Dispatches from Planet 3 - Thirty-Two (Brief) Tales on the Solar System, the Milky Way, and Beyond.

320 Pages·2018·3.094 MB·English

by  Bartusiak

DISPATCHES FROM PLANET 3
Also by Marcia Bartusiak
Thursday’s Universe
Through a Universe Darkly
Einstein’s Unfi nished Symphony
Archives of the Universe
The Day We Found the Universe
Black Hole
Dispatches
from Planet 3
Thirty- Two (Brief) Tales
on the Solar System, the
Milky Way, and Beyond
MARCIA BARTUSIAK
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of
Philip Hamilton McMillan of the Class of 1894, Yale College.
Copyright © 2018 by Marcia Bartusiak.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illus-
trations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107
and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the
public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Illustration courtesy of Barbara Schoeberl, Animated Earth, LLC, for
the cutaway of a massive star in Chapter 15.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educa-
tional, business, or promotional use. For information, please e- mail
[email protected] (U.S. offi ce) or [email protected] (U.K. offi ce).
Set in Janson type by IDS Infotech, Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018933935
ISBN 978- 0- 300- 23574- 6 (hardcover: alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Per-
manence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Steve, my polestar
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Contents
Preface xi
one. Earth Is but a Speck 1
Celestial Neighborhood 7
two. Bedazzled by a Comet 9
three. To Be . . . or Not to Be a Planet 14
four. The Watery Allure of Mars 22
five. Rings, Rings, Rings 29
six. The Baffl ing White Dwarf Star 35
seven. The Star No Bigger Than a City 42
eight. Ye Old Black Hole 50
nine. As Though No Other Name Ever Existed 58
CONTENTS
ten. Like This World of Ours 65
Realm of the Galaxies 73
eleven. Our Spiraling Home 75
twelve. The Woman Who Chased Galaxies 82
thirteen. Stuff of the Heavens 89
fourteen. Recipe for the Stars 96
fifteen. Find a Way Around It 110
sixteen. Dark Matters 115
seventeen. Cosmic Funhouse 122
eighteen. Rivers of Galaxies 129
nineteen. The Big Dipper Is Crying 135
twenty. Einstein’s Symphony 142
twenty- one. Underground Astronomy 150
twenty- two. Eavesdropping on the Universe 156
twenty- three. The Once and Future Quasar 163
To the Big Bang and Beyond 169
twenty- four. Finding a Cosmic Yardstick 171
twenty- five. The Cosmologist Left Behind 178
twenty- six. The Primeval Atom 190
viii
CONTENTS
twenty- seven. Proving the Big Bang 197
twenty- eight. It’s Now Einstein’s Universe 204
twenty- nine. The Big Burp 214
thirty. The Great Escape 220
thirty- one. Meet the Multiverse 225
thirty- two. When the Universe Began,
What Time Was It? 233
Notes 253
Bibliography 275
Acknowledgments 295
Index 297
ix
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