Physics 104: Introduction to the Sky & Solar System....Spring 2002 - it's been a while since I've taught this one

• The course syllabus is here (to be relinked next time I teach this course).
  
• The expectations of a teacher of introductory astronomy.
• Here are some tips for succeeding in an introductory astronomy course.
  
• Here is an amusing essay on how to fail an introductory astronomy course, written by my Ph.D. thesis advisor.
• The Lecture: a Powerful Tool for Intellectual Liberation

Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.-Jules Henri Poincare

...science is not a database of unconnected factoids but a set of methods designed to describe and interpret phenomena, past or present, aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation.-Michael Shermer (Scientific American, September 2002)

Like all sciences, astronomy advances most rapidly when confronted with exceptions to its theories... - from Modern Astrophysics (Bradley Carroll & Dale Ostlie)

Science is a way of trying not fooling yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman (Physics Nobel Laureate)
 
Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere'. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern - of which I am a part... What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent? - Richard Feynman (1918-1988), Physics Nobel Laureate, from The Feynman Lectures on Physics, 1963.

• Unit 1 An Introduction to Our Place in the Cosmos and the Cycling Sky Reading Assignment:
  

• Unit 2 History & Tools of Astronomy Reading Assignment:
 

• Unit 3 The Solar System Reading Assignment:
  

• an explanation of the shifting Moon.
• a discussion of the changing apparent size of the Moon.
• an explanation of why we can still see the Moon during a total lunar eclipse (and why it's red!).
• What's a "Blue Moon"?
• Why don't the latest sunrise and earliest sunset coincide with the Winter Solstice?
• Go here to find out the number of daylight hours up around the Arctic Circle and North Pole for any day of the year. And here is an insight into the concept of Earth's seasons that might surprise you.
• And do (raw) eggs balance on end only on the Equinoxes?
  
• understanding Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion with minimum mathematics.
• more on weight, weightlessness, and gravity.
• a discussion of light, color perception, and thermal (or blackbody) radiators.
• Q&A about the nature of light, colors in the sky, and more
  
• a discussion of the meaning of color in astronomical images.
• a little demonstration of why the sky is blue
  

• You may have wondered about...ages of the Earth & universe; more here and here specifically discussing radiometric dating; evidence of age from MANY different directions; and consider this....And here is a site discussing the Determining Distances to Astronomical Objects. Finally, here is a web site discussing the many independent, converging lines of evidence for the ages of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the cosmos....

• Links to discussions of science, pseudoscience, and issues regarding science and faith...

Unit 1: An Introduction to Our Place in the Cosmos and the Cycling Sky

This is a nice illustration showing the planets and largest moons within our solar system to scale by size.
Sizing up the Earth and Sun - the following are a series of comparitive scale models of the Earth and Sun relative to the other planets and other stars of known size: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• The rotating sky: the Canadian-French-Hawaii 3.9-meter dome on Mauna Kea, and sky near the North Celestial Pole (1.5 hour time exposure photo).
• A short gif movie of the rotating sky near the north celestial pole (courtesy of Antonio Cidadao)
• A nifty html animation of how the celestial sphere (and so the motions of object in the sky due to Earth's rotation) changes.

Jupiter, Venus, & Saturn in the pre-dawn sky of 26 July, 2001

A line up of all 5 visible planets in the dusk sky of 23 April, 2002 (artificial cross hairs and lines were drawn into this photo to indicate the planets' and constellations' locations)

A really cool line up of all 5 visible planets with Stonehenge in the foreground, from 4 May, 2002.

• A rising Full Moon, as observed by space shuttle astronauts
• What's strange about this image of the Full Moon?
• A nearly 1^st quarter Moon, as observed by humans on Earth
• A super image of the Moon along the day-night terminator during 3^rd quarter
• Earthshine during a waning crescent phase.
• ``Love & War by Moonlight'' - The waxing crescent Moon in the western dusk sky of 14 May, 2002 along with bright Venus and dim Mars. Note the Earthshine on the portion of the Moon unilluminated by the Sun.
• A superb image of a waning crescent Moon, in the early morning eastern sky of 4 September 2002. Note also the portion of the Moon lit up by Earthshine (sunlight reflected off the Earth and then onto the surface of the Moon). Also visible in the lower right corner of this photo are Jupiter, its 4 Galileo moons, and the Beehive star cluster.
• Here is a gif movie of time-lapsed photography of the Moon going through its phases (courtesy of  Antonio Cidadao)
• a JAVA script demo of the phases of the Moon

• a JAVA script demo showing how partial, total, annular solar eclipses occur
• a gif movie of a partial solar eclipse
• See the stages of a total solar eclipse (February 1998)
• The Sun as it appears at mid-solar eclipse (February 1998)
• An annular eclipse of the Sun (January 1992)
• The last eclipse of the previous millenium, a partial eclipse on 25 December, 2000
• The first eclipse of the new millenium, a total eclipse on 21 June, 2001; here is a photocomposite of 22 exposures of the same eclipse. This is another spectacular composite image of a solar eclipse (on 29 March 2006).
  
