Kimberly K. Arcand - Your Ticket to the Universe: A Guide to Exploring the Cosmos

Fasten your seat belt, sit back, relax, and enjoy this well-organized tour of the cosmos with your expert tour guides, Megan Watzke and Kimberly K. Arcand of NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this book, they provide all the best views of the universe, with gorgeous photography taken by the Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes. Your tour begins on Earth, then to the Moon and the Sun before stopping at all the major attractions in our Solar System. Your guides provide informative and entertaining explanations as you soar across the Milky Way, collide with galaxies near and far, experience the gravitational effects of dark matter, and ponder mysterious cosmic energies. You will discover so much by trips end and will be further amazed by how much is left to be explored in this vast Universe!

Text 2013 by Kimberly K. Arcand and Megan Watzke

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

This book may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please write:

Special Markets Department Smithsonian Books
P. O. Box 37012, MRC 513
Washington, DC 20013

Published by Smithsonian Books
Director: Carolyn Gleason
Production Editor: Christina Wiginton
Editorial Assistants: Jane Gardner and Ashley Montague

Edited by Greg McNamee

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arcand, Kimberly K.
Your ticket to the universe: a guide to exploring the cosmos / Megan
Watzke and Kimberly Arcand.
pages cm
eBook ISBN: 978-1-58834-376-5
Trade Paperback 978-1-58834-375-8
1. Astronomy. 2. Universe. 3. Universe. 4. Cosmology. I. Watzke,
Megan.
II. Title.
QB43.3.A73 2013
523.1dc23 2012029115

For permission to reproduce illustrations appearing in this book, please correspond directly with the owners of the works, as seen on p.240. Smithsonian Books does not retain reproduction rights for these images individually, or maintain a file of addresses for sources.

v3.1

A crescent moon sets behind the thin blue line of Earths

On August 27, 2011, astronaut Ron Garan aboard the International

N THE MOVIE NOTTING HILL, BRITISH ACTOR HUGH GRANT PLAYS WILLIAM, the timid owner of a little travel bookshop. One day, Anna Scott (played by Julia Roberts), supposedly the biggest movie star in the world, walks into his modest shop, looking for a book on Turkey. William recommends a particular travel guide to her because, he says, The man who wrote it has actually been to Turkey, which helps. While Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke clearly have not been to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, they have both been intimately involved with explorations of the universe by NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory. As such, they make for superb guides for the organized cosmic tour represented by this book. The metaphorical rooms they book for you as you travel from Earth to the most remote parts of the universe always have a spectacular view. The book, lavishly illustrated with actual images taken by the Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes, as well as images from other NASA spacecraft and a variety of ground-based telescopes, uses the entire electromagnetic spectrum to give a complete panorama. The explanations provided by your guides are always fresh, clear, and spiced with humor and references to current popular culture.

The tour starts on Earth, then visits the Moon and the Sun before stopping at all the major attractions in our Solar System. Your guides then put you on a faster space ship and take you to the stars, viewed at various stages of their evolutionary lives. It is then that the sweeping cosmic tour begins, from our own Milky Way galaxy to other galaxies near and far, placid and violently colliding. Along the way, your guides allow you to take snapshots of the dynamic vicinity of black holes, experience the gravitational effects of dark matter, and ponder the mysterious cosmic acceleration caused by dark energy.

As the authors admit, we scientists do not understand all of the phenomena that you will encounter on this trip. On the contrary, they emphasize how much is left to be explored in this vast cosmic landscape. This is an exhilarating tourso fasten your seat belt, sit back, relax, and enjoy the amazing scenery. Dinner is not provided, but theres plenty of food for thought!

MARIO LIVIO

The Veil Nebula represents the remains of a star that exploded possibly between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago in our Milky Way galaxy. The original supernova was probably as bright as a crescent Moon, and people who had just invented the wheel and writing could have viewed it for weeks. The Veil Nebula is a large relatively faint supernova remnant that has since expanded to cover an area of about six times the diameter of a full moon. Here we can see the gas between the stars being heated by the incredible blast wave that is still expanding through space.