Contents
- Preface
1Science and the Universe: A Brief Tour
2Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy
7Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System
13Comets and Asteroids: Debris of the Solar System
14Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System
18The Stars: A Celestial Census
20Between the Stars: Gas and Dust in Space
21The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets outside the Solar System
27Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes
- AHow to Study for an Introductory Astronomy Class
- BAstronomy Websites, Images, and Apps
- CScientific Notation
- DUnits Used in Science
- ESome Useful Constants for Astronomy
- FPhysical and Orbital Data for the Planets
- GSelected Moons of the Planets
- HFuture Total Eclipses
- IThe Nearest Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and White Dwarfs
- JThe Brightest Twenty Stars
- KThe Chemical Elements
- LThe Constellations
- MStar Chart and Sky Event Resources
- Index
Key Terms
- accretion
- the gradual accumulation of mass, as by a planet forming from colliding particles in the solar nebula
- exoplanet
- a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun
- iron meteorite
- a meteorite composed primarily of iron and nickel
- 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
- meteor shower
- many meteors appearing to radiate from one point in the sky; produced when Earth passes through a cometary dust stream
- meteorite
- a portion of a meteor that survives passage through the atmosphere and strikes the ground
- stony meteorite
- a meteorite composed mostly of stony material, either primitive or differentiated
- stony-iron meteorite
- a type of differentiated meteorite that is a blend of nickel-iron and silicate materials