time-reversal symmetry 270 understanding of gravity 23 Genesis (book of) 14, 226 Genesis mission 147, 148 geodesics 24, 232–3, 235, 239, 271 geometric sequence, in planetary orbits 56 Gerasimenko, Svetlana 110 Ghirardi–Rimini–Weber model 289 giant impact hypothesis 41, 44–5, 50–3 giant planets formation 38 rearrangement 38–9 Gibbons, Gary 255 Gliese catalogue numbers see exoplanets Global Positioning System 4 globular clusters 228, 267 Godwin, Francis 207 ‘Goldilocks zone’ 197–9, 201 Goldreich, Peter 91–2 Graner, François 60 gravastars 223–5 gravitational anomalies and dark matter 269 gravitational capture (of the Moon) 42 gravitational landscapes see energy landscapes gravitational lensing 8, 257 gravitational redshifts 217, 259, 271 gravitational waves 225 gravity Aristotle’s view of 12–13 dark matter alternatives 268–70 decoherence of superpositions and 290 escape velocity 207–8 ‘force of’ 12, 25 galactic tides 114 Galileo’s discoveries 16 in general relativity 24 heating effects on Jovian satellites 97, 102 and planet formation 34–6 Roche limit 95, 97, 104–5, 116 slingshot effect 109, 135, 138, 141–2 ‘tube systems’ 61 usefulness of models 3–4 gravity, law of see Newton’s gravity assistance see slingshot effect ‘great inequality’ 55 Greek asteroid cluster 75–6, 78, 81–2 Greene, Brian 254, 279–80 Grenier, Isabelle 269 grid methods 47
Grossmann, Marcel 234 Guth, Alan 253–5 H Haas, Conrad 4 habitability, factors affecting 198 habitable zone 196–8, 200, 206 Hale, George 165 Halley, Edmond 1, 19, 107–18 Hamilton, Douglas 93, 128 Hansen, Peter 65 Harrison, John 99 Hartmann, William 44 Haumea 67 Hawking, Stephen 214, 220, 221–2, 248 Hawking radiation 221, 223–4 Heggie, Douglas 22 Heisenberg uncertainty principle 253 heliopause 88 helium discovery 152–3 production in stars 154, 162 Heller, René 193 Herman, Robert 248 Herschel, William 61–2, 71, 73, 174 Hertzsprung–Russell diagram 155–7 Higgs boson 263 High-z Supernova Search Team 256–158 Hilda family asteroids 75, 82, 83 Himmelspolizei (celestial police) 71 Hipparchus 63, 130, 168 Hippke, Michael 193 histories, counterfactual 285 Hiten probe 148 Hitler, Adolf 285, 288, 290 Hodierna, Giovanni 99 Hoffmann, Volker 123 Hohmann ellipses 137–8, 142, 143–4 Holly (fictional computer) 207, 209, 212, 224 holograms 223 homoclinic tangles 126–7, 134, 180 Hooke, Robert 18–19, 86 horizon problem 252–3 ‘hot Jupiters’ 189–90 Hoyle, Fred 159–60, 162–3, 242–3 Hubble, Edwin 9, 175–6, 243–5, 296 Hubble space telescope 119, 128, 193, 297 Hubble’s law/constant 245, 247, 297 Humason, Milton 244
Humboldt, Alexander von 74 Huygens, Christiaan 86 Hydra (moon of Pluto) 101, 119, 129 hydrogen HI line 194 hydrogen-alpha line 184 previously undetected 269 hydrogen isotopes deuterium 2, 112, 154, 156–7, 159, 242, 260 fusion inside stars 154 ratios 43, 112 tritium 2, 154, 159 hyperbolic geometry 232, 236–7 hyperbolic orbits 16, 19, 109 Hyperion (moon of Saturn) 120 128–9, 295 I Iapetus (moon of Saturn) 94, 128 IceCube experiment 265 icosahedra 238, 288 Ida (asteroid) 98 inference in the scientific method 8 inflation as a Big Bang add-on 9, 251 claimed evidence for 260–1 eternal inflation 254–5, 280 and the horizon problem 253–4 inflationary multiverse 280=281, 283, 291 inflatons 254–5, 265 information conservation/paradox 223–4 intelligent life elsewhere 194–5, 202 International Astronomical Union 67 International Sun–Earth Explorer ISEE-3 148 interplanetary superhighway 139, 149 Interstellar (movie) 212, 223 intervals, in special relativity 215 ‘inverse square laws’ 1, 18–19, 37, 46, 48, 169 Io (moon of Jupiter) 60, 97, 99–100, 102, 193 iron abundance, Earth-Moon system 41 cores, Earth-Moon system 44–5 in nucleosynthesis 160 isotope ratios Earth-Moon system 43–4, 52 K/T extinction 133 lithium 160–1 water 2, 112
