PDF-[BOOK]-Coming of Age in the Milky Way

From the secondcentury celestial models of Ptolemy to modernday research institutes and quantum theory this classic book offers a breathtaking tour of astronomy and the brilliant eccentric personalities who have shaped it From the first time mankind had an inkling of the vast space that surrounds us those who study the universe have had to struggle against political and religious preconceptions They have included some of the most charismatic courageous and idiosyncratic thinkers of all time In Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris uses his unique blend of rigorous research and captivating narrative skill to draw us into the lives and minds of these extraordinary figures creating a landmark work of scientific history. Recap. Canvas homework: due on Wednesday. Lab this week: Galaxy Morphology. Campus Observatory. Milky Way galaxy. Stars: . brightnesses. , masses, sizes, compositions, evolution. Interstellar matter: gas, dust. Galaxy. part 2. Unit: . Galaxies. Star systems like our Milky Way. Contain a few thousand to tens of billions of stars.. Large variety of shapes and sizes. Galaxy Diversity. The Hubble Deep Field:. William Herschel’s map of the Milky Way based on star counts. In the early 1800’s William Herschel, the man who discovered the planet Uranus, tried to understand the shape of the Milky Way by counting stars. He counted how many stars there were in each of dozens of different directions and then plotted the count versus direction. . M51 – A typical spiral-disk galaxy. The M81 group of galaxies. M82. M81. Satellite galaxy. Satellite galaxy. M81 group showing hydrogen emission at radio wavelengths. Composite image of M 81. Blue shows X-Ray observations(high energy), pink infrared (dust). Aug. 24 -- 10am class. Turn in HW 1 in the front of the room. If you didn’t get HW 1 on Monday, turn it in on Friday.. If you didn’t get the telescope lab on Monday, pick it up from Johanna.. Spiral Structure. . The Astronomical Context. By the 1920’s, we knew that the once-mysterious spiral nebulae were flattened galaxies. . Our Milky . Way is . also. flattened. . Two obvious . questions arose:. bye:. Angelina Battle. The legend of The Milky Way. This is what old people told me when I was a child. Long ago, when the world was new, there were not many stars in the sky. In those days people depended on corn for their food. They would grind it and keep it in bins behind their homes. Bread made from cornmeal, often kept them from starving during the long winter months. . Vital Statistics. It’s our home!. Contains more than 200 billion stars, and a mass of ~10. 12. suns. It’s almost as old as the Universe itself!. 13.7 billion years old. Structure. The core and spiral arms are of different . Contains more than 100 billion stars. Is one of the two largest among 40 galaxies in the Local Group. Our Solar System is located a little more than half way from the galactic center to the edge of the galactic disk.. The Greek philosopher Democritus (450–370 BC) proposed that the bright band on the night sky known as the Milky Way might consist of distant stars. Aristotle (384–322 BC), however, believed the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which is continuous with the heavenly motions.“ The . Neoplatonist. philosopher . Olympiodorus. the Younger (c. 495–570 AD) criticized this view, arguing that if the Milky Way were sublunary it should appear different at different times and places on the Earth, and that it should have parallax, which it does not. In his view, the Milky Way was celestial. This idea would be influential later in the Islamic world.. Here’s the mystery story we’ll unfold…. Fuzzy blobs in the sky – new solar systems, or “galaxies”?. Observational tests. Herschel’s map of the “universe” . (what we today know as just our Galaxy). David Spergel. What has changed?. Context:. Standard cosmological model. No galaxy is an island… (John Dunne vs. Immanuel Kant). Tools:. Statistical galactic astronomy. 100s of stars -> 100,000s -> 1e9 (GAIA +LSST). From the second-century celestial models of Ptolemy to modern-day research institutes and quantum theory, this classic book offers a breathtaking tour of astronomy and the brilliant, eccentric personalities who have shaped it. From the first time mankind had an inkling of the vast space that surrounds us, those who study the universe have had to struggle against political and religious preconceptions. They have included some of the most charismatic, courageous, and idiosyncratic thinkers of all time. In Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris uses his unique blend of rigorous research and captivating narrative skill to draw us into the lives and minds of these extraordinary figures, creating a landmark work of scientific history.