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From Astronomy to Astrobiology by Andrew M. Shaw, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2005

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From Astronomy to Astrobiology by Andrew M. Shaw, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2005 Notes on Astrochemistry: From Astronomy to Astrobiology by Andrew M. Shaw, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2005 as compiled by William H. Waller (Tufts University) Copyright, W. H. Waller, December 2006 (Includes corrections and commentary) {additions are in brackets} CHAPTER 1: THE MOLECULAR UNIVERSE Page 1, last line: Only the galaxies are moving away from one another – not the stars inside the galaxies. Page 2, Table 1.1, 7th row: Time = 3-7 x 105 years -- not seconds Comments should begin with “Electrons recombine to form neutral atoms of the light elements. The Universe is now …” deleting “Light element atoms form, and” The light elements formed during the first ~3 minutes or 200 seconds. Page 2, paragraph 2, last line: Remove this last sentence. Page 3, Table 1.2 This refers to the cosmic abundances by particle. To obtain abundances by mass, multiply by the atomic weight. For example the Helium abundance by mass would be 0.085 x 4 = 0.34 = m(He)/m(H). To get the actual fraction of the total cosmic abundance m(He)/m(tot) ~ m(He)/(m(H) + m(He)) which is easier to determine by taking the reciprocal (m(H) + m(He) )/ m(He) = 1/0.34 + 1 = 3.94, and then taking the reciprocal again 0.25 for the fractional helium abundance by mass. Page 3, paragraph 3, 1st sentence The mass of the Milky Way is 1011 to 1012 solar masses. Line 8 “Rapid rotation around the axis of the {inner nucleus} requires … Milky Way.” {Similarly rapid rotation is observed in the outer disk, prompting the call for “dark” gravitating matter to bind these motions.} Page 6 There is a lot of biochemistry that is quickly introduced, including the likes of … Phospholipid and amphiphilic molecules, micelle concentrations, and peptide bonds … help! Brief explanations and pointers to later chapters would help. The U in UGU and UGA refers to the structure of RNA. Page 9, line 1 Is the author suggesting that we have evolved from extremophilic microbes? Where is this going? There should be pointers to Chapter 9! Equation 1.1 I prefer to start with the total number of stars in the Milky Way rather than the rate of star formation which has varied over cosmic time. For my alternative take on the Drake Equation, see http://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/cosmicfrontier. Go to the Technical Notes, and click on the last note. If you prefer to use the galactic star formation rate, it is more like 1-3 stars/year nowadays. Page 10, Section 1.5, paragraph 1, last line The author refers to the recent discovery of habitable planets and life, but I am unaware of any beyond the solar system. Page 11, paragraph 1, last sentence The author refers to the impact that caused the Chicxulub crater also should have produced global heating. It could have also produced global dimming by dust in the atmosphere and corresponding global cooling. CHAPTER 2: STARLIGHT, GALAXIES, AND CLUSTERS Page 15, paragraph 2, next to last line “… molecules present in the (stellar atmospheres) can be seen.” Page 16, end of paragraph 1 Planck’s constant is h = 6.626 x 10-34 Joule seconds Stefan-Boltzmann Law is subsidiary to Planck’s Law, in that it involves an integration of Planck’s Law over all wavelengths or frequencies. Page 17, Example 2.3, last sentence This is an interesting result, as {it is close to} an absorption maximum in the spectrum … Page 18, Planck’s Law, Equation 2.5 I think this is in units of Watts per wavelength interval per steradian. Planck’s constant should be h = 6.626 x 10-34 J s Page 19, Figure 2.2 There is no labeling of the vertical axis!! It certainly cannot be I(wavelength) in units of Watts/m2/nm. Perhaps it is I(frequency) with units of Watts/m2/Hz or frequency * I(frequency) in units of Watts/m2. This is left as an exercise for the reader, to confirm whether in fact the chlorophyll absorption peak at 420 nm actually coincides with the “energy flux” peak from the Sun. Page 20, Section 2.2, line 3 {… revealed an explosion of energy} … not a ball of energy. Line 6 “… photon-matter scattering {stopped}. Radiation from the “surface of last scattering” has permeated the Universe – redshifting as the Universe has expanded and cooled. “ The end of the sentence with “photon-matter scattering” should be removed. Last line “Local Group is falling towards the Virgo {Supercluster} of galaxies.” Page 21, paragraph 2, line 6 “{very early} Universe was a {homogenous} place with little in the way of luminous structure …” Page 23, Table 2.1 The second column refers to the apparent magnitude (m) The third column refers to the Absolute magnitude (M) Where m – M = 5 log (d/10 pc) Page 24, Figure 2.4 The vertical axis is better labeled as the (B – V) color in magnitudes, where (B – V) = m(B) – m(V). See magnitudes section in Technical Notes in http://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/cosmicfrontier. Page 25, line 3 Limiting angular measurements are around 0.01 arcsecond, not 0.01 degree. One arcsecond = 1/3600 degree. Example 2.5 The parallax angle p = 1 / d(pc) = 1 / (4.34 ly/ 3.26 pc/ly) = 0.751 arcsec Ignore the next line! Page 26, last paragraph, lines 14-15 “Sideral” should be spelled “Sidereal” Page 28, paragraph 2, last line 2000 years have passed since Astrology was first setup. Precession of the Earth’s axis, and hence of the equinoxes has caused the Sun in November to no longer coincide with the constellation Scorpius. It’s one constellation off, which can be checked by using an Ephemeris and plotting the Sun’s position on the celestial sphere. Page 31, paragraph 1 NGC 598 is Messier 33 or M33 The last line in this paragraph can be appended by … {but become increasingly necessary as the number of found objects has grown into the thousands.} Paragraph 2, line 1 “… clearly not stars {or star clusters} and even …” Page 33, Table 2.2 and paragraph 1 Diameter of the central bulge is more like 3300 ly The scale height of the thin disc at the Sun’s position is more like 330 ly, yielding a total thickness of no more than 1000 ly. A thicker disk of older stars is thought to be present, with a scale height of about 1000 ly for a total thickness of no more than 3300 ly. Perhaps that is what the author was supposing. Page 34, last paragraph The Local Group occupies about 3 Mly, not 3 Gly, in space Page 35, Figure 2.14 The two lines near the Milky Way refer to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). NGC 8822 should be NGC 6822 Sextane A and B should be Sextans A and B See Figure 8.1 on page 138 of W. H. Waller and P. W. Hodge’s Galaxies and the Cosmic Frontier (Harvard University Press). Page 36, line 1 “The overall study of the Universe is {known as} cosmology. It addresses …” Last line “…dimension over time. {In addition to dark matter, dark energy has been invoked to explain the observed acceleration of the Universe’s expansion. This unseen energy may amount to 75% of the total mass-energy of the Universe. If so, ordinary matter is but a small fraction of what the cosmos actually contains. These newfound} descriptions of the Universe…” Page 38, Galaxies “The three broad classifications … of {vast stellar systems} that also cluster together to form {groups such as} the Local Group … Magellanic Clouds, {larger clusters, and superclusters}.” Cosmology, last line “…mechanics and gravity {in the context of cosmic evolution.}” Stellar magnitude “… radiation flux {ratios} and magnitude {differences}” Page 39. Problem 2.2 “The brightest star in the northern hemisphere is {Sirius} in Canis Major, one of Orion’s dogs. The luminosity of {Sirius} is (35) LSun” “(e) … planet around {Sirius} …” CHAPTER 3: ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR ASTRONOMY Page 41 Nice theme – “Atoms and molecules, wherever they are, can report on their local conditions and be used as probes.” Page 42 A whole lot of quantum mechanics is summed up in this sentence -- “Interrogating the wavefunction with the Hamiltonian operator produces a series of allowed energy levels called eigenvalues, and the wavefunctions appear as eigenfunctions each described by a unique set of quantum numbers.” More elucidation would be helpful. Good luck! Page 43, equation 3.1 Astronomers typically use the extinction A(mag) = -2.5 log (I/I_o) So I/I_o = 10-0.4A = 10-0.4kd, where k is the wavelength-dependent extinction coefficient in units of magnitudes per cm (or kpc), and d is the length of the column through which the light is propagating. The extinction coefficient k is a product of the extinction cross- section (in cm2) for a particular particle times the number density of particles (in cm-3). More information can be found at http://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/cosmicfrontier, under Technical Note 15. There, k is in units of magnitudes per column density of particles and is multiplied by the column density, N, which is in units of particles per cm2. Shaw likes to keep the length of the column explicit so that it can be solved for. Page 43, par 3, line 2 Shouldn’t the transmission be T = I/I_o, so that it is less than unity? Page 43, Example 3.1 The denominator should be 0.0032 Page 45 Equation 3.3 refers to an absorption transition rate.
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