Table Of ContentThe Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life
Pekka Teerikorpi • Mauri Valtonen • Kirsi Lehto •
Harry Lehto • Gene Byrd • Arthur Chernin
The Evolving Universe and
the Origin of Life
The Search for Our Cosmic Roots
123
Dr.PekkaTeerikorpi Dr.MauriValtonen
UniversityofTurku UniversityofTurku
DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy
TuorlaObservatory TuorlaObservatory
FI-21500Piikkio¨ FI-21500Piikkio¨
Finland Finland
pekkatee@utu.fi mavalto@utu.fi
Dr.KirsiLehto Dr.HarryLehto
UniversityofTurku UniversityofTurku
DepartmentofBiology DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy
LaboratoryofPlantPhysiology TuorlaObservatory
FI-20014Turku FI-21500Piikkio¨
Finland Finland
klehto@utu.fi hlehto@utu.fi
Dr.GeneByrd Dr.ArthurChernin
UniversityofAlabama SternbergStateAstronomicalInstitute
DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy UniversitetskiyProspect13
P.O.Box870324 Moscow
TuscaloosaAL35487-0324 Russia119899
USA [email protected]
[email protected]
ISBN978-0-387-09533-2 e-ISBN978-0-387-09534-9
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008930766
(cid:1)c 2009SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,LLC
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Preface
A golden thread runs through the history of humanity – even in prehistory, when
writing was unknown, there was the need to understand, that restless spark within
us. We have written this book for anybody interested in the quest of knowledge –
atleasttotheextentthatheorshewishestoappreciatethemainresultsofscience,
which has changed our way of thinking about the world. Born in a society filled
withapplicationsofscienceandengineering,weoftentakeallthisforgrantedand
donotstoptothinkofthesteps,invisibleastheyareinthedistantpast,thathadto
betakenbeforeourworldemerged.
We take our readers on a voyage from the treasures of the past to the frontiers
ofmodernsciencewhichincludesphysics,cosmology,andastrobiology.Wedivide
thepresentationintofourparts,whichapproximatelycorrespondtothemajorwaves
ofscientificexploration,pasttopresent.
Thefirstwave,TheWideningWorldViewaroseinAntiquityandre-emergingat
theendoftheMiddleAges,wasbasedonvisualobservationsoftheworld.Quitea
lotwasaccomplishedwiththenakedeye,togetherwithsimpledevicesandreason-
ing. Both Ptolemy and Copernicus belonged to this great era. Around 1600, when
the new sun-centered worldview was advancing and the telescope was invented,
Galileo followed by many others, could see deeper and deeper in space. This led,
among other things, to determination of the distance to the Sun and to the other
stars faintly glimmering in the sky. In the twentieth century, remote galaxies were
reached and observing windows other than optical were opened to astronomers.
A parallel wave we call Physical Laws of Nature was powered by the experimen-
tal/mathematical approach to physics, started by Galileo as well, and accelerated
bytheworkofNewtontowardmodernphysics.Thiswavetookustotherealmof
atoms and elementary particles, and together with the parallel astronomical work
finallyledtothemodernwaveofexploration,theUniverse,describingtheearliest
processesinitsoriginandexpansionfromasuperdensestate14billionyearsagoto
ouruniverseofgalaxiestoday.
Inourowntimesanewandfascinatingwaveofexplorationoftheuniversebegan
which we call Life in the Universe, when humanity learned to launch devices and
even people beyond theEarth. Oneisreminded ofthewordsbyTsiolkovski “The
v
vi Preface
planetisthecradleofintelligence,butyoudonotliveinthecraddleforever.”Up
tonowonlytheMoonhasbeenvisitedbyhumans,butnumerousspaceprobeshave
deliverednewandimpressiveinformationabouttheplanets,asteroids,andcomets
oftheSolarSystem,andabouttheSunitself.Astrobiology,thenewinterdisciplinary
fieldofscience,hasthusreceivedastrongboostforward,asnowithasbecomepos-
sibletomapindetailthewiderangeofconditionsinsideourplanetarysystemand
toseewherelifemighthaveoriginatedinadditiontotheEarth.Atthesametime,
thanks to the advancements in telescopes, astronomers have been able to discover
otherplanetarysystemsandthecountofknownextrasolarplanetsnowreacheshun-
dreds.Thesedevelopmentshavegivennewperspectivesfortheroleoflifeandthe
humanraceintheuniverse.
Two decades ago two of the authors (P.T., M.V.) wrote a book in Finnish, pub-
lishedbytheUrsaAstronomicalAssociation(“Cosmos–thedevelopingviewofthe
world”).Thepresentbookowestothatoneforitsgeneraloutlineandspirit,butits
contentsreflecttheteamofwriterswithdiversespecialtiesandthemanynew,even
revolutionarydevelopmentsincosmology,spaceresearch,andastrobiologyduring
theseyears.
