Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (31 page)

Further Reading

Adams, Fred, and Greg Laughlin.
The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity
. New York: Free Press, 1999.

Barrow, John.
The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega—The Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe.
New York: Knopf, 2003.

———.
The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe
. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.

Barrow, John, and Frank Tipler.
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Bryson, Bill.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.

Danielson, Dennis Richard.
The Book of the Cosmos.
Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2001.

Goldsmith, Donald
. Connecting with the Cosmos: Nine Ways to Experience the Majesty and Mystery of the Universe
. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2002.

———.
The Hunt for Life on Mars
. New York: Dutton, 1997.

———.
Nemesis: The Death-Star and Other Theories of Mass Extinction
. New York: Walker Books, 1985.

———.
Worlds Unnumbered: The Search for Extrasolar Planets
. Sausalito, CA: University Science Books, 1997.

———.
The Runaway Universe: The Race to Find the Future of the Cosmos.
Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2000.

Gott, J. Richard.
Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Greene, Brian.
The Elegant Universe
. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000.

———.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
. New York: Knopf, 2003.

Grinspoon, David.
Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life
. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Guth, Alan.
The Inflationary Universe.
Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 1997.

Haack, Susan.
Defending
Science—Within Reason
. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2003.

Harrison, Edward.
Cosmology: The Science of the Universe
, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Kirshner, Robert.
The Extravagant Universe
:
Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Knoll, Andrew.
Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Lemonick, Michael.
Echo of the Big Bang
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Rees, Martin.
Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others.
Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 1997.

———.
Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe
. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

———.
Our Cosmic Habitat.
New York: Orion, 2002.

Seife, Charles.
Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe
. New York: Viking, 2003.

Tyson, Neil deGrasse.
Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions About Everything Under the Sun, Moon and Stars.
New York: Main Street Books, 1998.

———.
Merlin’s Tour of the Universe: A Skywatcher’s Guide to Everything from Mars and Quasars to Comets, Planets, Blue Moons and Werewolves.
New York: Main Street Books, 1997.

———.
The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
. New York: Doubleday & Co., 2000.

———.
Universe Down to Earth
. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

———, Robert Irion, and Charles Tsun-Chu Liu.
One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos
. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2000.

Image Credits

Abbreviations

AURA: Association for University Research in Astronomy

CFHT: Canada, France, Hawaii Telescope

ESA: European Space Agency

ESO: European Southern Observatory

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NOAO: National Optical Astronomical Observatories

NSF: National Science Foundation

USNO: United States Naval Observatory

1. WMAP Science Team, NASA

2. S. Beckwith and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Working Group, ESA, NASA

3. Andrew Fruchter et al., NASA

4. N. Benitez, T. Broadhurst, H. Ford, M. Clampin, G. Hartig, and G. Illingworth, ESA, NASA

5. A. Siemiginowska, J. Bechtold, et al., NASA

6. O. Lopez-Cruz et al., AURA, NOAO, NSF

7. Jean-Charles Cuillandre, CFHT

8. Arne Henden, USNO

9. European Southern Observatory

10. Hubble Heritage Team, A. Riess, NASA

11. High-Z Supernova Search Team, NASA

12. Diane Zeiders and Adam Block, NOAO, AURA, NSF

13. P. Anders et al., ESA, NASA

14. Robert Gendler; www.robgendlerastropics.com

15. Hubble Heritage Team, NASA

16. AURA/NOAO/NSF

17. M. Heydari-Malayeri (Paris Observatory) et al., ESA, NASA

18., 19. Atlas Image obtained as part of the Two Micron All Sky Survey, a joint project of the UMass and the IPAC/Caltech, funded by the NASA and the NSF.

