The Cosmic Perspective, 10th Edition
Jeffrey O. Bennett, Megan O. Donahue, Nicholas Schneider and Mark Voit
Contents
Preface xiv
About the Authors xxiv
How to Succeed in Your Astronomy Course xxvi
Foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson xxviii
PART I
DEVELOPING PERSPECTIVE
1 A MODERN VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE 1
1.1 The Scale of the Universe 2
1.2 The History of the Universe 11
1.3 Spaceship Earth 14
Exercises and Problems 21
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Meaning of a Light-Year 6
Mathematical Insight 1.1: How Far Is a Light-Year? An
Introduction to Astronomical Problem Solving 6
Special Topic: How Many Planets Are There in Our
Solar System? 8
Mathematical Insight 1.2: The Scale of Space
and Time 9
Mathematical Insight 1.3: Order of Magnitude
Estimation 10
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Confusing Very Different
Things 11
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 1.11: Our Cosmic Origins 12
Mathematical Insight 1.4: Speeds of Rotation
and Orbit 16
2 DISCOVERING THE UNIVERSE
FOR YOURSELF 24
2.1 Patterns in the Night Sky 25
2.2 The Reason for Seasons 32
2.3 The Moon, Our Constant Companion 38
2.4 The Ancient Mystery of the Planets 45
Exercises and Problems 50
Mathematical Insight 2.1: Angular Size, Physical Size,
and Distance 28
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Moon Illusion 29
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Stars in the Daytime 30
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: What Makes the North Star
Special? 31
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Cause of Seasons 32
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: High Noon 33
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 2.15: The Reason for
Seasons 34
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Sun Signs 38
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Shadows and the Moon 40
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The “Dark Side” of the
Moon 40
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Moon in the Daytime
and Stars on the Moon 41
Special Topic: Does the Moon Influence Human
Behavior? 44
Special Topic: Who First Proposed a Sun-Centered
Solar System? 48
3 THE SCIENCE OF ASTRONOMY 53
3.1 The Ancient Roots of Science 54
3.2 Ancient Greek Science 59
3.3 The Copernican Revolution 63
3.4 The Nature of Science 69
3.5 Astrology 77
Exercises and Problems 81
Special Topic: Aristotle 61
Special Topic: Eratosthenes Measures Earth 62
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Columbus and
a Flat Earth 62
Mathematical Insight 3.1: Eccentricity and Planetary
Orbits 68
Mathematical Insight 3.2: Kepler’s Third Law 70
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 3.25: The Copernican
Revolution 72
Special Topic: And Yet It Moves 74
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Eggs on the Equinox 75
Special Topic: Logic and Science 75
Extraordinary Claims: Earth Orbits the Sun 77
S1 CELESTIAL TIMEKEEPING AND NAVIGATION 84
S1.1 Astronomical Time Periods 85
S1.2 Celestial Coordinates and Motion in the Sky 91
S1.3 Principles of Celestial Navigation 101
Exercises and Problems 105
Mathematical Insight S1.1: The Copernican Layout
of the Solar System 88
Special Topic: Solar Days and the Analemma 94
Mathematical Insight S1.2: Time by the Stars 97
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Compass Directions 102
COSMIC CONTEXT PART I: Our Expanding Perspective 108
PART II
KEY CONCEPTS FOR ASTRONOMY
4 MAKING SENSE OF THE UNIVERSE 110
4.1 Describing Motion: Examples from Daily Life 111
4.2 Newton’s Laws of Motion 114
4.3 Conservation Laws in Astronomy 117
4.4 The Universal Law of Gravitation 123
4.5 Orbits, Tides, and the Acceleration of Gravity 125
Exercises and Problems 134
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: No Gravity in Space? 114
Mathematical Insight 4.1: Units of Force, Mass,
and Weight 116
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: What Makes a Rocket
Launch? 117
Mathematical Insight 4.2: Mass-Energy 122
Mathematical Insight 4.3: Newton’s Version
of Kepler’s Third Law 126
Mathematical Insight 4.4: Escape Velocity 128