Inwritingthetext,wehavehadinmindawiderangeofaudience,fromlaymen
interested in science to students of both humanities and sciences in universities.
Even professional scientists in physics or astronomy may find the historical parts
and astrobiological excursions interesting, while for biologists it may be useful to
refreshtheirknowledgeofothersciences.Wewriteonanaccessiblelevel,avoiding
mathematics and detailed explanations. But the fact remains that some subjects of
modernscience,inphysics,cosmology,andbiologyaswell,areinherentlycompli-
catedanddifficulttodescribe“simply.”Wehaveeitherskippedsuchtopicsorhave
given descriptions requiring some attentive reading. We conclude some chapters
withbriefexcursionstointeresting“frontier”topics,inordertoconveythereadera
feelingofwhatkindsofthingsfascinatescientiststoday(strangephenomenaofthe
microworld,manydimensionalworlds,cosmologicaldarkenergy,theoriginoflife,
thegreenhouseeffect,...).
Finally, teachers may find this book useful for undergraduate college courses,
particularlythosewhorecognizethatitisnowdifficulttodividescienceintotradi-
tionalsubjectsorthosewhorecognizetheconnectionsbetweenhumanitiesandthe
sciences.TothispurposeweprovideaWebsitedocumentwithalistingofinterest-
ingWebsitescoveringthepartsofthetextplusacollectionofshortmultiplechoice
questionsdividedbysubject:
http://bama.ua.edu/∼byrd/Evolving UniverseWeb.doc
We wish to thank several persons who have read parts of the manuscript or
have in other ways helped this project, e.g., by allowing the use of illustrations.
We mention Yuri Baryshev, Andrej Berdyugin, Svetlana Berdyugina, Anthony
Fairall, Andrea Gabrielli, Ismael Gognard, Jennifer Goldman, Sethanne Howard,
PekkaHeina¨ma¨ki,JanneHolopainen,TomJarrett,AndreasJaunsen,MichaelJoyce,
HannuKarttunen,PerttuKeina¨nen,BillKeel,TapioKorhonen,JohnLanoue,Jean-
Pierre Luminet, Seppo Mattila, Chris Mihos, Seppo Mikkola, Markku Muinonen,
Sami Niemi, Kari Nilsson, Pasi Nurmi, Jyri Na¨ra¨nen, Georges Paturel, Saul
Preface vii
Perlmutter,LucianoPietronero,LauraPortinari,TravisRector,RamiRekola,Shane
D. Ross, John Ruhl, Allan Sandage, Markku Sarimaa, Aimo Sillanpa¨a¨, Francesco
SylosLabini,LeoTakalo,GillesTheureau,MaleneThyssen,LucViatour,IiroVilja,
andPetriVa¨isa¨nen.
We are grateful to Harry Blom, Christopher Coughlin, and Jenny Wolkowicki
ofSpringer-Verlag,NewYorkforverygoodcollaborationandpatienceduringthe
preparationprocessofthisbook.
Similarly,wethankPrasadSethumadhavanofSPiTechnologiesIndia.
August2008
Theauthors
Contents
ListofTables ......................................................xvii
PartI TheWideningWorldView
1 WhenScienceWasBorn......................................... 3
PrehistoricAstronomy:ScienceoftheHorizon ....................... 3
WritingontheSkyVaultandonClayTablets ........................ 5
ConstellationsandHoroscopeSigns ................................ 6
TheIonianWayofThinking....................................... 9
PythagorasInventstheCosmos .................................... 10
2 ScienceinAthens............................................... 13
AnaxagorasMakestheCelestialBodiesMundane .................... 13
TheAtomicDoctrine............................................. 14
PlatoEstablishestheAcademy..................................... 15
TheUniverseofAristotle ......................................... 18
3 PlanetarySpheresandtheSizeoftheUniverse..................... 23
TheTheoryofConcentricSpheres ................................. 23
TheEpicycleTheory............................................. 26
HipparchusDiscoverstheSlowWobblingoftheCelestialSphere ....... 26
Ptolemy........................................................ 28
TheSizeoftheSphericalEarth .................................... 29
AristarchusofSamos–TheCopernicusofAntiquityEnlargingthe
Universe ....................................................... 31
OntheRoadTowardtheSolarSystem .............................. 34
4 MedievalCosmology ............................................ 37
TreasuresofthePast ............................................. 38
TheCosmologyoftheMiddleAges ................................ 38
Scholasticism:TheMedievalScience ............................... 40
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