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