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Origin of Tides 128
Mathematical Insight 4.5: The Acceleration
of Gravity 131
5 LIGHT AND MATTER 137
5.1 Light in Everyday Life 138
5.2 Properties of Light 140
5.3 Properties of Matter 143
5.4 Learning from Light 150
Exercises and Problems 162
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Light Paths, Lasers,
and Shadows 140
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Is Radiation Dangerous? 142
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Can You Hear Radio
Waves or See an X-Ray? 142
Mathematical Insight 5.1: Wavelength, Frequency,
and Energy 144
Special Topic: What Do Polarized Sunglasses Have
to Do with Astronomy? 145
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Illusion of Solidity 146
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: One Phase at a Time? 147
Extraordinary Claims: We Can Never Learn the
Composition of Stars 154
Mathematical Insight 5.2: Laws of Thermal
Radiation 155
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 5.25: Interpreting a
Spectrum 158
Mathematical Insight 5.3: The Doppler Shift 160
6 TELESCOPES 165
6.1 Eyes and Cameras: Everyday Light Sensors 166
6.2 Telescopes: Giant Eyes 168
6.3 Telescopes and the Atmosphere 175
6.4 Invisible Messengers 181
Exercises and Problems 187
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Magnification and
Telescopes 169
Mathematical Insight 6.1: Angular Resolution 170
Mathematical Insight 6.2: The Diffraction Limit 171
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star 177
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Closer to the Stars? 178
Special Topic: Would You Like Your Own Telescope? 180
COSMIC CONTEXT PART II: The Universality of Physics 190
PART III
LEARNING FROM OTHER WORLDS
7 OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM 192
7.1 Studying the Solar System 193
7.2 Patterns in the Solar System 207
7.3 Spacecraft Exploration of the Solar System 209
Exercises and Problems 214
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 7.1: The Solar System 194
Special Topic: How Did We Learn the Scale
of the Solar System? 209
8 FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM 217
8.1 The Search for Origins 218
8.2 Explaining the Major Features
of the Solar System 220
8.3 The Age of the Solar System 230
Exercises and Problems 234
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Solar Gravity and the
Density of Planets 223
Extraordinary Claims: A Giant Impact Made Our
Moon 228
Mathematical Insight 8.1: Radiometric Dating 231
Special Topic: What Started the Collapse
of the Solar Nebula? 232
9 PLANETARY GEOLOGY 237
9.1 Connecting Planetary Interiors and Surfaces 238
9.2 Shaping Planetary Surfaces 244
9.3 Geology of the Moon and Mercury 250
9.4 Geology of Mars 254
9.5 Geology of Venus 261
9.6 The Unique Geology of Earth 264
Exercises and Problems 273
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Earth Is Not Full
of Molten Lava 240
Special Topic: How Do We Know What’s Inside
Earth? 241
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Pressure and
Temperature 242
Mathematical Insight 9.1: The Surface
Area–to–Volume Ratio 243
Extraordinary Claims: Martians! 255
10 PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES 276
10.1 Atmospheric Basics 277
10.2 Weather and Climate 286
10.3 Atmospheres of the Moon and Mercury 292
10.4 The Atmospheric History of Mars 294
10.5 The Atmospheric History of Venus 299
10.6 Earth’s Unique Atmosphere 302
Exercises and Problems 315
Mathematical Insight 10.1: “No Greenhouse”
Temperatures 282
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Temperatures at High
Altitude 284
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Why Is the Sky Blue? 284
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Toilets in the Southern
Hemisphere 288
Special Topic: Weather and Chaos 289
Mathematical Insight 10.2: Thermal Escape from
an Atmosphere 293
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Ozone—Good or Bad? 303
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Greenhouse
Effect Is Bad 306
Extraordinary Claims: Human Activity Can Change
the Climate 312
11 JOVIAN PLANET SYSTEMS 318
