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Astronomy

4.1 Earth and Sky

Astronomy4.1 Earth and Sky

Table of contents
  1. Preface
  2. 1 Science and the Universe: A Brief Tour
    1. Introduction
    2. 1.1 The Nature of Astronomy
    3. 1.2 The Nature of Science
    4. 1.3 The Laws of Nature
    5. 1.4 Numbers in Astronomy
    6. 1.5 Consequences of Light Travel Time
    7. 1.6 A Tour of the Universe
    8. 1.7 The Universe on the Large Scale
    9. 1.8 The Universe of the Very Small
    10. 1.9 A Conclusion and a Beginning
    11. For Further Exploration
  3. 2 Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 2.1 The Sky Above
    3. 2.2 Ancient Astronomy
    4. 2.3 Astrology and Astronomy
    5. 2.4 The Birth of Modern Astronomy
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  4. 3 Orbits and Gravity
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 3.1 The Laws of Planetary Motion
    3. 3.2 Newton’s Great Synthesis
    4. 3.3 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
    5. 3.4 Orbits in the Solar System
    6. 3.5 Motions of Satellites and Spacecraft
    7. 3.6 Gravity with More Than Two Bodies
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  5. 4 Earth, Moon, and Sky
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 4.1 Earth and Sky
    3. 4.2 The Seasons
    4. 4.3 Keeping Time
    5. 4.4 The Calendar
    6. 4.5 Phases and Motions of the Moon
    7. 4.6 Ocean Tides and the Moon
    8. 4.7 Eclipses of the Sun and Moon
    9. Key Terms
    10. Summary
    11. For Further Exploration
    12. Collaborative Group Activities
    13. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  6. 5 Radiation and Spectra
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 5.1 The Behavior of Light
    3. 5.2 The Electromagnetic Spectrum
    4. 5.3 Spectroscopy in Astronomy
    5. 5.4 The Structure of the Atom
    6. 5.5 Formation of Spectral Lines
    7. 5.6 The Doppler Effect
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  7. 6 Astronomical Instruments
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 6.1 Telescopes
    3. 6.2 Telescopes Today
    4. 6.3 Visible-Light Detectors and Instruments
    5. 6.4 Radio Telescopes
    6. 6.5 Observations outside Earth’s Atmosphere
    7. 6.6 The Future of Large Telescopes
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  8. 7 Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 7.1 Overview of Our Planetary System
    3. 7.2 Composition and Structure of Planets
    4. 7.3 Dating Planetary Surfaces
    5. 7.4 Origin of the Solar System
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  9. 8 Earth as a Planet
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 8.1 The Global Perspective
    3. 8.2 Earth’s Crust
    4. 8.3 Earth’s Atmosphere
    5. 8.4 Life, Chemical Evolution, and Climate Change
    6. 8.5 Cosmic Influences on the Evolution of Earth
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  10. 9 Cratered Worlds
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 9.1 General Properties of the Moon
    3. 9.2 The Lunar Surface
    4. 9.3 Impact Craters
    5. 9.4 The Origin of the Moon
    6. 9.5 Mercury
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  11. 10 Earthlike Planets: Venus and Mars
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 10.1 The Nearest Planets: An Overview
    3. 10.2 The Geology of Venus
    4. 10.3 The Massive Atmosphere of Venus
    5. 10.4 The Geology of Mars
    6. 10.5 Water and Life on Mars
    7. 10.6 Divergent Planetary Evolution
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  12. 11 The Giant Planets
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 11.1 Exploring the Outer Planets
    3. 11.2 The Giant Planets
    4. 11.3 Atmospheres of the Giant Planets
    5. Key Terms
    6. Summary
    7. For Further Exploration
    8. Collaborative Group Activities
    9. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  13. 12 Rings, Moons, and Pluto
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 12.1 Ring and Moon Systems Introduced
    3. 12.2 The Galilean Moons of Jupiter
    4. 12.3 Titan and Triton
    5. 12.4 Pluto and Charon
    6. 12.5 Planetary Rings (and Enceladus)
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  14. 13 Comets and Asteroids: Debris of the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 13.1 Asteroids
    3. 13.2 Asteroids and Planetary Defense
    4. 13.3 The “Long-Haired” Comets
    5. 13.4 The Origin and Fate of Comets and Related Objects
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  15. 14 Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 14.1 Meteors
    3. 14.2 Meteorites: Stones from Heaven
    4. 14.3 Formation of the Solar System
    5. 14.4 Comparison with Other Planetary Systems
    6. 14.5 Planetary Evolution
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  16. 15 The Sun: A Garden-Variety Star
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 15.1 The Structure and Composition of the Sun
    3. 15.2 The Solar Cycle
    4. 15.3 Solar Activity above the Photosphere
    5. 15.4 Space Weather
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  17. 16 The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 16.1 Sources of Sunshine: Thermal and Gravitational Energy
    3. 16.2 Mass, Energy, and the Theory of Relativity
    4. 16.3 The Solar Interior: Theory
    5. 16.4 The Solar Interior: Observations
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  18. 17 Analyzing Starlight
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 17.1 The Brightness of Stars
    3. 17.2 Colors of Stars
    4. 17.3 The Spectra of Stars (and Brown Dwarfs)