• The Moon's shadow cast upon the Earth during the August 1999 total solar eclipse
• Using the leaves of a tree as a pinhole camera to image a solar eclipse (note the crescent-shaped images on the ground).
• a gif animation showing the Moon passing into Earth's shadow for a lunar eclipse
  
• A 4-hr exposure photo of the full moon, a moon trail, during the total lunar eclipse (January 2000)
• The Moon as it appeared going into, within, and coming out of a total lunar eclipse (January 2000), and six months later (July 2000)
• A multi-image animation of the Moon occulting (eclipsing) Saturn (Sept. 1997), and a series of snapshots of the same (February 20, 2002)
• a set of internet links about solar and lunar eclipses

Unit 2: The History and Tools of Astronomy
 

• Overhead view of Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI, and the 40-inch refractor here and here
• The Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (Chile) 4-meter dome and beautiful night sky
• The Very Large Telescope Array (Chile) and one of its 8.2-meter telescopes
• A cartoon of the twin 10-meter (segmented mirror) Keck I & II Observatories, atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and a photograph of these two observatories plus the 8-meter Subaru - note the ocean of clouds lying below. Another cutaway view of the twin Keck 10-meter telescopes.
• The new MMT telescope (6.5-meter) in southern Arizona
• The Very Large Array Radio Observatory in New Mexico
• Three photos of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST): in the Shuttle bay for repairs, in action, and why astronauts cannot suffer from vertigo - the HST within the Shuttle bay for repairs, 600 km above the western coast of Australia
• A movie of speckle images of the bright star Betelgeuse, 30 msec per frame, demonstrating atmospheric "twinkling"; the effects of atmospheric turbulence is also quite evident here in a movie of Mars taken by a small telescope in August 2003.
• A movie from the Keck Telescope showing the Galactic Center before and after the adaptive optics is turned on, removing the effects of atmospheric "twinkling"

JAVA script demos for the Doppler Effect, 1/(distance)² dilution of light, & blackbody radiation (light emitted by dense gas, liquid or solids)

• as it appears at visual wavelengths: the photosphere, and here
• an extreme closeup of the Sun's photosphere: sunspot and granules
• an extreme closeup of the Sun's photosphere: a movie of a sunspot complex and granules in motion
• sunspots in motion, showing the Sun's rotation; here is another movie
• the Sun's upper atmosphere observable during eclipse
• observing the chromosphere in the light of hydrogen-alpha, 656.3 nm here and here
• chromospheric spicules, in the light of hydrogen-alpha
• the transition zone, in the light of ionized helium, 30.4 nm
• the corona, in visible light (during eclipse)
• the corona in light of 8x,9x ionized iron (17.1 nm), 11x ionized iron (19.5 nm), plus 14x ionized iron (28.4 nm)
• coronal loops in extreme UV light, also here
• the corona in continuous X-ray light
• an mpeg movie showing images of our Sun across the electromagnetic spectrum, from the photosphere up into the corona. These images were taken at approximately the same time. Notice the brightest active regions in the Sun's hot upper atmosphere correspond to the darker/cooler sunspots that lie beneath in its photosphere.
• a cartoon showing the major outer structures
• large solar prominance in the light of ionized helium, 30.4 nm here
• a solar flare (eruptive prominence) in the light of ionized helium, 30.4 nm
• an mpeg movie of our Sun's active corona (November 2000)
• a cartoon of the solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field
• some pictures of aurorae: 1, 2, 3, 4, and here in SW Michigan (October 28, 2000)
• a photo of an aurora taken by astronauts on-board the International Space Station; note the thin blue veil that is the Earth's lower atmosphere (troposphere and stratosphere), and that aurorae occur Earth's tenuous upper atmosphere. The white circular feature on Earth's surface is a snow-filled 212 million year old impact crater in northern Canada.
• links to pages on aurorae (and predictions thereof) and other solar-terrestrial interactions

• The Milky Way
• The constellation of Orion, and a close-up of the belt and sword star forming regions

• The Orion Nebula, nearest stellar nursery, at visual wavelengths, and even more spectacularly, here and here. The Orion star forming complex is just 0.5-1 million years old.
• The Orion Nebula's Trapezium, visual vs. infrared, as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Note the large numbers of stars that come into view at infrared wavelengths - infrared light is not as easily blocked by dusty gas as is visible light. The dimmest points of light in the infrared image are ``Brown Dwarfs'', not massive enough to become stars.
• Two image galleries (1, 2) of solar systems forming around new stars in the Orion Nebula, and a cartoon. The dark, dusty disks may form planets.

