Discovering the Essential Universe
Neil F. Comins
Language: English
Pages: 448
ISBN: 1464181705
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
With its signature combination of vivid writing and spectacular images, the new edition offers new findings, new study help, and an expanded new media/supplements package centered on W.H. Freeman’s breakthrough online course space, LaunchPad.
How the Universe Will End (Collins Shorts, Book 1)
Sky Atlas 2000.0 (2nd Edition)
Space: From Earth to the Edge of the Universe
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
From from Venera Venera 13 13 1 1m m= = 100 100 cm cm Rocky Rocky plates: plates: fractured fractured lava? lava? b b Color-corrected Color-corrected image image the direction of Venus’s orbit around the Sun (counterclockwise as seen from space far above Earth’s North Pole) is opposite the direction of its rotation (clockwise as seen from the same vantage point). In other words, sunrise on Venus occurs in the west. Venus’s rotation axis is tilted more than 177, compared to Earth’s 23½ tilt.
(Earth 5 1): 0.38 Albedo: 0.16 Surface temperatures: Atmospheric composition (by number of molecules): Maximum: 20C 5 70F 5 293 K Mean: 253C 5 263F 5 220 K Minimum: 2140C 5 2220F 5 133 K 95.3% carbon dioxide (CO2) 2.7% nitrogen (N2) 0.03% water vapor (H2O) 2% other gases Figure 5-50 Mars’s Vital Statistics The lighter orange region in the center of the photograph in this figure is called Arabia Terrae, after the Arabian peninsula on Earth. (NASA/USGS) Comins5e_Ch05.indd 144.
Stars (Figure 1-2a) often have names derived from ancient legends. Whereas asterisms are often called “constellations” in everyday conversation, astronomers use the word constellation to describe an entire area of the celestial sphere and all the objects in it (Figure 1-2b). The entire sky is covered by 88 constellations of differing sizes and shapes. (Most constellations and their asterisms—the recognizable star patterns—have the same name. For example, Orion is the name of a constellation, as.
The universe. • Copernicus’s heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory simplified the general explanation of the observed planetary motions compared to that given by the geocentric theory. • The heliocentric cosmology refers to motion of planets and smaller debris orbiting the Sun. Other stars do not orbit the Sun. • The sidereal orbital period of a planet is measured with respect to the stars, and determines the length of the planet’s year. A planet’s synodic period is measured with respect to the.
Layers of this planet reaching 7000 km/h (4300 mi/h), more than 3 times faster than any winds known to occur in our solar system. The atmospheres of other exoplanets also include carbon dioxide and water vapor. The transit method has also revealed that some exoplanets have much more high-density material in their cores than do our giant planets. The changing intensity of light from the star HD 149026 showed that the planet passing in front of it, which has a mass 115 times that of Earth, is much.