    5. 17.4 Using Spectra to Measure Stellar Radius, Composition, and Motion
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  19. 18 The Stars: A Celestial Census
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 18.1 A Stellar Census
    3. 18.2 Measuring Stellar Masses
    4. 18.3 Diameters of Stars
    5. 18.4 The H–R Diagram
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  20. 19 Celestial Distances
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 19.1 Fundamental Units of Distance
    3. 19.2 Surveying the Stars
    4. 19.3 Variable Stars: One Key to Cosmic Distances
    5. 19.4 The H–R Diagram and Cosmic Distances
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  21. 20 Between the Stars: Gas and Dust in Space
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 20.1 The Interstellar Medium
    3. 20.2 Interstellar Gas
    4. 20.3 Cosmic Dust
    5. 20.4 Cosmic Rays
    6. 20.5 The Life Cycle of Cosmic Material
    7. 20.6 Interstellar Matter around the Sun
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  22. 21 The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets outside the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 21.1 Star Formation
    3. 21.2 The H–R Diagram and the Study of Stellar Evolution
    4. 21.3 Evidence That Planets Form around Other Stars
    5. 21.4 Planets beyond the Solar System: Search and Discovery
    6. 21.5 Exoplanets Everywhere: What We Are Learning
    7. 21.6 New Perspectives on Planet Formation
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  23. 22 Stars from Adolescence to Old Age
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 22.1 Evolution from the Main Sequence to Red Giants
    3. 22.2 Star Clusters
    4. 22.3 Checking Out the Theory
    5. 22.4 Further Evolution of Stars
    6. 22.5 The Evolution of More Massive Stars
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  24. 23 The Death of Stars
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 23.1 The Death of Low-Mass Stars
    3. 23.2 Evolution of Massive Stars: An Explosive Finish
    4. 23.3 Supernova Observations
    5. 23.4 Pulsars and the Discovery of Neutron Stars
    6. 23.5 The Evolution of Binary Star Systems
    7. 23.6 The Mystery of the Gamma-Ray Bursts
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  25. 24 Black Holes and Curved Spacetime
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 24.1 Introducing General Relativity
    3. 24.2 Spacetime and Gravity
    4. 24.3 Tests of General Relativity
    5. 24.4 Time in General Relativity
    6. 24.5 Black Holes
    7. 24.6 Evidence for Black Holes
    8. 24.7 Gravitational Wave Astronomy
    9. Key Terms
    10. Summary
    11. For Further Exploration
    12. Collaborative Group Activities
    13. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  26. 25 The Milky Way Galaxy
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 25.1 The Architecture of the Galaxy
    3. 25.2 Spiral Structure
    4. 25.3 The Mass of the Galaxy
    5. 25.4 The Center of the Galaxy
    6. 25.5 Stellar Populations in the Galaxy
    7. 25.6 The Formation of the Galaxy
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  27. 26 Galaxies
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 26.1 The Discovery of Galaxies
    3. 26.2 Types of Galaxies
    4. 26.3 Properties of Galaxies
    5. 26.4 The Extragalactic Distance Scale
    6. 26.5 The Expanding Universe
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  28. 27 Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 27.1 Quasars
    3. 27.2 Supermassive Black Holes: What Quasars Really Are
    4. 27.3 Quasars as Probes of Evolution in the Universe
    5. Key Terms
    6. Summary
    7. For Further Exploration
    8. Collaborative Group Activities
    9. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  29. 28 The Evolution and Distribution of Galaxies
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 28.1 Observations of Distant Galaxies
    3. 28.2 Galaxy Mergers and Active Galactic Nuclei
    4. 28.3 The Distribution of Galaxies in Space
    5. 28.4 The Challenge of Dark Matter
    6. 28.5 The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies and Structure in the Universe
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  30. 29 The Big Bang
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 29.1 The Age of the Universe
    3. 29.2 A Model of the Universe
    4. 29.3 The Beginning of the Universe
    5. 29.4 The Cosmic Microwave Background
    6. 29.5 What Is the Universe Really Made Of?
    7. 29.6 The Inflationary Universe
    8. 29.7 The Anthropic Principle
    9. Key Terms
    10. Summary
    11. For Further Exploration
    12. Collaborative Group Activities
    13. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  31. 30 Life in the Universe
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 30.1 The Cosmic Context for Life
    3. 30.2 Astrobiology
    4. 30.3 Searching for Life beyond Earth
    5. 30.4 The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  32. A | How to Study for an Introductory Astronomy Class
  33. B | Astronomy Websites, Images, and Apps
  34. C | Scientific Notation
  35. D | Units Used in Science
  36. E | Some Useful Constants for Astronomy
  37. F | Physical and Orbital Data for the Planets
  38. G | Selected Moons of the Planets
  39. H | Future Total Eclipses
  40. I | The Nearest Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and White Dwarfs
  41. J | The Brightest Twenty Stars
  42. K | The Chemical Elements
  43. L | The Constellations
  44. M | Star Chart and Sky Event Resources
  45. Index

