plays a big role in the 2015 hit movie The Martian in which the main character is stranded on Mars after being buried in the sand in a windstorm so great that his fellow astronauts have to leave the planet so their ship is not damaged. Astronomers have noted that the martian winds could not possibly be as forceful as depicted in the film. In most ways, however, the depiction of Mars in this movie is remarkably accurate.

Although the atmosphere contains small amounts of water vapor and occasional clouds of water ice, liquid water is not stable under present conditions on Mars. Part of the problem is the low temperatures on the planet. But even if the temperature on a sunny summer day rises above the freezing point, the low pressure means that liquid water still cannot exist on the surface, except at the lowest elevations. At a pressure of less than 0.006 bar, the boiling point is as low or lower than the freezing point, and water changes directly from solid to vapor without an intermediate liquid state (as does “dry ice,” carbon dioxide, on Earth). However, salts dissolved in water lower its freezing point, as we know from the way salt is used to thaw roads after snow and ice forms during winter on Earth. Salty water is therefore sometimes able to exist in liquid form on the martian surface, under the right conditions.

Several types of clouds can form in the martian atmosphere. First there are dust clouds, discussed above. Second are water-ice clouds similar to those on Earth. These often form around mountains, just as happens on our planet. Finally, the CO₂ of the atmosphere can itself condense at high altitudes to form hazes of dry ice crystals. The CO₂ clouds have no counterpart on Earth, since on our planet temperatures never drop low enough (down to about 150 K or about 125 °C) for this gas to condense.

The Polar Caps

Through a telescope, the most prominent surface features on Mars are the bright polar caps, which change with the seasons, similar to the seasonal snow cover on Earth. We do not usually think of the winter snow in northern latitudes as a part of our polar caps, but seen from space, the thin winter snow merges with Earth’s thick, permanent ice caps to create an impression much like that seen on Mars ([link]).

Martian North Polar Cap.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) This is a composite image of the north pole in summer, obtained in October 2006 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It shows the mostly water-ice residual cap sitting atop light, tan-colored, layered sediments. Note that although the border of this photo is circular, it shows only a small part of the planet. (b) Here we see a small section of the layered terrain near the martian north pole. There is a mound about 40 meters high that is sticking out of a trough in the center of the picture. (credit a: modification of work by NASA/JPL/MSSS; credit b: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)[/caption]

The seasonal caps on Mars are composed not of ordinary snow but of frozen CO₂ (dry ice). These deposits condense directly from the atmosphere when the surface temperature drops below about 150 K. The caps develop during the cold martian winters and extend down to about 50° latitude by the start of spring.

Quite distinct from these thin seasonal caps of CO₂ are the permanent or residual caps that are always present near the poles. The southern permanent cap has a diameter of 350 kilometers and is composed of frozen CO₂ deposits together with a great deal of water ice. Throughout the southern summer, it remains at the freezing point of CO₂, 150 K, and this cold reservoir is thick enough to survive the summer heat intact.

The northern permanent cap is different. It is much larger, never shrinking to a diameter less than 1000 kilometers, and is composed of water ice. Summer temperatures in the north are too high for the frozen CO₂ to be retained. Measurements from the Mars Global Surveyor have established the exact elevations in the north polar region of Mars, showing that it is a large basin about the size of our own Arctic Ocean basin. The ice cap itself is about 3 kilometers thick, with a total volume of about 10 million km³ (similar to that of Earth’s Mediterranean Sea). If Mars ever had extensive liquid water, this north polar basin would have contained a shallow sea. There is some indication of ancient shorelines visible, but better images will be required to verify this suggestion.

Images taken from orbit also show a distinctive type of terrain surrounding the permanent polar caps, as shown in [link]. At latitudes above 80° in both hemispheres, the surface consists of recent layered deposits that cover the older cratered ground below. Individual layers are typically ten to a few tens of meters thick, marked by alternating light and dark bands of sediment. Probably the material in the polar deposits includes dust carried by wind from the equatorial regions of Mars.

What do these terraced layers tell us about Mars? Some cyclic process is depositing dust and ice over periods of time. The time scales represented by the polar layers are tens of thousands of years. Apparently the martian climate experiences periodic changes at intervals similar to those between ice ages on Earth. Calculations indicate that the causes are probably also similar: the gravitational pull of the other planets produces variations in Mars’ orbit and tilt as the great clockwork of the solar system goes through its paces.

The Phoenix spacecraft landed near the north polar cap in summer ([link]). Controllers knew that it would not be able to survive a polar winter, but directly measuring the characteristics of the polar region was deemed important enough to send a dedicated mission. The most exciting discovery came when the spacecraft tried to dig a shallow trench under the spacecraft. When the overlying dust was stripped off, they saw bright white material, apparently some kind of ice. From the way this ice sublimated over the next few days, it was clear that it was frozen water.

Evaporating Ice on Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. We see a trench dug by the Phoenix lander in the north polar region four martian days apart in June 2008. If you look at the shadowed region in the bottom left of the trench, you can see three spots of ice in the left image which have sublimated away in the right image. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)[/caption]

Comparing the Amount of Water on Mars and Earth It is interesting to estimate the amount of water (in the form of ice) on Mars and to compare this with the amount of water on Earth. In each case, we can find the total volume of a layer on a sphere by multiplying the area of the sphere (4πR²) by the thickness of the layer. For Earth, the ocean water is equivalent to a layer 3 km thick spread over the entire planet, and the radius of Earth is 6.378 × 10⁶ m (see Appendix F). For Mars, most of the water we are sure of is in the form of ice near the poles. We can calculate the amount of ice in one of the residual polar caps if it is (for example) 2 km thick and has a radius of 400 km (the area of a circle is πR²).

Solution The volume of Earth’s water is therefore the area 4πR²

$$4\pi{\left({6.378\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{6}\text{m}\right)}^{2}={5.1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{14}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}$$

multiplied by the thickness of 3000 m:

$${5.1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{14}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}3000\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}={1.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{18}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}$$

This gives 1.5 × 10¹⁸ m³ of water. Since water has a density of 1 ton per cubic meter (1000 kg/m³), we can calculate the mass:

$${1.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}10}^{18}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{ton/m}}^{3}=1.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{18}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{tons}$$

For Mars, the ice doesn’t cover the whole planet, only the caps; the polar cap area is

$$\pi{R}^2=\pi \left( 4\times10^5\text{m} \right)^2 =5\times10^11\text{m}^2$$

(Note that we converted kilometers to meters.)

The volume = area × height, so we have:

$$\left(2\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{m}\right)\left(5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{11}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}\right)=1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{15}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}={10}^{15}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}$$

Therefore, the mass is:

$${10}^{15}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\times\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{ton/m}}^{3}={10}^{15}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{tons}$$

This is about 0.1% that of Earth’s oceans.

Check Your Learning A better comparison might be to compare the amount of ice in the Mars polar ice caps to the amount of ice in the Greenland ice sheet on Earth, which has been estimated as 2.85 × 10¹⁵ m³. How does this compare with the ice on Mars?

Answer:

The Greenland ice sheet has about 2.85 times as much ice as in the polar ice caps on Mars. They are about the same to the nearest power of 10.

Channels and Gullies on Mars

Although no bodies of liquid water exist on Mars today, evidence has accumulated that rivers flowed on the red planet long ago. Two kinds of geological features appear to be remnants of ancient watercourses, while a third class—smaller gullies—suggests intermittent outbreaks of liquid water even today. We will examine each of these features in turn.

In the highland equatorial plains, there are multitudes of small, sinuous (twisting) channels—typically a few meters deep, some tens of meters wide, and perhaps 10 or 20 kilometers long ([link]). They are called runoff channels because they look like what geologists would expect from the surface runoff of ancient rain storms. These runoff channels seem to be telling us that the planet had a very different climate long ago. To estimate the age of these channels, we look at the cratering record. Crater counts show that this part of the planet is more cratered than the lunar maria but less cratered than the lunar highlands. Thus, the runoff channels are probably older than the lunar maria, presumably about 4 billion years old.

The second set of water-related features we see are outflow channels ([link]) are much larger than the runoff channels. The largest of these, which drain into the Chryse basin where Pathfinder landed, are 10 kilometers or more wide and hundreds of kilometers long. Many features of these outflow channels have convinced geologists that they were carved by huge volumes of running water, far too great to be produced by ordinary rainfall. Where could such floodwater have come from on Mars?

Runoff and Outflow Channels.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. (a) These runoff channels in the old martian highlands are interpreted as the valleys of ancient rivers fed by either rain or underground springs. The width of this image is about 200 kilometers. (b) This intriguing channel, called Nanedi Valles, resembles Earth riverbeds in some (but not all) ways. The tight curves and terraces seen in the channel certainly suggest the sustained flow of a fluid like water. The channel is about 2.5 kilometers across. (credit a: modification of work by Jim Secosky/NASA; credit b: modification of work by Jim Secosky/NASA)[/caption]

As far we can tell, the regions where the outflow channels originate contained abundant water frozen in the soil as permafrost. Some local source of heating must have released this water, leading to a period of rapid and catastrophic flooding. Perhaps this heating was associated with the formation of the volcanic plains on Mars, which date back to roughly the same time as the outflow channels.

Note that neither the runoff channels nor the outflow channels are wide enough to be visible from Earth, nor do they follow straight lines. They could not have been the “canals” Percival Lowell imagined seeing on the red planet.

The third type of water feature, the smaller gullies, was discovered by the Mars Global Surveyor ([link]). The Mars Global Surveyor’s camera images achieved a resolution of a few meters, good enough to see something as small as a truck or bus on the surface. On the steep walls of valleys and craters at high latitudes, there are many erosional features that look like gullies carved by flowing water. These gullies are very young: not only are there no superimposed impact craters, but in some instances, the gullies seem to cut across recent wind-deposited dunes. Perhaps there is liquid water underground that can occasionally break out to produce short-lived surface flows before the water can freeze or evaporate.

