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About the Authors
Mike Seeds has been a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Franklin and
Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since 1970. In 1989 he received
F&M College’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Mike’s love for the
history of astronomy led him to create upper-level courses on archaeoastronomy
and changing concepts of the universe. His research interests focus on variable
stars and the automation of astronomical telescopes. Mike is coauthor with
Dana Backman of Foundations of Astronomy, Twelfth Edition (2013); Stars
and Galaxies, Eighth Edition (2013); The Solar System, Eighth Edition (2013);
and ASTRO (2010), all published by Cengage Learning. He was Senior Consultant
for creation of the 20-episode telecourse accompanying the book
Horizons: Exploring the Universe.
Dana Backman taught in the physics and astronomy department at Franklin and
Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1991 until 2003. He invented
and taught a course titled “Life in the Universe” in F&M’s interdisciplinary
Foundations program. Dana now teaches introductory astronomy at Santa Clara
University, a course on global climate change, and a course on cosmology in
Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. Dana is employed by the SETI
Institute in Mountain View, California, as the manager of Outreach (education,
public outreach, and media relations) for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for
Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Dana is coauthor
with Mike Seeds of Foundations of Astronomy, Twelfth Edition (2013); Stars and
Galaxies, Eighth Edition (2013); The Solar System, Eighth Edition (2013); and
ASTRO (2010), all published by Cengage Learning.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has
deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
8 EIGHTH EDITION
Michael Seeds
Joseph R. Grundy Observatory
Franklin and Marshall College
Dana Backman
SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory
for Infrared Astronomy)
SETI Institute & NASA Ames
Research Center
Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States
This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial
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Universe: Solar Systems, Stars, and Galaxies, © 2014, 2012, 2010 Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning
8th Edition
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein
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Publisher for Astronomy: Charles Hartford
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 16 15 14 13 12
Dedication
For our families
Part 1: The Sky
CHAPTER 1 HERE AND NOW 1
CHAPTER 2 A USER’S GUIDE TO THE SKY 11
CHAPTER 3 CYCLES OF THE SUN AND MOON 23
CHAPTER 4 THE ORIGIN OF MODERN ASTRONOMY 46
CHAPTER 5 LIGHT AND TELESCOPES 74
CHAPTER 6 ATOMS AND SPECTRA 101
Part 2: The Solar System

CHAPTER 7 THE SUN 117
CHAPTER 8 ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND EXTRASOLAR PLANETS 141
CHAPTER 9 EARTH AND MOON: BASES FOR COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY 165
CHAPTER 10 MERCURY, VENUS, AND MARS 186
CHAPTER 11 THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM 209
CHAPTER 12 METEORITES, ASTEROIDS, AND COMETS 238
CHAPTER 13 THE FAMILY OF STARS 259
Part 3: The Stars

CHAPTER 14 THE FORMATION AND STRUCTURE OF STARS 288
CHAPTER 15 THE DEATHS OF STARS 317
CHAPTER 16 NEUTRON STARS AND BLACK HOLES 344
Part 4: The Universe of Galaxies

CHAPTER 17 THE MILKY WAY GALAXY 368
CHAPTER 18 GALAXIES: NORMAL AND ACTIVE 395
CHAPTER 19 MODERN COSMOLOGY 424
Part 5: Life
CHAPTER 20 ASTROBIOLOGY: LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS 453
Part 1: The Sky
Chapter 1 | Here and Now 1
How Do We Know?
1-1 WHERE ARE WE? 2 1-1 The So-Called Scientific Method 8

1-2 WHEN IS NOW? 6 2-1 Scientific Models 17
1-3 WHY STUDY ASTRONOMY? 7
3-1 Pseudoscience 29
3-2 Evidence as the Foundation of Science 31

Chapter 2 | A User’s Guide to the Sky 11
2-1 THE STARS 12 3-3 Scientific Arguments 32
2-2 THE SKY AND ITS MOTION 16 4-1 Scientific Revolutions 53
4-2 Hypothesis, Theory, and Law 58

Chapter 3 | Cycles of the Sun and Moon 23 4-3 Cause and Effect 65
3-1 CYCLES OF THE SUN 24
4-4 Testing a Hypothesis by Prediction 71
3-2 ASTRONOMICAL INFLUENCES ON EARTH’S CLIMATE 28
5-1 Resolution and Precision 83
3-3 THE CHANGEABLE MOON 32
6-1 Quantum Mechanics 104
Chapter 4 | The Origin of Modern Astronomy 46

4-1 CLASSICAL ASTRONOMY 47
4-2 THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION 50 Concept Art Portfolios
4-3 PLANETARY MOTION 54
4-4 GALILEO GALILEI 59 The Sky Around You 18–19
4-5 ISAAC NEWTON AND ORBITAL MOTION 63 The Cycle of the Seasons 26–27
The Phases of the Moon 34–35

Chapter 5 | Light and Telescopes 74
5-1 RADIATION: INFORMATION FROM SPACE 75 The Ancient Universe 48–49
5-2 TELESCOPES 78 Orbiting Earth 66–67
5-3 OBSERVATORIES ON EARTH: OPTICAL AND RADIO 83
Modern Optical Telescopes 88–89
5-4 AIRBORNE AND SPACE OBSERVATORIES 90
5-5 ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS AND TECHNIQUES 92 Atomic Spectra 110–111
Chapter 6 | Atoms and Spectra 101

6-1 ATOMS 102
Reasoning with Numbers
6-2 INTERACTIONS OF LIGHT AND MATTER 105
6-3 UNDERSTANDING SPECTRA 109 2-1 Magnitudes 16
3-1 The Small-Angle Formula 38
4-1 Circular Velocity 68
5-1 The Powers of a Telescope 84
6-1 Blackbody Radiation 108
6-2 The Doppler Formula 113
vii
Part 2: The Solar System
How Do We Know?
Chapter 7 | The Sun 117
7-1 Confirmation and Consolidation 130
7-1 THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE 118
7-2 Scientific Confidence 138
7-2 SOLAR ACTIVITY 124
8-1 Two Kinds of Theories: Catastrophic
7-3 NUCLEAR FUSION IN THE SUN 131 and Evolutionary 143
8-2 Reconstructing the Past from Evidence
and Hypotheses 150
Chapter 8 | Origin of the Solar System and
9-1 Understanding Planets: Follow the Energy 168
Extrasolar Planets 141
9-2 Scientists: Courteous Skeptics 175
8-1 THE GREAT CHAIN OF ORIGINS 142
10-1 Hypotheses and Theories Unify the Details 190
8-2 A SURVEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM 144
10-2 The Present Is the Key to the Past 206
8-3 THE STORY OF PLANET BUILDING 151 11-1 Funding for Basic Research 220
8-4 PLANETS ORBITING OTHER STARS 158 12-1 Selection Effects 241
13-1 Chains of Inference 276
Chapter 9 | Earth and Moon: Bases for 13-2 Basic Scientific Data 281
Comparative Planetology 165
9-1 A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS 166
9-2 PLANET EARTH 169 Concept Art Portfolios
9-3 THE MOON 177 Sunspots and the Sunspot Cycle 126–127
Magnetic Solar Phenomena and the Sun–Earth Connection 132–133
Chapter 10 | Mercury, Venus, and Mars 186
Terrestrial and Jovian Planets 146–147
10-1 MERCURY 187
The Active Earth 172–173
10-2 VENUS 189 Impact Cratering 178–179
10-3 MARS 196 Volcanoes 194–195
When Good Planets Go Bad 204–205
Chapter 11 | The Outer Solar System 209
Jupiter’s Atmosphere 214–215
11-1 A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM 210
The Ice Rings of Saturn 224–225
11-2 JUPITER 211
The Rings of Uranus and Neptune 228–229
11-3 SATURN 218
Observations of Asteroids 244–245
11-4 URANUS 223
Observations of Comets 250–251
11-5 NEPTUNE 227 The Family of Stars 282–283
11-6 PLUTO AND THE KUIPER BELT 233
Chapter 12 | Meteorites, Asteroids, Reasoning with Numbers

