Voyage Into Astronomy Second Edition: We Are Not Alone In the Universe

• Author: Dr. Fred M. Johnson
• ISBN 10: 1-936360-51-9
• ISBN 13: 978-1-936360-51-2
• Copyright Date Ed:  June 09, 2015
• Pages: 344
• Binding Information: Casebound
• Size: 8.5 ✕ 11 Inches (US)

This interdisciplinary text book approach to astronomy and forensic science includes unique subjects that are not found in any other book such as:

• It challenges old established concepts. It encourages creative thinking.
• It relates to the origin of life on Earth and in the Universe. We are not alone.
• It discusses, in detail, the Global Warming phenomenon.
• It explains the formulation and evolution of our solar system.
• It discovers a novel energy mechanism inside our Sun and inside all of the planets. This turns out to be a major surprise.
• It covers the important topic of energy and its relationship to our Sun, which is responsible for driving all the important cycles needed for life, (e.g. the water cycle).
• It determines the steps required to identify an important life-precursor molecule (MgTBP) in the Interstellar Medium.
• It describes, in detail, the origin of our Moon.
• It illuminates other dramatic events in the universe that indicate similar solar system developments (e.g. Novas) and dramatic disasters (Supernovas).
• It describes and illuminates astronomical observations by means of simple and easily understood laws of physics.
• It covers all the important topics that one expects to find in an introductory astronomy course, in a more readable, user friendly format than other astronomy texts.
• It is suitable for both senior level High School as well as college courses; it will also make an important contribution in the education of the general public.
• It is a book that conveys the true spirit of science: its methodology and its mode of inquiry by utilizing the forensic technique throughout.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. Perspective--Mini-Trips Around the Earth
1.1 An Evening Outing Under the Stars
1.2 Project Hindsight
1.3 A Look Around Us
1.4 Coordinate Systems
1.5 Synodic Period and Sidereal Period
1.6 Foucault Pendulum

Chapter 2. Voyage to the Planets--Bode-Titius Law
2.1 Solar System Planets
2.2 Bode-Titius Law
2.3 Satellites of the Planets
2.4 Kuiper Belt
2.5 The Oort Cloud

Chapter 3. Trips Into the Distant Past--The Age of Brahe, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Stonehenge
3.3 The Greeks
3.4 Coming out of the Dark Ages
3.5 Planetary Orbits
3.6 Some Simple but Important Laws of Physics
A. Conservation of Linear Momentum
B. The Conservation of Angular Momentum
C. Conservation of Mechanical Energy
3.6 The Calendar
A. The Julian Calendar
B. The Gregorian Calendar
C. Other Calendars
1. The Chinese Calendar
2. Aztec Calendar
3. The Julian Day

Chapter 4. Lunatic Effects--Precession, Tides, Bioclocks
4.1 Precession of the Equinoxes
4.2 Tides--The Rise and Fall of the Oceans
A. Summary of Tides
4.3 Biological Clocks and the Moon

Chapter 5. The Great Escape: Atmospheres--Missions Possible: Mars, Venus, And Mercury
5.1 Escape Velocities
5.2 Gases
5.3 Missions Possible
A. Apollo
B. Lunar Rock Analysis
C. Short Rocket Flights
5.4 Mission to Mars
A. The Mariner Series
B. Surface Features on Mars
C. Atmosphere
D. The Viking Mission
E. Vikings 1 and 2 Land on Mars
F. Following Missions
5.5 Views of Venus and Mercury
5.6 Mercury Encounter
5.7 Postscript

Chapter 6. Meteorites, Comets, Organic Matter and Universal Chemistry
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Great Meteor Crater Near Winslow, Arizona
A. Discovery of Crater
B. Smaller Size Meteorites
C. Stones from Heaven Fell at Allende, Mexico
D. Daily Bombardment
E. The Impact Energy
F. Near-Earth Object Detection
G. Asteroid Redirect Mission
6.3 Organic Matter in Carbonaceous Chondrites
A. Simulation of Production of Porphyrins in the Laboratory
B. DEBs
6.4 Comets and Chondrites
A. Tentative Conclusion (In the form of a question)
B. Rosetta and Philae
6.5 The Chemical Elements
A. The Periodic Table
B. Chemical Elements: Itemized
6.6 The Precious Source of Organic Molecules--Oil

Chapter 7. The Active, Evolving Earth--Tectonics
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The Atomic Elements of the Earth's Crust
A. The Earth in Evolution, Plate Tectonics-Continental Drift
7.3 Abundances of Rare Metals in the Earth
7.4 Nuclear Time Clocks
7.5 Geothermal Temperature Gradient
7.6 The Earth's Crust
7.7 The Earth Expansion
7.8 Plate Tectonics and Its Relevance to Astronomy