J James Webb space telescope 193 Janssen, Jules 152–3 Janus (moon of Saturn) 93, 104–5 Jeans, James 32 Junge, Oliver 149 Jupiter effect on comets 109, 116–18, 145 effect on planetesimals 39, 73–4 effect on the asteroid belt 77, 81–3, 134 effect on the Sun’s motion 188 gravitational ‘tube’ systems 61 prospect of life 200 resonance with Saturn 38, 54 Jupiter, satellites Callisto 60, 102, 117, 149, 200 conjunctions, eclipses and transits 99–101 discovery 96 energy-efficient tour 149 Europa 60, 97, 99–100, 102, 103, 149, 200 Ganymede 40, 60, 97, 99–100, 102, 117, 149, 200 Io 60, 97, 99–100, 102, 193 orbital periods 60, 99 K K/T extinction 132–3 Kant, Immanuel 28, 174 Kauffman, Stuart 204 Kaufmann, David 179 Keeley, Ryan 267 Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism 156 Kenworthy, Matthew 94–5 Kepler, Johannes 6, 84, 108, 164, 207 Kepler equation assumptions 273–6 rotation curves 185, 263, 272–3 Kepler telescope 192–3, 198 see also exoplanets Kepler’s laws 6, 18, 60, 76, 87, 91 Kerberos (moon of Pluto) 119, 129 Kerr, Roy 213 Kerr black holes 218–19 Kerr–Newman metric 214 Kipping, David 193 Kirchhoff, Gustav 151–2 Kirkwood gaps 76–7, 120, 134–5 Koon, Wang Sang 149
Korn, Andreas 161 Kovács, András 229 Kretke, Katherine 32 Kruskal, Martin 213 Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates 213, 216 Kuiper, Gerald 114–15 Kuiper Airborne Observatory 90 Kuiper belt 67, 76, 114–16 Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) 7, 43, 67, 227 L Lachmann, Michael 195 Lagrange, Joseph-Louis 79, 81–2, 130, 220 Lagrange points 46, 79–83, 138, 139, 147–9, 179–81, 184, 193 Lalande, Joseph 108 LCDM standard model 245, 252, 258, 262 landscape multiverse 280–3, 290 Laniakea Supercluster 229 Laplace, Pierre-Simon de and Buffon’s planet formation proposal 31–2 Jupiter-Saturn resonance 54–5 orbit of Uranus 62 on the possibility of black holes 208 on resonances among Jovian moons 101 on Saturn’s rings 87, 185 vortex theory 28 Laplace resonances 101 Laskar, Jacques 39, 120, 129, 131 last scattering surface 239, 240 Laughlin, Gregory 39 Le Verrier, Urbain 64, 68–9 least squares methods 72, 229 Leavitt, Henrietta 167, 169–70, 175, 244 Legendre, Adrien-Marie 72 Lemaître, Georges 211, 243, 245 Lemonnier, Pierre 63 lenticular lakes, Europa 102 Lepaute, Nicole-Reine 108 Lerner, Eric 258 Lescarbault, Edmond 69 Levison, Harold 32, 114 Levy, David 116 Lexell, Anders 62 LHC (Large Hadron Collider) 263, 265 Liais, Emmanuel 69 Liapunov times 121 life chemical indicators 201
