Astronomy For Dummies

Stephen P. Maran, PhD, is former Assistant Director of Space Sciences for Information and Outreach at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Richard Tresch Fienberg, PhD, is former Editor in Chief of Sky & Telescope magazine. Both Steve and Rick have received NASA medals for exceptional achievement.

• Introduction 1About This Book 2Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 3Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 4Part 1: Getting Started with Astronomy 5Chapter 1: Seeing the Light: The Art and Science of Astronomy 7Astronomy: The Science of Observation 8What You See: The Language of Light 10They wondered as they wandered: Understanding planets versus stars 10If you see a Great Bear, start worrying: Naming stars and constellations 12The smaller, the brighter: Getting to the root of magnitudes 19What do I spy? Spotting the Messier Catalog and other sky objects 20Looking back on light-years 22Keep on moving: Figuring the positions of the stars 23Gravity: A Force to Be Reckoned With 26Space: A Commotion of Motion 27Chapter 2: Join the Crowd: Skywatching Activities and Resources 29You’re Not Alone: Astronomy Clubs, Websites, Smartphone Apps, and More 30Joining an astronomy club for star-studded company 30Checking websites, magazines, software, and apps 31Visiting Observatories and Planetariums 35Ogling the observatories 35Popping in on planetariums 39Vacationing with the Stars: Star Parties, Eclipse Trips, Dark Sky Parks, and More 39Party on! Attending star parties 40Getting festive at an astro fest 42Tapping into Astronomy on Tap 42To the path of totality: Taking eclipse cruises and tours 42Motoring to telescope motels 44Chapter 3: Terrific Tools for Observing the Skies 47Seeing Stars: A Sky Geography Primer 48As Earth turns 48keep an eye on the North Star 51Beginning with Naked-Eye Observations 53Using Binoculars or a Telescope for a Better View 56Binoculars: Sweeping the night sky 56Telescopes: When closeness counts 60Planning Your First Steps into Astronomy 70Chapter 4: Just Passing Through: Meteors, Comets, and Artificial Satellites 73Meteors: Wishing on a Shooting Star 74Spotting sporadic meteors, fireballs, and bolides 75Watching meteor showers: No umbrella needed 77Comets: Dirty Ice Balls or Icy Dirt Balls? 81Making heads and tails of a comet’s structure 82Waiting for the “comets of the century” 86Hunting for the next great comet 87Artificial Satellites: Enduring a Love–Hate Relationship 90Skywatching for artificial satellites 91Finding satellite viewing predictions 92UFOs: Could some be aliens? 94Part 2: Going Once Around the Solar System 95Chapter 5: A Matched Pair: Earth and Its Moon 97Putting Earth under the Astronomical Microscope 98One of a kind: Earth’s unique characteristics 98Spheres of influence: Earth’s distinct regions 100Examining Earth’s Time, Seasons, and Age 102Orbiting for all time 102Tilting toward the seasons 104Estimating Earth’s age 106Making Sense of the Moon 107Get ready to howl: Identifying phases of the Moon 108In the shadows: Watching lunar eclipses 110Cultivating an interest in the occult(ations) 112Hard rock: Surveying lunar geology 113Quite an impact: Considering a theory about the Moon’s origin 119Chapter 6: Earth’s Near Neighbors: Mercury, Venus, and Mars 121Mercury: Weird, Hot, and Mostly Metal 122Dry, Acidic, and Hilly: Piercing the Veil of Venus 123Dropping the ball: Probing Venus with DAVINCI+ and EnVision 125Something in the air: Life in Venus’s clouds? 