and Comets 238
7-1 Hydrogen Fusion 134
12-1 METEOROIDS, METEORS, AND METEORITES 239
13-1 Parallax and Distance 261
12-2 ASTEROIDS 243 13-2 Absolute Magnitude and Distance 263
12-3 COMETS 248 13-3 Luminosity, Radius, and Temperature 270
12-4 ASTEROID AND COMET IMPACTS 253 13-4 The Masses of Binary Stars 275
13-5 The Mass–Luminosity Relation 284
Chapter 13 | The Family of Stars 259
13-1 STAR DISTANCES 260
Celestial Profile 1 | The Sun 119
13-2 APPARENT BRIGHTNESS, INTRINSIC BRIGHTNESS,
Celestial Profile 2 | The Earth 176
AND LUMINOSITY 262 Celestial Profile 3 | The Moon 176
13-3 STAR SPECTRA 264 Celestial Profile 3 | The Moon 188
13-4 STAR SIZES 269 Celestial Profile 4 | Mercury 188

Celestial Profile 5 | Venus 197
13-5 STAR MASSES—BINARY STARS 274
Celestial Profile 6 | Mars 197
13-6 A CENSUS OF THE STARS 280 Celestial Profile 7 | Jupiter 219
Celestial Profile 8 | Saturn 219
Celestial Profile 9 | Uranus 230
Celestial Profile 10 | Neptune 230
CONTENTS
viii
How Do We Know?
14-1 Separating Facts from Hypotheses 298
14-2 Mathematical Models 310
15-1 Toward Ultimate Causes 321
16-1 Theories and Proof 355
16-2 Checks on Fraud in Science 360
Concept Art Portfolios
Three Kinds of Nebulae 294–295
Star Formation in the Orion Nebula 300–301
Observations of Young Stellar Objects and

Protostellar Disks 304–305
Star Cluster H–R Diagrams 324–325
The Formation of Planetary Nebulae 328–329
The Lighthouse Model of a Pulsar 348–349
Part 3: The Stars

Chapter 14 | The Formation and Structure
of Stars 288 14-1 The Life Expectancies of Stars 312
14-1 THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 289

14-2 MAKING STARS FROM THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 292
14-3 YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS AND PROTOSTELLAR DISKS 302
14-4 STELLAR STRUCTURE AND NUCLEAR FUSION 306
14-5 MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS 310
Chapter 15 | The Deaths of Stars 317

15-1 GIANT STARS 318
15-2 THE DEATHS OF LOWER-MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS 323
15-3 THE EVOLUTION OF BINARY SYSTEMS 331
15-4 THE DEATHS OF MASSIVE STARS 334
Chapter 16 | Neutron Stars and Black Holes 344

16-1 NEUTRON STARS 345
16-2 BLACK HOLES 356
16-3 COMPACT OBJECTS WITH DISKS AND JETS 362
CONTENTS
ix
Part 4: The Universe
of Galaxies How Do We Know?
Chapter 17 | The Milky Way Galaxy 368 17-1 Calibration 374

17-1 DISCOVERY OF THE GALAXY 369 17-2 Nature as Processes 385
17-2 STRUCTURE OF THE GALAXY 375 18-1 Classification in Science 397
17-3 SPIRAL ARMS AND STAR FORMATION 379
18-2 Selection Effects 400
17-4 THE NUCLEUS OF THE GALAXY 384
18-3 Statistical Evidence 413
17-5 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY 388
19-1 Reasoning by Analogy 427
Chapter 18 | Galaxies: Normal and Active 395 19-2 Science: A System of Knowledge 436
18-1 THE FAMILY OF GALAXIES 396

18-2 MEASURING THE PROPERTIES OF GALAXIES 400
18-3 THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES 406 Concept Art Portfolios
18-4 ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI 409
18-5 SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES 417 Sagittarius A* 386–387
Galaxy Classification 398–399

Chapter 19 | Modern Cosmology 424
Interacting Galaxies 410–411
19-1 INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSE 425
19-2 THE BIG BANG THEORY 429 Cosmic Jets and Radio Lobes 414–415
19-3 SPACE AND TIME, MATTER AND ENERGY 436 The Nature of Space-Time 438–439
19-4 TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY COSMOLOGY 442
18-1 The Hubble Law 403
19-1 The Age of the Universe 429
CONTENTS
x
Part 5: Life
Chapter 20 | Astrobiology: Life on Other How Do We Know?
Worlds 453
20-1 The Nature of Scientific Explanation 455
20-1 THE NATURE OF LIFE 454
20-2 UFOs and Space Aliens 466
20-2 LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 458
20-3 INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 465
Concept Art Portfolios
DNA: The Code of Life 456–457
AFTERWORD 473
APPENDIX A UNITS AND ASTRONOMICAL DATA 475

APPENDIX B OBSERVING THE SKY 484
GLOSSARY 497
ANSWERS TO EVEN PROBLEMS 506
INDEX 507
CONTENTS
xi
A Note to the Student
From Mike and Dana
We are excited that you are taking an do you know it is true? For instance, astronomy boring. Rather, this book is
astronomy course and using our book. how can anyone know there was a big organized to show you how scientists use
You are going to see some amazing bang? In today’s world, you need to evidence and theory to create logical
things, from the icy rings of Saturn to think carefully about the things so-called arguments that show how nature works.
monster black holes. We are proud to be experts say. You should demand explana- Look at the list of special features that
your guides as you explore. tions. Scientists have a special way of follows this note. Those features were
We have developed this book to knowing based on evidence that makes carefully designed to help you under-
help you expand your knowledge of scientific knowledge much more power- stand astronomy as evidence and theory.
astronomy, from the moon and a few ful than just opinion, policy, marketing, Once you see science as logical argu-
stars in the evening sky to a deeper or public relations. It is the human race’s ments, you hold the key to the universe.
understanding of the extent, power, and best understanding of nature. To
diversity of the universe. You will meet understand the world around you, you Do Not Be Humble
worlds where it rains methane, stars so need to understand how science works. As teachers, our quest is simple. We
dense atoms cannot exist, colliding Throughout this book, you will find want you to understand your place in
galaxies that are ripping each other apart, boxes called How Do We Know? They the universe—not just your location in
and a universe that is expanding faster will help you understand how scientists space but your location in the unfolding
and faster. use the methods of science to know what history of the physical universe. Not
the universe is like. only do we want you to know where
Two Goals you are and what you are in the uni-
This book is designed to help you answer Expect to Be Astonished verse, but we want you to understand
two important questions: One reason astronomy is exciting is that how scientists know. By the end of this
astronomers discover new things every book, we want you to know that the
. What are we?
day. Astronomers expect to be astonished. universe is very big but that it is
. How do we know?
You can share in the excitement because described by a small set of rules and that
By the question “What are we?” we we have worked hard to include the we humans have found a way to figure
mean, “How do we fit into the universe newest images, the newest discoveries, out the rules—through a method called
and its history?” The atoms you are and the newest insights that will take you, science.
made of had their first birthday in the in an introductory course, to the frontier To appreciate your role in this
big bang when the universe began, but of human knowledge. Huge telescopes in beautiful universe, you must learn more
those atoms were cooked and remade space and on remote mountaintops pro- than just the facts of astronomy. You
inside stars, and now they are inside you. vide a daily dose of excitement that goes must understand what we are and how
Where will they be in a billion years? far beyond sensationalism. These new dis- we know. Every page of this book reflects
Astronomy is the only course on campus coveries in astronomy are exciting because that ideal.
that can tell you that story, and it is a they are about us. They tell us more and Mike Seeds
story that everyone should know. more about what we are. mseeds@fandm.edu
By the question “How do we As you read this book, notice that it
know?” we mean, “How does science is not organized as lists of facts for you Dana Backman
work?” What is the evidence, and how to memorize. That could make even dbackman@sofia.usra.edu
A NOTE TO THE STUDENT