Gullies on the Wall of Garni Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 5. This high-resolution image is from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The dark streaks, which are each several hundred meters long, change in a seasonal pattern that suggests they are caused by the temporary flow of surface water. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)[/caption]

The gullies also have the remarkable property of changing regularly with the martian seasons. Many of the dark streaks (visible in [link]) elongate within a period of a few days, indicating that something is flowing downhill—either water or dark sediment. If it is water, it requires a continuing source, either from the atmosphere or from springs that tap underground water layers (aquifers.) Underground water would be the most exciting possibility, but this explanation seems inconsistent with the fact that many of the dark streaks start at high elevations on the walls of craters.

Additional evidence that the dark streaks (called by the scientists recurring slope lineae) are caused by water was found in 2015 when spectra were obtained of the dark streaks ([link]). These showed the presence of hydrated salts produced by the evaporation of salty water. If the water is salty, it could remain liquid long enough to flow downstream for distances of a hundred meters or more, before it either evaporates or soaks into the ground. However, this discovery still does not identify the ultimate source of the water.

Evidence for Liquid Water on Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 6. The dark streaks in Horowitz crater, which move downslope, have been called recurring slope lineae. The streaks in the center of the image go down the wall of the crater for about a distance of 100 meters. Spectra taken of this region indicate that these are locations where salty liquid water flows on or just below the surface of Mars. (The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of 1.5 compared to horizontal dimensions.) (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)[/caption]

Ancient Lakes

The rovers (Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity) that have operated on the surface of Mars have been used to hunt for additional evidence of water. They could not reach the most interesting sites, such as the gullies, which are located on steep slopes. Instead, they explored sites that might be dried-out lake beds, dating back to a time when the climate on Mars was warmer and the atmosphere thicker—allowing water to be liquid on the surface.

Spirit was specifically targeted to explore what looked like an ancient lake-bed in Gusev crater, with an outflow channel emptying into it. However, when the spacecraft landed, it found that the former lakebed had been covered by thin lava flows, blocking the rover from access to the sedimentary rocks it had hoped to find. However, Opportunity had better luck. Peering at the walls of a small crater, it detected layered sedimentary rock. These rocks contained chemical evidence of evaporation, suggesting there had been a shallow salty lake in that location. In these sedimentary rocks were also small spheres that were rich in the mineral hematite, which forms only in watery environments. Apparently this very large basin had once been underwater.

The small spherical rocks were nicknamed “blueberries” by the science team and the discovery of a whole “berry-bowl” of them was announced in this interesting news release from NASA.

The Curiosity rover landed inside Gale crater, where photos taken from orbit also suggested past water erosion. It discovered numerous sedimentary rocks, some in the form of mudstones from an ancient lakebed; it also found indications of rocks formed by the action of shallow water at the time the sediment formed ([link]).

Gale Crater.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 7. (a) This scene, photographed by the Curiosity rover, shows an ancient lakebed of cracked mudstones. (b) Geologists working with the Curiosity rover interpret this image of cross-bedded sandstone in Gale crater as evidence of liquid water passing over a loose bed of sediment at the time this rock formed. (credit a: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; credit b: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)[/caption]

Astronomy and Pseudoscience: The “Face on Mars”

People like human faces. We humans have developed great skill in recognizing people and interpreting facial expressions. We also have a tendency to see faces in many natural formations, from clouds to the man in the Moon. One of the curiosities that emerged from the Viking orbiters’ global mapping of Mars was the discovery of a strangely shaped mesa in the Cydonia region that resembled a human face. Despite later rumors of a cover-up, the “Face on Mars” was, in fact, recognized by Viking scientists and included in one of the early mission press releases. At the low resolution and oblique lighting under which the Viking image was obtained, the mile-wide mesa had something of a Sphinx-like appearance.

Unfortunately, a small band of individuals decided that this formation was an artificial, carved sculpture of a human face placed on Mars by an ancient civilization that thrived there hundreds of thousands of years ago. A band of “true believers” grew around the face and tried to deduce the nature of the “sculptors” who made it. This group also linked the face to a variety of other pseudoscientific phenomena such as crop circles (patterns in fields of grain, mostly in Britain, now known to be the work of pranksters).

Members of this group accused NASA of covering up evidence of intelligent life on Mars, and they received a great deal of help in publicizing their perspective from tabloid media. Some of the believers picketed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the time of the failure of the Mars Observer spacecraft, circulating stories that the “failure” of the Mars Observer was itself a fake, and that its true (secret) mission was to photograph the face.

The high-resolution Mars Observer camera (MOC) was reflown on the Mars Global Surveyor mission, which arrived at Mars in 1997. On April 5, 1998, in Orbit 220, the MOC obtained an oblique image of the face at a resolution of 4 meters per pixel, a factor-of-10 improvement in resolution over the Viking image. Another image in 2001 had even higher resolution. Immediately released by NASA, the new images showed a low mesa-like hill cut crossways by several roughly linear ridges and depressions, which were misidentified in the 1976 photo as the eyes and mouth of a face. Only with an enormous dose of imagination can any resemblance to a face be seen in the new images, demonstrating how dramatically our interpretation of geology can change with large improvements in resolution. The original and the higher resolution images can be seen in [link].

Face on Mars.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="917"] Figure 8. The so-called “Face on Mars” is seen (a) in low resolution from Viking (the “face” is in the upper part of the picture) and (b) with 20 times better resolution from the Mars Global Surveyor. (credit a: modification of work NASA/JPL; credit b: modification of work by NASA/JPL/MSSS)[/caption]

After 20 years of promoting pseudoscientific interpretations and various conspiracy theories, can the “Face on Mars” believers now accept reality? Unfortunately, it does not seem so. They have accused NASA of faking the new picture. They also suggest that the secret mission of the Mars Observer included a nuclear bomb used to destroy the face before it could be photographed in greater detail by the Mars Global Surveyor.

Space scientists find these suggestions incredible. NASA is spending increasing sums for research on life in the universe, and a major objective of current and upcoming Mars missions is to search for evidence of past microbial life on Mars. Conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial life would be one of the great discoveries of science and incidentally might well lead to increased funding for NASA. The idea that NASA or other government agencies would (or could) mount a conspiracy to suppress such welcome evidence is truly bizarre.

Alas, the “Face on Mars” story is only one example of a whole series of conspiracy theories that are kept before the public by dedicated believers, by people out to make a fast buck, and by irresponsible media attention. Others include the “urban legend” that the Air Force has the bodies of extraterrestrials at a secret base, the widely circulated report that UFOs crashed near Roswell, New Mexico (actually it was a balloon carrying scientific instruments to find evidence of Soviet nuclear tests), or the notion that alien astronauts helped build the Egyptian pyramids and many other ancient monuments because our ancestors were too stupid to do it alone.

In response to the increase in publicity given to these “fiction science” ideas, a group of scientists, educators, scholars, and magicians (who know a good hoax when they see one) have formed the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Two of the original authors of your book are active on the committee. For more information about its work delving into the rational explanations for paranormal claims, see their excellent magazine, The Skeptical Inquirer, or check out their website at www.csicop.org/.

Climate Change on Mars

The evidence about ancient rivers and lakes of water on Mars discussed so far suggests that, billions of years ago, martian temperatures must have been warmer and the atmosphere must have been more substantial than it is today. But what could have changed the climate on Mars so dramatically?

We presume that, like Earth and Venus, Mars probably formed with a higher surface temperature thanks to the greenhouse effect. But Mars is a smaller planet, and its lower gravity means that atmospheric gases could escape more easily than from Earth and Venus. As more and more of the atmosphere escaped into space, the temperature on the surface gradually fell.

Eventually Mars became so cold that most of the water froze out of the atmosphere, further reducing its ability to retain heat. The planet experienced a sort of runaway refrigerator effect, just the opposite of the runaway greenhouse effect that occurred on Venus. Probably, this loss of atmosphere took place within less than a billion years after Mars formed. The result is the cold, dry Mars we see today.

Conditions a few meters below the martian surface, however, may be much different. There, liquid water (especially salty water) might persist, kept warm by the internal heat of Mars or the insulating layers solid and rock. Even on the surface, there may be ways to change the martian atmosphere temporarily.

Mars is likely to experience long-term climate cycles, which may be caused by the changing orbit and tilt of the planet. At times, one or both of the polar caps might melt, releasing a great deal of water vapor into the atmosphere. Perhaps an occasional impact by a comet might produce a temporary atmosphere that is thick enough to permit liquid water on the surface for a few weeks or months. Some have even suggested that future technology might allow us to terraform Mars—that is, to engineer its atmosphere and climate in ways that might make the planet more hospitable for long-term human habitation.

The Search for Life on Mars

If there was running water on Mars in the past, perhaps there was life as well. Could life, in some form, remain in the martian soil today? Testing this possibility, however unlikely, was one of the primary objectives of the Viking landers in 1976. These landers carried miniature biological laboratories to test for microorganisms in the martian soil. Martian soil was scooped up by the spacecraft’s long arm and placed into the experimental chambers, where it was isolated and incubated in contact with a variety of gases, radioactive isotopes, and nutrients to see what would happen. The experiments looked for evidence of respiration by living animals, absorption of nutrients offered to organisms that might be present, and an exchange of gases between the soil and its surroundings for any reason whatsoever. A fourth instrument pulverized the soil and analyzed it carefully to determine what organic (carbon-bearing) material it contained.

