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Horizons Exploring the Universe
Michael A. Seeds
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Horizons
14 FOURTEENTH EDITION
Horizons
Exploring the Universe
Michael Seeds
Joseph R. Grundy Observatory
Franklin and Marshall College
Dana Backman
SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory
for Infrared Astronomy)
SETI Institute & NASA Ames
Research Center
With MindTap media contributions

and additional problems from
Michele Montgomery,
© Universal History Archive / Getty Images
University of Central Florida.
Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States
Horizons: Exploring the Universe, © 2018, 2014, 2012 Cengage Learning
Fourteenth Edition
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein
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Dedication
For our families
Brief Contents
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 45
CHAPTER 5 LIGHT AND TELESCOPES 73
Part 2: The Stars

CHAPTER 6 ATOMS AND SPECTRA 99
CHAPTER 7 THE SUN 114
CHAPTER 8 THE FAMILY OF STARS 138
CHAPTER 9 THE FORMATION AND STRUCTURE OF STARS 166
CHAPTER 10 THE DEATHS OF STARS 194
CHAPTER 11 NEUTRON STARS AND BLACK HOLES 221
Part 3: The Universe of Galaxies

CHAPTER 12 THE MILKY WAY GALAXY 244
CHAPTER 13 GALAXIES: NORMAL AND ACTIVE 269
CHAPTER 14 MODERN COSMOLOGY 298
Part 4: The Solar System

CHAPTER 15 ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND EXTRASOLAR PLANETS 328
CHAPTER 16 EARTH AND MOON: BASES FOR COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY 353
CHAPTER 17 MERCURY, VENUS, AND MARS 374
CHAPTER 18 THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM 398
CHAPTER 19 METEORITES, ASTEROIDS, AND COMETS 427
Part 5: Life
CHAPTER 20 ASTROBIOLOGY: LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS 449
vi
Contents
Part 1: The Sky
How Do We Know?
Chapter 1 | Here and Now 1 1-1 The Scientific Method 8
1-1 WHERE ARE WE? 2
2-1 Scientific Models 20
1-2 WHEN IS NOW? 6
3-1 Pseudoscience 29
1-3 WHY STUDY ASTRONOMY? 7
3-2 Evidence as the Foundation of Science 31
Chapter 2 | A User’s Guide to the Sky 11 3-3 Scientific Arguments 32
2-1 THE STARS 12 4-1 Scientific Revolutions 52
2-2 THE SKY AND ITS MOTIONS 17 4-2 Hypothesis, Theory, and Law 57
4-3 Cause and Effect 64
Chapter 3 | Cycles of the Sun and Moon 23 4-4 Testing a Hypothesis by Prediction 70
3-1 CYCLES OF THE SUN 24 5-1 Resolution and Precision 81
3-2 ASTRONOMICAL INFLUENCES ON
EARTH’S CLIMATE 28
3-3 THE CHANGEABLE MOON 31
Chapter 4 | The Origin of Modern Astronomy 45

4-1 CLASSICAL ASTRONOMY 46 Concept Art Portfolios
4-2 THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION 47
2A The Sky Around You 18–19
4-3 PLANETARY MOTION 53
4-4 GALILEO GALILEI 59 3A The Cycle of the Seasons 26–27
4-5 ISAAC NEWTON AND ORBITAL MOTION 62 3B The Phases of the Moon 34–35
4A An Ancient Model of the Universe 48–49

Chapter 5 | Light and Telescopes 73
5-1 RADIATION: INFORMATION FROM SPACE 74 4B Orbits 66–67
5-2 TELESCOPES 77 5A Modern Optical Telescopes 84–85
5-3 OBSERVATORIES ON EARTH: OPTICAL AND
RADIO 83
5-4 AIRBORNE AND SPACE OBSERVATORIES 88
5-5 ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
TECHNIQUES 91
Reasoning with Numbers
2-1 Magnitudes 16
3-1 The Small-Angle Formula 37
4-1 Circular Velocity 65
5-1 The Powers of a Telescope 82
NASA/Rami Daud
vii
Part 2: The Stars
How Do We Know?
Chapter 6 | Atoms and Spectra 99 6-1 Quantum Mechanics 102
6-1 A
ATOMS 100
7-1 Confirmation and Consolidation 127
6-2 INTERACTIONS OF LIGHT AND MATTER 103
7-2 Scientific Confidence 135
6-3 UNDERSTANDING SPECTRA 106
8-1 Chains of Inference 154
Chapter 7 | The Sun 114 8-2 Basic Scientific Data 159
7-1 THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE

A 115 9-1 Separating Facts from Hypotheses 176
7-2 SOLAR ACTIVITY 121 9-2 Mathematical Models 188

7-3 NUCLEAR FUSION IN THE SUN 128 10-1 Toward Ultimate Causes 198
11-1 Hypotheses, Theories, and Proofs 232
Chapter 8 | The Family of Stars 138 11-2 Checks on Fraud in Science 237
8-1 STAR DISTANCES 139
8-2 APPARENT BRIGHTNESS, INTRINSIC BRIGHTNESS,
AND LUMINOSITY 141
8-3 STELLAR SPECTRA 143 Concept Art Portfolios
8-4 STAR SIZES 147
6A Atomic Spectra 108–109
8-5 STAR MASSES—BINARY STARS 152
8-6 A CENSUS OF THE STARS 158 7A Sunspots and the Solar Magnetic Cycle 124–125
7B Solar Activity and the Sun–Earth Connection 130–131

Chapter 9 | The Formation and Structure of Stars 166
8A The Family of Stars 160–161
9-1 THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 167
9-2 MAKING STARS FROM THE INTERSTELLAR 9A Three Kinds of Nebulae 172–173
MEDIUM 170
9B Star Formation in the Orion Nebula 178–179
9-3 YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS AND PROTOSTELLAR
DISKS 180 9C Observations of Young Stellar Objects and Protostellar
Disks 182–183
9-4 STELLAR STRUCTURE AND NUCLEAR FUSION 184
9-5 MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS 188 10A Star Clusters and Stellar Evolution 202–203
10B Formation of Planetary Nebulae and

Chapter 10 | The Deaths of Stars 194 White Dwarfs 206–207
10-1 GIANT STARS 196
11A The Lighthouse Model of Pulsars 226–227
10-2 LOWER-MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS 200
10-3 THE EVOLUTION OF BINARY SYSTEMS 208
10-4 THE DEATHS OF MASSIVE STARS 211

Chapter 11 | Neutron Stars and Black Holes 221
11-1 NEUTRON STARS 222 6-1 Blackbody Radiation 106
11-2 BLACK HOLES 233 6-2 The Doppler Formula 111

11-3 COMPACT OBJECTS WITH DISKS AND JETS 238 7-1 Hydrogen Fusion 129
8-1 Parallax and Distance 140
8-2 Absolute Magnitude and Distance 142
8-3 Luminosity, Radius, and Temperature 148
8-4 The Masses of Binary Stars 153
8-5 The Mass–Luminosity Relation 162
9-1 The Life Expectancies of Stars 190
Celestial Profile 1 | The Sun 116
viii CONTENTS
How Do We Know?
+ Visual
12-1 Calibration 249

12-2 Nature as Processes 259
13-1 Classification in Science 271
13-2 Statistical Evidence 286
14-1 Reasoning by Analogy 301
14-2 Science: A System of Knowledge 310
NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/NSF/ESA/CXC/SAO/J. Hester (Arizona State Univ.)