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Describe how latitude and longitude are used to map Earth
  • Explain how right ascension and declination are used to map the sky

In order to create an accurate map, a mapmaker needs a way to uniquely and simply identify the location of all the major features on the map, such as cities or natural landmarks. Similarly, astronomical mapmakers need a way to uniquely and simply identify the location of stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects. On Earth maps, we divide the surface of Earth into a grid, and each location on that grid can easily be found using its latitude and longitude coordinate. Astronomers have a similar system for objects on the sky. Learning about these can help us understand the apparent motion of objects in the sky from various places on Earth.

Locating Places on Earth

Let’s begin by fixing our position on the surface of planet Earth. As we discussed in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy, Earth’s axis of rotation defines the locations of its North and South Poles and of its equator, halfway between. Two other directions are also defined by Earth’s motions: east is the direction toward which Earth rotates, and west is its opposite. At almost any point on Earth, the four directions—north, south, east, and west—are well defined, despite the fact that our planet is round rather than flat. The only exceptions are exactly at the North and South Poles, where the directions east and west are ambiguous (because points exactly at the poles do not turn).

We can use these ideas to define a system of coordinates attached to our planet. Such a system, like the layout of streets and avenues in Manhattan or Salt Lake City, helps us find where we are or want to go. Coordinates on a sphere, however, are a little more complicated than those on a flat surface. We must define circles on the sphere that play the same role as the rectangular grid that you see on city maps.

A great circle is any circle on the surface of a sphere whose center is at the center of the sphere. For example, Earth’s equator is a great circle on Earth’s surface, halfway between the North and South Poles. We can also imagine a series of great circles that pass through both the North and South Poles. Each of the circles is called a meridian; they are each perpendicular to the equator, crossing it at right angles.

Any point on the surface of Earth will have a meridian passing through it (Figure 4.2). The meridian specifies the east-west location, or longitude, of the place. By international agreement (and it took many meetings for the world’s countries to agree), longitude is defined as the number of degrees of arc along the equator between your meridian and the one passing through Greenwich, England, which has been designated as the Prime Meridian. The longitude of the Prime Meridian is defined as 0°.

On this illustration of the Earth, roughly centered on the North Atlantic, lines of latitude and longitude are drawn in white. The lines of longitude are parallel with the equator, which is indicated with an arrow at lower right. The “Prime Meridian of longitude” is indicated with an arrow at upper right. A grey arrow, labeled “Latitude”, is drawn northward from the equator in South America to intersect with a grey arrow, labeled “Longitude”, that is drawn westward from the prime meridian. At the intersection of these arrows, “Washington D.C.” is labeled.
Figure 4.2 Latitude and Longitude of Washington, DC. We use latitude and longitude to find cities like Washington, DC, on a globe. Latitude is the number of degrees north or south of the equator, and longitude is the number of degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian. Washington, DC’s coordinates are 38° N and 77° W.