The Viking experiments were so sensitive that, had one of the spacecraft landed anywhere on Earth (with the possible exception of Antarctica), it would easily have detected life. But, to the disappointment of many scientists and members of the public, no life was detected on Mars. The soil tests for absorption of nutrients and gas exchange did show some activity, but this was most likely caused by chemical reactions that began as water was added to the soil and had nothing to do with life. In fact, these experiments showed that martian soil seems much more chemically active than terrestrial soils because of its exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (since Mars has no ozone layer).

The organic chemistry experiment showed no trace of organic material, which is apparently destroyed on the martian surface by the sterilizing effect of this ultraviolet light. While the possibility of life on the surface has not been eliminated, most experts consider it negligible. Although Mars has the most earthlike environment of any planet in the solar system, the sad fact is that nobody seems to be home today, at least on the surface.

However, there is no reason to think that life could not have begun on Mars about 4 billion years ago, at the same time it started on Earth. The two planets had very similar surface conditions then. Thus, the attention of scientists has shifted to the search for fossil life on Mars. One of the primary questions to be addressed by future spacecraft is whether Mars once supported its own life forms and, if so, how this martian life compared with that on our own planet. Future missions will include the return of martian samples selected from sedimentary rocks at sites that once held water and thus perhaps ancient life. The most powerful searches for martian life (past or present) will thus be carried out in our laboratories here on Earth.

Planetary Protection

When scientists begin to search for life on another planet, they must make sure that we do not contaminate the other world with life carried from Earth. At the very beginning of spacecraft exploration on Mars, an international agreement specified that all landers were to be carefully sterilized to avoid accidentally transplanting terrestrial microbes to Mars. In the case of Viking, we know the sterilization was successful. Viking’s failure to detect martian organisms also implies that these experiments did not detect hitchhiking terrestrial microbes.

As we have learned more about the harsh conditions on the martian surface, the sterilization requirements have been somewhat relaxed. It is evident that no terrestrial microbes could grow on the martian surface, with its low temperature, absence of water, and intense ultraviolet radiation. Microbes from Earth might survive in a dormant, dried state, but they cannot grow and proliferate on Mars.

The problem of contaminating Mars will become more serious, however, as we begin to search for life below the surface, where temperatures are higher and no ultraviolet light penetrates. The situation will be even more daunting if we consider human flights to Mars. Any humans will carry with them a multitude of terrestrial microbes of all kinds, and it is hard to imagine how we can effectively keep the two biospheres isolated from each other if Mars has indigenous life. Perhaps the best situation could be one in which the two life-forms are so different that each is effectively invisible to the other—not recognized on a chemical level as living or as potential food.

The most immediate issue of public concern is not with the contamination of Mars but with any dangers associated with returning Mars samples to Earth. NASA is committed to the complete biological isolation of returned samples until they are demonstrated to be safe. Even though the chances of contamination are extremely low, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Most likely there is no danger, even if there is life on Mars and alien microbes hitch a ride to Earth inside some of the returned samples. In fact, Mars is sending samples to Earth all the time in the form of the Mars meteorites. Since some of these microbes (if they exist) could probably survive the trip to Earth inside their rocky home, we may have been exposed many times over to martian microbes. Either they do not interact with our terrestrial life, or in effect our planet has already been inoculated against such alien bugs.

More than any other planet, Mars has inspired science fiction writers over the years. You can find scientifically reasonable stories about Mars in a subject index of such stories online. If you click on Mars as a topic, you will find stories by a number of space scientists, including William Hartmann, Geoffrey Landis, and Ludek Pesek.

Key Concepts and Summary

The martian atmosphere has a surface pressure of less than 0.01 bar and is 95% CO₂. It has dust clouds, water clouds, and carbon dioxide (dry ice) clouds. Liquid water on the surface is not possible today, but there is subsurface permafrost at high latitudes. Seasonal polar caps are made of dry ice; the northern residual cap is water ice, whereas the southern permanent ice cap is made predominantly of water ice with a covering of carbon dioxide ice. Evidence of a very different climate in the past is found in water erosion features: both runoff channels and outflow channels, the latter carved by catastrophic floods. Our rovers, exploring ancient lakebeds and places where sedimentary rock has formed, have found evidence for extensive surface water in the past. Even more exciting are the gullies that seem to show the presence of flowing salty water on the surface today, hinting at near-surface aquifers. The Viking landers searched for martian life in 1976, with negative results, but life might have flourished long ago. We have found evidence of water on Mars, but following the water has not yet led us to life on that planet.

10.6 Divergent Planetary Evolution

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:15:32 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Compare the planetary evolution of Venus, Earth, and Mars

Venus, Mars, and our own planet Earth form a remarkably diverse triad of worlds. Although all three orbit in roughly the same inner zone around the Sun and all apparently started with about the same chemical mix of silicates and metals, their evolutionary paths have diverged. As a result, Venus became hot and dry, Mars became cold and dry, and only Earth ended up with what we consider a hospitable climate.

We have discussed the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus and the runaway refrigerator effect on Mars, but we do not understand exactly what started these two planets down these separate evolutionary paths. Was Earth ever in danger of a similar fate? Or might it still be diverted onto one of these paths, perhaps due to stress on the atmosphere generated by human pollutants? One of the reasons for studying Venus and Mars is to seek insight into these questions.

Some people have even suggested that if we understood the evolution of Mars and Venus better, we could possibly reverse their evolution and restore more earthlike environments. While it seems unlikely that humans could ever make either Mars or Venus into a replica of Earth, considering such possibilities is a useful part of our more general quest to understand the delicate environmental balance that distinguishes our planet from its two neighbors. In Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System, we return to the comparative study of the terrestrial planets and their divergent evolutionary histories.

Key Concepts and Summary

Earth, Venus, and Mars have diverged in their evolution from what may have been similar beginnings. We need to understand why if we are to protect the environment of Earth.

For Further Exploration

Articles

Venus

Dorminey, B. “Cool Science on a Hot World.” Astronomy (February 2006): 46. Five-page overview of Venus and the Venus Express mission plans.

Kargel, J. “Rivers of Venus.” Sky & Telescope (August 1997): 32. On lava channels.

Robertson, D. “Parched Planet.” Sky & Telescope (April 2008): 26. Overview of our understanding of the planet.

Robinson, C. “Magellan Reveals Venus.” Astronomy (February 1995): 32.

Stofan, E. “The New Face of Venus.” Sky & Telescope (August 1993): 22.

Zimmerman, R. “Taking Venus by Storm.” Astronomy (October 2008): 66. On results from the Venus Express mission.

Mars

Albee, A. “The Unearthly Landscapes of Mars.” Scientific American (June 2003): 44. Results from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions and an overview.

Bell, J. “A Fresh Look at Mars.” Astronomy (August 2015): 28. Nice summary of recent spacecraft results and how they are revising our understanding of Mars.

Bell, J. “Uncovering Mars’ Secret Past.” Sky & Telescope (July 2009): 22. How rovers and orbiters are helping us to understand Mars history and the role of water.

Bell, J. “The Red Planet’s Watery Past.” Scientific American (December 2006): 62. Rovers are furnishing proof that ancient Mars was wet.

Burnham, R. “Red Planet Rendezvous.” Astronomy (May 2006): 68. About Mariner Valley and a flyover film constructed from many still images.

Christensen, P. “The Many Faces of Mars.” Scientific American (July 2005): 32. Results from the Rover mission; evidence that Mars was once wet in places.

Lakdawalla, E. “The History of Water on Mars.” Sky & Telescope (September 2013): 16. Clear review of our current understanding of the role of water on Mars in different epochs.

Malin, M. “Visions of Mars.” Sky & Telescope (April 1999): 42. A geological tour of the red planet, with new Mars Global Surveyor images.

McEwen, A. “Mars in Motion.” Scientific American (May 2013): 58. On gullies and other surface changes.

McKay, C. & Garcia, V. “How to Search for Life on Mars.” Scientific American (June 2014): 44. Experiments future probes could perform.

Naeye, R. “Europe’s Eye on Mars.” Sky & Telescope (December 2005): 30. On the Mars Express mission and the remarkable close-up images it is sending.

Talcott, R. “Seeking Ground Truth on Mars.” Astronomy (October 2009): 34. How rovers and orbiters are helping scientists understand the red planet’s surface.

Websites

European Space Agency Mars Express Page: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express.

European Space Agency Venus Express Page: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Venus_Express.

High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/.

Jet Propulsion Lab Mars Exploration Page: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Mars Globe HD app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mars-globe-hd/id376020224?mt=8.

Mars Rover 360° Panorama: http://www.360cities.net/image/curiosity-rover-martian-solar-day-2#171.10,26.50,70.0. Interactive.

NASA Center for Mars Exploration: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main/index.html.

NASA Solar System Exploration Mars Page: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars.

NASA Solar System Exploration Venus Page: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus.

NASA’s apps about Mars for phones and tablets can be found at: http://mars.nasa.gov/mobile/info/.

NASA’s Magellan Mission to Venus: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/.

Russian (Soviet) Venus Missions and Images: http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm.

Venus Atlas app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/venus-atlas/id317310503?mt=8.

Venus Express Results Article: http://www.mpg.de/798302/F002_Focus_026-033.pdf.

Videos

50 Years of Mars Exploration: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1395. NASA’s summary of all missions through MAVEN; good quick overview (4:08).

Being a Mars Rover: What It’s Like to be an Interplanetary Explorer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRpCOEsPD54. 2013 talk by Dr. Lori Fenton about what it’s like on the surface of Mars (1:07:24).

Magellan Maps Venus: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/space_missions/magellan_probe#p005y07s. BBC clip with Dr. Ellen Stofan on the radar images of Venus and what they tell us (3:06).

