The Solar System

CHAPTER 8 | THE SUN 165 ▶ (^) Alternate sunspot cycles have reversed magnetic polarity, which has been explained by the Babcock ...

PART 2 | THE STARS Learning to Look Whenever there is a total solar eclipse, you can see something like the image shown at righ ...

Visual-wavelength image 167 This nebula cataloged as NGC 2438 was produced by an aging sunlike star that swelled to become a gia ...

168 PART 2^ |^ THE STARS Th e Universe, as has been observed before, is an unsettlingly big place, a fact which for the sake of ...

PERSPECTIVE: ORIGINS 169 Th ese nebulae not only adorn the sky, they also mark the birthplace of stars. As the cold gases of a n ...

Photons with enough energy to ionize H Energy radiated by O6 star Visual-wavelength image Energy radiated by B1 star Energy 0 10 ...

Visual Infrared image BN KL In this near-infrared image, known among some astronomers as the “Hand of God” image, fingers of gas ...

172 PART 2^ |^ THE STARS The Deaths of Stars Stars spend most of their lives fusing hydrogen into helium, and, when the hydrogen ...

PERSPECTIVE: ORIGINS 173 Density 0.006 R/RM(10T (^6) K) (g/cm (^3) ) /ML/L Surface Center Convective zone 1.00 Radiative zone 0. ...

Slow stellar wind from a red giant Visual + Infrared The gases of the slow wind are not easily detectable. You see a planetary n ...

Some shapes suggest bubbles being inflated in the interstellar medium. The Cat’s Eye is shown at left, below, and on the facing ...

176 PART 2^ |^ THE STARS Our Home Galaxy From a dark location away from city lights, you can see the Milky Way stretching across ...

PERSPECTIVE: ORIGINS 177 Astronomers estimate that our galaxy is about 80,000 light- years in diameter. Th at is, light takes 80 ...

BAR a b Outline of an E6 galaxy 10(a – b)———— a Sa Sb Sc Visual NGC 3623 Visual-wavelength image Visual NGC 3627 Visual NGC 1365 ...

Visual Visual Visual Visual Visual Visual Tarantula Nebula Large Magellanic Cloud NGC 2207 and IC 2163 Small Magellanic Cloud G. ...

180 PART 2^ |^ THE STARS Visual-wavelength image ■ Figure P-7 The beautiful symmetry of the spiral pattern is clear in this imag ...

PERSPECTIVE: ORIGINS 181 ■ Figure P-9 The colliding galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 are known as the Antennae because their long ...

182 PART 2^ |^ THE STARS from an explosion but rather are parts of a whole that fi lls all of the volume of the universe and exp ...

PERSPECTIVE: ORIGINS 183 How do astronomers know the sun isn’t made of burning coal? People say dismissively of a theory they di ...

184 PART 2^ |^ THE STARS ■ FIGURE P-12 In this artist’s conception, the fi rst stars produce fl oods of ultraviolet photons that ...