Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (32 page)

   stellar fusion and, 152, 158, 160, 164, 169

   in stellar orbits, 186

hydrogen bomb, 87

hydrogen cyanide, 238

Hynek, J. Allen, 280–81

hypnagogic states, 281

industrial revolution, 34

“Internal Constitution of the Stars, The” (Eddington), 161–62

interplanetary space, 196–203

Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
277

Io, 191, 199–200, 269

iridium, 175–76

iron:

   characteristics of, 173–74

   in chemosynthesis, 246–47

   in Earth, 216, 235

   in organisms, 234

   stellar production of, 133, 158, 164, 173–74

   and supernovae, 174

iron pyrite, 246–47

irregular galaxies, 115, 116, 118

irregular nebulae, 112, 113

isotopes, 163, 168, 245

“Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?” (Einstein), 35–36

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), 142

Jeans, James, 185

Jeffrey, G. B., 36
n

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 270

Joyce, James, 40

Juliet, 201

Jupiter, 168, 205

   asteroid belt and, 190, 196

   atmospheric turbulence of, 177

   exosolar planets compared with, 208, 209–10, 211, 213, 214, 215

   as gravitational shield for Earth, 202

   magnetic field of, 198, 201, 202

   moons of, 199–200, 253, 268–70

   structure and mass of, 186–87, 189

Kant, Immanuel, 115

   nebular hypothesis of, 185

Kapteyn, Jacobus Cornelius, 148–49, 148
n

Kelvin scale, 37

Kepler, Johannes, 105

Kepler
mission, 220

Kitt Peak National Observatory, 172

K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary, 176

Kuiper, Gerald, 197

Kuiper Belt, 179, 197–98

Large Magellanic Cloud, 118

lasers, 286, 288

last universal common ancestor (LUCA), 248

Lemaître, Georges Edouard, 56

leptons, 40, 41, 42

Le Verrier, Joseph, 178

Levy, David, 202

life:

   cosmic seeding and, 238–39, 241

   definition of, 233–34

   Drake equation and search for, 227–29

   on Earth, 28, 196, 226, 231, 233–49, 251–52

   and era of bombardment, 238–40, 241

   on Europa, 270, 274

   evolutionary tree of, 244–45

   on Mars, 262–65, 266, 274

   in Milky Way galaxy, 274–89

   origin of, 28, 196, 233–49

   on other planets, 204–5, 225–32, 250–73, 274–89

   requirements for, 250–51

   in solar system, 250–73

   on Titan, 270–72

light, 53–63

   infrared, 38, 54, 55, 154, 260, 261, 293

   ultraviolet, 28, 38, 54, 154, 237, 261

   visible, 27, 36, 38, 40, 54, 55, 154, 293

   wave property of, 74

liquids, 251, 253–54

   
see also
oceans; water

lithium, 27, 43, 72, 133, 156–57, 170

Lowell, Percival, 262, 263

Lowell Observatory, 178

low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs), 137

Lucretius, 25

luminosity, 117

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, 170

Magellan, Ferdinand, 118

Magellanic Clouds, 118

magnesium, 158, 234, 235

magnetic fields, 34, 198–99, 201

mammals, 28

Mars, 190

   atmosphere of, 263, 264

   chemical composition of, 216

Mars (
continued
)