defining 202–3 extraterrestrial 195–9, 202–4 ‘fine tuning’ for 163 inflationary multiverses and 283 intelligent aliens 194–5, 202 Nimbus project 204–25 origins 132, 196, 277–8 outside planets 199–200 light see Doppler effect; redshifts; speed of light light year defined 231 LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) 225 Lin, Chia-Chiao 178 Lindblad, Bertil 177–8 Lindblad, Per Olof 178 Lineweaver, Charles 61 lithium isotope ratios 160–1 ‘Little Ice Age’ 164–5 Lo, Martin 149 Lockyer, Norman 152–3 ‘log/log plots’ 58, 59 long-period comets 109, 115 longitude problem 98–9 Lorentz transformations 215 Lorenz, Edward 121 lottery analogy 282 Lowell, Percival 65–6 Lucian of Samosata 207 Luminet, Jean-Pierre 239 lunar capture theory 42 Lundmark, Knut 245 Lunine, Jonathan 202 Lyakawa, Patryk 115 Lynden-Bell, Donald 222 M M87 222 M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) 171, 174–5, 222, 228–9, 244 MACHOs (massive compact halo objects) 164 MacKay, Robert 271 Magellanic Clouds 161, 172, 228 magnetic fields black holes 214 solar 165–7 magnetohydrodynamics 166 main sequence stars 155–8 Mamajek, Eric 94–5 manifolds CMB data matching 238
pseudo-Riemannian 234–5, 271 Riemannian 229, 234–5, 271, 296 smoothness 229 stable and unstable 180–1, 182–3, 184 unusual topologies 236–8 Mann, Robert 74 many-body dynamics 82, 138, 143 see also n-body many-worlds interpretation 284–6, 290 Mars axial tilt 120 ‘canals’ 65 effect on asteroids 134–6 liquid water 197 obliquity 130–1 orbit calculated 16 possible fate 39 possible life 202 satellites 85, 96–7 Marsden, Jerrold 149 Maskelyne, Nevil 62, 71 mass distribution of planetary 58 limits for black holes 159, 211–14, 220 relation to energy 24, 256, 262 Massironi, Matteo 110 Mastrobuono-Battisti, Alessandra 53 mathematical modelling collapsing gas clouds 37–8 stellar evolution 162 see also simulations mathematics and cometary orbits 107–8 deciding between hypotheses 8 in early astronomy 5–6, 295 force of gravity 12 and modern astronomy 20, 65, 295, 297 and space exploration 5, 141 Mathur, Samir 223 Matsumura, Soko 192 matter, distribution of baryonic, underestimation 269–70 clumpiness 227, 252 past- and future-pointing 270–1 previously undetected 269 and spacetime geometry 227 Maunder, Dalton and Sporer minima 164–5, 166–7 Maxwell, James Clerk 87, 274
Mayor, Michel 189 McGehee, Richard 144 Méchain, Pierre 174 Mercury perihelion precession anomaly 8, 14, 68–9 possible fate 39 spin-orbit resonance 131 transits 68, 164 Messier, Charles 71, 174 methane 96–7, 201–2, 205 metrics Big Bang metric 237 constant-curvature spacetime 236 defined 232 flat 233 Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker metric 245, 247, 256 Kerr-Newman and Reissner-Nordstrom 214 time-reversal symmetry and 270 Michell, John 208, 220 Mignard, François 128 Milani, Andrea 124 Milgrom, Mordehai 268–9 Milky Way composition 174 dark matter and 266–7 Earthlike planets 199 galactic tides 114 naked eye appearance 172, 173 MiniBooNE experiment 266 Mink, Jessica 90–1 Minkowski, Hermann 214–16, 237 minor planets see asteroids Minovitch, Michael 138 Misner, Charles 214, 253 Mitchell, Joni 159, 208 modelling see simulations momentum and its conservation 28–30, 221 see also angular momentum MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics) 268–70 Montgomery, Richard 22 Moon compared to Newton’s apple 11 Delaunay’s formula 20, 48 distance calculations 6, 168 far side, crust 45–6 formation 7, 41–6, 298 imagined journeys to 207 landings 3, 137