14-3 Wishing Doesn’t Make It So 318
Concept Art Portfolios

12A Sagittarius A* 260–261
13A Galaxy Classification 272–273
13B Interacting Galaxies 284–285
13C Galaxy Jets and Radio Lobes 288–289
14A The Nature of Space-Time 312–313
Part 3: The Universe of Galaxies

Chapter 12 | The Milky Way Galaxy 244
12-1 DISCOVERY OF THE GALAXY 245
12-2 STRUCTURE OF THE GALAXY 250
12-3 SPIRAL ARMS AND STAR FORMATION 253 13-1 The Hubble Law 276
12-4 THE NUCLEUS OF THE GALAXY 258 14-1 The Age of the Universe 303
12-5 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY 262
Chapter 13 | Galaxies: Normal and Active 269

13-1 THE FAMILY
F OF GALAXIES 270
13-2 MEASURING THE PROPERTIES OF GALAXIES 274
13-3 THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES 280
Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/R. Kennicutt, SINGS Team

13-4 ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND QUASARS 283
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Univ. of Massachusetts/Q. D. Wang et al.;

Visual: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/NSF/The Hubble Heritage Team;
13-5 DISKS, JETS, ERUPTIONS, AND GALAXY EVOLUTION 290
Chapter 14 | Modern Cosmology 298

14-1 INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSE 299
14-2 THE BIG BANG THEORY 302
14-3 SPACE AND TIME, MATTER AND GRAVITY 310
14-4 TWENTY-F
WENTY IRST-C
WENTY-F IRST ENTURY COSMOLOGY 316
CONTENTS ix
Part 4: The Solar System
How Do We Know?
Chapter 15 | Origin of the Solar System and Extrasolar 15-1 Two Kinds of Hypotheses: Catastrophic and
Planets 328 Evolutionary 330
15-1 THE GREAT CHAIN OF ORIGINS 329 15-2 Reconstructing the Past from Evidence and
15-2 A SURVEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM 331 Hypotheses 336
15-3 THE STORY OF PLANET BUILDING 338 16-1 Understanding Planets: Follow the Energy 356
15-4 PLANETS ORBITING OTHER STARS 344 16-2 Scientists: Courteous Skeptics 362
17-1 Hypotheses and Theories Unify the Details 377
Chapter 16 | Earth and Moon: Bases for Comparative 17-2 The Present Is the Key to the Past 392
Planetology 353
18-1 Funding for Basic Research 409
16-1 A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE TERRESTRIAL
19-1 Selection Effects 430
PLANETS 354
16-2 PLANET EARTH 356
16-3 THE MOON 365
Chapter 17 | Mercury, Venus, and Mars 374

17-1 MERCURY 375
17-2 VENUS 378 15A Terrestrial and Jovian Planets 332–333
17-3 MARS 384
16A The Active Earth 360–361
Chapter 18 | The Outer Solar System 398 16B Impact Cratering 366–367
18-1 A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE OUTER SOLAR 17A Volcanoes 382–383
SYSTEM 399
17B When Good Planets Go Bad 394–395
18-2 JUPITER 400
18-3 SATURN 407 18A Jupiter’s Atmosphere 402–403
18-4 URANUS 414 18B The Ice Rings of Saturn 412–413
18-5 NEPTUNE 417
18C Uranus’s and Neptune’s Rings 418–419
18-6 PLUTO AND THE KUIPER BELT 422
19A Observations of Asteroids 434–435
Chapter 19 | Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets 427 19B Observations of Comets 440–441
19-1 METEOROIDS, METEORS, AND METEORITES 428
19-2 ASTEROIDS 432
19-3 COMETS 437
19-4 ASTEROID AND COMET IMPACTS 443
Celestial Profile 2 | Earth 364
Celestial Profile 3 | The Moon 364, 376
Celestial Profile 4 | Mercury 376
Celestial Profile 5 | Venus 385
Celestial Profile 6 | Mars 385
Celestial Profile 7 | Jupiter 408
Celestial Profile 8 | Saturn 408
Celestial Profile 9 | Uranus 420
Celestial Profile 10 | Neptune 420
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
x CONTENTS
How Do We Know?
20-1 The Nature of Scientific Explanation 451
20-2 UFOs and Space Aliens 462

20A DNA: The Code of Life 452–453
Mural by Peter Sawyer
Part 5: Life AFTERWORD 469