Chapter 8. Our Sun
8.1 The Sun Viewed as a Star
8.2 Electromagnetic Radiation from the Sun
A. Solar Wind
B. The Constituents of the Solar Flare Particles
8.3 Elements on the Sun
8.4 Sun's Surface under High Magnification
8.5 The Sun's Prior History

Chapter 9. The Source--(Sun's) Energy Makes It Work
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Energy Storage
9.3 Energy Utilization
A. Energy Conversion
B. Thermodynamics
9.4 Solar Energy
A. Carbon Cycle
B. Hydrological Cycle
C. Hydrocarbons
9.5 Fission and Fusion
9.6 Geothermal Energy
9.7 Solar Energy Is Our Limit
A. Other Sun-Driven Cycles
9.8 Conclusion

Chapter 10. Stellar Magnitudes and Stellar Brightness, Black Body, E.M. Radiation
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Black Body Radiation
10.3 Electromagnetic Spectrum

Chapter 11. Light Secrets of the Atom (Atomic Spectra)--Stellar Zip Codes--H-R Diagram
11.1 Light Fantastic: Spectral Analysis of Stars
A. Instrumentation
11.2 Stellar Zip Codes
A. Spectral Classification--The H.R. Diagram
11.3 H-R Diagram

Chapter 12. The Stars: A Hot Trip Into A Live Star
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Forensic Type Criticism
12.3 Stellar Rotation
12.4 Star Clans
12.5 The Oddball Stars
12.6 Novae
12.7 Supernovae
12.8 Galactic Supernova

Chapter 13. The Interstellar Medium
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Interstellar Molecules (Some Clues for Start of Life?)
A. The Interstellar Porphyrin Discovery
B. The Microwave Minimolecules
C. Mysterious Infra-red Interstellar Emission Signals–Identified
1. Postscript
13.3 The Motions of Interstellar Clouds
A. More Information on Interstellar Molecules
B. Interstellar Polarization

Chapter 14. Pulsars--The Magic Crab Nebula
14.1 Introduction

Chapter 15. Doppler Effect--Z Crazy Quasars
15.1 The Doppler Effect
15.2 z Crazy Quasars
15.3 Quasars
15.4 Anticlimax
15.5 Summary

Chapter 16. Voyage to Other Galaxies
16.1 Introduction

Chapter 17. Universal Distances, Red Hot Topics Such as I.R. Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, X-rays, Neutrinos, Tools of Astronomy
17.1 Universal Distances
No. 1 Trigonometric Parallax
No. 2 Spectroscopic Parallax
No. 3 Cepheid Variables
17.2 Galaxies or Clusters of Galaxies
No. 4 Sizes of Objects
No. 5 Red Shift--Hubble Law
17.3 Radio Astronomy
17.4 Cosmic Rays
A. The Sun's Cosmic Rays
B. 3°K Background Radiation
C. X-ray Sources
D. Black Holes?
17.5 The Solar Neutrinos Dilemma
17.6 I.R. (Infrared) Astronomy
17.7 The Operation of the Telescope
17.8 Optical Telescopes
17.9 Radio Telescopes

Chapter 18. The Mysterious Cosmos
18.1 Cosmology
A. Beginning of the Scientific Era
18.2 The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
18.3 Historical Summary
18.4 Some Great Moments in the Recent History of Astronomy
18.5 Summary of Cosmology as Perceived by Present Astrophysicists
18.6 The Origin of the Solar System
18.7 A New Cosmology-The Origin of the Solar System (A Different Hypothesis)
A. The Satellite Systems of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus
B. The Galilean Satellite Surprises
C. Jupiter: Planet or Star?
D. A Missing Link--The Planet-Star Connection
18.8 Some Remarks About Energy Sources
A. Natural Fission Reactor on Earth
18.9 The Pluto-Neptune Connection and Its Interloper
18.10 The Saga of the Planet Neptune
18.11 The Satellites of the Planets
18.12 The Unsuspected Flip-Flops and Other Astronomical Anomalies
18.13 Sunspots
18.14 Comparison with Galactic Phenomena
18.15
A. The Development of the Galaxy
B. The Important Missing Link
C. Moon's Magnetism
D. Moon's Relevance to Life (and Some Philosophy)
E. Other Astronomical Phenomena Interpreted Via Johnson's Model: Neutron Stars and Supernovas
F. Interstellar Molecules
G. Extinction and Reddening
H. The Earth
I. The New Cosmological Picture‚--The Origin of Life in the Solar System
18.16 Major Riddles in Cosmology
A. The Sun: The Sun's Internal Structure and the Origin of the Solar System
B. The Earth Moon System
C. The Neptune Triton System
D. The Earth's Internal Energy Source
E. Sun vs. Planets
F. Electrostatic Forces a là Coulomb (1736–1806)
18.17 The Origin of the Solar System
A. The Galaxy
B. Gravity
C. Is Dark Matter Real?
D. The Acceleration in the Expansion of Four Supernova Remnants
E. The Sun
F. Corollary
G. Cosmology (A Final Comment)
H. Summary
18.19 Conclusion
Postscript

