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
- adaptive optics
- systems used with telescopes that can compensate for distortions in an image introduced by the atmosphere, thus resulting in sharper images
- aperture
- diameter of the primary lens or mirror of a telescope
- charge-coupled device (CCD)
- array of high-sensitivity electronic detectors of electromagnetic radiation, used at the focus of a telescope (or camera lens) to record an image or spectrum
- chromatic aberration
- distortion that causes an image to appear fuzzy when each wavelength coming into a transparent material focuses at a different spot
- detector
- device sensitive to electromagnetic radiation that makes a record of astronomical observations
- eyepiece
- magnifying lens used to view the image produced by the objective lens or primary mirror of a telescope
- focus
- (of telescope) point where the rays of light converged by a mirror or lens meet
- interference
- process in which waves mix together such that their crests and troughs can alternately reinforce and cancel one another
- interferometer
- instrument that combines electromagnetic radiation from one or more telescopes to obtain a resolution equivalent to what would be obtained with a single telescope with a diameter equal to the baseline separating the individual separate telescopes
- interferometer array
- combination of multiple radio dishes to, in effect, work like a large number of two-dish interferometers
- prime focus
- point in a telescope where the objective lens or primary mirror focuses the light
- radar
- technique of transmitting radio waves to an object and then detecting the radiation that the object reflects back to the transmitter; used to measure the distance to, and motion of, a target object or to form images of it
- reflecting telescope
- telescope in which the principal light collector is a concave mirror
- refracting telescope
- telescope in which the principal light collector is a lens or system of lenses
- resolution
- detail in an image; specifically, the smallest angular (or linear) features that can be distinguished
- seeing
- unsteadiness of Earth’s atmosphere, which blurs telescopic images; good seeing means the atmosphere is steady
- telescope
- instrument for collecting visible-light or other electromagnetic radiation