xii
Key Content and Pedagogical . How Do We Know? commentaries appear in every chapter
and will help you see how science works. They point out
Changes to the Eighth Edition where scientists use statistical evidence, why they think
with analogies, and how they build confidence in theories.
. Every chapter has been reviewed and updated with the . Special two-page art spreads provide an opportunity for
latest discoveries and images such as photos of colliding you to create your own understanding and share in the
galaxies and planets orbiting distant stars. You will read satisfaction that scientists feel as they uncover the secrets
about methane lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan and the new- of nature.
est understanding of bursts of gamma rays detected coming . Guided discovery figures illustrate important ideas visually
from the most distant galaxies. Every chapter has been and guide you to understand relationships and contrasts
reviewed and updated with the latest discoveries and interactively.
images. You will read about particles from distant superno- . Guideposts on the opening page of each chapter help you
vae flying through Earth, the coevolution of galaxies with see the organization of the book by focusing on a small num-
supermassive black holes, the discovery of Earth-size and ber of questions to be answered as you read the chapter.
Earth-temperature extrasolar planets, and findings from the . Scientific Arguments at the end of many text sections are
first robot probes to orbit Mercury and the asteroid Vesta. carefully designed questions to help you review and synthe-
. Normal galaxies and active galaxies have been unified in a size concepts from the section. A short answer follows to
single new Chapter 18 to better show how active galactic show how scientists construct scientific arguments from
nuclei are a natural stage in the evolution of normal galaxies. observations, evidence, theories, and natural laws that lead
Chapter 15 (“The Deaths of Stars”) has been updated with to a conclusion. A further question then gives you a chance
new photos and a new graph regarding the 1987A neutrino to construct your own scientific argument on a related
burst. Three new subsections, Classifying Supernovae, A issue.
History of Supernovae, and Supernova Remnants update and . End-of-Chapter Review Questions are designed to help
reorganize the discussion of supernovae. you review and test your understanding of the material.
. The discussion of Cyg-X-1 in Chapter 16 (“Neutron Stars . End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions go beyond the text
and Black Holes”) has been reorganized and updated to and invite you to think critically and creatively about scien-
emphasize its place in the history of the subject. tific questions. You can think about these questions yourself
. Chapter 10 uses comparative planetology to analyze the or discuss them in class.
structure and history of Mercury, Venus, and Mars. . Virtual Astronomy Labs. Enhance students’ understanding
Chapter 18 (“Galaxies: Normal and Active”) has been of the scientific method with Virtual Astronomy
updated with new images, and a new section The Laboratories available at CengageNOW. Focusing on 20 of
Coevolution of Galaxies and Black Holes has been added the most important concepts in astronomy, these labs offer
to include the newest understanding. students hands-on exercises that complement text topics.
. The discussion of stellar spectra and their classification has Instructors can set up classes online and view student
been moved to Chapter 13 to better illustrate how astrono- results, or students can print their reports for submission,
mers know what stars are like. Chapter 8 (“The Origin of making the labs ideal for homework assignments, lab
the Solar System”) has been updated with the newest infor- exercises, and extra-credit work.
mation regarding the wide and wonderful variety of extra- . CengageNOW TM offers all of your teaching and learning
solar planets discovered by the Kepler and Corot space resources in one place to help teach an astronomy course.
telescopes and ground-based research programs. CengageNOW satisfies students who prefer to use digital
. Chapter 10 (“Mercury, Venus, and Mars”) and Chapter 12 resources to study. Students have access to an integrated
(“Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets”) have been updated eBook, animations, interactive quizzes, videos, and other
with new findings and images from the MESSENGER and multimedia tools to help them get the most out of their
Dawn space missions, respectively. course. CengageNOW can not only help improve student
performance, but also provide information you can use.
Students can master key concepts and prepare for exams with
Special Features CengageNOW’s Personalized Study Plan—a diagnostic pro-
gram plus study plan—preloaded with an integrated eBook
. What Are We? essays are placed at the end of each chapter and other text-specific material. CengageNOW also provides
to help you understand your own role in the astronomy the end-of-chapter homework questions so you can assign and
you have just learned. manage homework online.

xiii
. Enhanced WebAssign provides students with Web-based a personal website or anywhere on the web. A simple
access to a digital version of Universe, Eighth Edition, and YouTube widget lets you easily find and embed videos
the end-of-chapter homework questions so you can assign from YouTube directly into eBook pages. Students can also
and manage homework online. WebAssign has a highlight the text, add their own notes, and bookmark the
customizable and interactive eBook, the Cengage text. Animations and videos play right on the page at the
YouBook, that lets you tailor the textbook to fit your point of learning so that they are not speed bumps to
course and connect with your students. You can remove reading, but true enhancements.
and rearrange chapters in the table of contents and tailor New to Universe are animation tutorials written
assigned readings that match your syllabus exactly. exclusively for Universe by text author Mike Seeds. These
Powerful editing tools let you change as much as you’d tutorials build on the interactive animations from the
like, or leave it just like it is. You can highlight key pas- Cengage YouBook and are assignable in WebAssign. These
sages or add sticky notes to pages to comment on a tutorials will help students review important concepts and
concept in the reading, and then share any of these explore topics from the textbook in more detail. Each
individual notes and highlights with your students, or tutorial requires a student to consider, and sometimes
keep them personal. You can also edit narrative content in manipulate an animation, and to then answer a series of
the textbook by adding a text box or striking out text. questions. Hints are offered with each step, which encour-
With a handy link tool, you can drop in an icon at any age students to think through each question. Animation
point in the eBook that lets you link to your own lecture tutorials will build student reasoning so they will ultimately
notes, audio summaries, video lectures, or other files on be able to draw conclusions.

xiv
international cooperation between ESA and NASA. We would
like to thank Michele Montgomery of The University of
Acknowledgments Central Florida for contributing the Great Debates material, as
well as for her helpful comments and advice.
It is always a pleasure to work with the Cengage Learning
Over the years we have had the guidance of a great many people team. Special thanks go to all of the people who have contributed
who care about astronomy and teaching. We would like to thank to this project, including Editorial Assistant Brendan Killion,
all of the students and teachers who have contributed their Associate Development Editor Brandi Kirksey, Media Editor
insights and suggestions. Their comments have been very helpful Stephanie Van Camp, and Senior Content Project Manager
in shaping this book. Cathy Brooks. We have enjoyed working with Margaret Pinette,
We would especially like to thank the reviewers, whose care- and we appreciate her understanding and goodwill. We would
ful analysis and thoughtful suggestions have been invaluable in especially like to thank publishers Mary Finch and Charlie
completing this new edition. Hartford for their help and guidance throughout this project.
Many observatories, research institutes, laboratories, and Most of all, we would like to thank our families for putting
individual astronomers have supplied figures and diagrams for up with “the books.” They know all too well that textbooks are
this edition. They are listed in the credits, and we would like to made of time.
thank them specifically for their generosity. Mike Seeds
Special thanks go to Jamie Backman, who has been an Dana Backman
insightful reader contributing many insights to the way astron-
omy is organized and presented.
We are happy to acknowledge the use of images and data
from a number of important programs. In preparing materials
for this book, we used NASA’s Sky View facility located at Recent Reviewers
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the SIMBAD Mitzi Adams, NASA Marshall Center
database operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. We have also Scott Hildreth, Chabot College
made use of atlas images and mosaics obtained as part of the Andrea N. Lommen, Franklin and Marshall College
Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a joint project of the Chris McKay, NASA Ames
University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Scott Miller, Pennsylvania State University
Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by Luisa Rebull, California Institute of Technology
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Mark Reid, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
National Science Foundation. A number of solar images are Ata Sarajedini, University of Florida
used by the courtesy of the SOHO consortium, a project of Larry C. Sessions, Metropolitan Sate College of Denver
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
xv
Guidepost
As you study astronomy, you also learn about yourself. You
are a planet-walker, and this chapter offers you a preview of
what that means. The planet you live on whirls around a
star that moves through a universe filled with other stars
and galaxies. You owe it to yourself to know where you are
located in the universe and when you are living its history
Here and Now
because those are important steps to knowing what you are.
In this chapter, you will consider three important ques-
tions about astronomy:
▶ Where are you and Earth in the universe?
▶ How does the time span of human civilization
compare with the age of the universe?
▶ Why study astronomy?
This chapter is a summary of your upcoming exploration