20. Jean-Charles Cuillandre, CFHT

21. Jean-Charles Cuillandre, CFHT

22. J. Hester (Arizona State Univ.) et al., NASA

23. H. Bond and R. Ciardullo, NASA

24. Andrew Fruchter (Space Telescope Science Institute) et al., NASA

25. Jean-Charles Cuillandre, CFHT

26. Rick Scott; members.cox.net/rmscott

27. R. G. French, J. Cuzzi, L. Dones, and J. Lissauer, Hubble Heritage Team, NASA

28. (a)
Voyager 2
, NASA; (b) Athena Coustenis et al., CFHT

29.
Cassini
Imaging Team, NASA

30. (a) and (b)
Galileo
Project, NASA

31.
Magellan
Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA

32. Buzz Aldrin, NASA

33. Juan Carlos Casado; www. skylook.net

34. J. Bell, M. Wolff, et al., NASA

35.
Spirit
rover, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Cornell

36.
Spirit
rover, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Cornell

37. Sandra Haller, Unicorn Projects, Inc.

38. Don Davis, NASA

39. Neil deGrasse Tyson, American Museum of Natural History

40. Sandra Haller, Unicorn Projects, Inc.

Index

accretion model, 188–89

aerobic organisms, 28

AGNs (galaxies with active nuclei), 137

alanine, 242

alien abduction, 281–82

Allen, Paul, 287

Alpha Centauri, 208, 284–85

Alpher, Ralph, 56–57, 58, 59

aluminum, 172, 216, 235

aluminum oxide, 173

aluminum-26, 245

amino acids, 242–43

ammonia, 238, 242, 254, 268, 272

“Anatomy of the World, The: The First Anniversary” (Donne), 20

Anderson, Carl David, 46

Andromeda constellation, 111

Andromeda galaxy, 115, 117

Andromeda nebula, 111, 114, 115

Annalen der Physik,
35

anthropic principle (anthropic approach), 104–5, 107

anthropomorphism, in search for extraterrestrial life, 226

anti-electrons (positrons), 41, 42–43, 46–48

antihydrogen, 47, 50

antimatter, 40, 41, 42, 46–52

   generation of, 50

   storage of, 49–50

antineutrinos, 41

antineutrons, 48–49

antiquarks, 41

Apollo
program, 191, 195, 196, 258

Archaea, 244

Arecibo, P.R., 285

Ariel, 201

Aristarchus, 204, 230

Aristotle, 230

Arp, Halton, 118–19, 120

asteroid belt, 177

   location of, 190, 196–97

   as origin of moons of Mars, 191

   total mass of objects in, 197

asteroid 13123 Tyson, 203

asteroid 1994KA, 202–3

asteroids, 122, 189, 191, 257, 266

   elements named after, 177

   and mass extinctions on Earth, 28, 176, 197

   naming of, 196–97, 202–3

   number of, 177, 193

   sizes of, 190

Astrobiology, 232, 233, 250

Astrophysical Journal,
59, 148
n

astrophysics, 15, 33, 113

Atkinson, Robert d’Escourt, 162

Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies
(Arp), 119, 120

atmosphere:

   of Earth, 28, 201–2, 220, 237, 260–62, 267

   and evaporation, 264

   of Mars, 264

   of Titan, 270–71

   of Venus, 259, 260, 261

atomic bomb, 178

atomic number, 162, 168

atomic weight, 162

atoms, 39

   electric charge of, 168

   first formation of, 43, 56, 61

aurorae, 201

Bacteria (biological branch), 244

bacteria (organisms), 293

   atmosphere modification by, 28

   and chemosynthesis, 246

   space-borne, possibility of, 196

barred spiral galaxies, 116, 120

Bentley, Richard, 127

Berkeley Cyclotron, 178

beryllium, 170

big bang, 38, 71, 72–73, 96, 127, 166, 168

   and cosmic background radiation, 56, 57

   hadron era after, 42

   and helium content of universe, 169

   inflationary epoch after, 26, 84, 85, 128, 129–30

   and lithium content of universe, 170

   name origin of, 57

   phase transition after, 84, 129

   Planck era after, 38–39

   quark-lepton era after, 40–42

   quark-to-hadron transition after, 42

   religion and, 44–45

   time of decoupling after, 128–29, 130

   
see also
universe

binary star systems, 87

bismuth, 234

black holes, 33, 44, 68, 79

   supermassive class of, 134–38

blazars, 137

Blob, The,
231

Bondi, Hermann, 57

boron, 170

Bose, Satyendranath, 40

bosons, 40, 46

Brookhaven National Laboratories, 41

brown dwarfs, 153

Bruno, Giordano, 205

Buddha, 17

Burbidge, E. Margaret, 159, 160, 161, 164–65

Burbidge, Geoffrey R., 159, 160, 161, 164–65

calcium, 133, 158, 234, 235

Caliban, 201

Callisto, 191

carbohydrates, 246

carbon, 216

   chemical bonding of, 171, 172–73, 251

   in chemosynthesis, 246, 247

   in cosmic dust, 149, 186

   in Earth, 216

   in organisms, 234, 235, 251–53, 254

   stellar production of, 133, 158, 164, 171

carbon dioxide, 28, 173, 238, 246, 260–61, 263, 264

carbon monoxide, 173, 238

Cassini-Huygens
mission, 202, 271–72

Cavendish, Henry, 168

Cepheid variable stars, 114

Cepheus constellation, 114

Ceres, 176–77, 178, 179

cerium, 177

CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), 47

Chadwick, James, 163

Charon, 200

chemosynthesis, 246, 251

chlorine, 167, 234, 235

Clementine
lunar orbiter, 258

collision cross sections, 160, 164

Coma Berenices cluster, 65–67

comets, 122, 189, 202, 266

   composition of, 193, 238, 253

   formation of, 193

   orbits of, 197–98

   and origin of life on Earth, 238–39, 257

   size of, 216, 258

   
see also
Kuiper Belt; Oort cloud

Comstock, George Cary, 148

continental drift, 236

Copernican principle, 230–32, 234, 235, 275, 278, 279

Copernicus, Nicolaus, 204, 230

Cordelia, 201

Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), 93, 94, 132

cosmic background radiation (CBR), 54–62, 92–95, 98, 100

   and big bang theory, 57–58, 60

   discovery of, 58–59

   and formation of early universe, 60–62, 71, 76, 129, 130–32

   and temperature of universe, 56–57

cosmic year, 121

cosmological constant, 82, 83, 86, 91–92, 96–97, 98, 100, 102–4

   anthropic approach to, 104–5, 107

   and Einstein’s theory of general relativity, 80–81

cosmology, 56, 62–63, 79, 81, 89

   multiverse concept in, 98–107

   “Nancy Kerrigan problem” in, 102, 104

Crab constellation, 218

Crab nebula, 111

creation myths, 16, 104

Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, 239–40

critical density, 83–84, 85, 86, 91

Crumb, R., 107

cyanogen, 60

dark energy, 61–62, 78–97, 98–103, 107

dark matter, 61–62, 64–77, 78, 84

Dark Side of the Moon,
258

Darwin, Charles, 241–42, 245

Day the Earth Stood Still, The,
283

deep sea vents, 245–47

Deimos, 191, 199

deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), 226, 243, 244

Desdemona, 201

deuterium, 43, 72, 170, 257

Dicke, Robert H., 59

dinosaurs, 28, 239–40

Dirac, Paul A. M., 47–48, 49

“Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content?” (Einstein), 35–36

Donne, John, 20

Doppler effect, 93, 113, 207–8, 209, 212

Doppler shift, 208, 209–10, 214

Drake, Frank, 227

Drake equation, 227–30, 275–76

dry ice, 263, 264

dust, interstellar, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190

Earth, 187, 199, 204, 215, 251, 253

   atmosphere of, 28, 201–2, 220, 237, 260–62, 267

   average density of, 125

   as center of universe, 204, 230

   collisions with, 28, 176, 192–93, 195–96, 197, 216

   cosmic seeding and life on, 238–39, 241

   diameter of, 126

   earliest life on, 236–37

   era of bombardment on, 238–40, 241

   and extraterrestrial contact, 278–89

   formation of, 28, 187, 191–92, 216, 257, 266–67

   gravity of, 70

   and habitable zone, 266–68

   K-T boundary in crust of, 176

   life on, 28, 196, 226, 231, 233–49, 251–52, 266–68

   mass extinctions on, 28, 176, 238–40, 241

   radio wave propagation of, 285

   Venus compared with, 259

Earth Versus the Flying Saucers,
283

Eddington, Arthur, 161–62, 163

E=mc
2
,
35–38

Einstein, Albert, 66, 176, 247

   and cosmological constant, 79–81, 85–86, 97

   general relativity theory of, 25, 64, 79–81

   and grand unification theory, 123

   special relativity theory of, 35–37, 44, 49, 84, 91, 152, 174

einsteinium, 176

ekpyrotic model, 106–7

electric charge, 48, 168

electricity, 34

electromagnetic force, 26, 38, 39, 75, 76

electromagnetic radiation, 284

electrons, 37

   in atoms, 43, 54, 60–61, 163

   in early universe, 26–27, 40, 41, 42–43, 53–54, 56

electro-weak force, 26, 39

elements, 27, 133, 139, 156, 293

   on Earth, most abundant, 235, 252

   heavy, creation of, 158–66, 171, 173–74

   six most abundant, 234, 252

elliptical galaxies, 115, 116, 117, 139

elliptical nebulae, 112

energy, 36

   
see also
dark energy

era of bombardment, 238–40, 241

Essay on Man, An
(Pope), 204

ethane, 254, 268

ethyl alcohol, 272

Eucarya, 244

Europa, 191, 200, 253–54, 268–70, 274

European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), 47

European Space Agency (ESA), 220, 271

exosolar planets, 184, 204–21, 275

   Doppler shift and detection of, 208, 209–10

   Earth-like, detection of, 220–21, 275

   first discovery of, 206, 214

   life on, 227, 249

   measuring properties of, 210–13

   orbital distances of, 211, 213, 217, 218–19

   orbital periods of, 210–11, 213, 214, 217–18

   orbital shapes of, 212–13

extinctions, mass, 28, 176, 238–40, 241

extraterrestrial civilizations:

   contacting of, 278, 282–83, 284–86

   probability of, 227–30, 275–77, 288

   
see also
search for extraterrestrial intelligence; unidentified flying objects

extremophiles, 244, 248, 249

Faraday, Michael, 198

Fermi, Enrico, 288

Finnegans Wake
(Joyce), 40

fission, nuclear, 173

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 221

formaldehyde, 238

Fowler, William, 159, 160, 161, 164–65

Friedmann, Alexander, 81

fungi, 239

fusion, thermonuclear:

   critical temperature for, 87, 152

   in early universe, 72–73

   and heavy elements, 158–66, 171, 173–74

   in stars, 27, 33, 87, 152, 156, 157, 169, 170

Galápagos Islands, 245

galaxies, 61, 89, 111–21, 122, 123, 125

   with active nucleii (AGNs), 137

   barred spiral types of, 116, 120

   black holes and, 134–38

   classification of, 115–19

   collisions of, 119–20

   dark matter of, 68–70, 76

   discovery of, 111–15

   formation of, 27, 133–40

   haloes of, 139

   Hubble’s classification of, 115–16, 117, 118, 120

   and missing mass, 65–70

galaxy clusters, 61, 65–70, 76, 122, 123

galaxy superclusters, 61, 122, 123, 132

Galileo Galilei, 147–48, 148
n

Galileo
spacecraft, 268

Galle, John, 178

gallium, 174–75, 234

gallium chloride, 174–75

gamma rays, 37–38, 49, 54

Gamow, George, 55–57, 58, 59, 81

Ganymede, 191, 269, 270

gases, 253

gas giant planets, 186–87, 214–15, 216, 217

Gell-Mann, Murray, 40

General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, A
(Herschel), 112

geothermal energy, 245–47, 248, 249, 251

germanium, 252–53

globular star clusters, 139

gluons, 46

Gold, Thomas, 57

Gott, J. Richard, III, 57

graphite, 186

gravitinos, 46

gravity, 34, 38, 61, 79, 91–92

   at atomic scale, 50

   black holes and, 33

   dark matter and, 62, 64–65, 69, 71–72, 74–76, 78

   formation of universe and, 25–26, 39

   Newton’s law of, 202

   planet formation and, 187, 188

   and structure of universe, 127, 133–34, 138

Great Gatsby, The
(Fitzgerald), 221

Greece, ancient, 16–17

greenhouse effect, 260–62

guanine, 242

Gulliver’s Travels
(Swift), 199

Guth, Alan, 84

hadrons, 42

Hale Telescope, 119

Halley, comet, 198, 257

Harkins, William D., 162

Hawking, Stephen, 44, 104

Hawking radiation, 44

heat, 34

helium, 160, 169–70

   abundance of, 169, 234, 252

   in cosmic gas clouds, 19

   and formation of universe, 27, 43, 72–73, 132–33, 166

   in gas-giant planets, 186, 216

   stellar production of, 73, 152, 158, 164, 169

Herman, Robert, 56–57, 58, 59

Herschel, Caroline, 112

Herschel, John, 112, 113

Herschel, William, 111–12, 177, 200

Hewlett-Packard, 287

high-mass stars, 133, 153, 154, 165, 173

Hindenburg,
169–70

Hiroshima, 178, 179

Holmberg, Erik, 119

Homo sapiens,
28

Hooker, Joseph, 241

Hooker Telescope, 114, 115

Hoyle, Fred, 57–58, 159, 160, 161, 164–65

Hubble, Edwin P., 80, 81, 114–15, 291, 292

Hubble constant, 82–83, 89–90, 91

Hubble Deep Field photographs, 140–42

Hubble diagram, 89, 90

Hubble’s law, 89–90

Hubble Space Telescope, 89, 117, 135–36, 140–42, 154, 177, 201

Hyakutake, comet, 198

hydrogen, 50, 242, 246, 257, 259, 261

   abundance of, 168, 234

   chemosynthesis and, 246

   in cosmic gas clouds, 149, 168

   and formation of universe, 27, 43, 72–73, 132–33, 166

   in gas-giant planets, 186, 216

   in organisms, 234, 235, 237, 251–52, 254