21st CENTURY

FOURTH EDITION

Laura Kay, Stacy Palen, Brad Smith, and

FOURTH EDITION

21ST CENTURY ASTRONOMY

FOURTH EDITION

21ST CENTURY ASTRONOMY

LAURA KAY t Barnard College

STACY PALEN t Weber State University

BRAD SMITH t Santa Fe, New Mexico

GEORGE BLUMENTHAL t —Santa Cruz

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W. W. NORTON & COMPANY ˨̑˨ W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of 400 and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.

Copyright © 2013 by Laura Kay, Stacy Palen, Bradford Smith, and George Blumenthal. Copyright © 2010 by Jeff Hester, Bradford Smith, George Blumenthal, Laura Kay, and Howard G. Voss. Copyright © 2007 by Jeff Hester, David Burstein, George Blumenthal, Ronald Greeley, Bradford Smith, and Howard G. Voss. Copyright © 2002 by Jeff Hester, David Burstein, George Blumenthal, Ronald Greeley, Bradford Smith, Howard G. Voss, and Gary Wegner. Since this page cannot accommodate all the copyright notices, the Credits pages, starting on p. C1, constitute an extension of the copyright page. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Fourth Edition

Editor: Erik Fahlgren Marketing Manager: Stacy Loyal Editorial Assistant: Renee Cotton Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Associate Managing Editor, College: Kim Yi Copy Editor: Stephanie Hiebert Developmental Editor: Erin Mulligan Science Media Editor: Rob Bellinger Assistant Editor, Supplements: Jennifer Barnhardt Production Manager: Eric Pier-Hocking Art Director and Designer: Rubina Yeh Photo Researchers: Stephanie Romeo, Rona Tuccillo Permissions Manager: Megan Jackson, Bethany Salminen Compositor: Precision Graphics Manufacturing: Transcontinental

ISBN: 978-0-393-91878-6 (pbk.) W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 www.wwnorton.com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Laura Kay thanks her partner, M.P.M. She dedicates this book to her late uncle, Lee Jacobi, for an early introduction to , and to her late colleagues at Barnard College, Tally Kampen and Sally Chapman. Stacy Palen thanks the wonderful colleagues in her depart- ment and the crowd at Bellwether Farm, all of whom made room for this project in their lives, even though it wasn’t their project. Brad Smith dedicates this book to his patient and under- standing wife, Diane McGregor. George Blumenthal gratefully thanks his wife, Kelly Weisberg, and his children, Aaron and Sarah Blumenthal, for their sup- port during this project. He also wants to thank Professor Robert Greenler for stimulating his interest in all things related to physics. Brief Contents

Part I Introduction to Astronomy Chapter 1 Why Learn Astronomy? 3 Chapter 2 Patterns in the Sky—Motions of Earth 25 Chapter 3 Motion of Astronomical Bodies 63 Chapter 4 Gravity and Orbits 89 Chapter 5 Light 117 Chapter 6 The Tools of the Astronomer 151

Part II The Solar System Chapter 7 The Birth and Evolution of Planetary Systems 185 Chapter 8 The Terrestrial Planets and Earth’s Moon 215 Chapter 9 Atmospheres of the Terrestrial Planets 257 Chapter 10 Worlds of Gas and Liquid—The Giant Planets 291 Chapter 11 Planetary Adornments—Moons and Rings 323 Chapter 12 Dwarf Planets and Small Solar System Bodies 359

Part III Stars and Stellar Evolution Chapter 13 Taking the Measure of Stars 395 Chapter 14 Our Star—The Sun 427 Chapter 15 Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium 459 Chapter 16 Evolution of Low-Mass Stars 491 Chapter 17 Evolution of High-Mass Stars 521 Chapter 18 Relativity and Black Holes 551

Part IV , the Universe, and Cosmology Chapter 19 The Expanding Universe 581 Chapter 20 Galaxies 611 Chapter 21 The Milky Way—A Normal Spiral 641 Chapter 22 Modern Cosmology 667 Chapter 23 Large-Scale Structure in the Universe 695 Chapter 24 Life 723

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