Our Curiosity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XczKXWvokm4. Mars Curiosity rover 2-year anniversary video narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Felicia Day (6:01).

Planet Venus: The Deadliest Planet, Venus Surface and Atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqFVxWfVtoo. Quick tour of Venus’ atmosphere and surface (2:04).

Planetary Protection and Hitchhikers in the Solar System: The Danger of Mingling Microbes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGC3uO7jBI. 2009 talk by Dr. Margaret Race on preventing contamination between worlds (1:28:50).

Collaborative Group Activities

Your group has been asked by high NASA officials to start planning the first human colony on Mars. Begin by making a list of what sorts of things humans would need to bring along to be able to survive for years on the surface of the red planet.
As a publicity stunt, the mayor of Venus, Texas (there really is such a town), proposes that NASA fund a mission to Venus with humans on board. Clearly, the good mayor neglected to take an astronomy course in college. Have your group assemble a list of as many reasons as possible why it is unlikely that humans will soon land on the surface of Venus.
Even if humans would have trouble surviving on the surface of Venus, this does not mean we could not learn a lot more about our veiled sister planet. Have your group brainstorm a series of missions (pretend cost is no object) that would provide us with more detailed information about Venus’ atmosphere, surface, and interior.
Sometime late in the twenty-first century, when travel to Mars has become somewhat routine, a very wealthy couple asks you to plan a honeymoon tour of Mars that includes the most spectacular sights on the red planet. Constitute your group as the Percival Lowell Memorial Tourist Agency, and come up with a list of not-to-be missed tourist stops on Mars.
In the popular book and film, called The Martian, the drama really begins when our hero is knocked over and loses consciousness as he is half buried by an intense wind storm on Mars. Given what you have learned about Mars’ atmosphere in this chapter, have your group discuss how realistic that scenario is. (By the way, the author of the book has himself genially acknowledged in interviews and talks that this is a reasonable question to ask.)
Astronomers have been puzzled and annoyed about the extensive media publicity that was given the small group of “true believers” who claimed the “Face on Mars” was not a natural formation (see the Astronomy and Pseudoscience: The “Face on Mars” feature box). Have your group make a list of the reasons many of the media were so enchanted by this story. What do you think astronomers could or should do to get the skeptical, scientific perspective about such issues before the public?
Your group is a special committee of scientists set up by the United Nations to specify how any Mars samples should be returned to Earth so that possible martian microbes do not harm Earth life. What precautions would you recommend, starting at Mars and going all the way to the labs that analyze the martian samples back on Earth?
Have your group brainstorm about Mars in popular culture. How many movies, songs or other music, and products can you think of connected with Mars? What are some reasons that Mars would be a popular theme for filmmakers, songwriters, and product designers?

Review Questions

1: List several ways that Venus, Earth, and Mars are similar, and several ways they are different.

2: Compare the current atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars in terms of composition, thickness (and pressure at the surface), and the greenhouse effect.

3: How might Venus’ atmosphere have evolved to its present state through a runaway greenhouse effect?

4: Describe the current atmosphere on Mars. What evidence suggests that it must have been different in the past?

5: Explain the runaway refrigerator effect and the role it may have played in the evolution of Mars.

6: What evidence do we have that there was running (liquid) water on Mars in the past? What evidence is there for water coming out of the ground even today?

7: What evidence is there that Venus was volcanically active about 300–600 million years ago?

8: Why is Mars red?

9: What is the composition of clouds on Mars?

10: What is the composition of the polar caps on Mars?

11: Describe two anomalous features of the rotation of Venus and what might account for them.

12: How was the Mars Odyssey spacecraft able to detect water on Mars without landing on it?

Thought Questions

13: What are the advantages of using radar imaging rather than ordinary cameras to study the topography of Venus? What are the relative advantages of these two approaches to mapping Earth or Mars?

14: Venus and Earth are nearly the same size and distance from the Sun. What are the main differences in the geology of the two planets? What might be some of the reasons for these differences?

15: Why is there so much more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus than in that of Earth? Why so much more carbon dioxide than on Mars?

16: If the Viking missions were such a rich source of information about Mars, why have we sent the Pathfinder, Global Surveyor, and other more recent spacecraft to Mars? Make a list of questions about Mars that still puzzle astronomers.

17: Compare Mars with Mercury and the Moon in terms of overall properties. What are the main similarities and differences?

18: Contrast the mountains on Mars and Venus with those on Earth and the Moon.

19: We believe that all of the terrestrial planets had similar histories when it comes to impacts from space. Explain how this idea can be used to date the formation of the martian highlands, the martian basins, and the Tharsis volcanoes. How certain are the ages derived for these features (in other words, how do we check the ages we derive from this method)?

20: Is it likely that life ever existed on either Venus or Mars? Justify your answer in each case.

21: Suppose that, decades from now, NASA is considering sending astronauts to Mars and Venus. In each case, describe what kind of protective gear they would have to carry, and what their chances for survival would be if their spacesuits ruptured.

22: We believe that Venus, Earth, and Mars all started with a significant supply of water. Explain where that water is now for each planet.

23: One source of information about Mars has been the analysis of meteorites from Mars. Since no samples from Mars have ever been returned to Earth from any of the missions we sent there, how do we know these meteorites are from Mars? What information have they revealed about Mars?

24: The runaway greenhouse effect and its inverse, the runaway refrigerator effect, have led to harsh, uninhabitable conditions on Venus and Mars. Does the greenhouse effect always cause climate changes leading to loss of water and life? Give a reason for your answer.

25: In what way is the high surface temperature of Venus relevant to concerns about global warming on Earth today?

26: What is a dust devil? Would you expect to feel more of a breeze from a dust devil on Mars or on Earth? Explain.

27: Near the martian equator, temperatures at the same spot can vary from an average of –135 °C at night to an average of 30 °C during the day. How can you explain such a wide difference in temperature compared to that on Earth?

Figuring for Yourself

28: Estimate the amount of water there could be in a global (planet-wide) region of subsurface permafrost on Mars (do the calculations for two permafrost thicknesses, 1 and 10 km, and a concentration of ice in the permafrost of 10% by volume). Compare the two results you get with the amount of water in Earth’s oceans calculated in [link].

29: At its nearest, Venus comes within about 41 million km of Earth. How distant is it at its farthest?

30: If you weigh 150 lbs. on the surface of Earth, how much would you weigh on Venus? On Mars?

31: Calculate the relative land area—that is, the amount of the surface not covered by liquids—of Earth, the Moon, Venus, and Mars. (Assume that 70% of Earth is covered with water.)

32: The closest approach distance between Mars and Earth is about 56 million km. Assume you can travel in a spaceship at 58,000 km/h, which is the speed achieved by the New Horizons space probe that went to Pluto and is the fastest speed so far of any space vehicle launched from Earth. How long would it take to get to Mars at the time of closest approach?

11.0 Thinking Ahead

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:38:01 +0000

Giant Planets.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1312"] Figure 1. The four giant planets in our solar system all have hydrogen atmospheres, but the warm gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, have tan, beige, red, and white clouds that are thought to be composed of ammonia ice particles with various colorants called “chromophores.” The blue-tinted ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, are much colder and covered in methane ice clouds. (credit: modification of work by Lunar and Planetary Institute, NASA)[/caption]

“What do we learn about the Earth by studying the planets? Humility.”—Andrew Ingersoll discussing the results of the Voyager mission in 1986.

Beyond Mars and the asteroid belt, we encounter a new region of the solar system: the realm of the giants. Temperatures here are lower, permitting water and other volatiles to condense as ice. The planets are much larger, distances between them are much greater, and each giant world is accompanied by an extensive system of moons and rings.

From many perspectives, the outer solar system is where the action is, and the giant planets are the most important members of the Sun’s family. When compared to these outer giants, the little cinders of rock and metal that orbit closer to the Sun can seem insignificant. These four giant worlds—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune—are the subjects of this chapter. Their rings, moons, and the dwarf planet Pluto are discussed in a later chapter.

11.1 Exploring the Outer Planets

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:35:16 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Provide an overview of the composition of the giant planets
Chronicle the robotic exploration of the outer solar system
Summarize the missions sent to orbit the gas giants

The giant planets hold most of the mass in our planetary system. Jupiter alone exceeds the mass of all the other planets combined ([link]). The material available to build these planets can be divided into three classes by what they are made of: “gases,” “ices,” and “rocks” (see [link]). The “gases” are primarily hydrogen and helium, the most abundant elements in the universe. The way it is used here, the term “ices” refers to composition only and not whether a substance is actually in a solid state. “Ices” means compounds that form from the next most abundant elements: oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Common ices are water, methane, and ammonia, but ices may also include carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and others. “Rocks” are even less abundant than ices, and include everything else: magnesium, silicon, iron, and so on.

Jupiter.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 1. The Cassini spacecraft imaged Jupiter on its way to Saturn in 2012. The giant storm system called the Great Red Spot is visible to the lower right. The dark spot to the lower left is the shadow of Jupiter’s moon Europa. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL)[/caption]

Abundances in the Outer Solar System
Type of Material	Name	Approximate % (by Mass)
Gas	Hydrogen (H₂)	75
Gas	Helium (He)	24
Ice	Water (H₂O)	0.6
Ice	Methane (CH₄)	0.4
Ice	Ammonia (NH₃)	0.1
Rock	Magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), silicon (Si)	0.3

In the outer solar system, gases dominate the two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, hence their nickname “gas giants.” Uranus and Neptune are called “ice giants” because their interiors contain far more of the “ice” component than their larger cousins. The chemistry for all four giant planet atmospheres is dominated by hydrogen. This hydrogen caused the chemistry of the outer solar system to become reducing, meaning that other elements tend to combine with hydrogen first. In the early solar system, most of the oxygen combined with hydrogen to make H₂O and was thus unavailable to form the kinds of oxidized compounds with other elements that are more familiar to us in the inner solar system (such as CO₂). As a result, the compounds detected in the atmosphere of the giant planets are mostly hydrogen-based gases such as methane (CH₄) and ammonia (NH₃), or more complex hydrocarbons (combinations of hydrogen and carbon) such as ethane (C₂H₆) and acetylene (C₂H₂).