APPENDIX A UNITS AND ASTRONOMICAL DATA 471
Chapter 20 | Astrobiology: Life on Other Worlds 449 APPENDIX B OBSERVING THE SKY 479
20-1 THE NATURE OF LIFE 450 GLOSSARY 482
20-2 LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 454 ANSWERS TO EVEN-NUMBERED PROBLEMS 487
20-3 INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 461 INDEX 488
NASA
CONTENTS xi
A Note to Students
From Dana and Mike do you know it is true? For instance, astronomy boring. Rather, this book is
how can anyone know there was a big organized to show you how scientists use
We are excited that you are taking
bang? In today’s world, you need to evidence and theory to create logical
an astronomy course and using our
think carefully about the things so-called arguments that show how nature works.
MindTap and textbook. You are going
experts say. You should demand explana- Look at the list of special features that
to see some amazing things, from the icy
tions. Scientists have a special way of follows this note. Those features were
rings of Saturn to monster black holes.
knowing based on evidence that makes carefully designed to help you
We are proud to
scientific knowledge much more power- understand astronomy as evidence and
be your guides as you explore.
ful than just opinion, policy, marketing, theory. Once you see science as logical
We have developed this book to
or public relations. It is the human race’s arguments, you hold the key to the
help you expand your knowledge of
best understanding of nature. To under- Universe.
astronomy, from the Moon and a few
stand the world around you, you need to
stars in the evening sky to a deeper
understand how science works. Don’t Be Humble
understanding of the extent, power, and
Throughout this book, you will find
diversity of the Universe. You will meet As teachers, our quest is simple. We
boxes called How Do We Know? and
worlds where it rains methane, stars so want you to understand your place in
Practicing Science. They will help you
dense atoms cannot exist there, colliding the Universe—not just your location in
understand how scientists use the meth-
galaxies that are ripping each other apart, space but your location in the unfolding
ods of science to know what the
and a Universe that is expanding faster history of the physical Universe. Not
Universe is like.
and faster. only do we want you to know where you
are and what you are in the Universe,
Two Goals Expect to Be Astonished but we want you to understand how sci-
This book is designed to help you One reason astronomy is exciting is entists know. By the end of this book,
answer two important questions: that astronomers discover new things we want you to know that the Universe
every day. Astronomers expect to be is very big but that it is described by a
• What are we? astonished. You can share in the excite- small set of rules and that we humans
• How do we know? ment because we have worked hard to have found a way to figure out the
By the question “What are we?” we include the newest images, the newest rules—through a method called science.
mean, “How do we fit into the Universe discoveries, and the newest insights that To appreciate your role in this beau-
and its history?” The atoms you are will take you, in an introductory course, tiful Universe, you need to learn more
made of had their first birthday in the to the frontier of human knowledge. than just the facts of astronomy. You can
big bang when the Universe began, but Telescopes in space and on remote strive for an understanding of what we
those atoms were cooked and remade mountaintops provide a daily dose are and how we know. Every page of this
inside stars, and now they are inside you. of excitement that goes far beyond book reflects that ideal.
Where will they be in a billion years? sensationalism. These new discoveries
Dana Backman
Astronomy is the only course on campus in astronomy are exciting because they
dbackman@sofia.usra.edu
that can tell you that story, and it is a are about us. They tell us more and
story that everyone should know. more about what we are. Mike Seeds
By the question “How do we As you read this book, notice that it mseeds@fandm.edu
know?” we mean, “How does science is not organized as lists of facts for you
work?” What is the evidence, and how to memorize. That could make even
xii A NOTE TO STUDENTS
Key Content and Pedagogical Special Features
Changes to the Fourteenth
Edition • What Are We? essays are placed at the end of each chapter
to help you understand your own role in the cosmos.
• How Do We Know? commentaries appear in every chapter
• Every chapter has been reviewed and updated with new and will help you see how science works. They point out
discoveries and images. where scientists use statistical evidence, why they think with
• The lunar and solar eclipse tables in Chapter 3 have been analogies, and how they build confidence in hypotheses.
updated to include eclipses through the year 2024. • Practicing Science boxes at the end of many text sections
• The Mars retrograde loop figure in Chapter 4 (“The Ori- are carefully designed to help you review and synthesize con-
gin of Modern Astronomy,” Concept Art 4A, “An Ancient cepts from the section and practice thinking like a scientist.
Model of the Universe”), is updated to 2018. • Special two-page Concept Art spreads provide an oppor-
• New and planned observatory facilities, including the tunity for you to create your own understanding and share
Thirty Meter Telescope, are featured in Chapter 5 (“Light in the satisfaction that scientists feel as they uncover the
and Telescopes”). secrets of nature.
• Solar cycle plots in Chapter 7 (“The Sun”) have been up- • Celestial Profiles of objects in our Solar System directly
dated to 2016, and implications of the late start and weak compare and contrast planets with each other. This is the
maximum of the most recent solar activity cycle are dis- way planetary scientists understand the planets, not as iso-
cussed. lated, unrelated bodies but as siblings with noticeable difdif-
• Chapter 11 (“Neutron Stars and Black Holes”) ferences and yet many characteristics and a family history
includes a description of the discovery of gravity in common.
waves from distant black hole mergers by the LIGO • Guided discovery figures illustrate important ideas visually
interferometer. and guide you to understand relationships and contrasts
• Chapter 12 (“The Milky Way Galaxy”) includes a new interactively.
image of the galaxy’s circumnuclear ring orbiting a central • Guideposts on the opening page of each chapter help you see
supermassive black hole, obtained by an infrared camera the organization of the book by focusing on a small number
onboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared of questions to be answered as you read the chapter.
Astronomy (SOFIA). • End-of-Chapter Review Questions are designed to help
• Chapter 14 (“Modern Cosmology”) contains a discussion you review and test your understanding of the material.
of the claimed detection of cosmological gravity waves in • End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions go beyond the text
2014 and subsequent careful reanalysis of the data by and invite you to think critically and creatively about scien-
several research teams, as an object lesson in the care that tific questions. You can ponder these questions yourself or
professional scientists take to check their results and avoid discuss them in class. Many of the Discussion Questions
wishful thinking. have been replaced or rewritten in this edition to better
• Chapter 15 (“Origin of the Solar System and Extrasolar support active-learning classroom scenarios.
Planets”) has been updated with new information regard-
ing the wide and wonderful variety of extrasolar planets
discovered and studied by the Kepler and Spitzer space MindTap for Astronomy
telescopes plus ground-based research programs.
• Chapter 17 (“Mercury, Venus, and Mars”), Chapter 18
• Sense of Proportion questions extend the journey of dis-
(“The Outer Solar System”), and Chapter 19 (“Meteorites, covery through every chapter while grounding the concepts
Asteroids, and Comets”) are updated with new findings in mathematical meaning.
and images regarding Mercury, Mars, Ceres, Comet
• Show Me Astronomy videos guide you through chapter
Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and Pluto from the topics selected and presented by co-author Michele
MESSENGER, Curiosity, Dawn, Rosetta-Philae, and Montgomery, UCF
New Horizons space missions, respectively.
A NOTE TO STUDENTS xiii
MindTap is a digital learning solution that helps instructors simulations that are integrated right into the MindTap
engage and transform today’s students into critical thinkers. reader to help students better visualize the concepts.
Through paths of dynamic assignments and applications that Animation tutorials will build student reasoning so they will
you can personalize, real-time course analytics, and an acces- ultimately be able to draw stronger conclusions.
sible reader, MindTap helps you turn cookie cutter into cutting The end of chapter homework questions in MindTap
edge, apathy into engagement, and memorizers into higher- provide a tighter integration with the textbook content and
level thinkers. emphasize conceptual understanding. In addition, instruc-
MindTap for Astronomy has a carefully curated learning tors can customize the learning path with the Assessment
path that includes tutorial simulations, readings, and assess- app, which includes thousands of questions pulled from
ments. Research has proven that students perform better decades of legacy content. Instructor supplements include
when activities encourage an active experience; with this Class Engagement Lecture Slides, Images from the book,
research in mind, author Mike Seeds has developed tutorial and Cengage Learning Testing, powered by Cognero®.
Acknowledgments
Over the years we have had the guidance of a great many people operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. We also used images and
who care about astronomy and teaching. We would like to thank image mosaics obtained as part of the Two Micron All Sky
all of the students and teachers who have contributed their Survey (2MASS), a joint project of the University of
insights and suggestions. Their comments have been very helpful Massachusetts and Caltech, funded by NASA and the NSF.
in shaping this book. It is always a pleasure to work with the Cengage Learning
We would especially like to thank Susan English, whose team. Special thanks go to all of the people who have contrib-
careful reading and thoughtful suggestions have been invaluable uted directly to this project, including Product Assistants
in completing this new edition, and Michael Jacobs for his help Margaret O’Neil and Caitlin Ghegan and Content Developer
with new Discussion Questions. Michael Jacobs. We always enjoy working with Margaret
Many observatories, research institutes, laboratories, and Pinette, and continue to appreciate her understanding and
individual astronomers have supplied figures and diagrams for goodwill. We would especially like to thank Product Manager
this edition. They are listed in the individual item credits, and Rebecca Berardy Schwartz for her help and guidance through-
we would like to thank them here specifically for their out this project.
generosity. Most of all, we would like to thank our families for putting
We are happy to acknowledge the use of images and data up with “the books.” They know all too well that textbooks are
from a number of important programs. In updating materials for made of time.
this book, especially the data tables in Chapters 9 and 10 and Dana Backman
Appendix A, we made extensive use of the SIMBAD database Mike Seeds
xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
About the Authors
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 inter-
disciplinary Foundations program. Dana now teaches some introductory
astronomy classes at Santa Clara University. His research interests focus on
infrared observations of planet formation, models of debris disks around
nearby stars, and evolution of the Solar System’s Kuiper Belt. Dana is
employed by the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, as director of
education and public outreach for SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for
Seth Shostak / SETI Institute
Infrared Astronomy) at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Dana is coauthor

with Mike Seeds of Horizons: Exploring the Universe, 12th edition (2012);
Universe: Solar Systems, Stars, and Galaxies, 7th edition (2012); Stars and
Galaxies, 8th edition (2013); The Solar System, 8th edition (2013); and
ASTRO, 2nd edition (2013), all published by Cengage.
Mike Seeds was a professor of physics and astronomy at Franklin and Marshall
College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1970 until his retirement in 2001. 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 on the Copernican Revolution (“Changing Concepts of
the Universe”). His research interests focus on variable stars and automation of
astronomical telescopes. Mike is coauthor with Dana Backman of Horizons:
Exploring the Universe, 12th edition (2012); Universe: Solar Systems, Stars,
and Galaxies, 7th edition (2012); Stars and Galaxies, 8th edition (2013);
The Solar System, 8th edition (2013); and ASTRO, 2nd edition (2013), all
published by Cengage. He was senior consultant for creation of the 20-episode
telecourse accompanying his book Horizons: Exploring the Universe.
Courtesy of Kris Koenig
ABOUT THE AUTHORS xv
Guidepost As you study astronomy, you also learn about
Here and Now
This chapter is a jumping-off point for your exploration of

