Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

hemisphere. Most of the cataloged exoplanets lie from dozens up to hundreds of light-years away. Earth’s brigh ...

Earth—or rather, they’ll notice our modern civilization as one of the most luminous sources in ...

The method works because every element, every molecule—no matter where it exists in the universe—absorbs, emits, ...

the atmosphere. Free oxygen, in turn, enables the existence of oxygen-metabolizing life, including us and practica ...

† Jocelyn Bell, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 302 (1977): 685. ...

12. Reflections on the Cosmic Perspective Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, Astronomy is acknowledged ...

fabric of space and time, sometimes I forget that uncounted people walk this Earth without food or s ...

audience viewed Earth, then the solar system, then watched the hundred billion stars of the Milky Way ...

To such a species, our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead ...

result? The four most common, chemically active elements in the universe— hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, a ...

provenance of the scientist. It belongs to everyone. The cosmic perspective is humble. The cosmic perspective is spirit ...

could once again embrace, rather than fear, the cosmic perspective. † James Ferguson, Astronomy Explain ...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My tireless literary editors over the years these essays were written included El ...

INDEX Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search fu ...

Bell, Jocelyn, 186–87 Bell Telephone Laboratories, 53, 54, 55, 156, 157 Berkeley cyclotron, 130, 131 Berry ...

cyanogen and, 56–57 first direct observation of, 53–56 peaks in, 50–51 temperature of, 52–53 temperature variations ...

einsteinium, 127 “Electrical Disturbances Apparently of Extraterrestrial Origin” (Jansky), 157 electric charge, ...

gravity of, 80 intra-cluster gas and, 68–69 “relaxed,” 144 shape of, 145–46 Galle, John, 130 gallium, 124–25 galli ...

Hubble, Edwin P., 52, 102, 105, 145 Hubble Space Telescope, 129, 174 human nature, 45, 197–201 hunger, 195 hurr ...

lightbulbs, 50–51 lightning, 162–63 light pollution, 121 light-year, 26n Limited Test Ban Treaty, 161–62 lithium, 27, ...