Exploration of the Outer Solar System So Far

Eight spacecraft, seven from the United States and one from Europe, have penetrated beyond the asteroid belt into the realm of the giants. [link] summarizes the spacecraft missions to the outer solar system.

Missions to the Giant Planets
Planet	Spacecraft¹	Encounter Date	Type
Jupiter	Pioneer 10	December 1973	Flyby
	Pioneer 11	December 1974	Flyby
	Voyager 1	March 1979	Flyby
	Voyager 2	July 1979	Flyby
	Ulysses	February 1992	Flyby during gravity assist
	Galileo	December 1995	Orbiter and probe
	Cassini	December 2002	Flyby
	New Horizons	February 2007	Flyby during gravity assist
	Juno	July 2016	Orbiter
Saturn	Pioneer 11	September 1979	Flyby
	Voyager 1	November 1980	Flyby
	Voyager 2	August 1981	Flyby
	Cassini	July 2004 (Saturn orbit injection 2000)	Orbiter
Uranus	Voyager 2	January 1986	Flyby
Neptune	Voyager 2	August 1989	Flyby

The challenges of exploring so far away from Earth are considerable. Flight times to the giant planets are measured in years to decades, rather than the months required to reach Venus or Mars. Even at the speed of light, messages take hours to pass between Earth and the spacecraft. If a problem develops near Saturn, for example, a wait of hours for the alarm to reach Earth and for instructions to be routed back to the spacecraft could spell disaster. Spacecraft to the outer solar system must therefore be highly reliable and capable of a greater degree of independence and autonomy. Outer solar system missions also must carry their own power sources since the Sun is too far away to provide enough energy. Heaters are required to keep instruments at proper operating temperatures, and spacecraft must have radio transmitters powerful enough to send their data to receivers on distant Earth.

The first spacecraft to investigate the regions past Mars were the NASA Pioneers 10 and 11, launched in 1972 and 1973 as pathfinders to Jupiter. One of their main objectives was simply to determine whether a spacecraft could actually navigate through the belt of asteroids that lies beyond Mars without getting destroyed by collisions with asteroidal dust. Another objective was to measure the radiation hazards in the magnetosphere (or zone of magnetic influence) of Jupiter. Both spacecraft passed through the asteroid belt without incident, but the energetic particles in Jupiter’s magnetic field nearly wiped out their electronics, providing information necessary for the safe design of subsequent missions.

Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter in 1973, after which it sped outward toward the limits of the solar system. Pioneer 11 undertook a more ambitious program, using the gravity of Jupiter to aim for Saturn, which it reached in 1979. The twin Voyager spacecraft launched the next wave of outer planet exploration in 1977. Voyagers 1 and 2 each carried 11 scientific instruments, including cameras and spectrometers, as well as devices to measure the characteristics of planetary magnetospheres. Since they kept going outward after their planetary encounters, these are now the most distant spacecraft ever launched by humanity.

Voyager 1 reached Jupiter in 1979 and used a gravity assist from that planet to take it on to Saturn in 1980. Voyager 2 arrived at Jupiter four months later, but then followed a different path to visit all the outer planets, reaching Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. This trajectory was made possible by the approximate alignment of the four giant planets on the same side of the Sun. About once every 175 years, these planets are in such a position, and it allows a single spacecraft to visit them all by using gravity-assisted flybys to adjust course for each subsequent encounter; such a maneuver has been nicknamed a “Grand Tour” by astronomers.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a nice video called Voyager: The Grand Tour that describes the Voyager mission and what it found.

Engineering and Space Science: Teaching an Old Spacecraft New Tricks

By the time Voyager 2 arrived at Neptune in 1989, 12 years after its launch, the spacecraft was beginning to show signs of old age. The arm on which the camera and other instruments were located was “arthritic”: it could no longer move easily in all directions. The communications system was “hard of hearing”: part of its radio receiver had stopped working. The “brains” had significant “memory loss”: some of the onboard computer memory had failed. And the whole spacecraft was beginning to run out of energy: its generators had begun showing serious signs of wear.

To make things even more of a challenge, Voyager’s mission at Neptune was in many ways the most difficult of all four flybys. For example, since sunlight at Neptune is 900 times weaker than at Earth, the onboard camera had to take much longer exposures in this light-starved environment. This was a nontrivial requirement, given that the spacecraft was hurtling by Neptune at ten times the speed of a rifle bullet.

The solution was to swivel the camera backward at exactly the rate that would compensate for the forward motion of the spacecraft. Engineers had to preprogram the ship’s computer to execute an incredibly complex series of maneuvers for each image. The beautiful Voyager images of Neptune are a testament to the ingenuity of spacecraft engineers.

The sheer distance of the craft from its controllers on Earth was yet another challenge. Voyager 2 received instructions and sent back its data via on-board radio transmitter. The distance from Earth to Neptune is about 4.8 billion kilometers. Over this vast distance, the power that reached us from Voyager 2 at Neptune was approximately10^–16 watts, or 20 billion times less power than it takes to operate a digital watch. Thirty-eight different antennas on four continents were used by NASA to collect the faint signals from the spacecraft and decode the precious information about Neptune that they contained.

Enter the Orbiters: Galileo and Cassini

The Pioneer and Voyager missions were flybys of the giant planets: they each produced only quick looks before the spacecraft sped onward. For more detailed studies of these worlds, we require spacecraft that can go into orbit around a planet. For Jupiter and Saturn, these orbiters were the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft, respectively. To date, no orbiter missions have been started for Uranus and Neptune, although planetary scientists have expressed keen interest.

The Galileo spacecraft was launched toward Jupiter in 1989 and arrived in 1995. Galileo began its investigations by deploying an entry probe into Jupiter, for the first direct studies of the planet’s outer atmospheric layers.

The probe plunged at a shallow angle into Jupiter’s atmosphere, traveling at a speed of 50 kilometers per second—that’s fast enough to fly from New York to San Francisco in 100 seconds! This was the highest speed at which any probe has so far entered the atmosphere of a planet, and it put great demands on the heat shield protecting it. The high entry speed was a result of acceleration by the strong gravitational attraction of Jupiter.

Atmospheric friction slowed the probe within 2 minutes, producing temperatures at the front of its heat shield as high as 15,000 °C. As the probe’s speed dropped to 2500 kilometers per hour, the remains of the glowing heat shield were jettisoned, and a parachute was deployed to lower the instrumented probe spacecraft more gently into the atmosphere ([link]). The data from the probe instruments were relayed to Earth via the main Galileo spacecraft.

Galileo Probe Falling into Jupiter.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325"] Figure 2. This artist’s depiction shows the Galileo probe descending into the clouds via parachute just after the protective heat shield separated. The probe made its measurements of Jupiter’s atmosphere on December 7, 1995. (credit: modification of work by NASA/Ames Research Center)[/caption]

The probe continued to operate for an hour, descending 200 kilometers into the atmosphere. A few minutes later the polyester parachute melted, and within a few hours the main aluminum and titanium structure of the probe vaporized to become a part of Jupiter itself. About 2 hours after receipt of the final probe data, the main spacecraft fired its retro-rockets so it could be captured into orbit around the planet, where its primary objectives were to study Jupiter’s large and often puzzling moons.

The Cassini mission to Saturn ([link]), a cooperative venture between NASA and the European Space Agency, was similar to Galileo in its two-fold approach. Launched in 1997, Cassini arrived in 2004 and went into orbit around Saturn, beginning extensive studies of its rings and moons, as well as the planet itself. In January 2005, Cassini deployed an entry probe into the atmosphere of Saturn’s large moon, Titan, where it successfully landed on the surface. (We’ll discuss the probe and what it found in the chapter on Rings, Moons, and Pluto.)

Earth as Seen from Saturn.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 3. This popular Cassini image shows Earth as a tiny dot (marked with an arrow) seen below Saturn’s rings. It was taken in July 2013, when Saturn was 1.4 billion kilometers from Earth. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)[/caption]

Key Concepts and Summary

The outer solar system contains the four giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn have overall compositions similar to that of the Sun. These planets have been explored by the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini spacecraft. Voyager 2, perhaps the most successful of all space-science missions, explored Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1981), Uranus (1986), and Neptune (1989)—a grand tour of the giant planets—and these flybys have been the only explorations to date of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The Galileo and Cassini missions were long-lived orbiters, and each also deployed an entry probe, one into Jupiter and one into Saturn’s moon Titan.

Footnotes

1 Both the Ulysses and the New Horizons spacecraft (designed to study the Sun and Pluto, respectively) flew past Jupiter for a gravity boost (gaining energy by “stealing” a little bit from the giant planet’s rotation).

11.2 The Giant Planets

jbrewer — Mon, 15 May 2017 16:35:41 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the basic physical characteristics, general appearance, and rotation of the giant planets
Describe the composition and structure of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
Compare and contrast the internal heat sources of the giant planets
Describe the discovery and characteristics of the giant planets’ magnetic fields

Let us now examine the four giant (or jovian) planets in more detail. Our approach is not just to catalog their characteristics, but to compare them with each other, noting their similarities and differences and attempting to relate their properties to their differing masses and distances from the Sun.