1
yourself. You are a planet-walker, and this chapter offers you deep space and deep time. The next chapter continues your
a preview of what that means. The planet you live on whirls journey by looking at the night sky as seen from Earth. As you
around a star that moves through a space filled with other stars study astronomy, you will see how science gives you a way to
and galaxies (see the photo in CO1). You owe it to yourself to know how nature works. Later chapters will provide more spe-
know where you are located in the Universe and when you are cific insights into how scientists study and understand nature.
living its history because those are important steps to knowing
what you are.
In this chapter, you will consider three important questions:
▶ Where is Earth in the Universe?
▶ How does human history fit into the history of the

The longest journey begins with a single step.
Universe?
—L A O Z I
▶ Why study astronomy?
NOAA/NASA GOES Project
Visual
CO1. Image of Earth from the GOES (Geostationary Operational

Environment Satellite) East weather satellite stationed over the central
Atlantic Ocean. This image, which was made during the month of
January, shows a coating of snow over Canada and the northern part
of the United States, as well as lush vegetation in the Amazon Basin of
South America.
1-1 Where Are We?
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 familiar. Figure 1-1 shows a
region about 50 feet across occupied by a human being, a side-
walk, and a few trees—all objects with sizes you can understand.
Each successive picture in this cosmic zoom will show you a
region of the Universe that is 100 times wider than the preced-
ing picture. That is, each step will widen your field of view, the
region you can see in the image, by a factor of 100.
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
sidewalks have become too small to see, but now you see a col- Visual
USGS
lege campus and surrounding streets and houses. The dimen-
sions of houses and streets are familiar. This is still the world you ▲ Figure 1-2 This box ■ represents the relative size of the
know. previous frame.
Before leaving this familiar territory, you should make
a change in the units you use to measure sizes. All scientists, (Figure 1-3). Now your field of view is 160 km wide, and you
including astronomers, use the metric system of units because see cities and towns as patches of gray. Wilmington, Delaware,
it is well understood worldwide and, more importantly, because is visible at the lower right. At this scale, you can see some of the
it simplifies calculations. If you are not already familiar with natural features of Earth’s surface. The Allegheny Mountains of
the metric system, or if you need a review, study Appendix A southern Pennsylvania cross the image in the upper left, and the
before reading on. Susquehanna River flows southeast into Chesapeake Bay. What
In metric units, the image in Figure 1-1 is about 16 meters look like white bumps are a few puffs of clouds.
across, and the 1-mile diameter of Figure 1-2 equals about 1.6 Figure 1-3 is an infrared photograph in which healthy green
kilometers. You can see that a kilometer (abbreviated km) is a leaves and crops show up as red. Human eyes are sensitive to
bit under two-thirds of a mile—a short walk across a neighbor- only a narrow range of colors called “visual.” As you explore the
hood. But when you expand your field of view by a factor of Universe in the following chapters, you will learn to use a wide
100, the neighborhood you saw in the previous photo vanishes range of other “colors,” from X-rays to radio waves, to reveal
NASA/Landsat
Michael A. Seeds
Infrared
Visual
▲ Figure 1-3 This box ■ represents the relative size of

▲ Figure 1-1 the previous frame.
2 PART 1 THE SKY
Earth Moon
Enlarged to show
relative sizes
Visual
NASA
NASA
Earth Moon
▲ Figure 1-4 This box ■ represents the relative size of the
previous frame.
previous frame.
sights invisible to unaided human eyes. Photographs in this book When you once again enlarge your field of view by a fac-
generally will have labels noting which color or type of light was tor of 100, Earth, the Moon, and the Moon’s orbit all lie in the
used to make the image. small red box at lower left of Figure 1-6. Now you can see the Sun
At the next step in your journey, you can see your entire and two other planets that are part of our Solar System. Our
planet, which is nearly 13,000 km in diameter (Figure 1-4). At Solar System consists of the Sun, its family of planets, and some
any particular moment, half of Earth’s surface is exposed to sun- smaller bodies, such as moons and comets.
light, and half is in darkness. As Earth rotates on its axis, it car- Earth, Venus, and Mercury are planets, small, spherical,
ries you through sunlight and then through darkness, producing nonluminous bodies that orbit a star and shine by reflected light.
the cycle of day and night. The blurriness you see at the extreme Venus is about the size of Earth, and Mercury has just over a
right of the photo is the boundary between day and night—the third of Earth’s diameter. On this diagram, they are both too
sunset line. This is a good example of how a photo can give you small to be seen as anything but tiny dots. The Sun is a star, a
visual clues to understanding a concept. Special questions called self-luminous ball of hot gas that generates its own energy. Even
“Learning to Look” at the end of each chapter give you a chance
to find connections between images and information regarding
astronomical objects.
Enlarge your field of view by another factor of 100, and
you see a region 1,600,000 km wide (Figure 1-5). Earth is the Sun
Venus
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. The relative sizes of Earth and Moon are
shown in the inset at the bottom right of Figure 1-5.
These numbers are so large that it is inconvenient to write AU
1
them out. Astronomy is sometimes known as the science of big Mercury
numbers, and soon you will be using numbers much larger than
these to discuss the Universe. Rather than writing out these Enlarged to show
relative sizes
numbers as in the previous paragraph, it is more convenient to
write them in scientific notation. This is nothing more than Earth
NSF/AURA/NOAO
a simple way to write very big or very small numbers without Earth
using lots of zeros. In scientific notation, 380,000 becomes Sun
3.8 3 10 5. If you are not familiar with scientific notation,
read the section on powers of 10 notation in Appendix A. The ▲ Figure 1-6 The small red box around Earth at lower left
Universe is too big to discuss without using scientific notation. contains the entire field of view of Figure 1-5 .
Chapter 1 HERE AND NOW 3
though the Sun is about 100 times larger in diameter than Earth
(inset), it too is nothing more than a dot in the figure.
This diagram represents an area with a diameter of
1.6 3 10 8 km. Another way astronomers simplify descrip-
tions and calculations using large numbers is to define larger
units of measurement. For example, the average distance from
Earth to the Sun is a unit of distance called the astronomical
Sun and planets
unit (AU), which is equal to 1.5 3 108 km. You can express
the average distance from Venus to the Sun as about 0.72 AU
and the average distance from Mercury to the Sun as about
0.39 AU.
These distances are averages because the orbits of the planets
are not perfect circles. This is particularly apparent in the case of
Mercury. Its orbit carries it as close to the Sun as 0.31 AU and
as far away as 0.47 AU. You can see the variation in the distance
from Mercury to the Sun in Figure 1-6. Earth’s orbit is more cir- ▲ Figure 1-8 The small red box at the center contains the
cular, and its distance from the Sun varies by only a few percent. entire field of view of Figure 1-7.
Enlarge your field of view again by a factor of 100, 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 You can remember the order of the plants from the Sun
separately at this scale, and they are lost in the red square at the outward by remembering a simple sentence: My Very Educated
center of the diagram that shows the size of the previous figure. Mother Just Served Us Noodles (perhaps you can come up with a
You can see only the brighter, more widely separated objects such better one). The first letter of each word is the same as the first
as Mars, the next planet outward. Mars lies only 1.5 AU from letter of a planet’s name: Mercury, Venus Earth, Mars Jupiter,
the Sun, but Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are farther Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
from the Sun and so are easier to place in this diagram. They When you again enlarge your field of view by a factor of
are cold worlds far from the Sun’s warmth. Light from the Sun 100, the Solar System vanishes (Figure 1-8). The Sun is only a
reaches Earth in only 8 minutes, but it takes more than 4 hours point of light, and all the planets and their orbits are now
to reach Neptune. 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.
Notice that no stars are visible in Figure 1-8 except for the
Sun. The Sun is a fairly typical star, and it seems to be located in
a fairly average neighborhood 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
30 times larger than that.
Sun In Figure 1-9, your field of view has expanded to a diameter
of a bit over 1.1 million AU. The Sun is at the center, and at this
Mars scale you can see a few of the nearest stars. These stars are so dis-
Jupiter tant that it is not convenient to give their distances in astronomi-
Saturn cal units. To express distances so large, astronomers define a new
Uranus unit of distance, the light-year. One light-year (ly) is the distance
that light travels in one year, roughly 1013 km or 63,000 AU.
Neptune
It is a 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 diameter of your field of view
in Figure 1-9 is 17 ly.
▲ Figure 1-7 The small red box around the Sun at center Another Common Misconception is that stars look like
contains the entire field of view of Figure 1-6. disks when seen through a telescope. Although stars are typically
4 PART 1 THE SKY
Sun
NSF/AURA/NOAO/Bill Schoening
Visual