125Red, Cold, and Barren: Uncovering the Mysteries of Mars 125Where have almost all the air and water gone? (Long time passing) 126Does Mars support life? 128Differentiating Earth through Comparative Planetology 131Observing the Terrestrial Planets with Ease 132Understanding elongation, opposition, and conjunction 133Viewing Venus and its phases 135Watching Mars as it loops around 137Outdoing Copernicus by observing Mercury 139Chapter 7: Rock On: The Asteroid Belt and Near-Earth Objects 141Taking a Brief Tour of the Asteroid Belt 141Getting the Dirt on (and off) Asteroids 145Understanding the Threat That Near-Earth Objects Pose 146When push comes to shove: Nudging an asteroid 148Forewarned is forearmed: Surveying NEAs to protect Earth 149Searching for Small Points of Light 150Helping to track an occultation 151Timing an asteroidal occultation 152Chapter 8: Great Balls of Gas: Jupiter and Saturn 153The Pressure’s On: Journeying Inside Jupiter and Saturn 153Almost a Star: Gazing at Jupiter 154Scanning for the Great Red Spot 156Shooting for Galileo’s moons 157Our Main Planetary Attraction: Setting Your Sights on Saturn 161Ringing around the planet 162Storm chasing across Saturn 164Monitoring a moon of major proportions 164Venting about geysers on Enceladus 166Chapter 9: Far Out! Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Beyond 169Breaking the Ice with Uranus and Neptune 169Bull’s-eye! Tilted Uranus and its features 170Against the grain: Neptune and its biggest moon 171Meeting Pluto, the Amazing Dwarf Planet 173Defining Pluto the geophysical way 174Getting to the heart of Pluto 174Looking at Pluto’s makeup 177The moon chip doesn’t float far from the planet 177Buckling Down to the Kuiper Belt 178Viewing the Outer Planets 180Sighting Uranus 180Distinguishing Neptune from a star 180Straining to see Pluto 181Hunting New Planet Number Nine 182Part 3: Starting with Old Sol: Meeting Stars And Galaxies 185Chapter 10: The Sun: Star of Earth 187Surveying the Sunscape 188The Sun’s size and shape: A great bundle of gas 189The Sun’s regions: Caught between the core and the corona 189Solar activity: What’s going on out there? 192Solar wind: Playing with magnets 196Solar CSI: The mystery of the missing solar neutrinos 197Four billion and counting: The life expectancy of the Sun 198Don’t Make a Blinding Mistake: Safe Techniques for Solar Viewing 199Viewing the Sun by projection 199Viewing the Sun through front-end filters 204Fun with the Sun: Solar Observation 206Tracking sunspots 206Experiencing solar eclipses 208Surfing solar observatories 212Chapter 11: Taking a Trip to the Stars 215Life Cycles of the Hot and Massive 216Young stellar objects: Taking baby steps 217Main sequence stars: Enjoying a long adulthood 218Red giants and supergiants: Big and bigger 219Closing time: Coming up on the tail end of stellar evolution 220Star Color, Brightness, and Mass 226Spectral types: What color is my star? 227Star light, star bright: Luminosity classifications 228The brighter they burn, the bigger they swell: Mass determines class 229Making sense of the H-R diagram 230Eternal Partners: Binary and Multiple Stars 232Binary stars and the Doppler effect 232Two stars are binary, but three’s a crowd: Multiple stars 234Change Is Good: Variable Stars 235Go the distance: Pulsating stars 236Explosive neighbors: Flare stars 238Nice to nova: Exploding stars 238Stellar hide-and-seek: Eclipsing binary stars 241Hog the starlight: Microlensing events 242Your Stellar Neighbors 242How to Help Scientists by Observing the Stars 245Chapter 12: Galaxies: The Milky Way and Beyond 247Unwrapping the Milky Way 248How and when did the Milky Way form? 249What shape is the Milky Way? 249Where can you find the Milky Way? 251Star Clusters: Meeting Galactic Associates 252A loose fit: Open clusters 253A tight squeeze: Globular clusters 255Fun while it lasted: OB associations 256Taking a Shine to Nebulas 257Picking out planetary nebulas 259Breezing through supernova remnants 261Enjoying Earth’s best nebular views 261Getting a Grip on Galaxies 264Surveying spiral, barred spiral, and lenticular galaxies 265Examining elliptical galaxies 266Looking