Appendix A. Compilation of Some Physics and the New Paradigm in Cosmology
A.1 Thermodynamics
A.2 The (Unproven) Big Bang Hypothesis
A.3 Black Holes
A.4 Comments on General Relativity (GR)
A.5 Entanglement
A.6 Conclusion

Technical Notes--The Nitty Gritty Section
TN.0 Introduction
TN.1 Tech. Note No. 1: Simple Mathematics Review
TN.2 Tech. Note No. 2: Fundamental Constants and Astronomical Data
TN.3 Tech. Note No. 3: Foucault Pendulum
TN.4 Tech. Note No. 4: The Inverse Square Law
TN.5 Tech. Note No. 5: Properties of Ellipse and Planetary Motion
TN.6 Tech. Note No. 6: Energy, Work, Conversion Units
TN.7 Tech. Note No. 7: Useful Numbers, Energy, Land Areas, etc.
TN.8 Tech. Note No. 8: Supplement to Energy
TN.9 Tech. Note No. 9: Heats of Combustion
TN.10 Tech. Note No. 10: Water--The Magic Fluid of Life
A. Solubility of Water
TN.11 Tech. Note No. 11: Sun's Luminosity and the Solar Constant
TN.12 Tech. Note No. 12: Simple Log Tables to Calculate Absolute Magnitude (For Chapter 10)
TN.13 Tech. Note No. 13: Definitions of Some Angles. (See parallax application, Chapters 17 and 10.)
TN.14 Tech. Note No. 14: Summary of equations, assumptions and definitions of our INSIDE STAR TRIP (Strictly X-rated)
TN.15 Tech. Note No. 15: The Sun's Own Energy (for Chapter 12)
TN.16 Tech. Note No. 16: Einstein's Special Relativity
TN.17 Tech. Note No. 17: Red Shift
TN.18 Tech. Note No. 18: The Gravitational Red Shift
TN.19 Tech. Note No. 19: Calculate the Radius of a Neutron Star
TN.20 Tech. Note No. 20
TN.21 Tech. Note No. 21
TN.22 Tech. Note No. 22
TN.22 Tech. Note No. 22: Exercise: Crab Nebula (continued)
TN.23 Tech. Note No. 23: Physical Properties of the DEBs
TN.24 Tech. Note No. 24: The Earth (See Chapter 7)
TN.25 Tech. Note No. 25: Periodic Comets
TN.27 Tech. Note No. 27: (Johann)2 Bode-Titius Law
TN.28 Tech. Note No. 28: Pulsars

Laboratory and Home Exercises
Exercise No. 1: Basic Coordinate Systems
Getting Oriented
Repeat of Lab Experiment No. 1
Questions and Exercises
Exercise No. 2: Demonstrate Precession of The Equinoxes
Exercise No. 3: The 24 Hour 50 Minute Time Between Two Tides
Exercise No. 4: The Simple Pendulum
Exercise No. 5: Direct Measurement of the Acceleration of Gravity
Exercise No. 6: Kepler's Second Law
Exercise No. 7: Verification of Kepler's Laws
Exercise No. 8: Demonstrate Angle of Elongation for Mercury and Venus
Exercise No. 9: Spectroscopy and Optics
Back to Spectroscopy
Exercises
Exercise No. 10: Star Tracker or Moon Tracker
Operation of Homemade Telescope
Exercise No. 11: The Moon
Exercise No. 12: Moon's Rotation on Its Axis
Exercise No. 13: The Motion of the Moon on the Celestial Sphere
Exercise No. 14: Tidal Effects of Sun and Moon
Exercise No. 15
Exercise No. 16
Exercise No. 17: Construction of a Sundial
Equation of Time
Exercise No. 18: The Sun--Applications in the Use of Solar Energy
Exercise No. 19
Exercise No. 20
Exercise No. 21
Exercise No. 22: The Energy-Food-Labor Cycle
Exercise No. 23

Appendix D. Heavenly Figures

Appendix E. Glossary of Technical Terms

Index