previous frame. ▲ Figure 1-10 This box ■ represents the relative size of the
previous frame.
about the same size as the Sun, they are so far away that astrono- of stars surrounding us and ringing the sky. This band of stars
mers cannot see them as anything but points of light. Even the is known as the Milky Way, and our galaxy is called the
closest star to the Sun—Proxima Centauri, only 4.2 ly away— Milky Way Galaxy.
looks like a point of light through the biggest telescopes on How does anyone know what the disk of the Milky Way
Earth. Furthermore, planets that circle other stars are much too Galaxy would look like from a vantage point tens of thousands of
small, too faint, and too close to the glare of their star to be easily light years away? Astronomers use evidence to guide their expla-
visible. Astronomers have used indirect methods to detect thou- nations as they envision what our galaxy looks like. Artists can
sands of planets orbiting other stars, but only a few have been then use those scientific descriptions to create a painting. Many
photographed directly, and even those show up as nothing more images in this book are artists’ renderings of objects and events
than faint points of light. that are too big or too dim to see clearly, emit energy your eyes
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 only
how bright the star is, not how big it is.
In Figure 1-10, you expand your field of view by another fac-
tor 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 thou-
sands 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.
Mark A. Garlick/space-art.co.uk
If you again expand your field of view by a factor of 100, Location of Sun
• and Earth
you see our galaxy, with a visible disk of stars about 80,000 ly
in diameter (Figure 1-11). A galaxy is a great cloud of stars, gas,
and dust held together by the combined gravity of all of its mat- Artist’s conception
ter. Galaxies range from 1500 to over 300,000 ly in diameter, and
the largest contain more than 1 trillion stars. In the night sky, you ▲ Figure 1-11 This box ■ represents the relative size of the
can see our galaxy as a great, cloudy ring of stars surrounding us. previous frame.
cannot detect, or happen too slowly or too rapidly for humans to
sense. These images are much better than mere guesses; they are
scientifically based illustrations guided by the best information
astronomers can gather. As you continue to explore, notice how
Based on data from M. Seldner et al. 1977, Astronomical Journal 82, 249.
astronomers use the methods of science to imagine, understand,
and depict cosmic events.
The artist’s conception of the Milky Way reproduced in
Figure 1-11 shows that our galaxy, like many others, has graceful
spiral arms winding outward through its disk. In a later chap-
ter, you will learn that the spiral arms are places where stars are
formed from clouds of gas and dust. Our Sun was born in one
of these spiral arms; if you could see it in this picture, it would
be in the disk of the galaxy about two-thirds of the way out from
the center, at about the location of the marker dot indicated in
the figure.
Ours is a fairly large galaxy. Only a century ago astronomers
thought it was the entire Universe—an island cloud of stars in ▲ Figure 1-13 This box ■ represents the relative size of the
an otherwise empty vastness. Now they know that our galaxy is previous frame.
not 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 System, and they sometimes confuse both terms with Universe.
your field of view by another factor of 100 (Figure 1-12). Our gal- Your cosmic zoom has shown you the difference. The Solar Sys-
axy appears as a tiny luminous speck surrounded by other specks tem is your local neighborhood, that is, the Sun and its planets,
in a region 17 million ly in diameter. Each speck represents a one planetary system. The Milky Way Galaxy contains our Solar
galaxy. Notice that our galaxy is part of a cluster of a few dozen System plus billions of other stars and whatever planets orbit
galaxies. Galaxies are commonly grouped together in such clus- around them—in other words, billions of planetary systems.
ters. Some galaxies have beautiful spiral patterns like our own The Universe includes everything: all of the galaxies, stars, and
galaxy, but others do not. Some are strangely distorted. In a later planets, including the Milky Way Galaxy and, a very small part
chapter, you will learn what produces these differences among of that, our Solar System.
the galaxies. If you expand your field of view one more time, you can
Now is a chance for you to spot another Common Mis- see that clusters of galaxies are connected in a vast network
conception. People often say Galaxy when they mean Solar (Figure 1-13). Clusters are grouped into superclusters—clusters
of clusters—and the superclusters are linked to form long fila-
ments and walls outlining nearly empty voids. These filaments
and walls appear to be the largest structures in the Universe.
Were you to expand your field of view another time, you would
probably see a uniform fog of filaments and walls. When you
puzzle over the origin of these structures, you are at the frontier
of human knowledge.
Milky Way Galaxy