of deep space and deep time. The following chapter contin-
ues your journey by looking at the night sky as seen from
Earth. Later chapters will provide many examples of how
science gives you a way to know and understand nature.
A cloud of gas and dust in space named Messier 78, so far

away its light takes 1600 years to reach Earth. This image was
created by a private citizen, Igor Chekalin of Russia, in
response to a worldwide contest sponsored by the European
Southern Observatory (ESO) in 2010. Mr. Chekalin’s prize was
an all-expense-paid trip to Chile to work with the astronomers
using one of ESO’s giant telescopes.
Igor Chekalin
1
Visual-wavelength image
The longest journey begins with a single step. Widening your field of view by a factor of 100 allows you to
see an area 1 mile in diameter (■ Figure 1-2). People, trees, and
— L AO -TZU
sidewalks have become too small to see, but now you see a college
campus and surrounding streets and houses. The dimensions of
houses and streets are familiar. This is still the world you know.
1-1 Where Are We?
■ Figure 1-3
To find your place among the stars, you can take a cosmic
zoom, a ride out through the universe to preview the kinds of
objects you are about to study.
You can begin
with something fa-
miliar. ■ Figure 1-1
■ Figure 1-2
shows a region about
50 feet across oc- This box ■ represents the relative size of the previous frame.
cupied by a human
being, a sidewalk, and
a few trees—all ob-
jects whose size you
can understand. Each
successive picture in
this cosmic zoom will
show you a region of
Infrared image
NASA
the universe that is
100 times wider than
the preceding picture.
That is, each step will Before leaving this familiar territory, you should
widen your field of make a change in the units you use to measure sizes.
view, the region you All scientists, including astronomers, use the metric
can see in the image, system of units because it is well understood world-
© USGS
by a factor of 100. wide and, more importantly, because it simplifies

calculations. If you are not already familiar with
the metric system, or if you need a review, study
Appendix A before reading on.
■ Figure 1-1
The photo in Figure 1-2 is 1 mile across, which equals
1.609 kilometers. You can see that a kilometer (abbreviated km)
is a bit under two-thirds of a mile—a short walk across a neigh-
borhood. But when you expand your field of view by a factor of
100, the neighborhood you saw in the previous photo vanishes
(■ Figure 1-3). Now your field of view is 160 km wide, and you
see cities and towns as patches of gray. Wilmington, Delaware, is
visible at the lower right. At this scale, you can see some of the
natural features of Earth’s surface. The Allegheny Mountains of
southern Pennsylvania cross the image in the upper left, and the
Susquehanna River flows southeast into Chesapeake Bay. What
look like white bumps are a few puffs of clouds.
Figure 1-3 is an infrared photograph in which healthy green
leaves and crops show up as red. Human eyes are sensitive to only
a narrow range of colors. As you explore the universe in the fol-
Michael A. Seeds
lowing chapters, you will learn to use a wide range of other

“colors,” from X-rays to radio waves, to reveal sights invisible to
unaided human eyes.
PART 1 THE SKY

2
At the next step in your journey, you can see your entire red box at lower left of ■ Figure 1-6. Now you can see the sun
planet, which is nearly 13,000 km in diameter (■ Figure 1-4). and two other planets that are part of our solar system. Our solar
At any particular moment, half of Earth’s surface is exposed to system consists of the sun, its family of planets, and some smaller
sunlight, and half is in darkness. As Earth rotates on its axis, it car- bodies, such as moons and comets.
ries you through sunlight and then through darkness, producing Earth, Venus, and Mercury are planets, small, spherical, non-
luminous bodies that orbit a star and shine by reflected light. Venus
is about the size of Earth, and Mercury is just over a third of Earth’s
■ Figure 1-4 diameter. On this diagram, they are both too small to be seen as
anything but tiny dots. The sun is a star, a self-luminous ball of hot
gas that generates its own energy. Even though the sun is 109 times
larger in diameter than Earth (inset), it too is nothing more than a
dot in this diagram.
This diagram
■ Figure 1-5
represents an area
with a diameter of
1.6 ⫻ 108 km. One
way astronomers sim-
plify calculations us-
ing large numbers is
to define larger units
of measurement. For
example, the average
Moon distance from Earth
Earth
to the sun is a unit
NASA
© Cengage Learning 2014; Images: NASA

of distance called the
Enlarged to show astronomical unit
relative size
(AU), which is equal
the cycle of day and night. The blurriness you see at the to 1.5 ⫻ 108 km.
extreme right of the photo is the boundary between day Now you can express
and night—the sunset line. This is a good example of Earth Moon
the average distance
how a photo can give you visual clues to understanding from Venus to the
a concept. Special questions called “Learning to Look”
at the end of each chapter give you a chance to use your
own imagination to connect images with explanations
■ Figure 1-6
about astronomical objects.
Enlarge your field of view by a factor of 100, and you see a
region 1,600,000 km wide (■ Figure 1-5). Earth is the small blue dot
in the center, and the moon, whose diameter is only one-fourth that
of Earth, is an even smaller dot along its orbit 380,000 km away. Sun
Venus
These numbers are so large that it is inconvenient to write
them out. Astronomy is sometimes known as the science of big
numbers, and soon you will be using numbers much larger than
these to discuss the universe. Rather than writing out these num-
bers as in the previous paragraph, it is more convenient to write 1
AU © Cengage Learning 2014; Images: NOAO/AURA/NSF
them in scientific notation. This is nothing more than a simple Mercury
way to write very big or very small numbers without using lots
of zeros. In scientific notation, 380,000 becomes 3.8 ⫻ 105. If Enlarged to show
relative size
you are not familiar with scientific notation, read the section on
powers of 10 notation in the Appendix. The universe is too big Earth
to discuss without using scientific notation. Earth
When you once again enlarge your field of view by a factor Sun
of 100, Earth, the moon, and the moon’s orbit all lie in the small
CHAPTER 1 HERE AND NOW