• The Eagle Nebula, Hubble Space Telescope visual wavelengths image
• Young stars with cool dusty gas disks around them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• Artist's conception of the first-ever observed (11/99) transit of a star by its orbiting planet: HD209458

• A tiny interplanetary dust grain, just 10 microns across: building block of planets
• Simplistic computer simulations showing the stages of star/planet formation (really just an animation)

• A comparison of the Solar System's largest moons, Mercury and Pluto (actual images, to scale)
  
• Earth: Apollo 17 image, Galileo spacecraft's view, Galileo spacecraft views Earth & Moon together, Spacecraft Clemetine's view, a view of Earth, Moon and Hubble Space Telescope from the Space Shuttle Discovery, and from 3.6 million km out the Earth & Moon together from the Mars Odyssey explorer, and the first image of Earth (and its Moon) from another planet - taken by the Mars Global Surveyor (May 2003).
• Go here to read the awestruck reactions of astronauts gazing upon their home planet...
• Space shuttle astronaut's suborbital view of a sunrise; see herea blue ocean and Earth's delicate atmosphere.
• Space shuttle astronaut's views of a hurricane, and thunderstorms over the Brazillian rainforest.

• Moon: full, full moon at perigee and apogee, Apollo mission pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

• Mercury: crescent
• Venus, a cloudy world: gibbous phase, image from Magellan spacecraft; a UV image from the Hubble Space Telescope
• Mars: Hubble Space Telescope images 1, 2, 3, and this pair taken during the historic nearest passage to Earth in 60,000 years
• Mars: Pathfinder ground image ground image and a large, color panorama
• Mars: the global dust storm of 2001; before and after from the Hubble Space Telescope
• Mars: its larger of two moons, Phobos as imaged by the Mars Global Surveyor, and again as imaged by the Mars Express.
  
• Sedimentary rocks on Mars?
• Recent liquid water on Mars?
• A large north polar dust storm on Mars
• the so-called ``face of Mars'' at 2 meter resolution
• the NASA Mars exploration home page
• High (sub-meter) resolution images from the Mars Recon Orbiter
  

• Jupiter: Hubble Space Telescope images 1, 2
• Jupiter: Voyager 1 approach
• A movie of Jupiter's: great redspot and atmosphere, by the Cassini explorer
• More images of Jupiter from Cassini: Jupiter & Io, Jupiter & Ganymede
• Jupiter's Galilean moons: montage, Io1, Io2, erupting volcano on Io, lava flows on Io
• a close-up of the icy surface of Jupiter's intriguing Galilean moon, Europa
• Some small moons of Jupiter: Thebe, Amalthea, & Metis. Amalthea is 200 km across.
• Saturn: image from Voyager 2 (1982) and HST (approximate "natural" colors)
• This image from the Cassini orbiter shows just how thin are Saturn's rings; they are also projected in shadow onto Saturn. Note also the presence of few of its moons.
  
• Two of the moons of Saturn: atmosphere cloaked Titan, and Mimas with a 130 km crater.
• Uranus: image from Voyager 2 (1986), and an infrared image from the VLT showing its rings and larger moons
• Neptune: image from Voyager 2 (1989), and another one along with its moon, Triton

• A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto & Charon, and a close-up of Pluto
• A comparison of the sizes of Pluto & Charon with the USA

• The Galileo probe visits two asteroids: Ida and Gaspra
• A composite image of 3 asteroids. Gaspra is about 20 km long
• The distribution of belt asteroids' orbital semi-major axes, and the Kirkwood Gaps
• The NEAR probe orbits an asteroid for the first time: Eros, and another view. Eros is 33 km long.
• This page has many more NEAR images of Eros
• An illustration of the orbits of 100 of the known Earth-crossing asteroids
• A map of known impact sites on Earth
• A 290 million year old pair (32 km, 22 km) of impact craters in Canada
• A 212 million year old 70 km impact crater, in Canada
• A recent impact by a 50 meter iron meteor 1, 2, east of Flagstaff, AZ
• Ground damage caused by the 1908 Tunguska airburst event
• Web site illustrating & describing the 1908 Tunguska airburst event, based upon eyewitness accounts
• A close-call over the Teton Mountains, 1972
• The Peekskill fireball, October 1992
• Daytime fireball over South Wales, UK, September 2003
  
• This 1 km diameter asteroid passed within about 2 million km of Earth on 12/14/01
• Some realistic scenarios of asteroid-Earth encounters
• Leonid meteor debris vaporizing in Earth's atmosphere here, here and here
•  And a good-sized Perseid meteor vaporizing at high altitude in Earth's atmosphere (courtesy of Rick Scott)
• a bunch of links concerning meteor/comet encounters with Earth

• An illustration of the Kuiper Belt, now observed, in relation to the planetary orbits
• An illustration of the inferred Oort comet cloud
• Comet Hale-Bopp: 1, 2, 3
• Comet Halley's nucleus (1986 flyby of Giotto) and that of Comet Borrelly (2001 flyby of DeepSpace1)
• a short gif movie of Comet Ikeya-Zhang (30 minute period on March 11, 2002)
• Tidally shredded into 21 fragments (1.1 million km long chain) from an earlier orbital pass near Jupiter, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on a course of destiny with the giant planet. Here are the fireball plumes from fragments G and K, and the resulting temporary soot ``scars'' in Jupiter's atmosphere.