1-2 When Is Now?
Now that you have an idea where you are in space, you might
also like to know where you are in time. Stars shone for billions
of years before the first human looked up and wondered what
they were.
To get a sense of your place in time, all you need is a long
ribbon. Imagine stretching that ribbon down the center of
a U.S. football field from goal line to goal line, a distance of
▲ Figure 1-12 This box ■ represents the relative size of the 100 yards (about 91 meters), as shown on the inside front
previous frame. cover of this book. Further, imagine that one end of the ribbon
6 PART 1 THE SKY
represents today and the other end represents the beginning of
the Universe—the moment of beginning that astronomers call the 1-3 Why Study Astronomy?
big bang. In a later chapter, “Modern Cosmology,” you will learn
about the big bang, and you will see evidence that the Universe Your exploration of the Universe will help you answer two fun-
is approximately 14 billion years old. Your ribbon represents 14 damental questions:
billion years, the entire history of the Universe. What are we?
Imagine beginning at the goal line labeled BIG BANG and How do we know?
replaying the entire history of the Universe as you walk along
the ribbon toward the goal line labeled TODAY. Astronomers The question “What are we?” is the first organizing theme
have evidence that the big bang filled the entire Universe with of this book. Astronomy is important to you because it will
hot, glowing gas, but as the gas cooled and dimmed the Uni- tell you what you are. Notice that the question is not “Who
verse went dark. All that happened along the first half inch of are we?” If you want to know who we are, you may want to
the ribbon. There was no light for the next 400 million years, talk to a psychologist, sociologist, theologian, paleontologist,
until gravity was able to pull some of the gas together to form artist, or poet. “What
What are we?” is a fundamentally different
the first stars. That seems like a lot of years, but if you stick a question.
little flag beside the ribbon to mark the birth of the first stars, As you study astronomy, you will learn how you fit into the
it would be not quite 3 yards from the goal line where the Uni- history of the Universe. You will learn that the atoms in your
verse began. body had their first birthday in the big bang when the Universe
You have to walk only about 4 or 5 yards along the rib- began. Those atoms have been cooked and remade inside gen-
bon before galaxies formed in large numbers. Our home galaxy erations of stars, and now, after billions of years, they are inside
would be one of those taking shape. By the time you cross the you. Where will they be in another 10 billion years? This is a
50-yard line, the Universe is full of galaxies, but the Sun and story everyone should know, and astronomy is the only course
Earth have not formed yet. You need to walk past the 50-yard on campus that can tell you that story.
line all the way to the other 33-yard line before you can finally Every chapter in this book ends with a short segment titled
stick a flag beside the ribbon to mark the formation of the Sun “What Are We?” This summary shows how the astronomy in the
and planets—our Solar System— 4.6 billion years ago and about chapter relates to your role in the story of the Universe.
9 billion years after the big bang. The question “How do we know?” is the second organiz-
You can carry your flags a few yards further to about the ing theme of this book. It is a question you should ask yourself
25-yard line, 3.4 billion years ago, to mark the earliest firm evi- whenever you encounter statements made by so-called experts in
dence for life on Earth—microscopic creatures in the oceans— any field. Should you swallow a diet supplement recommended
and you have to walk all the way to the 3-yard line before by a TV star? Should you vote for a candidate who warns of a
you can mark the emergence of life on land only 0.4 billion climate crisis? To understand the world around you and to make
(400 million) years ago. Your dinosaur flag goes inside the wise decisions for yourself, for your family, and for your nation,
2-yard line. Dinosaurs go extinct as you pass the one-half-yard you need to understand how science works.
line, 65 million years ago. You can use astronomy as a case study in science. Through-
What about people? You can put a little flag for the first out this book, you will find short essays titled “How Do We
humanlike creatures, 4 million years ago, only about 1 inch Know?” and “Practicing Science.” These essays are designed
(2.5 cm) from the goal line labeled TODAY. Civilization, the to help you think not about only what is known, but how it
building of cities, began about 10,000 years ago, so you have is known. To do that, they will explain a variety of scientific
to try to fit that flag in only 0.0026 inches (0.066 millimeter) thought processes and procedures to help you understand how
from the goal line. That’s less than the thickness of the page you scientists know about the natural world.
are reading right now. Compare the history of human civiliza- Over the last four centuries, scientists have developed a way
tion with the history of the Universe. Every war you have ever to understand nature by comparing hypotheses with evidence,
heard of, the life of every person whose name is recorded, and a process that has been called the scientific method (How Do
the construction of every structure ever made from Stonehenge We Know? 1-1). As you read about exploding stars, colliding gal-
to the building you are in right now fits into that final 0.0026 axies, and alien planets in the following chapters, you will see
inches of the time ribbon. astronomers using the scientific method over and over. The Uni-
Humanity is very new to the Universe. Our civilization on verse is very big, but it is described by a small set of rules, and
Earth has existed for only a flicker of an eyeblink in the history we humans have found a way to figure out the rules by using a
of the Universe. As you will discover in the chapters that follow, method called science. See What Are We? 1.
only in the last hundred years or so have astronomers begun to
understand where we are in space and in time.
How Do We Know? 1-1
The Scientific Method
How do scientists learn about nature? You For example, Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) discuss a new idea, other times spending
have probably heard several times during was an Austrian abbot who liked plants. He years studying a single promising hypothesis.
your education about the scientific method formed a hypothesis that offspring usually inherit The scientific method is, in fact, a com-
as the process by which scientists form traits from their parents not as a smooth blend, bination of many ways of analyzing informa-
hypotheses and test them against evidence as most scientists of the time believed, but in tion, finding relationships, and creating new
gathered by experiments and observations. discrete units according to strict mathematical ideas, in order to know and understand
That is an oversimplification of the subtle and rules. Mendel cultivated and tested more than nature. The “How Do We Know?” essays in
complex ways that scientists actually work. 28,000 pea plants, noting which produced the chapters that follow will introduce you to
Scientists use the scientific method all the smooth peas and which produced wrinkled some of those techniques.
time, and it is critically important, but they peas and how that trait was inherited by suc-
rarely think of it while they are doing it, any cessive generations (See Figure UN 1-1). His
more than you think about the details of what study of pea plants confirmed his hypothesis
you are doing while you are riding a bicycle. and allowed the development of a series of laws
Inspirestock/Jupiterimages/Getty Images
It is such an ingrained way of thinking about of inheritance. Although the importance of his
and understanding nature that it is almost work was not recognized in his lifetime, Mendel
transparent to the people who use it most. is now called the “father of modern genetics.”
Scientists try to form hypotheses that The scientific method is not a simple,
explain how nature works. If a hypothesis is mechanical way of grinding facts into
contradicted by evidence from experiments or understanding; a scientist needs insight
observations, it must be revised or discarded. and ingenuity both to form and to test good
If a hypothesis is confirmed, it still must be hypotheses. Scientists use the scientific
tested further. In that very general way, the method almost automatically, sometimes
scientific method is a way of testing and refin- forming, testing, revising, and discard- ▲ Figure UN 1-1 Whether peas are wrinkled or
ing ideas to better describe how nature works. ing hypotheses minute by minute as they smooth is an inherited trait.
What Are We? 1 Participants

Astronomy will give you perspective on what it means to be here Gravity and atoms work together to make stars, light the
on Earth. This chapter has helped you locate yourself in space Universe, generate energy, and create the chemical elements
and time. Once you realize how vast our Universe is, Earth seems in your body. The chapters that follow will show how you fit into
quite small. People on the other side of the world seem like those cosmic processes.
neighbors. And, in the entire history of the Universe, the human Although you are very small and your kind have existed in
story is only the blink of an eye. This may seem humbling at first, the Universe for only a short time, you are an important part of
but you can be proud of how much we humans have understood something very large and very beautiful.
in such a short time.
Not only does astronomy locate you in space and time, it
places you in the physical processes that govern the Universe.
8 PART 1 THE SKY
Study and Review
Summary ▶ Although astronomy seems to be about stars and planets, it