Basic Characteristics

The giant planets are very far from the Sun. Jupiter is more than five times farther from the Sun than Earth’s distance (5 AU), and takes just under 12 years to circle the Sun. Saturn is about twice as far away as Jupiter (almost 10 AU) and takes nearly 30 years to complete one orbit. Uranus orbits at 19 AU with a period of 84 years, while Neptune, at 30 AU, requires 165 years for each circuit of the Sun. These long timescales make it difficult for us short-lived humans to study seasonal change on the outer planets.

Jupiter and Saturn have many similarities in composition and internal structure, although Jupiter is nearly four times more massive. Uranus and Neptune are smaller and differ in composition and internal structure from their large siblings. Some of the main properties of these four planets are summarized in [link].

Basic Properties of the Jovian Planets
Planet	Distance (AU)	Period (years)	Diameter (km)	Mass (Earth = 1)	Density (g/cm³)	Rotation (hours)
Jupiter	5.2	11.9	142,800	318	1.3	9.9
Saturn	9.5	29.5	120,540	95	0.7	10.7
Uranus	19.2	84.1	51,200	14	1.3	17.2
Neptune	30.0	164.8	49,500	17	1.6	16.1

Jupiter, the giant among giants, has enough mass to make 318 Earths. Its diameter is about 11 times that of Earth (and about one tenth that of the Sun). Jupiter’s average density is 1.3 g/cm³, much lower than that of any of the terrestrial planets. (Recall that water has a density of 1 g/cm³.) Jupiter’s material is spread out over a volume so large that more than 1400 Earths could fit within it.

Saturn’s mass is 95 times that of Earth, and its average density is only 0.7 g/cm³—the lowest of any planet. Since this is less than the density of water, Saturn would be light enough to float.

Uranus and Neptune each have a mass about 15 times that of Earth and, hence, are only 5% as massive as Jupiter. Their densities of 1.3 g/cm³ and 1.6 g/cm³, respectively, are much higher than that of Saturn. This is one piece of evidence that tells us that their composition must differ fundamentally from the gas giants. When astronomers began to discover other planetary systems (exoplanets), we found that planets the size of Uranus and Neptune are common, and that there are even more exoplanets intermediate in size between Earth and these ice giants, a type of planet not found in our solar system.

Appearance and Rotation

When we look at the planets, we see only their atmospheres, composed primarily of hydrogen and helium gas (see [link]). The uppermost clouds of Jupiter and Saturn, the part we see when looking down at these planets from above, are composed of ammonia crystals. On Neptune, the upper clouds are made of methane. On Uranus, we see no obvious cloud layer at all, but only a deep and featureless haze.

Seen through a telescope, Jupiter is a colorful and dynamic planet. Distinct details in its cloud patterns allow us to determine the rotation rate of its atmosphere at the cloud level, although such atmosphere rotation may have little to do with the spin of the underlying planet. Much more fundamental is the rotation of the mantle and core; these can be determined by periodic variations in radio waves coming from Jupiter, which are controlled by its magnetic field. Since the magnetic field (which we will discuss below) originates deep inside the planet, it shares the rotation of the interior. The rotation period we measure in this way is 9 hours 56 minutes, which gives Jupiter the shortest “day” of any planet. In the same way, we can measure that the underlying rotation period of Saturn is 10 hours 40 minutes. Uranus and Neptune have slightly longer rotation periods of about 17 hours, also determined from the rotation of their magnetic fields.

A brief video made from Hubble Space Telescope photos shows the rotation of Jupiter with its many atmospheric features.

Remember that Earth and Mars have seasons because their spin axes, instead of “standing up straight,” are tilted relative to the orbital plane of the solar system. This means that as Earth revolves around the Sun, sometimes one hemisphere and sometimes the other “leans into” the Sun.

What are the seasons like for the giant planets? The spin axis of Jupiter is tilted by only 3°, so there are no seasons to speak of. Saturn, however, does have seasons, since its spin axis is inclined at 27° to the perpendicular to its orbit. Neptune has about the same tilt as Saturn (29°); therefore, it experiences similar seasons (only more slowly). The strangest seasons of all are on Uranus, which has a spin axis tilted by 98° with respect to the north direction. Practically speaking, we can say that Uranus orbits on its side, and its ring and moon system follow along, orbiting about Uranus’ equator ([link]).

Infrared Image of Uranus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Figure 1. The infrared camera on the Hubble Space Telescope took these false-color images of the planet Uranus, its ring system, and moons in 1997. The south pole of the planet (marked with a “+” on the right image) faces the Sun; its green color shows a strong local haze. The two images were taken 90 minutes apart, and during that time the five reddish clouds can be seen to rotate around the parallel to the equator. The rings (which are very faint in the visible light, but prominent in infrared) and eight moons can be seen around the equator. This was the “bull’s eye” arrangement that Voyager saw as it approached Uranus in 1986. (credit: modification of work by Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona), and NASA/ESA)[/caption]

We don’t know what caused Uranus to be tipped over like this, but one possibility is a collision with a large planetary body when our system was first forming. Whatever the cause, this unusual tilt creates dramatic seasons. When Voyager 2 arrived at Uranus, its south pole was facing directly into the Sun. The southern hemisphere was experiencing a 21-year sunlit summer, while during that same period the northern hemisphere was plunged into darkness. For the next 21-year season, the Sun shines on Uranus’ equator, and both hemispheres go through cycles of light and dark as the planet rotates ([link]). Then there are 21 years of an illuminated northern hemisphere and a dark southern hemisphere. After that the pattern of alternating day and night repeats.

Just as on Earth, the seasons are even more extreme at the poles. If you were to install a floating platform at the south pole of Uranus, for example, it would experience 42 years of light and 42 years of darkness. Any future astronauts crazy enough to set up camp there could spend most of their lives without ever seeing the Sun.

Strange Seasons on Uranus.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 2. (a) This diagram shows the orbit of Uranus as seen from above. At the time Voyager 2 arrived (position 1), the South Pole was facing the Sun. As we move counterclockwise in the diagram, we see the planet 21 years later at each step. (b) This graph compares the amount of sunlight seen at the poles and the equator of Uranus over the course of its 84-year revolution around the Sun.[/caption]

Composition and Structure

Although we cannot see into these planets, astronomers are confident that the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Of course, these gases have been measured only in their atmosphere, but calculations first carried out more than 50 years ago showed that these two light gases are the only possible materials out of which a planet with the observed masses and densities of Jupiter and Saturn could be constructed.

The deep internal structures of these two planets are difficult to predict. This is mainly because these planets are so big that the hydrogen and helium in their centers become tremendously compressed and behave in ways that these gases can never behave on Earth. The best theoretical models we have of Jupiter’s structure predict a central pressure greater than 100 million bars and a central density of about 31 g/cm³. (By contrast, Earth’s core has a central pressure of 4 million bars and a central density of 17 g/cm³.)

At the pressures inside the giant planets, familiar materials can take on strange forms. A few thousand kilometers below the visible clouds of Jupiter and Saturn, pressures become so great that hydrogen changes from a gaseous to a liquid state. Still deeper, this liquid hydrogen is further compressed and begins to act like a metal, something it never does on Earth. (In a metal, electrons are not firmly attached to their parent nuclei but can wander around. This is why metals are such good conductors of electricity.) On Jupiter, the greater part of the interior is liquid metallic hydrogen.

Because Saturn is less massive, it has only a small volume of metallic hydrogen, but most of its interior is liquid. Uranus and Neptune are too small to reach internal pressures sufficient to liquefy hydrogen. We will return to the discussion of the metallic hydrogen layers when we examine the magnetic fields of the giant planets.

Each of these planets has a core composed of heavier materials, as demonstrated by detailed analyses of their gravitational fields. Presumably these cores are the original rock-and-ice bodies that formed before the capture of gas from the surrounding nebula. The cores exist at pressures of tens of millions of bars. While scientists speak of the giant planet cores being composed of rock and ice, we can be sure that neither rock nor ice assumes any familiar forms at such pressures and temperatures. Remember that what is really meant by “rock” is any material made up primarily of iron, silicon, and oxygen, while the term “ice” in this chapter denotes materials composed primarily of the elements carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in combination with hydrogen.

[link] illustrates the likely interior structures of the four jovian planets. It appears that all four have similar cores of rock and ice. On Jupiter and Saturn, the cores constitute only a few percent of the total mass, consistent with the initial composition of raw materials shown in [link]. However, most of the mass of Uranus and Neptune resides in these cores, demonstrating that the two outer planets were unable to attract massive quantities of hydrogen and helium when they were first forming.

Internal Structures of the Jovian Planets.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="729"] Figure 3. Jupiter and Saturn are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium (but hydrogen dominates), but Uranus and Neptune consist in large part of compounds of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. (The diagrams are drawn to scale; numbers show radii in thousands of kilometers.)[/caption]

Internal Heat Sources

Because of their large sizes, all the giant planets were strongly heated during their formation by the collapse of surrounding material onto their cores. Jupiter, being the largest, was the hottest. Some of this primordial heat can still remain inside such large planets. In addition, it is possible for giant, largely gaseous planets to generate heat after formation by slowly contracting. (With so large a mass, even a minuscule amount of shrinking can generate significant heat.) The effect of these internal energy sources is to raise the temperatures in the interiors and atmospheres of the planets higher than we would expect from the heating effect of the Sun alone.

Jupiter has the largest internal energy source, amounting to 4 × 10¹⁷ watts; that is, it is heated from inside with energy equivalent to 4 million billion 100-watt lightbulbs. This energy is about the same as the total solar energy absorbed by Jupiter. The atmosphere of Jupiter is therefore something of a cross between a normal planetary atmosphere (like Earth’s), which obtains most of its energy from the Sun, and the atmosphere of a star, which is entirely heated by an internal energy source. Most of the internal energy of Jupiter is primordial heat, left over from the formation of the planet 4.5 billon years ago.