11.1 A Different Kind of Planet 319
11.2 A Wealth of Worlds: Satellites of Ice and Rock 330
11.3 Jovian Planet Rings 340
Exercises and Problems 347
Special Topic: How Were Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
Discovered? 322
12 ASTEROIDS, COMETS, AND DWARF PLANETS 350
12.1 Classifying Small Bodies 351
12.2 Asteroids 355
12.3 Comets 361
12.4 Pluto and the Kuiper Belt 366
12.5 Cosmic Collisions: Small Bodies Versus
the Planets 370
Exercises and Problems 378
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Dodge Those Asteroids! 360
Special Topic: A Visitor from the Stars 361
Extraordinary Claims: The Death of the Dinosaurs
Was Catastrophic, Not Gradual 374
13 EXOPLANETS 381
13.1 Detecting Planets Around Other Stars 382
13.2 The Nature of Planets Around Other Stars 390
13.3 The Formation of Other Solar Systems 401
Exercises and Problems 405
Special Topic: How Did We Learn That Other Stars
Are Suns? 385
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 13.8: Detecting Exoplanets 388
Special Topic: The Names of Exoplanets 391
Mathematical Insight 13.1: Finding Orbital Distances
for Exoplanets 393
Mathematical Insight 13.2: Finding Masses
of Exoplanets 394
Mathematical Insight 13.3: Finding Sizes
of Exoplanets 395
COSMIC CONTEXT PART III: Learning from Other Worlds 408
PART IV
A DEEPER LOOK AT NATURE
S2 SPACE AND TIME 410
S2.1 Einstein’s Revolution 411
S2.2 Relative Motion 414
S2.3 The Reality of Space and Time 418
S2.4 Toward a New Common Sense 426
Exercises and Problems 429
Special Topic: What If Light Can’t Catch You? 417
Mathematical Insight S2.1: The Time Dilation
Formula 420
Mathematical Insight S2.2: Formulas of Special
Relativity 423
Special Topic: Measuring the Speed of Light 424
Mathematical Insight S2.3: Deriving E = mc2 425
S3 SPACETIME AND GRAVITY 432
S3.1 Einstein’s Second Revolution 433
S3.2 Understanding Spacetime 436
S3.3 A New View of Gravity 441
S3.4 Testing General Relativity 445
S3.5 Hyperspace, Wormholes, and Warp Drive 448
S3.6 The Last Word 450
Exercises and Problems 452
Special Topic: Einstein’s Leap 435
Mathematical Insight S3.1: Spacetime Geometry 436
Special Topic: The Twin Paradox 449
S4 BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE UNIVERSE 455
S4.1 The Quantum Revolution 456
S4.2 Fundamental Particles and Forces 456
S4.3 Uncertainty and Exclusion in
the Quantum Realm 461
S4.4 Key Quantum Effects in Astronomy 466
Exercises and Problems 471
Extraordinary Claims: Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos 460
Special Topic: A String Theory of Everything? 462
Special Topic: Does God Play Dice? 464
Mathematical Insight S4.1: Electron Waves
in Atoms 465
COSMIC CONTEXT PART IV A: Deeper Look at Nature 474
PART V
STARS
14 OUR STAR 476
14.1 A Closer Look at the Sun 477
14.2 Nuclear Fusion in the Sun 480
14.3 The Sun–Earth Connection 488
Exercises and Problems 495
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Sun Is Not on Fire 480
Mathematical Insight 14.1: Mass–Energy Conversion
in Hydrogen Fusion 484
Mathematical Insight 14.2: Pressure in the Sun:
The Ideal Gas Law 486
15 SURVEYING THE STARS 498
15.1 Properties of Stars 499
15.2 Patterns Among Stars 507
15.3 Star Clusters 515
Exercises and Problems 519
Mathematical Insight 15.1: The Inverse Square Law
for Light 500
Mathematical Insight 15.2: The Parallax Formula 502
Mathematical Insight 15.3: The Modern Magnitude
System 503
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Photos of Stars 505
Mathematical Insight 15.4: Measuring Stellar
Masses 508
Mathematical Insight 15.5: Calculating Stellar
Radii 509
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 15.10: Reading an H-R
Diagram 510
16 STAR BIRTH 522
16.1 Stellar Nurseries 523
16.2 Stages of Star Birth 531
16.3 Masses of Newborn Stars 535
Exercises and Problems 540
Mathematical Insight 16.1: Gravity Versus Pressure 528
17 STAR STUFF 543
17.1 Lives in the Balance 544
17.2 Life as a Low-Mass Star 545
17.3 Life as a High-Mass Star 551
17.4 The Roles of Mass and Mass Exchange 557
Exercises and Problems 562
Special Topic: How Long Is 5 Billion Years? 552
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 17.19: Summary of Stellar
