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
- conduction
- process by which heat is directly transmitted through a substance when there is a difference of temperature between adjoining regions caused by atomic or molecular collisions
- 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
- fission
- breaking up of heavier atomic nuclei into lighter ones
- fusion
- building up of heavier atomic nuclei from lighter ones
- helioseismology
- study of pulsations or oscillations of the Sun in order to determine the characteristics of the solar interior
- hydrostatic equilibrium
- balance between the weights of various layers, as in a star or Earth’s atmosphere, and the pressures that support them
- neutrino
- fundamental particle that has no charge and a mass that is tiny relative to an electron; it rarely interacts with ordinary matter and comes in three different types
- positron
- particle with the same mass as an electron, but positively charged
- proton-proton chain
- series of thermonuclear reactions by which nuclei of hydrogen are built up into nuclei of helium
- radiation
- emission of energy as electromagnetic waves or photons also the transmitted energy itself