3
sun as about 0.72 AU and the average distance from Mercury to the sun reaches Earth in only 8 minutes, but it takes over 4 hours to
the sun as about 0.39 AU. reach Neptune.
These distances are averages because the orbits of the planets You can remember the order of the plants from the sun out-
are not perfect circles. This is particularly apparent in the case ward by remembering a simple sentence: My Very Educated
of Mercury. Its orbit carries it as close to the sun as 0.307 AU
and as far away as 0.467 AU. You can see the variation in the dis- ■ Figure 1-9
tance from Mercury to the sun in Figure 1-6. Earth’s orbit is more
circular, and its distance from the sun varies by only a few percent.
Enlarge your field of view again, and you can see the entire solar
system (■ Figure 1-7). The sun, Mercury, Venus, and Earth lie so
close together that you cannot see them separately at this scale, and
they are lost in the red
square at the center of ■ Figure 1-8
this diagram. You can
see only the brighter, Sun
more widely sepa-
rated objects such as
Mars, the next planet
outward. Mars lies
© Cengage Learning 2014

only 1.5 AU from the
sun, but Jupiter, Sat-
urn, Uranus, and
Neptune are farther Sun
from the sun and so
are easier to place in
this diagram. They Mother Just Served Us Noodles. The first letter of each
are cold worlds far word reminds you of a planet: Mercury, Venus
from the sun’s Earth, Mars Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
warmth. Light from When you again enlarge your field of view by a
factor of 100, the solar system vanishes (■ Figure 1-8).
The sun is only a point of light, and all the planets
and their orbits are now crowded into the small red
square at the center. The planets are too small and too faint to be
visible so near the brilliance of the sun.
■ Figure 1-7
Nor are any stars visible except for the sun. The sun is a fairly
typical star, and it seems to be located in a fairly average neigh-
borhood in the universe. Although there are many billions of
stars like the sun, none are close enough to be visible in this
diagram, which shows a region only 11,000 AU in diameter.
Stars are typically separated by distances about 10 times larger
than that.
In ■ Figure 1-9, your field of view has expanded to a diameter
of a bit over 1 million AU. The sun is at the center, and at this scale
Area of Figure 1-6
Mars you can see a few of the nearest stars. These stars are so distant that
Jupiter it is not convenient to give their distances in astronomical units.
Saturn To express distances so large, astronomers define a new unit of
Uranus
distance, the light-year. One light-year (ly) is the distance that
light travels in one year, roughly 1013 km or 63,000 AU. It is a

Neptune Common Misconception that a light-year is a unit of time,
and you can sometimes hear the term misused in science fiction
movies and TV shows. The next time you hear someone say, “It
will take me light-years to finish my history paper,” you can tell
PART 1 THE SKY

4
that person that a light-year is a distance, not a time. The diameter (■ Figure 1-11). A galaxy is a great cloud of stars, gas, and
of your field of view in Figure 1-9 is 17 ly. dust held together by the combined gravity of all of its matter.
Another Common Misconception is that stars look Galaxies range from 1500 to over 300,000 ly in diameter, and
like disks when seen through a telescope. Although stars are some contain over 100 billion stars. In the night sky, you can see
our galaxy as a great, cloudy wheel of stars surrounding us and
■ Figure 1-10 ringing the sky. This band of stars is known as the Milky Way,
and our galaxy is called the Milky Way Galaxy.
How does anyone know what our galaxy looks like if
no one can leave it and look back? Astronomers use evidence
to guide their theories as they imagine what the Milky Way
looks like. Artists can then use those scientific descriptions
to create a painting.
■ Figure 1-11 Many images in this
book are artists’ ren-
derings of objects
and events that are
too big or too dim
to see clearly, emit
energy your eyes
cannot detect, or
NOAO/AURA/NSF
hap-pen too slowly

or too rapidly for
humans to sense.
These images are
not just guesses;
© Mark Garlick/Space-art.com
roughly the same size as the sun, they are so far away they are scientifically
that astronomers cannot see them as anything but based illustrations
points of light. Even the closest star to the sun— guided by the best
Proxima Centauri, only 4.2 ly from Earth—looks like information astron-
a point of light through even the biggest telescopes on omers can gather.
Earth. Furthermore, planets that circle other stars are
much too small, too faint, and too close to the glare
of their star to be easily visible. Astronomers have used indirect
methods to detect over 800 planets orbiting other stars, but only
■ Figure 1-12
a few have been photographed directly, and even those show up
as nothing more than faint points of light.
Figure 1-9 follows the astronomical custom of making the
sizes of the dots represent not the sizes of the stars but their
brightnesses. This is how star images are recorded on photo-
graphs. Bright stars make larger spots on a photograph than faint
stars, so the size of a star image in a photograph tells you not how
big the star is but only how bright it looks.
In ■ Figure 1-10, you expand your field of view by another
Milky Way Galaxy
factor of 100, and the sun and its neighboring stars vanish into
the background of thousands of other stars. The field of view is
now 1700 ly in diameter. Of course, no one has ever journeyed
thousands of light-years from Earth to look back and photograph
the solar neighborhood, so this is a representative photograph of

the sky. The sun is a relatively faint star that would not be easily
located in a photo at this scale.
If you again expand your field of view by a factor of 100,
you see our galaxy, a disk of stars about 80,000 ly in diameter

5
As you explore, notice how astronomers use science to imagine, whatever planets orbit around them. The universe includes
understand, and depict cosmic events. everything: billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars
The artist’s conception of the Milky Way reproduced in and, presumably, billions of planetary systems.
Figure 1-11 shows that our galaxy, like many others, has graceful If you expand your field of view one more time, you can
spiral arms winding outward through its disk. In a later chapter, see that clusters of galaxies are connected in a vast network
you will learn that the spiral arms are places where stars are (■ Figure 1-13). Clusters are grouped into superclusters—clusters
formed from clouds of gas and dust. Our own sun was born in of clusters—and the superclusters are linked to form long fila-
one of these spiral arms; if you could see it in this picture, it ments and walls outlining nearly empty voids. These filaments
would be in the disk of the galaxy about two-thirds of the way and walls appear to be the largest structures in the universe.
out from the center. Were you to expand your field of view another time, you would
Ours is a fairly large galaxy. Only a century ago astronomers probably see a uniform fog of filaments and walls. When you
thought it was the entire universe—an island cloud of stars in an puzzle over the origin of these structures, you are at the frontier
otherwise empty vastness. Now they know that our galaxy is not of human knowledge.
unique; it is only one of many billions of galaxies scattered
throughout the universe.
You can see a few of these other galaxies when you expand
your field of view by another factor of 100 (■ Figure 1-12). Our 1-2 When Is Now?
galaxy appears as a tiny luminous speck surrounded by other
specks in a region 17 million light-years in diameter. Each speck Now that you have an idea where you are in space, you need
represents a galaxy. Notice that our galaxy is part of a cluster of a to know where you are in time. The stars have shone for billions
few dozen galaxies. Galaxies are commonly grouped together in of years before the first human looked up and wondered what
such clusters. Some galaxies have beautiful spiral patterns like our they were. To get a sense of your place in time, all you need is a
own galaxy, but others do not. Some are strangely distorted. In a long red ribbon.
later chapter, you will learn what produces these differences Imagine stretching that ribbon down the center of an Ameri-
among the galaxies. can football field from goal line to goal line, a distance of 100 yards
Now is a chance for you to correct another Common (about 91 meters), as shown on the inside front cover of this book.
Misconception. People often say “galaxy” when they mean Further, imagine that one end of the ribbon represents today and
“solar system,” and they sometimes confuse both terms with the other end represents the beginning of the universe—the mo-
“universe.” Your cosmic zoom has shown you the difference. The ment of beginning that astronomers call the big bang. In a later
solar system is the sun and its planets, including Earth. Our chapter, “Modern Cosmology,” you will learn about the big bang,
galaxy contains our solar system plus billions of other stars and and you will see evidence that the universe is approximately
14 billion years old. Your long red ribbon represents 14 billion
years, the entire history of the universe.
Imagine beginning at the goal line labeled Big Bang and re-
Based on data from M. Seldner, B. L. Siebers, E. J. Groth, and P. J. E. Peebles, Astronomical
playing the entire history of the universe as you walk along your
ribbon toward the goal line labeled today. Observations tell as-
tronomers that the big bang filled the entire universe with hot,
glowing gas, but as the gas cooled and dimmed the universe went
dark. All that happened along the first half inch of the ribbon.
There was no light for the next 400 million years, until gravity
was able to pull some of the gas together to form the first stars.
That seems like a lot of years, but if you stick a little flag beside
the ribbon to mark the birth of the first stars, it would be not
quite 3 yards from the goal line where the universe began.
You must walk only about 5 yards along the ribbon before
galaxies formed in large numbers. Our home galaxy would be
Journal 82 [1977].
one of those taking shape. By the time you cross the 50-yard line,
the universe is full of galaxies, but the sun and Earth have not
formed yet. You must walk past the 50-yard line down to the
35-yard line before you can finally stick a flag beside the ribbon to
mark the formation of the sun and planets—our solar system—4.6
■ Figure 1-13
billion years ago, about 9 billion years after the big bang.
PART 1 THE SKY