at irregular, dwarf, and low surface brightness galaxies 267Gawking at great galaxies 268Discovering the Local Group of galaxies 271Checking out clusters of galaxies 272Sizing up superclusters, cosmic voids, and great walls 272Chapter 13: Falling for Black Holes and Quasars 275Black Holes: Keeping Your Distance 275Looking over the black hole roster 276Poking around the black hole interior 277Surveying a black hole’s surroundings 280Warping space and time 281Detecting black hole collisions 283Watching stars get swallowed by black holes 284Quasars: Defying Definitions 285Measuring the size of a quasar 286Getting up to speed on jets 287Exploring quasar spectra 287Active Galactic Nuclei: Welcome to the Quasar Family 288Sifting through different types of AGN 288Examining the power behind AGN 290Questioning what ORCs are 291Part 4: Pondering the Remarkable Universe 293Chapter 14: Planets of Other Suns: Is Anybody Out There? 295Discovering Alien Worlds 296Changing ideas on exoplanets 296Finding exoplanets 298Meeting the (exo)planets 302Catching Proxima fever: Focusing on red dwarfs 305Finding Earth-class planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1 307Checking out planets for fun and science 308Astrobiology: How’s Life on Other Worlds? 309Extremophiles: Living the hard way 309Seeking life in the solar system 310Using Drake’s Equation to Discuss SETI 313SETI Projects: Listening for E.T. 316The flight of Project Phoenix 317Space scanning with other SETI projects 318Hot targets for SETI 320SETI@home 321Chapter 15: Delving into Dark Matter and Antimatter 323Dark Matter: Understanding the Universal Glue 323Gathering the evidence for dark matter 324Debating the makeup of dark matter 328Taking a Shot in the Dark: Searching for Dark Matter 329Looking for WIMPs and other microscopic dark matter 329MACHOs: Making a brighter image 331Mapping dark matter with gravitational lensing 331Dueling Antimatter: Proving That Opposites Attract 333Chapter 16: The Big Bang and the Evolution of the Universe 335Evidence for the Big Bang 336Inflation: A Swell Time in the Universe 337Something from nothing: Inflation and the vacuum 339Falling flat: Inflation and the shape of the universe 339Dark Energy: The Universal Accelerator 340Universal Info Pulled from the Cosmic Microwave Background 341Finding the lumps in the cosmic microwave background 342Mapping the universe with the cosmic microwave background 342In a Galaxy Far Away: Standard Candles and the Hubble Constant 344Standard candles: How do scientists measure galaxy distances? 344The Hubble constant: How fast do galaxies really move? 345The Fate of the Universe 346Part 5: the Part of Tens 347Chapter 17: Ten Strange Facts about Astronomy and Space 349You Have Tiny Meteorites in Your Hair 349A Comet’s Tail Often Leads the Way 350Earth Is Made of Rare and Unusual Matter 350High Tide Comes on Both Sides of Earth at the Same Time 350On Venus, the Rain Never Falls on the Plain 350Rocks from Mars Dot Earth 351Pluto Was Discovered from the Predictions of a Wrong Theory 351Sunspots Aren’t Dark 351A Star in Plain View May Have Exploded, But No One Knows 352The Same Supernova or Quasar May Be Seen in Different Places 352Chapter 18: Ten Common Errors about Astronomy and Space 353“The Light from That Star Took 1,000 Light-Years to Reach Earth” 353There’s No Gravity in Space 354Summer Comes When Earth Is Closest to the Sun 354The Back of the Moon Is Dark 354The “Morning Star” or “Evening Star” Is a Star 355The Asteroid Belt Is Crowded 355Nuking a “Killer Asteroid” on a Collision Course for Earth Will Save Us 355The Sun Is an Average Star 356The Hubble Space Telescope Gets Up Close and Personal 356The Big Bang Is Dead 356Part 6: Appendixes 357Appendix A: Star Maps 359Appendix B: Glossary 367Index 373

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