rock samples 42–3, 51–2 stabilisation of Earth’s obliquity 131–2 see also Earth-Moon system moons see satellites Moore, Cris 21. 195 Morgan–Keenan system 154 Morrison, Philip 194 Mottola, Emil 223–4 multidimensionality 180, 282 multiple star systems 37 multistage rockets 4–5 multiverses and fundamental constants 279, 291 as philosophical speculation 283, 290 possible types 279–80, 290 Murdin, Paul 221 N n-body problems 53, 179, 181–3, 295 complexity 48, 50, 125 and the continuum model 272–5 see also many-body dynamics NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) 26, 118, 192–2, 198 see also Kepler; New Horizons; Voyager; WMAP near-Earth asteroids 118 nebulas 174–5 see also solar nebula Neptune changed orbit 38–9 discovery 56, 63–5 discovery of Pluto 65–6 resonances 66–7 satellites 40, 42–3, 97 neutrinos 154, 156, 264–6 neutron stars 159, 189, 220–1, 224–5, 264 New Horizons mission 3, 4, 67, 119, 140 New Methods of Celestial Mechanics (Les Méthodes Nouvelles de la Mécanique Celeste) 126 Newman, Ezra 214 Newman, Mark 195 Newton, Isaac 6, 151 Principia 6, 13, 19, 54, 187 quotations 1, 187 Newton’s law/theory of gravity alleged misapplication 272 and apples 11 and cometary orbits 107, 145 compared with general relativity 24, 26, 235 consequences 21–2, 55, 97, 101 as counterintuitive 13
formulation 18 importance 6, 9–10, 26 simplification neglecting 78 and slingshot trajectories 141 technological benefits 6 universality 19 Newton’s laws of motion as advances on Kepler’s 18–19 angular momentum and 28–9 differential equations in 20 Nimbus project 204–5 Nix (moon of Pluto) 101, 119, 129 no-hair conjecture 214 non-Euclidean geometries 231–2, 236 nonlinear equations 46, 213, 235 nonlinear forces/dynamics 20, 46, 61, 128, 149, 180 Nordström, Gunnar 214 Novikov, Igor 248 Noyola, Joaquin 193 nuclear explosion theory 42 nuclear reactions in stars 154, 157–9, 163–4, 296 nuclear resonances 163 numerical analysis 21 numerical approximation techniques 72 O obliquity of Earth and Mars 130–2 occultations 91, 94 oceans origin of Earth’s 2, 108–9, 112 underground, icy satellites 98, 102–3, 200 O’Connell, Richard 199 Oks, Eugene 22 Olbers, Heinrich 71–3 Omega Centauri 267 the Oort cloud 76, 113–15 Ophelia (moon of Uranus) 92 Öpik, Ernst 113 Oppenheimer, Robert 211 orbital anomalies and dark matter 268 orbital resonance see resonances orbits asteroids 72, 74, 82, 134 elliptical, characteristics defining 17 elliptical, precession 59, 101 exoplanets 60–1, 198 figure-8 shaped 21–2 parabolic 16, 19, 109
stars in spiral galaxies 181, 268 tadpole orbits 81 orbits, solar system see comets; planetary orbits orreries 54 Otté, Elise 74 oxygen in comets 112–13 isotopes 43 P Palisa, Johann 81 Palitzsch, Johann 108 Palmieri, Luigi 153 Pandora (moon of Saturn) 89–90, 92–3, 104 Paniello, Randall 43 parabolic orbits 16, 19, 109 parallax 168, 170 parochial and universal features 202 parsecs, defined 169 patch states, quilted multiverse 281 Pauli exclusion principle 220 Peale, Stanton 128 Peccei, Roberto 265 Peeples, Molly 199 pendulums 63–4 Penrose, Roger 216, 255 Penrose diagrams 216–19 Penzias, Arno 248 phase space 180–1 Philae lander 1–2, 111–12, 140 Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica see Principia Phoebe (moon of Saturn) 94 Piazzi, Giuseppe 57, 71 Picard, Jean 99 Pickering, Edward 65, 154, 169 Pikovski, Igor 290 Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft 3 Planck satellite 263, 266, 297 Planet 0 65 Planet X modern view 115 perturbing Uranus 64–6 planetary atmospheres 91 ‘planetary embryos’ 53 planetary mass distribution 58 planetary orbits chaotic variation 120 and the ecliptic 30, 66
