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Enciclopedia Astronómica

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Enciclopedia Astronómica INTRODUCCIÓN El Universo, una realidad en continua evolución. Nuestra visión del Universo ha cambiado de aspecto durante el último cuarto de siglo. Hasta la década de los cincuenta, todo lo que sabíamos del espacio que nos rodea nos llegaba a través de la información contenida en la luz de los astros y, por lo tanto, sólo de las observaciones con telescopio. Asomándose a lo que los astrónomos llaman la ventana óptica de nuestra atmósfera, ese corredor a través del cual pasan las radiaciones visibles del espectro electromagnético, ya era posible observar un panorama gran- dioso y desconcertante. Un inmenso vacío en el cual, como islas en un océano sin límites, flotaban miríadas de galaxias contenien- do cada una miles de millones de estrellas. Nuestro Sol no es más que una de las innumerables estrellas situadas en la periferia de una de las muchas galaxias; y el cortejo de planetas que giran a su alrededor, granitos de polvo en el conjunto del Universo. Des- pués de la primera revolución astronómica llevada a cabo por COPÉRNICO, KEPLER, GALILEO y NEWTON, surge lo que algunos cientí- ficos señalan como la segunda revolución astronómica, con una nueva serie de inventos y descubrimientos, y que aún está en plena evolución. Con ella, el cuadro se ha modificado de manera profunda, definiendo contornos y detalles que pueden tildarse de apa- sionantes. Hoy parece haberse establecido el momento en que nació el Universo, una gigantesca explosión, pintorescamente deno- minada Big Bang, cuyo eco aún vibra en los espacios bajo la forma de una radiación fósil a 3 K. A partir de aquél lejano aconteci- miento, ocurrido por lo menos hace unos 15 mil millones de años, el Universo se expande sin cesar en todas direcciones extendien- do sus tentáculos, constituidos por masas de estrellas y gases. En esta burbuja de materia en expansión, el hombre ha podido de- terminar la presencia de extraños objetos. Galaxias que escapan rozando la velocidad-límite de la luz; estrellas de neutrones mucho más pequeñas que la Tierra y que laten con la regularidad de un radiofaro, dejándose oir de un extremo a otro del Universo; objetos que han sufrido un colapso y que son tan compactos como para atraer con su fuerza de gravedad materia y luz, haciéndose invisi- bles y mereciendo la acertada denominación de "Agujeros Negros". Una astronomía nueva para un Universo nuevo La "nueva astronomía" ha hecho posible lograr un nuevo panorama del Universo, apenas esbozado en muchos aspectos, pero tan rico en fasci- nantes temas. Junto a la ventana óptica, los astrónomos han podido abrir otra serie de perspectivas de observación que permiten recoger informaciones invisibles al ojo humano, ya que se desplazan en longitudes de onda diferentes a las típicas de la luz. De este modo nació la radioastronomía que se sirve de los radiotelescopios, enormes pabellones auriculares electrónicos en forma de paraboloide, cuya misión es detectar las emisiones de radio que emiten las estrellas. Más allá de la atmósfera terrestre, que consti- tuye una pantalla impenetrable para la mayor parte de las longitudes de onda fuera del espectro visible, los instrumentos colocados en misiles, satélites y globos-sonda, captan las emisiones celestes en el dominio de los infrarrojos, los ultravioletas, los rayos X y los rayos g. Procediendo de esta manera, no sólo se ha podido estudiar cada objeto del cielo a través de la luz que vemos, sino también en todas las otras longitudes de onda que emite. Algunos objetos, completamente desconocidos porque carecen de emisio- nes en el espectro visible, se han revelado por primera vez. En una escala de magnitudes mucho más pequeña, pero sumamente significativa para nosotros-como es la de nuestro sistema solar-, los cambios no han sido menos drásticos y perturbadores. En un cuarto de siglo el hombre ha salido del ámbito terrestre y ha explorado la Luna, el cuerpo celeste más próximo; después se ha lanzado hacia los planetas interiores y finalmente ha puesto sus ojos en los grandes gigantes exteriores. También en este caso la cantidad de nuevos descubrimientos ha sido tan grande como para impulsar a los estudiosos a rediseñar los mapas de los planetas. Hoy se habla de "nuevo sistema solar" para subrayar no sólo las novedades inherentes a la cartografía, el aspecto físico, la compo- sición química de los planetas, satélites y cuerpos menores, sino incluso las nuevas ideas sobre la génesis y la evolución de esta parte del Universo en la cual nos encontramos. No es una empresa fácil hacer una síntesis de todos estos conocimientos que van de los extremos confines del Universo a los detalles de nuestro sistema solar, teniendo como punto de referencia las ideas, los hom- bres, y los maravillosos instrumentos que desempeñan el papel de protagonistas de esta gran epopeya científica. A esto