   life on, 196, 205, 262–65, 266, 274

   meteorites from, 196

   moons of, 191, 199

   orbit of, 212

   surface of, 262

   water on, 262–65

Mars as the Abode of Life
(Lowell), 262

Marvell, Andrew, 253

masers, 272

mass, 48, 69

   of dark vs. visible matter, 68, 72

   missing, 65–70, 85

   planetary, measurement of, 211–12, 213

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

matter, 33, 39, 60–62, 69, 79

   dark vs. visible, 70, 71–72

   density of, 85, 95–96, 101–2, 103

   distribution in universe of, 124–28, 131–32

   and expansion of universe, 81–82

   interplay of energy and, 36, 40

   
see also
critical density; dark matter

matter-antimatter pairs, 37, 40, 42–43, 48–49

mercury (element), 177

Mercury (planet), 177, 191, 195, 208, 212, 215, 216

Meteor Crater, Ariz., 238

meteorites, 196, 216, 243

meteoroids, 193, 253

methane, 221, 238, 242, 272

methyl alcohol, 238, 254, 268

Michelson, Albert, 73

Microsoft, 287

microwaves, 27, 37, 43, 55, 58, 60, 292–93

Mikado, The
(Gilbert and Sullivan), 129

Milgrom, Mordehai, 70–71

Milky Way, 27, 68, 93, 97, 111–12, 114, 120–21, 150

   Earth’s location in, 120

   life on exosolar planets in, 226–30, 274–89

   Magellanic Clouds in, 118

   mapping of, 116–17

   milky way band of, 147–48, 150

   size of, 126

Miller, Stanley, 242–43

Miller-Urey experiment, 242–43, 245, 250

Miranda, 200

modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), 71–72, 75–76

Mohammed, 17

molecules, 39, 253, 254, 256

   complex, formation of, 238–39, 241–44, 245–47, 251–53, 274

Moon, 70, 176, 196, 197, 199, 279

   and era of bombardment, 240

   formation of, 191–92, 195

   surface temperature of, 257–58

   water on, 258–59

moons, 190–92, 193, 199–201

Morley, Edward, 73

Moses, 17

motion, 34

Mount Wilson Observatory, 114

multiverses, 98–107

muon neutrinos, 46

muons, 46

Nagasaki, 179

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 135, 142, 205, 220, 271

nature, four forces of, 26, 38, 39, 75,
see also
electromagnetic force; gravity; strong nuclear force; weak nuclear force

nebulae, 111–15

   classification of, 112

   
see also
galaxies

nebular hypothesis (Kant), 185

neon, 158, 164, 234, 252

Neptune, 177, 178

   and Kuiper Belt, 197–98

   orbit of, 126, 197, 212

   structure and mass of, 187, 189, 214–15

neptunium, 178

neutrinos, 40, 41, 75, 76

   detection of, 174–75

neutrino telescopes, 175

neutrons, 26, 37, 40, 42, 43, 48–49, 162, 163

Newsletter of Chemically Peculiar Red Giant Stars,
165–66

Newton, Isaac, 71, 72, 79, 104, 211

   laws of gravity of, 64, 66, 71, 72, 169, 202

   on structure of universe, 126–27

N galaxies, 137

niobium, 234

nitrogen:

   abundance of, 252

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

   stellar production of, 133, 158, 171

Northern lights, 201

nuclear chemistry, 159

nuclei, atomic, 26–27, 39, 43, 54, 56

nucleotides, 243

Occam’s razor, 281

oceans, 28, 235, 237, 245–47, 248, 255–57, 267

Oelert, Walter, 47

Oliver, Bernard, 287

“On the Absorption of Light in Space” (Kapteyn), 148–49, 148
n

“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (Einstein), 35

Oort, Jan, 197

Oort cloud, 197, 198

Ophelia, 201

orbital elongation, 212–13

orbital period, 210–11, 213, 214

Origin of Species, The
(Darwin), 241

Orion arm of Milky Way, 27

Orion nebula, 154, 185–86

Orion Trapezium, 154

osmium, 175

oxygen, 172–73, 186, 259, 261

   abundance of, 168, 251

   in atmosphere, 28

   chemosynthesis and, 246

   in Earth, 216

   in organisms, 234, 235, 236–37, 245, 252

   and search for extraterrestrial life, 221, 254

   stellar production of, 133, 158, 164, 171

ozone, 28

Pacific Ocean, 245–47

palladium, 177

Pallas, 177, 179

Palomar Observatory, 119

parapsychology, 292

peculiar galaxies, 119

Penzias, Arno, 58–59

periodic table of the elements, 160, 167–79

Permian-Triassic extinction, 239

Perrett, W., 36
n

phase transition, 84, 129

philosophy:

   ancient Greek, 16–17

   of Spinoza, 20

Phobos, 191, 199

phosphorus, 176, 234

photinos, 64

photons, 26, 27, 36–38, 40, 152

   of cosmic background radiation, 54–55, 59–61

   in early universe, 26, 27, 42, 43, 53, 56

   gamma ray, 37–38, 49, 54

photosynthesis, 237, 246

physics, 33

   classical vs. modern, 34–35

   mathematical models in, 48

Piazzi, Giuseppe, 176–77

Pink Floyd, 258

Pioneer
program, 198–99

Planck, Max, 29, 294

planetary migration, 219–20

planetary nebulae, 112, 113

planetesimals, 187–91, 192, 249

Planet of the Apes,
278

planets, 122

   accretion model and, 188–89

   age of, 188

   exosolar,
see
exosolar planets

   formation of, 28, 183–93, 215–16

   gas-giant, 186–187, 214–15, 216, 217

   gravity and formation of, 187, 188

   orbital period of, 210–11, 213, 214

   vortex model for formation of, 189–90

plate tectonics, 236, 269

platinum, 175

Plato, 17

Plutinos, 198

Pluto, 177, 197, 208

   cometary nature of, 193, 198, 216

   discovery of, 178

   moon of, 200

   orbit of, 212

   size of, 178–79

plutonium, 178–79, 234

Pope, Alexander, 200–201, 204

Portia, 201

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

potassium, 234, 235, 251

potassium-40, 245

primordial soup, 38

Principle of Relativity, The
(Einstein), 35–36, 36
n

printing, and rise of science, 17

proteins, 243

protons, 26, 37, 40, 42, 43, 54, 163

Ptolemy, 230

Puck, 201

quantum gravity, 38

quantum mechanics, 25, 38, 39, 47, 50, 99, 123, 128, 130, 161, 162, 173, 294

quarks, 40–42, 46, 49

quasars, 134–35, 136, 137

radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), 179

radio telescopes, 186, 285–89

radio waves, 38, 55, 134, 135, 292

   for communications, 58, 284–86, 287–88

radon, 293–94

Rape of the Lock, The
(Pope), 200

rapid neutron capture process, 163–64

Reagan, Ronald, 116

Realm of the Nebulae
(Hubble), 115

red giants, 150, 158, 165–66, 175, 248

relativity:

   general theory of, 25, 38, 39, 64, 79–81, 123

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

religion, science and, 20–21, 104

Reviews of Modern Physics,
159

ribonucleic acid (RNA), 244, 247

Roman Catholic Church, 205, 230

RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric generators), 179

Rubin, Vera, 67–68

Sagan, Carl, 143

Sagittarius constellation, 292

satellites:

   communications, 201–2, 284

satellites (
continued
)

   natural, 190–92, 193, 199–201

   
see also
specific satellites

Saturn, 177

   
Cassini-Huygens
probe of, 202, 271–72

   magnetic field of, 201

   moons of, 173, 254, 270–72

   structure and mass of, 186–87, 189, 214–15

Schwarzschild, Karl, 79

science, 74, 291, 292

   as extension of five senses, 291–95

   popular reactions to, 19–20

   as self-correcting system, 17–19

scientific method, 19

search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), 286–89

   funding of, 287

   home computers as support network for, 287

Sedna, 198

selenium, 176

Seyfert galaxies, 137

Shakespeare, William, 200–201

Shoemaker, Caroline, 202

Sidereus Nuncius
(Galileo), 147–48, 148
n

Signs,
283–84

silicon:

   as basis for life, 171, 252

   in cosmic dust, 149, 186

   in Earth, 216, 235, 252

   stellar production of, 133, 158

singularities, 79

   
see also
black holes

slow neutron capture process, 163–64

sodium, 133, 167, 172, 234, 235

sodium chloride, 167–68

solar neutrino problem, 175

solar system, 69, 70, 105, 186–87

   extraterrestrial life in, 205, 250–73

   formation of, 27–28, 185, 189–193, 215–17, 266–67

   habitable zone of, 266–68

   interplanetary space of, 196–203

   and rise of life on Earth, 236

solar wind, 201

solids, 253

solvents, 251, 253–54, 255, 274

Southern lights, 201

space, 25, 35, 73–74, 79, 106

   average density of, 125

   curvature of, 81–84, 85, 86, 91, 94–95, 97

   dark energy and, 81, 86, 91, 95, 97, 99–100

   multiverse concept and, 103

Space Telescope Science Institute, 140–41

space-time continuum, 33, 56, 64

space travel, 278

spectroscope, 113

spectroscopy, spectral analysis, 113, 155–57, 206–7

Spinoza, Baruch, 20, 104

spiral galaxies, 115, 116, 117–18, 120–21, 139

spiral nebulae, 112, 113–14, 114–15