Saturn has an internal energy source about half as large as that of Jupiter, which means (since its mass is only about one quarter as great) that it is producing twice as much energy per kilogram of material as does Jupiter. Since Saturn is expected to have much less primordial heat, there must be another source at work generating most of this 2 × 10¹⁷ watts of power. This source is the separation of helium from hydrogen in Saturn’s interior. In the liquid hydrogen mantle, the heavier helium forms droplets that sink toward the core, releasing gravitational energy. In effect, Saturn is still differentiating—letting lighter material rise and heavier material fall.

Uranus and Neptune are different. Neptune has a small internal energy source, while Uranus does not emit a measurable amount of internal heat. As a result, these two planets have almost the same atmospheric temperature, in spite of Neptune’s greater distance from the Sun. No one knows why these two planets differ in their internal heat, but all this shows how nature can contrive to make each world a little bit different from its neighbors.

Magnetic Fields

Each of the giant planets has a strong magnetic field, generated by electric currents in its rapidly spinning interior. Associated with the magnetic fields are the planets’ magnetospheres, which are regions around the planet within which the planet’s own magnetic field dominates over the general interplanetary magnetic field. The magnetospheres of these planets are their largest features, extending millions of kilometers into space.

In the late 1950s, astronomers discovered that Jupiter was a source of radio waves that got more intense at longer rather than at shorter wavelengths—just the reverse of what is expected from thermal radiation (radiation caused by the normal vibrations of particles within all matter). Such behavior is typical, however, of the radiation emitted when high-speed electrons are accelerated by a magnetic field. We call this synchrotron radiation because it was first observed on Earth in particle accelerators, called synchrotrons. This was our first hint that Jupiter must have a strong magnetic field.

Later observations showed that the radio waves are coming from a region surrounding Jupiter with a diameter several times that of the planet itself ([link]). The evidence suggested that a vast number of charged atomic particles must be circulating around Jupiter, spiraling around the lines of force of a magnetic field associated with the planet. This is just what we observe happening, but on a smaller scale, in the Van Allen belt around Earth. The magnetic fields of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, discovered by the spacecraft that first passed close to these planets, work in a similar way, but are not as strong.

Jupiter in Radio Waves.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="975"] Figure 4. This false-color image of Jupiter was made with the Very Large Array (of radio telescopes) in New Mexico. We see part of the magnetosphere, brightest in the middle because the largest number of charged particles are in the equatorial zone of Jupiter. The planet itself is slightly smaller than the green oval in the center. Different colors are used to indicate different intensities of synchrotron radiation. (credit: modification of work by I. de Pater (UC Berkeley) NRAO, AUI, NSF)[/caption]

Learn more about the magnetosphere of Jupiter and why we continue to be interested in it from this brief NASA video.

Inside each magnetosphere, charged particles spiral around in the magnetic field; as a result, they can be accelerated to high energies. These charged particles can come from the Sun or from the neighborhood of the planet itself. In Jupiter’s case, Io, one of its moons, turns out to have volcanic eruptions that blast charged particles into space and right into the jovian magnetosphere.

The axis of Jupiter’s magnetic field (the line that connects the magnetic north pole with the magnetic south pole) is not aligned exactly with the axis of rotation of the planet; rather, it is tipped by about 10°. Uranus and Neptune have even greater magnetic tilts, of 60° and 55°, respectively. Saturn’s field, on the other hand, is perfectly aligned with its rotation axis. Why different planets have such different magnetic tilts is not well understood.

The physical processes around the jovian planets turn out to be milder versions of what astronomers find in many distant objects, from the remnants of dead stars to the puzzling distant powerhouses we call quasars. One reason to study the magnetospheres of the giant planets and Earth is that they provide nearby accessible analogues of more energetic and challenging cosmic processes.

Key Concepts and Summary

Jupiter is 318 times more massive than Earth. Saturn is about 25% as massive as Jupiter, and Uranus and Neptune are only 5% as massive. All four have deep atmospheres and opaque clouds, and all rotate quickly with periods from 10 to 17 hours. Jupiter and Saturn have extensive mantles of liquid hydrogen. Uranus and Neptune are depleted in hydrogen and helium relative to Jupiter and Saturn (and the Sun). Each giant planet has a core of “ice” and “rock” of about 10 Earth masses. Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune have major internal heat sources, obtaining as much (or more) energy from their interiors as by radiation from the Sun. Uranus has no measurable internal heat. Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field and largest magnetosphere of any planet, first discovered by radio astronomers from observations of synchrotron radiation.

Glossary

synchrotron radiation: the radiation emitted by charged particles being accelerated in magnetic fields and moving at speeds near that of light

2.2 Ancient Astronomy Around the World

jbrewer — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 04:23:51 +0000

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe early examples of astronomy around the world

Let us now look briefly back into history. Much of modern Western civilization is derived in one way or another from the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and this is true in astronomy as well. However, many other ancient cultures also developed sophisticated systems for observing and interpreting the sky.

Astronomy around the World

Ancient Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian astronomers knew the approximate length of the year. The Egyptians of 3000 years ago, for example, adopted a calendar based on a 365-day year. They kept careful track of the rising time of the bright star Sirius in the predawn sky, which has a yearly cycle that corresponded with the flooding of the Nile River. The Chinese also had a working calendar; they determined the length of the year at about the same time as the Egyptians. The Chinese also recorded comets, bright meteors, and dark spots on the Sun. (Many types of astronomical objects were introduced in the chapter Science and the Universe: A Brief Tour. If you are not familiar with terms like comets and meteors, you may want to review that chapter.) Later, Chinese astronomers kept careful records of “guest stars”—those that are normally too faint to see but suddenly flare up to become visible to the unaided eye for a few weeks or months. We still use some of these records in studying stars that exploded a long time ago. They used a lunar-solar calendar. The Calgary, Alberta, Canada section of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada have produced a bilingual (English-Chinese) handout detailing Chinese New Year and its astronomical connections. http://calgary.rasc.ca/downloads/Chinese_New_Year_bilingual_formatted.pdf (http://tiny.cc/c2exqy)

The Mayan culture in Mexico and Central America developed a sophisticated calendar based on the planet Venus, and they made astronomical observations from sites dedicated to this purpose a thousand years ago. The Polynesians learned to navigate by the stars over hundreds of kilometers of open ocean—a skill that enabled them to colonize new islands far away from where they began.

In Britain, before the widespread use of writing, ancient people used stones to keep track of the motions of the Sun and Moon. We still find some of the great stone circles they built for this purpose, dating from as far back as 2800 BCE. The best known of these is Stonehenge, which is discussed in Earth, Moon, and Sky.

2.3 Astronomy of the First Nations of Canada

jbrewer — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 04:51:49 +0000

Here is a very small start to share some of the wealth of knowledge about astronomy and the seasons of the First Nations of Canada. As I type this in August 2107 I wish to acknowledge that is is a token of the rich culture and encourage sharing of information on this important topic. Truth and Reconciliation Canada is beginning a journey of Truth and Reconciliation. As it says on the official website (link here for more information ) http://reconciliationcanada.ca/?gclid=COCQ0fjrxtUCFQ5Efgodox4GFw (http://tiny.cc/h4fxqy)"Born from the vision of Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, Gwawaenuk Elder, Reconciliation Canada is leading the way in engaging Canadians in dialogue and transformative experiences that revitalize the relationships among Indigenous peoples and all Canadians. Our model for reconciliation engages people in open and honest conversation to understand our diverse histories and experiences. We actively engage multi-faith and multi-cultural communities to explore the meaning of reconciliation. Together, we are charting a New Way Forward." British Columbia: Nisga’a Hobiyee (Crescent Moon in February) This information is gathered from the Nisga'a Nation's web site. http://nnkn.ca/files/Hoobiyee-2012.pdf (http://tiny.cc/v5fxqy) The Halayt is often referred to as a spiritual leader, medicine man or doctor—the Swaîiskw, or Swaîisgwit; some were also described as “having the ability to forecast the weather” hence astronomers and astrologists, the Guxw-Hloksit. The Halayt-Simgigat studied the Buxw-laks moon, the moon of February, and they made note of the different shapes leading up to the full moon. Over time, 3 they observed that whenever the first crescent moon (thin-shaped) is in the shape of the Hoobix – the bowl of the Nisga’a wooden spoon with the ends pointing upward, this meant abundant resources in the harvesting seasons to follow in K’alii-Aksim Lisims (the Nass Valley). The oolichans would be plentiful, the salmon … berries … and various other resources important to the Nisga’a; all in all, a bountiful year predicted. As it states at the start of the document from which the above information is quoted, "the oral tradition, the information as contained in this document is by no means conclusive. Nonetheless, this documented information is about a very significant aspect of our Nisga’a way of life which by our Ayuuk – customs and laws – is to be treated with RESPECT. To the young ones, be careful in how you use or interpret information when you hear it. Ensure that you fully understand what is being transmitted to you." Know that this particular information belongs to the Nisga’a nation. Aamhl Sayt-K’yoolims Gatguë gans dip îisië. May we be one / united as a people. Transcribed and edited by: Ksim Sook’/Nita Morven, Researcher-Ayuukhl Nisga’a Dept. Nisga’a Lisims Government Nova Scotia: Mi'kmaq Sky Story: Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters As part of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters, a traditional sky story which has been handed down from generation to generation as part of the rich oral history of the Mi’kmaq First Nation was shared with the rest of Canada. The story links the annual cycle of the seasons as observed by the Mi’kmaq with the movement of stars about the North Celestial pole. This is the first time this story has been transferred from the realm of oral tradition into video and made accessible to such a large audience. On January 8th 2009, an animated version of the story was premiered at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Versions are now available in English, French and Mi’kmaq to people around the world! The Mi'kmaq version, with an English introduction, can be viewed here (http://tiny.cc/q6fxqy). The story of Muin has been brought to life thanks to the loving work of Mi'kmaq Elder Lillian Marshall (bio http://tiny.cc/l8fxqy) of Potlotek First Nation (in Cape Breton, NS) and Mi'kmaq Elder Murdena Marshall (bio http://tiny.cc/k9fxqy) of Eskasoni First Nation (in Cape Breton, NS), in conjunction with (artist Sana Kavanagh of Cape Breton University in Sydney, NS. The two Elders narrated the English and Mi’kmaq versions of the film, while the French version was narrated by Annabelle Welsh, a Grade 12 student from Membertou First Nation (in Cape Breton, NS) who attends Étoile de l’Acadie in Sydney. The production was made possible through the support of CBU's Canada Research Chair in Integrative Science, Dr. Cheryl Bartlett (full credits http://tiny.cc/y6fxqy). It is hoped that this rich and vibrant story will help encourage other efforts to revitalize Aboriginal night sky stories across Canada. In this way, the richness of knowledge within the Indigenous sciences in Canada can be celebrated and, as deemed appropriate, shared... becoming legacies for children and youth of all ages as well as adults, long after the International Year of Astronomy 2009 is over.

