Space Encyclopedia

Space Encyclopedia — page 3 — TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by David A Aguilar 6 WHAT WE KNOW 8 The Universe Began With a Big Bang 10 The Missing Universe 2 There Are Other Solar Systems 14 Accidents Happen 16 Space Weather 18 Seeing Into Space 20 TOUR OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM 22 Our New Solar System 24 The Grand Tour 26 Venus 28 Mercury 32 The Sun 34 Mars 40 Ceres the Asteroid Belt 44 Jupiter 46 Saturn 54 Uranus 60 Neptune 62 Kuiper Belt 64 Pluto 66 Haumea 70 Makemake 72 Eris 74 Oort Cloud 76 Comets 78 Earth 80 TO THE STARS BEYOND 92 The Milky Way Seen From Earth 94 Constellations Sky Dreams 96 Everything We See Is History 98 What Is the Milky Way 100 A Changing Universe 102 Life Cycle of a Star 104 Nebulas Star Nurseries 106 Star Sizes Types of Stars 108 Death of Stars Like the Sun no Death of Giant Stars 112 Supernova Remnants 114 Neutron Stars Pulsars 116 Gamma ray Bursts 118 Black Holes 120 Failed Stars Brown Dwarfs 122 How Planets Form 124 Other Worlds 126 Globular Clusters 130 The Galactic Zoo 134 Our Next Door Neighbors 136 Colliding Galaxies 138 Clouds of Magellan 140 Clusters Walls 142 Hubble Ultra Deep Field 144 Dark Matter 146 The Accelerating Universe 148 How the Universe Will End 150 Other Universes 152 Art preceding pages Page 1 A decorative composite of a planet star and galaxy Pages 2 3 An allen world and its moon in the heart of the Milky Way

Space Encyclopedia — page 4 — ARE WE ALONE 154 A Perfect World 156 What Is Life 158 Other Life in the Solar System 160 Are There Other Intelligent Beings 162 Alien Life Not What We Are Used To 164 DREAMS OF TOMORROW 166 Space Engineering 168 Space Hotel 170 Turning Mars Green 172 Solar Sailing 174 Exploring the Universe 176 Time Line of the Solar System 178 Time Line of Humans on Earth 179 Time Line of Astronomy 180 Glossary 182 Index 184 About the Autbors 190 Illustrations Credits 190 Additional Reading 191 Websites 191 ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS The art for this book was created by David A Aguilar on his computer He began by gathering the best scientific scientific information available Using that information he sketched images that were as realistic as possible possible in his notebook Then he transferred those sketches to his computer and painted with his mouse using Adobe Photoshop and building up layer on layer until his vision of space appeared Sometimes he built models of spaceships out of junk plastic found around his house again using the latest data to guide his hand Or he made planetary landscapes out of torn pieces of paper towels dipped into watered down plaster of paris then photographed photographed them and colored them in Photoshop In some cases he also incorporated images taken by telescopes telescopes and satellites into the art Why do we even need artwork in a book about the real world Sometimes sometimes we don't For example we have very good photographs of Mars but there are many other places such as extra solar planets and many perspectives such as gazing gazing at Jupiter from the surface of Europa and possible future events such as astronauts visiting Uranus's moon Miranda that we can only visualize by turning scientific data into art Some of these imaginary images will never actually be seen because no telescope is capable of photographing them In the To the Stars Beyond chapter when a picture of a constellation galaxy or nebula has the binocular symbol beside it that means you can use your own binoculars to look for the object in the night sky The photographs in this book were taken by satellites and telescopes as well as by cameras here on Earth Most came from NASA the administration National Aeronautics and Space

Space Encyclopedia — page 5 — INTRODUCTION Growing up in the Santa Clara Valley in California I lived in a dreamland for anyone in love with nature Orchards full of quail and pheasant stretched as far as a young person could hike in a day The white pink and blue blossoms of fruit trees filled the air when gentle breezes blew in from the Pacific Ocean Half an hour away tide pools and clear cold waters awaited the young underwater explorer It was a nature lover's paradise My bedroom was filled with insect collections pressed wildflowers fossils terrariums and model airplanes On the walls were posters and drawings of planets and galaxies and in the corner stood my trusty three inch reflecting telescope which I constructed all by myself photo illustration at right For the mirror of my telescope I had used two glass casters borrowed from my grandmother's four poster bed The casters were like small glass cups that people used to put beneath the legs of their beds so that the legs wouldn't scratch the floor I had ground the casters together with abrasives purchased from a rock shop then polished them using a mixture of water and jeweler's rouge on top of sticky pitch collected from our cherry tree INTRODUCTION SPACE ENCYCLOPEDIA

Space Encyclopedia — page 6 — My eyepiece was Today I am part of one of the constructed from largest astronomical research organizations two slightly chipped organizations in the world the Harvard lenses salvaged from the pirate spyglass Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics my brotherbought at the county fair Our observatories are located on mountaintops I glued the lenses inside the plastic top mountaintops in Chile Arizona and Hawaii of a mouthwash bottle My cardboard and in orbit above our heads in space telescope tube came from the trash bin When I come to work each morning behind a carpet store and my mount I never know what great discovery was made from scrap lumber and a few may await me inexpensive plumbers pipe fittings A The discoveries astronomers make little paint here and there and I was in sometimes change the way we think business exploring the universe about ourselves and our place in the universe My telescope worked better than universe In the next 25 years we may know anything Galileo used to make his the answers to these really big questions discoveries I named it Mable after What caused the big bang What invisible my grandmother force is speeding up the expansion of the The first thing I looked at was the universe Are there other universes out moon I saw craters flat valleys and there besides our own What type of life mountains everywhere Seeing the moons exists on other planets Are there other of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn opened Earth worlds out there And maybe my eyes and imagination in ways I had once and for all what is this phenomenon never experienced before Little did I we call UFOs all about know that my hobby would someday This is why I love astronomy so become my career much The biggest questions regarding Besides telescopes there was something our universe are waiting to be answered something else that drew me to astronomy It Somewhere out there in the world today was the mystery of UFOs In my young are the future scientists who will find the mind the same question kept popping up answers to these great questions Maybe What if they are real What if they really one of them will be you are out there DAVID A AGUILAR SPACE ENCYCLOPEDIA INTRODUCTION

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