describes the Universe in which you live, so it is really about you.
▶ You surveyed the Universe by taking a cosmic zoom in which Astronomy helps you answer the question “What are we?”
each field of view was 100 times wider than the previous field ▶ As you study astronomy, you should ask “How do we know?” and
of view. that will help you understand how science gives us a way to
▶ Astronomers use the metric system because it simplifies calcula- understand nature.
tions and use scientific notation for very large or very small ▶ In its simplest outline, science follows the scientific method, by
numbers. which scientists test hypotheses against evidence from experi-
▶ You live on a planet, Earth, which orbits our star, the Sun, once a ments and observations. This method is a powerful way to learn
year. As Earth rotates once a day, you see the Sun rise and set. about nature.
▶ The Moon is only one-fourth the diameter of Earth, but the Sun is
about 100 times larger in diameter than Earth—a typical size for a
star. Review Questions
▶ The Solar System includes the Sun at the center, all of the planets 1. What is the largest dimension of which you have personal knowl-
that orbit around it—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, edge? Have you run a mile? Hiked 10 miles? Run a marathon?
Uranus, and Neptune—plus the moons of the planets and all other 2. What is the difference between our Solar System, our galaxy, and
objects bound to the Sun by its gravity. the Universe?
▶ The astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from Earth to 3. Why are light-years more convenient than miles, kilometers, or
the Sun. Mars, for example, orbits 1.5 AU from the Sun. The light- astronomical units for measuring certain distances?
year (ly) is the distance light can travel in one year. The nearest 4. Why is it difficult to detect planets orbiting other stars?
star is 4.2 ly from the Sun. 5. What does the size of the star image in a photograph tell you?
▶ Many stars seem to have planets, but such small, distant worlds 6. What is the difference between the Milky Way and the Milky Way
are difficult to detect. Nevertheless, thousands have been found Galaxy?
after almost 30 years of searching by astronomers. So far only a 7. What are the largest known structures in the Universe?
few of those planets have been determined to be Earth-like in
terms of size and temperature. 8. How does astronomy help answer the question “What are we?”
9. How Do We Know? How does the scientific method give scientists a
▶ The Milky Way, the hazy band of light that encircles the sky, is the
way to know about nature?
Milky Way Galaxy seen from inside. The Sun is just one out of the
billions of stars that fill the Milky Way Galaxy.
▶ Galaxies contain many billions of stars. Our galaxy is about Discussion Questions
80,000 ly in diameter and contains over 100 billion stars.
1. You and three of your friends have won an all-expenses paid
▶ Some galaxies, including our own, have graceful spiral arms bright one-time-only round-trip first-class vacation to anywhere in the
with stars, but some galaxies are plain clouds of stars. Universe, so long as the choice of destination is unanimous.
▶ The Solar System consists of the Sun plus eight planets, including Where do you want to go, and how do you convince your friends
Earth. Our galaxy contains our Solar System plus billions of other to agree?
stars and whatever planets orbit around them. The Universe 2. Think back to the last time you got a new phone and had to figure
includes everything that there is: billions of galaxies, each out how it worked. In what way did you employ the scientific
containing billions of stars and, presumably, billions of planetary method, maybe without even realizing that you did?
systems.
▶ Our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies that fill the Universe
in great clusters, clouds, filaments, and walls—the largest struc- Problems
tures in the Universe.
1. The diameter of Earth across the equator is 7928 miles. If a mile
▶ The Universe began about 14 billion years ago in an event called equals 1.609 km, what is Earth’s diameter in kilometers? In
the big bang, which filled the Universe with hot gas. centimeters?
▶ The hot gas cooled, the first galaxies began to form, and stars 2. The diameter of the Moon across its equator is 3476 kilometers.
began to shine only about 400 million years after the big bang. If a kilometer equals 0.6214 miles, what is the Moon’s diameter
▶ The Sun and planets of our Solar System formed about 4.6 billion in miles?
years ago. 3. One astronomical unit is about 1.50 3 108 km. Explain why this
▶ Life began in Earth’s oceans soon after Earth formed but did not is the same as 150 3 106 km.
emerge onto land until only 400 million years ago. Dinosaurs 4. Venus orbits 0.72 AU from the Sun. What is that distance in
evolved not long ago and went extinct only 65 million kilometers? (Hint: See Problem 3.)
years ago. 5. Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. How long does
▶ Humanlike creatures developed on Earth only about 4 million it take to reach Mars?
years ago, and human civilizations developed only about 6. The Sun is almost 400 times farther from Earth than is the Moon.
10,000 years ago. How long does light from the Moon take to reach Earth?
7. If the speed of light is 3.00 3 105 km/s, how many kilometers 4. In the photograph in Figure UN 1-3, which stars are brightest,
is 1 light-year? How many meters? (Note: One year contains and which are faintest? How can you tell? Why can’t you tell
3.16 3 107 s.) which stars in this photograph are biggest or which have planets?
8. How long does it take light to cross the diameter of our Milky Way
Galaxy?
9. The nearest large galaxy to our own is about 2.5 million
light-years away. How many meters is that?
10. How many galaxies like our own would it take laid edge-to-edge to
reach the nearest galaxy? (Hint: See Problem 9.)
Learning to Look
1. In Figure 1-4, the division between daylight and darkness is at the
NSF/AURA/NOAO
right on the globe of Earth. How do you know this is the sunset
line and not the sunrise line?
2. Look at Figure 1-6. How can you tell that Mercury does not follow a
circular orbit?
3. Of the objects listed here, ▲ Figure UN 1-3
which would be contained
inside the object shown in
Figure UN 1-2? Which would
contain the object in the photo?
stars
planets
galaxy clusters
filaments
NOAO/AURA/NSF/Bill Schoening
spiral arms
▲ Figure UN 1-2
10 PART 1 THE SKY
Guidepost
A User’s Guide to the Sky
The previous chapter took you on a cosmic An astronomer observing the sky is shown in the photo
2
zoom through space and time. That quick preview set the in CO2.
stage for the drama to come. In this chapter, you restart your
explorations by viewing the sky from Earth with your own
unaided eyes. As you do, consider three important questions:
▶ How are stars and constellations named?
▶ How are the brightnesses of stars measured and

The Southern Cross I saw every night abeam.
compared?
▶ How does the sky appear to move as Earth rotates? The sun every morning came up astern; every
As you study the sky and its apparent daily motion, you will
evening it went down ahead. I wished for no other
understand that Earth is a planet rotating on its axis. The next compass to guide me, for these were true.
chapter will introduce you to celestial cycles caused by the C A P T A I N J O S H U A S L O C U M
monthly revolution of the Moon around Earth and the yearly SA I L I N G AL O N E AR O U N D T H E W O R L D
revolution of Earth around the Sun.
Science Source/Getty Images
CO2 A long-exposure photograph of the Milky Way, the planet Jupiter

(bright object at upper right), and the constellation Scorpius.
11
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Europe. He could have given authentic pictures of the laws and
customs of the Goths, Franks, and Burgundians ... a full portraiture
of the great apostle of the Germanic races, Ulfilas, and the secret
causes of his and their devotion to the Arian form of Christianity; and
he could have recorded the Gothic equivalents of the mythological
tales in the Scandinavian Edda and the story of the old Runes and
their relation to the Mœso-Gothic alphabet. All these details and a
hundred more, full of interest to science, to art, to literature, Sidonius
might have preserved for us had his mind been as open as was that
of Herodotus to the manifold impressions made by picturesque and
strange nationalities.”
It was doubtless fortunate for the literary reputation of Sidonius
that his father-in-law, Avitus, came to be emperor. The reign of Avitus
was short, but he had time to give to his brilliant son-in-law a position
as Court poet or poet-laureate, while it was probably due to the
imperial influence that the Senate decreed the erection (during the
lifetime of the poet) of the brass statue of Sidonius, which was
placed between the two libraries of Trajan. These libraries,
containing the one Greek and the other Latin authors, stood between
the column of Trajan and the Basilica Ulpia. Sidonius describes his
statue as follows:
Cum meis poni statuam perennem

Nerva Trajanus titulis videret,
Inter auctores utriusque fixam Bibliothecæ.
(Sidonius, Ex., ix., 16.)
Nil vatum prodest adjectum laudibus illud

Ulpia quod rutilat porticus ære meo.
(Sidonius, Carm., viii., 7, 8.)[6]
(Since Nerva Trajanus decreed the erection of a permanent