6
You must carry your flags a few yards further to the 29-yard a sociologist, theologian, paleontologist, artist, or poet. “What
line to mark the appearance of the first life on Earth—microscopic are we?” is a fundamentally different question.
creatures in the oceans—and you have to walk all the way to the As you study astronomy, you will learn how you fit into the
3-yard line before you can mark the emergence of life on land. history of the universe. You will learn that the atoms in your
Your dinosaur flag goes just inside the 2-yard line. Dinosaurs go body had their first birthday in the big bang when the universe
extinct as you pass the one-half-yard line. began. Those atoms have been cooked and remade inside genera-
What about people? The first humanlike creatures appeared tions of stars, and now, after billions of years, they are inside you.
on Earth about 4 million years ago, so you can put a little flag Where will they be in another billion years? This is a story every-
for the first humans only about an inch from the goal line one should know, and astronomy is the only course on campus
labeled today. Civilization, the building of cities, began about that can tell you that story.
10,000 years ago, so you have to try to fit that flag in only Every chapter in this book ends with a short segment titled
0.0026 inch from the goal line. That’s half the thickness of a “What Are We?” This summary shows how the astronomy in the
sheet of paper. Compare the history of human civilization with chapter relates to your role in the story of the universe.
the history of the universe. Every war you have ever heard of, The question “How do we know?” is the second organizing
every person whose name is recorded, every structure ever built theme of this book. It is a question you should ask yourself
from Stonehenge to the building you are in right now fits into whenever you encounter statements made by so-called experts in
that 0.0026 inch. any field. Should you swallow a diet supplement recommended
Humanity is very new to the universe. Our civilization on by a TV star? Should you vote for a candidate who warns of a
Earth has existed for only a flicker of an eyeblink in the history climate crisis? To understand the world around you and to make
of the universe. As you will discover in the chapters that follow, wise decisions for yourself, for your family, and for your nation,
only in the last hundred years or so have astronomers begun to you need to understand how science works.
understand where we are in space and in time. You can use astronomy as a case study in science. In every
chapter of this book, you will find short essays titled “How Do
We Know?” They are designed to help you think not about what
is known but about how it is known. To do that, they will explain
1-3 Why Study Astronomy? different aspects of scientific reasoning and in that way help you
understand how scientists know about the natural world.
Your exploration of the universe will help you answer two Over the last four centuries, scientists have developed a
fundamental questions: way to understand nature by comparing hypotheses with evi-
dence, a process that has been called the scientific method
What are we?
(How Do We Know? 1-1). As you read about exploding
How do we know?
stars, colliding galaxies, and alien planets in the following chap-
The question “What are we?” is the first organizing theme of this ters, you will see astronomers using the scientific method over
book. Astronomy is important to you because it will tell you and over. The universe is very big, but it is described by a small
what you are. Notice that the question is not “Who are we?” If set of rules, and we humans have found a way to figure out the
you want to know who we are, you may want to talk to rules—a method called science.

7
1-1
The So-Called Scientific Method
How do scientists learn about nature? You inherit traits from their parents not as a new idea. Sometimes, however, a scientist
have probably heard of the scientific method smooth blend, as most scientists of the time will spend years studying a single promising
as the process by which scientists form believed, but according to strict mathemati- hypothesis. The so-called scientific method is
hypotheses and test them against evidence cal rules. Mendel cultivated and tested over a way of thinking and a way of knowing about
gathered by experiment or observation. 28,000 pea plants, noting which produced nature. The “How Do We Know?” essays in
Scientists use the scientific method all the smooth peas and which produced wrinkled the chapters that follow will introduce you to
time, and it is critically important, but they peas and how that trait was inherited by suc- some of those methods.
rarely think of it at all, and they certainly cessive generations. His study of pea plants
don’t think of it as a numbered list of steps. confirmed his hypothesis and allowed the
It is such an ingrained way of thinking and development of a series of laws of inheritance.
understanding nature that it is almost invis- Although the importance of his work was not
ible to the people who use it most. recognized in his lifetime, Mendel is now
Scientists try to form hypotheses that called the “father of modern genetics.”
explain how nature works. If a hypothesis is The scientific method is not a simple,
contradicted by evidence from experiments or mechanical way of grinding facts into under-
observations, it must be revised or discarded. standing. It is, in fact, a combination of many
Inspirestock/Jupiterimages
If a hypothesis is confirmed, it must be tested ways of analyzing information, finding rela-
further. In that very general way, the scien- tionships, and creating new ideas. A scientist
tific method is a way of testing and refining needs insight and ingenuity to form and test
ideas to better describe how nature works. a good hypothesis. Scientists use the scien-
For example, Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) tific method almost automatically, forming,
was an Austrian abbot who liked plants. He testing, revising, and discarding hypotheses Whether peas are wrinkled or smooth is an inher-
formed a hypothesis that offspring usually almost minute by minute as they discuss a ited trait.
What Are We? Part of the Story
Astronomy will give you perspective on blink of an eye. This may seem humbling at light the universe, generate energy, and cre-
what it means to be here on Earth. This first, but you can be proud of how much we ate the chemical elements in your body. The
chapter has helped you locate yourself in humans have understood in such a short chapters that follow will show how you fit
space and time. Once you realize how vast time. into that cosmic process.
our universe is, Earth seems quite small. Not only does astronomy locate you in Although you are very small and your
People on the other side of the world seem space and time, it places you in the physical kind have existed in the universe for only a
like neighbors. And, in the entire history of processes that govern the universe. Gravity short time, you are an important part of
the universe, the human story is only the and atoms work together to make stars, something very large and very beautiful.
PART 1 THE SKY