Lives 558
18 THE BIZARRE STELLAR GRAVEYARD 565
18.1 White Dwarfs 566
18.2 Neutron Stars 569
18.3 Black Holes: Gravity’s Ultimate Victory 573
18.4 Extreme Events 578
Exercises and Problems 583
Mathematical Insight 18.1: The Schwarzschild
Radius 575
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Black Holes
Don’t Suck 576
Extraordinary Claims: Neutron Stars and Black Holes
Are Real 577
COSMIC CONTEXT PART V: Balancing Pressure
and Gravity 586
PART VI
GALAXIES AND BEYOND
19 OUR GALAXY 588
19.1 The Milky Way Revealed 589
19.2 Galactic Recycling 593
19.3 The History of the Milky Way 603
19.4 The Galactic Center 605
Exercises and Problems 611
Special Topic: How Did We Learn the Structure
of the Milky Way? 590
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Halo of a Galaxy 590
Special Topic: How Do We Determine Stellar
Orbits? 591
Mathematical Insight 19.1: Using Stellar Orbits
to Measure Galactic Mass 592
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: What Is a Nebula? 593
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: The Sound of Space 596
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 19.25: The Galactic
Center 608
20 GALAXIES AND THE FOUNDATION
OF MODERN COSMOLOGY 614
20.1 Islands of Stars 615
20.2 Measuring Galactic Distances 621
20.3 The Age of the Universe 627
Exercises and Problems 634
Mathematical Insight 20.1: Standard Candles 622
Special Topic: Who Discovered the Expanding
Universe? 625
Mathematical Insight 20.2: Redshift 628
Mathematical Insight 20.3: Understanding Hubble’s
Law 629
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: What Is the Universe
Expanding Into? 630
Mathematical Insight 20.4: Age from Hubble’s
Constant 630
Mathematical Insight 20.5: Cosmological Redshift
and the Stretching of Light 632
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS: Beyond the Horizon 632
21 GALAXY EVOLUTION 637
21.1 Looking Back Through Time 638
21.2 The Lives of Galaxies 640
21.3 The Role of Supermassive Black Holes 646
21.4 Gas Beyond the Stars 652
Exercises and Problems 655
Mathematical Insight 21.1: Feeding a Black Hole 648
Mathematical Insight 21.2: Weighing Supermassive
Black Holes 650
22 THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE 658
22.1 The Big Bang Theory 659
22.2 Evidence for the Big Bang 663
22.3 The Big Bang and Inflation 669
22.4 Observing the Big Bang for Yourself 673
Exercises and Problems 677
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 22.5: The Early Universe 664
Extraordinary Claims: The Universe Doesn’t Change
with Time 667
Mathematical Insight 22.1: Temperature and Wavelength
of Background Radiation 669
23 DARK MATTER, DARK ENERGY, AND
THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE 680
23.1 Unseen Influences in the Cosmos 681
23.2 Evidence for Dark Matter 682
23.3 Structure Formation 691
23.4 Dark Energy and the Fate of the Universe 693
Exercises and Problems 703
Mathematical Insight 23.1: Mass-to-Light Ratio 864
Mathematical Insight 23.2: Finding Cluster Masses
from Galaxy Orbits 685
Mathematical Insight 23.3: Finding Cluster Masses
from Gas Temperature 686
Extraordinary Claims: Most of the Universe’s Matter
Is Dark 690
Special Topic: Einstein’s “Greatest Blunder” 696
COSMIC CONTEXT FIGURE 23.20: Dark Matter and Dark
Energy 698
COSMIC CONTEXT PART VI: Galaxy Evolution 706
PART VII
LIFE ON EARTH AND BEYOND
24 LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 708
24.1 Life on Earth 709
24.2 Life in the Solar System 719
24.3 Life Around Other Stars 722
24.4 The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 726
24.5 Interstellar Travel and Its
Implications for Civilization 730
Exercises and Problems 735
Special Topic: Evolution and the Schools 717
Special Topic: What Is Life? 718
Extraordinary Claims: Aliens Are Visiting Earth
in UFOs 729
COSMIC CONTEXT PART VII: A Universe of Life? 738
CREDITS C-1
APPENDIXES A-1
A Useful Numbers A-2
B Useful Formulas A-3
C A Few Mathematical Skills A-4
D The Periodic Table of the Elements A-10
E Solar System Data A-11
F Stellar Data A-14
G Galaxy Data A-16
H The 88 Constellations A-19
I Star Charts A-21
J Key to Icons on Figures A-26
K Answers to Quick Quiz A-27
GLOSSARY G-1
INDEX I-1