2.7 For Further Exploration, Websites

jbrewer — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 16:24:48 +0000

For Further Exploration

Articles

Ancient Astronomy

Gingerich, O. “From Aristarchus to Copernicus.” Sky & Telescope (November 1983): 410.

Gingerich, O. “Islamic Astronomy.” Scientific American (April 1986): 74.

Astronomy and Astrology

Fraknoi, A. “Your Astrology Defense Kit.” Sky & Telescope (August 1989): 146.

Copernicus and Galileo

Gingerich, O. “Galileo and the Phases of Venus.” Sky & Telescope (December 1984): 520.

Gingerich, O. “How Galileo Changed the Rules of Science.” Sky & Telescope (March 1993): 32.

Maran, S., and Marschall, L. “The Moon, the Telescope, and the Birth of the Modern World.” Sky & Telescope (February 2009): 28.

Sobel, D. “The Heretic’s Daughter: A Startling Correspondence Reveals a New Portrait of Galileo.” The New Yorker (September 13, 1999): 52.

Websites

Ancient Astronomy

Aristarchos of Samos: http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/JRASC/0075//0000029.000.html. By Dr. Alan Batten.

Claudius Ptolemy: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Ptolemy.html. An interesting biography.

Hipparchus of Rhodes: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus.html. An interesting biography.

Astronomy and Astrology

Astrology and Science: http://www.astrology-and-science.com/hpage.htm. The best site for a serious examination of the issues with astrology and the research on whether it works.

Real Romance in the Stars: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-real-romance-in-the-stars-1527970.html. 1995 newspaper commentary attacking astrology.

Copernicus and Galileo

Galileo Galilei: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Galileo.html. A good biography with additional links.

Galileo Project: http://galileo.rice.edu/. Rice University’s repository of information on Galileo.

Nicolaus Copernicus: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Copernicus.html. A biography including links to photos about his life.

Videos

Astronomy and Astrology

Astrology Debunked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84HX2pMo5U. A compilation of scientists and magicians commenting skeptically on astrology (9:09).

Copernicus and Galileo

Galileo: http://www.biography.com/people/galileo-9305220. A brief biography (2:51).

Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnEH9rbrIkk. A NOVA episode on PBS (1:48:55)

Nicolaus Copernicus: http://www.biography.com/people/nicolaus-copernicus-9256984. An overview of his life and work (2:41).

Glossary

accelerate: to change velocity; to speed up, slow down, or change direction.

heliocentric: centred on the Sun

2.9 Questions and Exercises

jbrewer — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 15:35:51 +0000

Review Questions

1: From where on Earth could you observe all of the stars during the course of a year? What fraction of the sky can be seen from the North Pole?

2: Give four ways to demonstrate that Earth is spherical.

3: Explain, according to both geocentric and heliocentric cosmologies, why we see retrograde motion of the planets.

4: In what ways did the work of Copernicus and Galileo differ from the views of the ancient Greeks and of their contemporaries?

5: What were four of Galileo’s discoveries that were important to astronomy?

6: Explain the origin of the magnitude designation for determining the brightness of stars. Why does it seem to go backward, with smaller numbers indicating brighter stars?

7: Ursa Minor contains the pole star, Polaris, and the asterism known as the Little Dipper. From most locations in the Northern Hemisphere, all of the stars in Ursa Minor are circumpolar. Does that mean these stars are also above the horizon during the day? Explain.

8: How many degrees does the Sun move per day relative to the fixed stars? How many days does it take for the Sun to return to its original location relative to the fixed stars?

9: How many degrees does the Moon move per day relative to the fixed stars? How many days does it take for the Moon to return to its original location relative to the fixed stars?

10: Explain how the zodiacal constellations are different from the other constellations.

11: The Sun was once thought to be a planet. Explain why.

12: Is the ecliptic the same thing as the celestial equator? Explain.

13: What is an asterism? Can you name an example?

14: Why did Pythagoras believe that Earth should be spherical?

15: How did Aristotle deduce that the Sun is farther away from Earth than the Moon?

16: What are two ways in which Aristotle deduced that Earth is spherical?

17: How did Hipparchus discover the wobble of Earth’s axis, known as precession?

18: Why did Ptolemy have to introduce multiple circles of motion for the planets instead of a single, simple circle to represent the planet’s motion around the Sun?

19: Why did Copernicus want to develop a completely new system for predicting planetary positions? Provide two reasons.

20: What two factors made it difficult, at first, for astronomers to choose between the Copernican heliocentric model and the Ptolemaic geocentric model?

21: What phases would Venus show if the geocentric model were correct?

Thought Questions

22: Describe a practical way to determine in which constellation the Sun is found at any time of the year.

23: What is a constellation as astronomers define it today? What does it mean when an astronomer says, “I saw a comet in Orion last night”?

24: Draw a picture that explains why Venus goes through phases the way the Moon does, according to the heliocentric cosmology. Does Jupiter also go through phases as seen from Earth? Why?

25: Show with a simple diagram how the lower parts of a ship disappear first as it sails away from you on a spherical Earth. Use the same diagram to show why lookouts on old sailing ships could see farther from the masthead than from the deck. Would there be any advantage to posting lookouts on the mast if Earth were flat? (Note that these nautical arguments for a spherical Earth were quite familiar to Columbus and other mariners of his time.)

26: Parallaxes of stars were not observed by ancient astronomers. How can this fact be reconciled with the heliocentric hypothesis?

27: Why do you think so many people still believe in astrology and spend money on it? What psychological needs does such a belief system satisfy?

28: Consider three cosmological perspectives—the geocentric perspective, the heliocentric perspective, and the modern perspective—in which the Sun is a minor star on the outskirts of one galaxy among billions. Discuss some of the cultural and philosophical implications of each point of view.

29: The north celestial pole appears at an altitude above the horizon that is equal to the observer’s latitude. Identify Polaris, the North Star, which lies very close to the north celestial pole. Measure its altitude. (This can be done with a protractor. Alternatively, your fist, extended at arm’s length, spans a distance approximately equal to 10°.) Compare this estimate with your latitude. (Note that this experiment cannot be performed easily in the Southern Hemisphere because Polaris itself is not visible in the south and no bright star is located near the south celestial pole.)

30: What were two arguments or lines of evidence in support of the geocentric model?

31: Although the Copernican system was largely correct to place the Sun at the center of all planetary motion, the model still gave inaccurate predictions for planetary positions. Explain the flaw in the Copernican model that hindered its accuracy.

32: During a retrograde loop of Mars, would you expect Mars to be brighter than usual in the sky, about average in brightness, or fainter than usual in the sky? Explain.

33: The Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed nearly 5000 years ago. Within the pyramid, archaeologists discovered a shaft leading from the central chamber out of the pyramid, oriented for favorable viewing of the bright star Thuban at that time. Thinking about Earth’s precession, explain why Thuban might have been an important star to the ancient Egyptians.

34: Explain why more stars are circumpolar for observers at higher latitudes.

35: What is the altitude of the north celestial pole in the sky from your latitude? If you do not know your latitude, look it up. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, answer this question for the south celestial pole, since the north celestial pole is not visible from your location.

36: If you were to drive to some city south of your current location, how would the altitude of the celestial pole in the sky change?

37: Hipparchus could have warned us that the dates associated with each of the natal astrology sun signs would eventually be wrong. Explain why.

38: Explain three lines of evidence that argue against the validity of astrology.

39: What did Galileo discover about the planet Jupiter that cast doubt on exclusive geocentrism?

40: What did Galileo discover about Venus that cast doubt on geocentrism?

Figuring For Yourself

41: Suppose Eratosthenes had found that, in Alexandria, at noon on the first day of summer, the line to the Sun makes an angle 30° with the vertical. What, then, would he have found for Earth’s circumference?

42: Suppose Eratosthenes’ results for Earth’s circumference were quite accurate. If the diameter of Earth is 12,740 km, what is the length of his stadium in kilometers?

43: Suppose you are on a strange planet and observe, at night, that the stars do not rise and set, but circle parallel to the horizon. Next, you walk in a constant direction for 8000 miles, and at your new location on the planet, you find that all stars rise straight up in the east and set straight down in the west, perpendicular to the horizon. How could you determine the circumference of the planet without any further observations? What is the circumference, in miles, of the planet?

9.6 Key Concepts and Summary, Further Explorations

jbrewer — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 15:33:19 +0000