8
▶ As you study astronomy, you should ask “How do we know?” and that will 4. In the photograph shown here, which stars are brightest, and which are
Summary help you understand how science gives us a way to understand nature.
Learning to Look faintest? How can you tell? Why can’t you tell which stars in this pho-
▶ You surveyed the universe by taking a cosmic zoom in which each field ▶ In its simplest outline, science follows the scientific method 1. In Figure 1-4, the division between daylight and darkness is at the tograph are biggest or which have planets?
of view (p. 2) was 100 times wider than the previous field of view. (p. 7), by which scientists test hypotheses against evidence from right on the globe of Earth. How do you know this is the sunset line
▶ Astronomers use the metric system because it simplifies calculations experiments and observations. This method is a powerful way to learn and not the sunrise line?
and use scientific notation (p. 3) for very large or very small about nature. 2. Look at Figure 1-6. How can you tell that Mercury does not follow a cir-
numbers. cular orbit?
3. Of the objects listed here, which would be contained inside the object
▶ You live on a planet (p. 3), Earth, which orbits our star (p. 3), Review Questions shown in the photograph at the right? Which would contain the object
the sun, once a year. As Earth rotates once a day, you see the sun rise
and set. 1. What is the largest dimension of which you have personal knowledge? in the photo?
Have you run a mile? Hiked 10 miles? Run a marathon? stars
▶ The moon is only one-fourth the diameter of Earth, but the sun is
109 times larger in diameter than Earth—a typical size for a star. 2. What is the difference between our solar system, our galaxy, and the planets
universe? galaxy clusters
▶ The solar system (p. 3) includes the sun at the center, all of the
3. Why are light-years more convenient than miles, kilometers, or astro- filaments
planets that orbit around it—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Bill Schoening/NOAO/AURA/NSF
nomical units for measuring certain distances?
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—plus the moons of the planets and all spiral arms
other objects bound to the sun by its gravity. 4. Why is it difficult to detect planets orbiting other stars?
5. What does the size of the star image in a photograph tell you?
NOAO/AURA/NSF
▶ The astronomical unit (AU) (p. 3) is the average distance from
Earth to the sun. Mars, for example, orbits 1.5 AU from the sun. The 6. What is the difference between the Milky Way and the Milky Way Galaxy?
light-year (ly) (p. 4) is the distance light can travel in one year. The 7. What are the largest known structures in the universe?
nearest star is 4.2 ly from the sun. 8. How does astronomy help answer the question “What are we?”
▶ Many stars seem to have planets, but such small, distant worlds are 9. How Do We Know? How does the scientific method give scientists a
difficult to detect. Nevertheless, over 400 have been found after way to know about nature?
almost 20 years of searching by astronomers. So far only a few of
those planets have been determined to be Earth-like in terms of size
and temperature. Discussion Questions
▶ The Milky Way (p. 5), the hazy band of light that encircles the sky, is 1. Do you think you have a duty to know the astronomy described in this
the Milky Way Galaxy (p. 5) seen from inside. The sun is just one out chapter? Can you think of ways this knowledge helps you enjoy a richer
of the billions of stars that fill the Milky Way Galaxy. life and be a better citizen?
▶ Galaxies (p. 5) contain many billions of stars. Our galaxy is about 2. How is a statement in a political campaign speech different from a
80,000 ly in diameter and contains over 100 billion stars. statement in a scientific discussion? Find examples in newspapers, mag-
▶ Some galaxies, including our own, have graceful spiral arms (p. 6) azines, and this book.
bright with stars, but some galaxies are plain clouds of stars.
▶ The solar system (p. 6) consists of the sun plus eight planets, including Problems
Earth. Our galaxy (p. 6) contains our solar system plus billions of other
stars and whatever planets orbit around them. The universe (p. 6) 1. The diameter of Earth across the equator is 7928 miles. If a mile equals
includes everything that there is: billions of galaxies, each containing bil- 1.609 km, what is Earth’s diameter in kilometers? In centimeters?
lions of stars and, presumably, billions of planetary systems. 2. The diameter of the moon across its equator is 3476 kilometers. If a
▶ Our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies that fill the universe in kilometer equals 0.6214 miles, what is the moon’s diameter in miles?
great clusters, clouds, filaments, and walls—the largest structures in 3. One astronomical unit is about 1.50 ⫻ 108 km. Explain why this is the
the universe. same as 150 ⫻ 106 km.
▶ The universe began about 14 billion years ago in an event called the 4. Venus orbits 0.72 AU from the sun. What is that distance in kilometers?
big bang, which filled the universe with hot gas. 5. Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. How long does it
▶ The hot gas cooled, the first galaxies began to form, and stars began take to reach Mars?
to shine only about 400 million years after the big bang. 6. The sun is almost 400 times farther from Earth than is the moon. How
long does light from the moon take to reach Earth?
▶ The sun and planets of our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years
ago. 7. If the speed of light is 3.00 ⫻ 105 km/s, how many kilometers is 1
light-year? How many meters? (Note: One year contains 3.16 ⫻ 107 s.)
▶ Life began in Earth’s oceans soon after Earth formed but did not
emerge onto land until only 400 million years ago. Dinosaurs evolved 8. How long does it take light to cross the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy?
not long ago and went extinct only 65 million years ago. 9. The nearest large galaxy to our own is about 2.5 million light-years
away. How many meters is that?
▶ Humanlike creatures developed on Earth only about 4 million years
ago, and human civilizations developed only about 10,000 years ago. 10. How many galaxies like our own would it take laid edge-to-edge to
reach the nearest galaxy? (Hint: See Problem 9.)
▶ Although astronomy seems to be about stars and planets, it describes
the universe in which you live, so it is really about you. Astronomy
helps you answer the question, “What are we?”
CHAPTER 1 HERE AND NOW 9 CHAPTER 1 HERE AND NOW 9a
Great Debates CengageNOW
1. Moon Ownership. The Outer Space the bunker will be allowed to enter. as the most intelligent beings in the CengageNOW™ is an integrated, online learning system
Treaty was signed by the United States, Your neighbor creates an online com- universe? How would you rate the that gives you 24/7 access to Study Tools and assign-
the United Kingdom, and the Soviet munity blog, tweet, and posts to level of human intelligence compared ments. Working at your own pace, or within a schedule set
Union on October 10, 1967. The treaty advertise. What do you do? Do you to other intelligence that may exist up by your instructor, you can read the textbook, take
expressly forbids any government from voice your concerns on the blog, in the universe? Very low? Low? quizzes, and track your grades in an easy-to-use, personal-
claiming ownership of a celestial tweets, and posts, knowing your name Intermediate? High? Very high? ized online environment that you manage to best suit your
resource such as the moon. On July 21, can be seen? What do you say? Do you The highest? needs. You can also master key concepts and prepare for exams with CengageNOW’s Person-
1969, the United States was the first to vote yes to join and fund the bunker? a. Use at least three vocabulary words alized Study—a diagnostic program plus study plan—preloaded with an integrated eBook
land and plant its flag on the moon. a. Use at least three vocabulary words from the text correctly in your and other text-specific material.
Did the United States violate the treaty from the text correctly in your debate, underline each, and cite
by “planting the flag,” an act that has debate, underline each, and cite the page and paragraph numbers.
historically claimed ownership? If so, the page and paragraph numbers. b. What’s the evidence? Find additional
does the United States own the moon? b. What’s the evidence? Find additional sources that support your stand.
The United Nations Treaties and Princi- sources that support your stand. c. Cite your sources. CengageNOW Virtual Astronomy Laboratories 2.0
ples on Space Law can be found at c. Cite your sources.
www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/ 5. How Do You Know? Should you statement is more than an opinion or a spec- easier. The wavelength of light that your eye
SpaceLaw/treaties.html. 3. Anyone Out There? Should we humans believe everything written in this text- ulation because it has been tested objectively sees as yellow is about 0.00000058 m. In sci-
a. Use at least three vocabulary words send out signals to anyone who is lis- book? If information from a television against reality. When you think of evidence, entific notation that becomes 5.8 x 10-7 m.
from the text correctly in your writ- tening and advertise our location in show or the Internet disagrees with you probably think of criminal investigations As you also learned in this chapter,
ten debate, underline each, and cite space? Supposing that listeners exist, what you read in this book, which in which detectives collect fingerprints and inventing new units of measure such as the
the page and paragraph numbers. will they be able to find us based upon would you believe? Is “believe” a good eyewitness accounts. In science, evidence AU and the parsec is another way to make
b. What’s the evidence? Find additional the signal they receive from us, and word to use for a scientific understand- most often consists of measurements. astronomical distances easier to deal with.
sources that support your stand. should we humans worry? ing? If you disagree with the informa- One of the most difficult but crucial Conversion factors between various common
c. Cite your sources. a. Use at least three vocabulary words tion from the television, Internet, and measurements in astronomy is the measure- units can be found in this book’s Appendix
from the text correctly in your text, and instead you draw a conclusion An online, interactive way for you to explore
ment of distance. If you don’t know the dis- Tables A-3, A-4, and A-6.
debate, underline each, and cite the based on your own knowledge, how do astronomy, Virtual Astronomy Laboratories
2. Another 2012? In December 2012, tance to an object, you know only how Sections 1 and 2 of Virtual Astronomy
page and paragraph numbers. you know you are correct? Could you be 2.0 allows you to have a hands-on lab expe-
the world was supposed to come to an large and how bright it seems from your Laboratory 1, “Measurement and Unit Conver-
b. What’s the evidence? Find additional biased in your conclusions? rience from your computer. Enhance your
end according to various beliefs. Sup- standpoint on Earth. You don’t know its real sion,” help you practice techniques of record-
sources that support your stand. a. Use at least three vocabulary words understanding of the scientific method with
pose a new prophecy is found that size, its total energy output, or any other ing measurements, converting units, and
from the text correctly in your the Virtual Astronomy Laboratories. Focusing
predicts a new ending date to the c. Cite your sources. absolute quantities. using scientific notation. Sign in at http://
debate, underline each, and cite on twenty of the most important concepts
world, and the new date is two years As you learned in this chapter, the dis- login.cengagebrain.com to explore Virtual
the page and paragraph numbers. in astronomy, the labs offer you hands-on
from today. Your neighbor decides to 4. What Are We? Based on the age of tances to astronomical objects are . . . well, Astronomy Laboratories 2.0.
b. What’s the evidence? Find additional exercises that complement text topics.
build an underground bunker in his the universe, the age of the solar astronomical. Use of scientific notation (also
backyard. The bunker can house only system, and the age of humanlike sources that support your stand. called “powers of 10 notation”) simplifies
sixty people, and only those that fund creatures, would you consider humans c. Cite your sources. Virtual Astronomy Laboratory 1.1: writing very large and very small numbers.
Measurement and Unit Conversion For example, the average distance between
A vital characteristic of scientific knowledge is Earth and the sun is 150,000,000 km. Writ-
that it is supported by evidence. A scientific ing this number as 1.5 x 108 km is much
9b PART 1 THE SKY 10 PART 1 THE SKY
Guidepost
The previous chapter took you on a cosmic zoom through
space and time. That quick preview set the stage for the
drama to come. In this chapter, you restart your explo-
rations by viewing the sky from Earth with your own
unaided eyes. As you do, consider three important
questions:
A User’s
▶ How are names chosen for constellations and stars?
▶ How can you compare the brightness of the stars? Guide
▶ How does the sky appear to move as Earth rotates?
As you study the sky and its apparent daily motions,