as ellipses 16–18, 66 irregularities in 63–4, 67–8 migration 38–9, 55, 83 regularities in orbital distances 55–6 regularities in orbital periods 59 planetary systems of binary stars 22 formation 27, 31–3, 38, 53 see also exoplanets; protoplanetary discs planetesimals 38–9, 53, 73–4, 113–15, 123 planets ancient civlisations’ view of 14–15 chaos in axial tilting 129–30 mutual stabilisation 120 ring systems (other than Saturn’s) 7, 90–2, 93–4 Trojan asteroids 82–3 see also individual planets plasma cosmology 259 plate tectonics 199 plutinos 67 Pluto discovery 65–6 images 4 satellite, Charon 40, 66, 119, 128–9 satellites, Nix, Styx, Kerberos and Hydra 101, 119, 129 size and reclassification 3, 67 unusual properties 66 Podosenov, Stanislaw 289 Poincaré, Henri 125–8, 134, 149, 177, 179–80, 238, 296 Poincaré sections 149 Poincaré–Birkhoff fixed point theorem 127 pole stars 130 Pope, Alexander 109 Post, Marcus 149 Potapov, Alexander 289 power laws exoplanet orbits 61 Titius-Bode as 58–61 Pratchett, Terry 143, 241 precession equinoxes 130 Mercury perihelion 14, 68–9 planetary orbits 59, 101 prediction horizons, chaotic systems 121, 124, 142 Prentice, Andrew 32 Principia, by Newton 6, 13, 19, 54, 187 principle of least action 22 Project Ozma 194–5
Prometheus (moon of Saturn) 89–90, 92–3, 104 proton–proton reaction 156, 159 protoplanetary discs 31–2, 105, 114, 267 extrasolar 33, 192 Proxima Centauri 37 pseudo-Riemannian manifolds 234–5, 271 Ptolemy, Claudius 15, 63, 130, 295 pulsars 189, 256, 266 Q quadrupole fields 167 quantum chromodynamics 265 quantum entanglement 289 quantum mechanics apparatus and observations 286–7 and black holes 220–1, 223–5 half-silvered mirrors 287 many-worlds interpretation 284–6, 290 reformulation 259–60 and vacuum energy 256 quantum multiverse 280, 283, 290 quantum superposition 280, 284, 288–90 quantum tunnelling 280 quasars 229 Queloz, Didier 189 quilted multiverse 280=281 Quinn, Helen 265 Quinn, Tom 115 R radio signals Earth 187 exomoon magnetism 193 extraterrestrial intelligence 194 railway analogy 145–6 Ramsay, William 153 Rare Earth hypothesis 117–18, 199 Rasio, Frederic 192 Read, Justin 267 Red Dwarf 207, 209 red dwarfs 155, 158, 189, 192, 198 red giants 158, 162–3, 258 redshifts and the Big Bang 258–9, 296 gravitational 217, 259, 271 in Hubble’s law 245, 247 Type Ia supernovas 256, 258 Rees, Martin 222
Reissner, Hans 214 Reissner–Nordstrom black holes 219 Reissner–Nordstrom metric 214 relativity see general; special relativity Renne, Paul 133 resonance overlap condition 128 resonances as a cause of chaos 120, 134 exoplanets 193 Jupiter and Saturn 38, 54 Jupiter and the asteroid belt 73–4. 77, 83 Jupiter’s satellites 60, 97 Laplace resonances 101 Lindblad resonances 177–8 Mercury 39, 55 Neptune and Pluto/KBOs 15, 66 Pluto’s satellites 129 and power law spacings 59 Saturn’s rings 88–90, 104 secular resonances 60 spin-orbit 55, 128, 131, 198 TNOs and Neptune 67 Uranus’s rings 92 retrograde motion 43, 62, 131 Reufer, Andreas 52 Rhea (moon of Saturn) 93 Richards, Mark 133 Riemann, Bernhard 234 Riemannian manifolds 229, 234–5, 271, 296 Riess, Adam, 297 ring systems centaur Chariklo 94 exoplanets 94 formation 94–5 planets other than Saturn 7, 90–2, 93–4 stability 89–92, 104 see also Saturn Ripalda, Jose 270–1 Rivera, Eugenio 101 Robinson, David 214 Roche limits 95, 97, 104–5, 116 rocketry pioneers 4–5 Roll, Peter 248 ‘Rolls-Royce problem’ 270–1 Rømer, Ole 99, 208 Romero-Isart, Oriol 288 Rosetta mission 1, 2, 3, 110, 112–13, 139–42 Ross, Shane 149