Why Greenwich, you might ask? Every country wanted 0° longitude to pass through its own capital. Greenwich, the site of the old Royal Observatory (Figure 4.3), was selected because it was between continental Europe and the United States, and because it was the site for much of the development of the method to measure longitude at sea. Longitudes are measured either to the east or to the west of the Greenwich meridian from 0° to 180°. As an example, the longitude of the clock-house benchmark of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, is 77.066° W.

Royal Greenwich Observatory in England. Two images of tourists walking on and near the prime meridian marker in England.
Figure 4.3 Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. At the internationally agreed-upon zero point of longitude at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, tourists can stand and straddle the exact line where longitude “begins.”(credit left: modification of work by “pdbreen”/Flickr; credit right: modification of work by Ben Sutherland)

Your latitude (or north-south location) is the number of degrees of arc you are away from the equator along your meridian. Latitudes are measured either north or south of the equator from 0° to 90°. (The latitude of the equator is 0°.) As an example, the latitude of the previously mentioned Naval Observatory benchmark is 38.921° N. The latitude of the South Pole is 90° S, and the latitude of the North Pole is 90° N.

Locating Places in the Sky

Positions in the sky are measured in a way that is very similar to the way we measure positions on the surface of Earth. Instead of latitude and longitude, however, astronomers use coordinates called declination and right ascension. To denote positions of objects in the sky, it is often convenient to make use of the fictitious celestial sphere. We saw in Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy that the sky appears to rotate about points above the North and South Poles of Earth—points in the sky called the north celestial pole and the south celestial pole. Halfway between the celestial poles, and thus 90° from each pole, is the celestial equator, a great circle on the celestial sphere that is in the same plane as Earth’s equator. We can use these markers in the sky to set up a system of celestial coordinates.

Declination on the celestial sphere is measured the same way that latitude is measured on the sphere of Earth: from the celestial equator toward the north (positive) or south (negative). So Polaris, the star near the north celestial pole, has a declination of almost +90°.

Right ascension (RA) is like longitude, except that instead of Greenwich, the arbitrarily chosen point where we start counting is the vernal equinox, a point in the sky where the ecliptic (the Sun’s path) crosses the celestial equator. RA can be expressed either in units of angle (degrees) or in units of time. This is because the celestial sphere appears to turn around Earth once a day as our planet turns on its axis. Thus the 360° of RA that it takes to go once around the celestial sphere can just as well be set equal to 24 hours. Then each 15° of arc is equal to 1 hour of time. For example, the approximate celestial coordinates of the bright star Capella are RA 5h = 75° and declination +50°.

One way to visualize these circles in the sky is to imagine Earth as a transparent sphere with the terrestrial coordinates (latitude and longitude) painted on it with dark paint. Imagine the celestial sphere around us as a giant ball, painted white on the inside. Then imagine yourself at the center of Earth, with a bright light bulb in the middle, looking out through its transparent surface to the sky. The terrestrial poles, equator, and meridians will be projected as dark shadows on the celestial sphere, giving us the system of coordinates in the sky.

The Turning Earth

Why do many stars rise and set each night? Why, in other words, does the night sky seem to turn? We have seen that the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere could be accounted for either by a daily rotation of the sky around a stationary Earth or by the rotation of Earth itself. Since the seventeenth century, it has been generally accepted that it is Earth that turns, but not until the nineteenth century did the French physicist Jean Foucault provide an unambiguous demonstration of this rotation. In 1851, he suspended a 60-meter pendulum with a mass of about 25 kilograms from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris and started the pendulum swinging evenly. If Earth had not been turning, there would have been no alteration of the pendulum’s plane of oscillation, and so it would have continued tracing the same path. Yet after a few minutes Foucault could see that the pendulum’s plane of motion was turning. Foucault explained that it was not the pendulum that was shifting, but rather Earth that was turning beneath it (Figure 4.4). You can now find such pendulums in many science centers and planetariums around the world.

Photograph of Foucault’s Pendulum. Several viewers watch the pendulum bob (silver sphere at center) as it swings over the circular wooden platform containing the targets it will knock over in the course of a day.
Figure 4.4 Foucault’s Pendulum. As Earth turns, the plane of oscillation of the Foucault pendulum shifts gradually so that over the course of 12 hours, all the targets in the circle at the edge of the wooden platform are knocked over in sequence. (credit: Manuel M. Vicente)

Can you think of other pieces of evidence that indicate that it is Earth and not the sky that is turning? (See Collaborative Group Activity A at the end of this chapter.)

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