you will learn to imagine Earth as a planet rotating on
to the Sky
its axis. The next chapter will introduce you to celestial
cycles caused by the monthly revolution of the moon
around Earth and the yearly revolution of Earth around
the sun.
Laurent Fournet, Jean-Philippe Olive, Club Astro Astrium, Toulouse,France
A nearly 3-hour exposure of Southern Hemisphere circumpolar star trails.

There is no bright star marking the south celestial pole, but star trails for
the Southern Cross can be seen at center right.
11
The Southern Cross I saw
every night abeam. The
sun every morning came
up astern; every evening it
went down ahead. I
wished for no other
compass to guide me, for
these were true.
C A PTA IN JO SH UA SLO CUM
SA I LIN G A LO N E A RO UN D THE W O RLD
he night sky is the rest of the uni-
T verse as seen from our planet. When

you look up at the stars, you are

looking out through a layer of air only a
little more than a hundred kilometers deep.
Beyond that, space is nearly empty, and the
stars are scattered light-years apart.
As you read this chapter, keep in mind
that you live on a planet in the midst of
these scattered stars. Because Earth turns ■ Figure 2-1
on its axis once a day, the sky appears to The constellations are an ancient heritage handed down for thousands of years as celebrations of
revolve around you in a daily cycle. Not great heroes and mythical creatures. Here Sagittarius and Scorpius hang above the southern horizon.
only does the sun rise in the eastern part of
the sky and set in the western part, but so
do the stars. astronomers of northern latitudes were not grouped into constel-
lations. Constellation boundaries, when they were defined at all,
were only approximate (■ Figure 2-2a), so a star like Alpheratz
could be thought of as part of Pegasus or part of Andromeda. To
2-1 The Stars
correct these gaps and ambiguities, astronomers have added
40 modern constellations, and in 1928 the International
On a dark night far from city lights, you can see a few thou- Astronomical Union established 88 official constellations with
sand stars. Long ago, humans organized what they saw by nam- clearly defined boundaries (Figure 2-2b). Consequently, a con-
ing stars and groups of stars. Some of those names survive today. stellation now represents not a group of stars but an area of the
sky, and any star within the region belongs to one and only one
Constellations constellation. Alpheratz belongs to Andromeda.
All around the world, ancient cultures celebrated heroes, gods, In addition to the 88 official constellations, the sky contains
and mythical beasts by giving their names to groups of stars— a number of less formally defined groupings called asterisms.
constellations (■ Figure 2-1). You should not be surprised that The Big Dipper, for example, is a well-known asterism that is
the star patterns do not look like the creatures they represent any part of the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). Another
more than Columbus, Ohio, looks like Christopher Columbus. asterism is the Great Square of Pegasus (Figure 2-2b), which
The constellations simply celebrate the most important mythical includes three stars from Pegasus plus Alpheratz from Andromeda.
figures in each culture. The oldest constellations named by West- The star charts at the end of this book will introduce you to the
ern cultures originated in Assyria over 3000 years ago, and others brighter constellations and asterisms.
were added by Babylonian and Greek astronomers during the Although constellations and asterisms are groups of stars
classical age. Of these ancient constellations, 48 are still in use. that appear close together in the sky, it is important to remember
To the ancients, a constellation was a loose grouping of stars. that most are made up of stars that are not physically associated
Many of the fainter stars were not included in any constellation, with one another. Some stars may be many times farther away
and the stars of the southern sky not visible to the ancient than others and moving through space in different directions.
12 PART 1 THE SKY
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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Stars and Galaxies 8th Edition

Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since 1970. In 1989 he received

history of astronomy led him to create upper-level courses on archaeoastronomy

stars and the automation of astronomical telescopes. Mike is coauthor with

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Horizons: Exploring the Universe.

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Part 2: The Solar System

Part 3: The Stars

Part 4: The Universe of Galaxies

1-1 WHERE ARE WE? 2 1-1 The So-Called Scientific Method 8

3-2 Evidence as the Foundation of Science 31

2-2 THE SKY AND ITS MOTION 16 4-1 Scientific Revolutions 53

4-2 Hypothesis, Theory, and Law 58

Chapter 4 | The Origin of Modern Astronomy 46

The Phases of the Moon 34–35

Chapter 6 | Atoms and Spectra 101

3-1 The Small-Angle Formula 38

4-1 Circular Velocity 68

5-1 The Powers of a Telescope 84

6-1 Blackbody Radiation 108

6-2 The Doppler Formula 113

Chapter 12 | Meteorites, Asteroids, Reasoning with Numbers

13-4 STAR SIZES 269 Celestial Profile 4 | Mercury 188

14-1 Separating Facts from Hypotheses 298

14-2 Mathematical Models 310

15-1 Toward Ultimate Causes 321

16-1 Theories and Proof 355

16-2 Checks on Fraud in Science 360

Concept Art Portfolios

Three Kinds of Nebulae 294–295

Star Formation in the Orion Nebula 300–301

Observations of Young Stellar Objects and

Star Cluster H–R Diagrams 324–325

The Formation of Planetary Nebulae 328–329

The Lighthouse Model of a Pulsar 348–349

Part 3: The Stars

14-1 THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 289

Chapter 15 | The Deaths of Stars 317

Chapter 16 | Neutron Stars and Black Holes 344

Chapter 17 | The Milky Way Galaxy 368 17-1 Calibration 374

18-1 THE FAMILY OF GALAXIES 396

Galaxy Classification 398–399

Reasoning with Numbers

18-1 The Hubble Law 403

19-1 The Age of the Universe 429

Concept Art Portfolios

DNA: The Code of Life 456–457