Rosse, Lord (William Parsons, 3rd Earl) 174 rotational periods asteroids 76 and orbital resonance 38 Uranus 62 Rourke, Colin 271 Royds, Thomas 153 Ruchti, Gregory 267 Russell, Henry 155 Rutherford, Ernest 153 Rydberg quasimolecules 22 S Saal, Alberto 43 Saari, Donald 272, 274, 276 Safronov, Victor 32 Sagan, Carl 200, 241 Sagittarius A* 222 Salmon, Julien 104 Sasselov, Dimitar 199 satellite galaxies 6, 167, 208, 228–9, 267 satellite television 6 satellites of asteroids 98 bizarre behaviour 93 compared with Earth’s Moon 40 Jupiter, orbital periods 60, 97 range and number 96–8 shepherd moons 91–3, 104 underground oceans 98, 102–3, 200 see also individual planet names satellites, artificial 6, 25, 167, 208, 238, 266 satnavs 4, 25–6 Saturn age and formation of ring system 104–5 detection and nature of ring system 85–9, 92–3, 274 Galileo’s observations 84–6 Huygens’ observations 86 naming of individual rings 88 resonances with Jupiter 38, 54 satellites 40, 83, 89–90, 92–4, 97, 104, 128 scale symmetry 60 Scarpa, Riccardo 258 scattered disc 67, 114–16 Schmidt, Britney 102 Schrödinger, Erwin 283–5 Schrödinger’s cat 283–6, 288–90 Schrödinger’s equation 286–7 ‘Schrödinger’s flu virus’ 288
Schwarzschild, Karl 210–11, 237 Schwarzschild black holes 213, 216–18 Schwarzschild radii 210–12, 224 science fiction asteroids 70, 75 depiction of black holes 207, 209, 212, 218 depiction of the end of the universe 249–50 exoplanets in 187, 194 ‘hard’ science fiction 7 imagined journeys to the Moon 207 ‘Lensman’ novels 27 planetary system formation in 27 prediction of intelligent aliens 194, 202–3 prediction of wormholes 218 quantum multiverse 283–4, 290 Red Dwarf 207, 209 Star Trek 3, 68 scientific method inference in 8 as provisional 295 Secchi, Angelo 154 second law of thermodynamics 34 secular resonances 60 Sedna (TNO) 67 selective reporting 161–2 Serling, Rod 262 SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) 194–5 Shakespeare, William 40, 106 Shapley, Harlow 174–5 shepherd moons 91–3, 104 Shoemaker, Carolyn and Eugene 116 short-period comets 109–10, 115–16 Shostak, Seth 187 Showalter, Mark 128 Shu, Frank 178 silicate rocks, Earth-Moon system 44–5, 51 silicometallic chemistry 205 Simo, Carles 21–2 simplifications, three-body problem 78 simulations clumpiness under gravity 230, 252 galaxy dynamics 179–81, 182 modelling assumption 257, 272 Moon formation 41, 45–6, 50 planetary formation 32–3, 115, 192 power of 21 solar system evolution 38–9, 60 weather forecasting 122–4
see also mathematical modelling simultaneity and relativity 235 singularities 210–13, 217–19, 224, 259–60, 271 Sirius 151–2 Skrutskie, Michael 93 slingshot effect 109, 135, 138, 141–2 Slipher, Vesto 244 Sloan Digital Sky Survey 228 the Smale horseshoe 127 Smith, Edward E 27 Smolin, Lee 283 Smoller, Joel 257 smoothed particle hydrodynamics 47, 50 solar flares 167 solar nebula in planetary system formation 27, 30–3 power law spacings 60 solar neutrinos 266 solar spectrum 151–3 solar system as atypical 192 energy landscape 146–7 formation and evolution 38–9, 55, 83, 114–15, 123 gravitational tubes 139 history of exploration 3–5, 137–8 life beyond Earth in 199–200 range and number of satellites 96–8 rearrangement of planetary orbits 38–9 regularities in