debe agre- garse el enorme y secular problema del origen de la vida: ¿se trata de un fenómeno único que ha tenido como escenario el ámbito primordial de la Tierra, o bien de un complejo ciclo cósmico que afecta a toda la materia del Universo como induciría a pensarlo el descubrimiento de moléculas orgánicas en los espacios interestelares? La complejidad de todos estos aspectos nos ha llevado a presentar esta obra de una manera accesible a todos los no especialistas, con un patrimonio de conocimientos y actualizaciones científicas indispensables para quien pretende vivir informado durante estos tiempos, en los cuales nos estamos acercando veloz- mente a la meta del año dos mil. Guía para consultar la obra: Cada voz contiene en caracteres cursivos los nombres de aquellas otras voces que pueden consultarse para completar los co- nocimientos. Para los símbolos y las abreviaciones que aparecen en las distintas voces, a continuación presentamos algunas expli- caciones útiles. Distancias astronómicas: Son tan grandes con respecto a las que estamos habituados en la Tierra, que es preciso recurrir a múltiplos de nuestro familiar kilómetro. 1 Unidad Astronómica (UA) = 1,495·108 km; 1 año luz (al) = 9,46·1012 km; 1 parsec (pc) = 3,26 al = 3,087·1013 km; 1 kiloparsec (kpc) = 103 pc; 1 Megaparsec (Mpc) = 106 pc. Para algunas magnitudes físicas, como por ejemplo las dimensiones de los granos de polvo interestelar o la longitud de onda de la luz, se utilizan los siguientes submúltiplos de metro: 1 micrómetro (mm) = l0–6 m; 1 nanómetro (nm) = 10–9 m; 1 Ångstrom (Å) = 10–10 m. Magnitudes estelares: La luminosidad de los objetos celestes se mide en magnitudes o dimensiones estelares. Por convención, se dan números negativos crecientes a los objetos siempre más luminosos, números positivos crecientes a objetos más débiles. A continuación se dan algunos ejemplos: Sol, –27m; Júpiter, –3m; Dubhe, 2m; Luna, –15m; Vega, 0m; Urano, 5m; Venus, –5m; Aldebarán, 1m; Plutón 15m. El expo- nente m significa, obviamente, magnitud, por ejemplo la estrella Mizar que tiene una magnitud de dos y medio, se suele escribir m 2 , 5. El ojo no es capaz de percibir magnitudes inferiores a 6m Dimensiones aparentes Las dimensiones aparentes de los objetos o celestes se miden en grados. La Luna llena, por ejemplo, tiene una dimensión aparente de medio grado (0,5). 1° = 60' = 3600". A Aberración de la luz. Es el fenómeno por el cual la posición partículas de vapor de agua o de otra naturaleza, no se tiene de las estrellas aparece desplazada hasta 20", 5 con respecto una absorción selectiva y el cielo aparece blanquecino. a la real, como consecuencia del movimiento orbital de la Tierra (29,8 km/s). De manera intuitiva se puede explicar Absorción interestelar. La absorción interestelar es el observando cómo los ocupantes de un coche que se desplaza fenómeno por el cual una estrella aparece menos luminosa bajo una lluvia perfectamente vertical al suelo, tienen la de cuanto debería, debido a su distancia; esto está causado sensación de que ésta cae de manera inclinada hacia el por la presencia, en el espacio interestelar, de nubes forma- vehículo en el que viajan. Del mismo modo, los rayos lumi- das por gases y polvos. Considerando que estas sustancias nosos de una estrella observada desde la Tierra aparecen estén uniformemente distribuidas en el espacio, en un tra- desviados y la fuente, por consiguiente, desplazada. El yecto de unos 3.000 AL, la luminosidad de una estrella m efecto fue descubierto por el astrónomo James BRADLEY en debería reducirse en 0 , 5. La distribución de la materia 1758 y constituyó la primera prueba de observación del interestelar, sin embargo, no es uniforme, y, por tanto, el movimiento de la Tierra alrededor del Sol. coeficiente de absorción varía en cada caso. La absorción interestelar también presenta el fenómeno de la selectivi- Aberración óptica. Con este término genérico se abarca una dad: es experimentada en mayor medida por la luz azul y en serie de defectos que afectan a los instrumentos ópticos con menor medida por la roja. Esta es la razón por la cual los lentes y con espejos. En la aberración cromática los diversos astros que se encuentran detrás de densas nubes interestela- colores (longitudes de onda) que componen la luz, al atrave- res se nos aparecen más rojos. Este fenómeno es conocido sar una lente son desviados de diferente manera y dan lugar precisamente como enrojecimiento interestelar y la diferen- a la formación de una imagen contorneada por los colores cia entre el valor del color medido y el valor medio del del arco iris. En una lente biconvexa, por ejemplo, los rayos índice de color de las estrellas del tipo espectral examinado, violetas convergen hacia el foco antes que los rojos. El se llama "exceso de color". defecto se elimina recurriendo a un sistema acromático compuesto, en su forma más simple, por dos lentes, una Abundancia de elementos.
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