orbital distances 55–6 see also planets solar wind 42, 88, 148, 167, 197 space bolas 208 space colonies 81 space elevators 208 space exploration exploitation of chaos theory 138, 142–4, 147–8 history 3–5 mathematics and 5 potential and kinetic energy 146 railway analogy 145–6 space telescopes 119, 128, 193, 258, 266 spacecraft trajectories chaos theory and 138, 142–4, 147–8 choice of 137–8, 139–40, 143–4, 147–9 energy landscapes 81, 138–9, 145–9 Hohmann ellipses 137–8, 142, 143–4 slingshot effect 109, 135, 138, 141–2 spacetime
black hole geometries 214–19 concept 24 curvature 13, 24–5, 232, 253 Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker metric 245, 247, 256 geometry and matter distribution 227, 252 Minkowski’s 214–15 special relativity deduced from speed of light 23 Lorentz transformations 215 and satnavs 25 spectroscopy absorption and emission lines 152 Doppler effect 184, 188–9, 245 of exoplanets 190–1 hydrogen-alpha line 184 invention 151 stellar spectroscopy 151–2, 154–5 speed of light expanding universe and 246–7 faster-than-light travel 218 measurement 99 and Minkowski’s spacetime 215 and the possibility of black holes 208–9 and special relativity 23 spin–orbit resonances 55, 128, 131, 198 spiral bending and density waves 90 Spitzer space telescope 258 Sputnik satellite 6 SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) 288 standard candle concept 167, 169–71, 175, 244 standard model (LCDM) 245, 252, 258, 262 Standish, Myles 66 Stapledon, Olaf 277 ‘star soup’ model 272–6 Star Trek 3, 68 stars, generally composition 150–1, 279 distances 167–9 evolution 156–9 formation 36–7 luminosity 154–5 massive, collapse 220–2, 223–4 nuclear fusion 154, 156–9, 164 ‘older than the universe’ 258 spectral classification 154–5 stars, individual 61 Cygni 169 51 Pegasi 189
‘34 Tauri’ 63 Alpha Centauri 37, 189 Delta Cephei 170 Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti 194 Gamma Cephei 189 HL Tauri 33 Kepler-4 192 Proxima Centauri 37 pulsar PSR 1257+12 189 Sirius 151–2 V404 Cygni 222 XO-1 191 steady state theory 242, 248 Steinhardt, Paul 290 stellar spectroscopy 151–2 Stenger, Victor 293 sterile neutrinos 266 Stevenson, James 202 string theory 280, 282 Struve, Otto 188 Styx (moon of Pluto) 101, 119, 129 Sun distance calculations 6, 168 magnetic activity 165–7 motion about centre of mass 188 solar flares 167 spectral classification 155 see also solar nebula etc. sunspots 164–7 super-Earths 198–9 ‘superatom’ state 224 supernovas and dark energy 256 and gamma-ray bursters 224 in M31 175 and nucleosynthesis 158, 160, 164 types 160, 256 supersymmetry 264–5 Sussman, Gerry 120 Swedenborg, Emanuel 28 symmetry assumptions of the Kepler equation 273 axial symmetry 60, 130 CP symmetry 265 rotational symmetry 272–3, 275 spherical symmetry 209, 244 time-reversal symmetry 270 symplectic integrators 38
synchronous rotation (1:1 spinorbit resonance) 128–9, 198 Szekeres, George 213 T tadpole orbits 81 Tarter, Jill 195 technology dependent on gravity models 3–4 Temple, Blake 257 Terrile, Rich 88–9 TeVeS (tensor–vector–scalar gravity) 269 Thales of Miletus 168 Theia 44–6, 51–3 thermodynamics, second law 34 Thiere, Bianca 149 Thommes, Edward 192 Thorne, Kip 212, 214, 221 three-body orbits 22, 93, 144, 147 three-body problem 48, 78, 144 2½-body problem 78–9, 82, 125, 179–80, 295 tidal forces, heating by 98, 102, 200 tidal locking 42, 44, 119, 128–9 tidal theory of planet formation 32 time, and black holes 211–12 time dilation 212, 259, 290 time-reversal symmetry 270 time-reversed black holes 217–18 ‘tired light’ theory 259 Titan (moon of Saturn) 40, 97–8, 200–1, 204 Titania (moon of Uranus) 40 titanium isotopes 52 Titius, Johann 54, 56 Titius-Bode law 56–8, 60–2, 70–1, 139, 149, 192 TNOs (trans-Neptunian objects) 3, 67, 115 Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit 220–2 Tombaugh, Clyde 65 topology 233–4, 236–8, 240, 246, 296 torque 30 trajectories see spacecraft trajectories trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) 3, 67, 115 transits exoplanet 94, 190–2, 193 Jupiter’s satellites 99–101 Mercury 68, 164 ‘Vulcan’ 69 Tremaine, Scott 91–2, 115 trigonometry 168, 232 Triplanetary, by Edward E Smith 13, 27 triple-alpha process 162–3
triple conjunctions 99–101 tritium 2, 154, 159 Triton (moon of Neptune) 40, 42–3, 97 Trojan asteroids 75–6, 78, 81–3, 120, 138, 193–4 Trojan satellites 83 Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin 5 ‘tube systems’ gravitational fields 61, 139, 147 in space exploration 144, 148 Tukey, John 72 Turok, Neil 255, 261 2½-body problem 78–9, 82, 125, 179–80, 295 twotinos 67 Tycho Brahe 16, 107 Tyson, Neil deGrasse 70 U uncertainty principle 253 units AU, defined 33 light year defined 231 parsec, defined 169 universal and parochial features 202 universal gravity, proposed 19 universe age and structure 230, 246, 258 appearance at different scales 226–31 as finite 238 mass/energy breakdown 262 origin 242–7 possible fates 249–50, 255–6 radius of observable 231, 247 shape 231–40 standard model 245, 252 see also expanding universe Uranus changed orbit 38–9 discovery 61–3 discovery of Neptune 57, 63–5 ring systems 7, 90–2 satellites 40, 92 and Titius-Bode law 56–7 V vacuum energy 253, 256 Valencia, Diana 199 Van Maanen, Adriaan 175 variable stars 170, 244
velocity and momentum 29 Venus and the ‘habitable zone’ 197 possible fate 39 retrograde rotation 131 Venus Express mission 149 Veritas asteroid family 124 Verne, Jules 106 Vilenkin, Alexander 254 viruses 204, 288 voids 226, 229 Von Neumann, John 205 vortex theory 28 Voyager 1 spacecraft 3, 88–9, 91–2, 94, 241 Voyager 2 spacecraft 3, 66, 88–9, 91–2, 94 Vulcan 68–9, 268, 272 W Walker, Gordon 189 Ward, Peter 117 Ward, William 44 Wargentin, Pehr 99–101 water and habitability 196–8, 201 origins of Earth’s oceans 2, 108–9, 112 underground oceans 98, 102–3, 200 wavefunctions, collapsing 284–6, 288–9 weather forecasting 122–4 Webster, Louise 221 Weeks, Jeffrey 238–9 Wheeler, John 209, 214 white dwarfs 156, 158–60, 220, 264 white holes 218 Wiener filtering 229–30 Wigner, Eugene 72 Wilkinson, David 248 William of Ockham 283 Wilson, Robert 248 WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) 264–5 Wisdom, Jack 120, 128–31, 134–5 WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) 238–9, 249, 252, 259, 297 Wollaston, William 151 Wolszczan, Aleksander 189 Woolley, Richard 137 worldlines, particle 215–16 wormholes 218–19, 221 wrap-round effects 233, 236, 239, 240 Wright, Thomas 174
X X-ray binaries 221–2 X-ray flares 164 xenochemistry 201 Y Yang, Stephenson 189 Z Zach, Baron Franz Xaver von 71 Zel’dovich, Yakov 248 Zhang, Junjun 52 zinc, lunar 43 Zwicky, Fritz 259 Zych, Magdalena 290
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