statue, which is inscribed with the records of my honours, and is
placed between the authors of the two libraries.
The fact that the entrance to the Ulpian Library is aglow with the
bronze of my statue, can add nothing to the laurels of other poets.)
In the opinion of Hodgkin, the books in these two collections in the
Bibliotheca Ulpia may very well have been of more importance to
later generations than those of the library of Alexandria. The books
from Trajan’s libraries were, according to Vopiscus, transported in all
or in part to the Baths of Diocletian. Hodgkin understands that,
between 300 and 450, they were restored to their original home.[7]
In the year 537 a.d., the rule of the Goths in Italy, which had been
established by Theodoric in 493, was practically brought to a close
by the victories of Belisarius, the general of the Eastern Empire, and,
thirty years later, the destruction of the Gothic State was completed
by the invasion of the Lombards. With the Lombards in possession
of Northern Italy, and the Vandals, in a series of campaigns against
the armies from Constantinople, overrunning the southern portions of
the peninsula, the social organisation of the country must have been
almost destroyed, and the civilisation which had survived from the
old Empire, while never entirely disappearing, was doubtless in large
part submerged. A certain continuity of Roman rule and of Roman
intellectual influence was, however, preserved through the growing
power of the Church, which was already claiming the inheritance of
the Empire, and which, as early as 590, under the lead of Pope
Gregory the Great, succeeded in making good its claims to
ecclesiastical supremacy throughout the larger part of Europe. In its
control of the consciences of rulers, the Church frequently, in fact,
secured a domination that was by no means limited to things
spiritual.
The history of books in manuscript and of the production and
distribution of literature in Europe from the beginning of the work of
S. Benedict to the time when the printing-press of Gutenberg
revolutionised the methods of book-making, a period covering about
nine centuries, may be divided into three stages. During the first, the
responsibility for the preservation of the old-time literature and for
keeping alive some continuity of intellectual life, rested solely with
the monasteries, and the work of multiplying and of distributing such
books as had survived was carried on by the monks, and by them
only. During the second stage, the older universities, the
organisation of which had gradually been developed from schools
(themselves chiefly of monastic origin), became centres of
intellectual activity and shared with the monasteries the work of
producing books. The books emanating from the university scribes
were, however, for the most part restricted to a few special classes,
classes which had, as a rule, not been produced in the monasteries,
and, as will be noted in a later chapter, the university booksellers
(stationarii or librarii) were in the earlier periods not permitted to
engage in any general distribution of books. With the third stage of
manuscript literature, book-producing and bookselling machinery
came into existence in the towns, and the knowledge of reading
being no longer confined to the cleric or the magister, books were
prepared for the use of the larger circles of the community, and to
meet the requirements of such circles were, to an extent increasing
with each generation, written in the tongue of the people.
The first period begins with the foundation by S. Benedict, in 529,
of the monastery of Monte Cassino, and by Cassiodorus, in 531, of
that of Vivaria or Viviers, and continues until the last decade of the
twelfth century, when we find the earliest record of an organised
book-business in the universities of Bologna and Paris. The
beginning of literary work in the universities, to which I refer as
indicating a second stage, did not, however, bring to an end, and, in
fact, for a time hardly lessened, the production of books in the
monasteries.
The third stage of book-production in Europe may be said to begin
with the first years of the fifteenth century, when the manuscript trade
of Venice and Florence became important, when the book-men or
publishers of Paris, outside of the university, had developed a
business in the collecting, manifolding, and selling of manuscripts,
and when manuscripts first find place in the schedules of the goods
sold at the fairs of Frankfort and Nordlingen. The costliness of the
skilled labour required for the production of manuscripts, and the
many obstacles and difficulties in the way of their distribution,
caused the development of the book-trade to proceed but slowly. It
was the case, nevertheless, and particularly in Germany, that a very
considerable demand for literature of certain classes had been
developed among the people before the close of the manuscript
period, a demand which was being met with texts produced in
constantly increasing quantities and at steadily lessening cost. When
the printing-press arrived it found, therefore, already in existence a
wide-spread literary interest and a popular demand for books, a
demand which, with the immediate cheapening of books, was, of
course, enormously increased. The production of books in
manuscript came to a close, not with the invention of the printing-
press in 1450, but with the time when printing had become generally
introduced, about twenty-five years later.
It was in the monasteries that were preserved such fragments of
the classic literature as had escaped the general devastation of Italy;
and it was to the labours of the monks of the West, and particularly
to the labours of the monks of S. Benedict, that was due the
preservation for the Middle Ages and for succeeding generations of
the remembrance and the influence of the literature of classic times.
For a period of more than six centuries, the safety of the literary
heritage of Europe, one may say of the world, depended upon the
scribes of a few dozen scattered monasteries.
The Order of S. Benedict was instituted in 529, and the monastery
of Monte Cassino, near Naples, founded by him in the same year,
exercised for centuries an influence of distinctive importance upon
the literary interests of the Church, of Italy, and of the world. This
monastery (which still exists) is not far from Subiaco, the spot
chosen by S. Benedict for his first retreat. It was in the monastery of
Subiaco (founded many years afterwards) that was done, nearly a
thousand years later, the first printing in Italy. The Rule of S.
Benedict, comprising the regulations for the government of his Order,
contained a specific instruction that a certain number of hours in
each day were to be devoted to labour in the scriptorium. The monks
who were not yet competent to work as scribes were to be instructed
by the others. Scribe work was to be accepted in place of an equal
number of hours given to manual labour out-of-doors, while the
skilled scribes, whose work was of special importance as instructors
or in the scriptorium, were to be freed from a certain portion of their
devotional exercises or observances. The monasteries of the
Benedictines were for centuries more numerous, more wealthy, and
more influential than those of any other Order, and this provision of a
Rule which directed the actions, controlled the daily lives, and
inspired the purposes of thousands of earnest workers among the
monks of successive generations, must have exercised a most
noteworthy influence on the history of literary production in Europe. It
is not too much to say that it was S. Benedict who provided the
“copy” which a thousand years later was to supply the presses of
Gutenberg, Aldus, Froben, and Stephanus.
I have not been able to find in the narratives of the life of S.
Benedict any record showing the origin of his interest in literature, an
interest which was certainly exceptional for an ecclesiastic of the
sixth century. It seems very probable, however, that Benedict’s
association with Cassiodorus had not a little to do with the literary
impetus given to the work of the Benedictines. Cassiodorus, who, as
Chancellor of King Theodoric, had taken an active part in the
government of the Gothic kingdom, passed the last thirty years of his
life first as a monk and later as abbot in the monastery of Vivaria, or
Viviers, in Calabria, which he had himself founded in 531.
Cassiodorus is generally classed by the Church chronicles as a
Benedictine, and his monastery is referred to by Montalembert as
the second of the Benedictine foundations. Hodgkin points out,
however, that the Rule adopted by the monks of Viviers, or
prescribed for them by its founder, was not that of S. Benedict, but
was drawn from the writings of Cassian, the founder of western
monachism, who had died a century before.[8] The two Rules were,
however, fully in accord with each other in spirit, while for the idea of
using the convent as a place of literary toil and theological training,
Benedict was indebted to Cassiodorus. “At a very early date in the
history of their Order,” says Hodgkin, “the Benedictines, influenced
probably by the example of the monastery of Vivaria, commenced
that long series of services to the cause of literature which they have
never wholly intermitted. Instead of accepting the ... formula from
which some scholars have contended that Cassiodorus was a
Benedictine, we should perhaps be rather justified in maintaining that
Benedict, or at least his immediate followers, were Cassiodorians.”[9]
It was the fortune of Cassiodorus to serve as a connecting link
between the world of classic Rome and that of the Middle Ages. He
saw the direction and control of the community pass from the
monarchs and the leaders of armies to the Church and to the
monasteries, and he was himself an active agent in helping to bring
about such transfer. Born in 479, only three years after the overthrow
of the last of the Emperors of the West, he grew up under the rule of
Odovacar, the Herulian. While still a youth, he had seen the Herulian
kingdom destroyed by Theodoric, and he had lived to mourn over the
ruins of the realm founded by the Goth, which he had himself helped
to govern. He saw his beloved Italy taken possession of by the
armies of Narses and Belisarius from the east, and a little later
overrun by the undisciplined hordes of the Lombards from the north.
The first great schism between the Eastern and the Western
Churches began during his boyhood and terminated before, as
Abbot of Vivaria, it became necessary for him to take a decided part
on the one side or the other. A Greek by ancestry, a Roman by
training, the experience of Cassiodorus included work and
achievements as statesman, orator, scholar, author, and ecclesiastic.
He had witnessed the extinction of the Roman Senate, of which both
his father and himself had been members; the practical abolition of
the Consulate, an honour to which he had also attained; and the
close of the schools of philosophy in Athens, with the doctrines of
which he, almost alone in his generation of Italians, was familiar. He
had done much to maintain in the Court and throughout the kingdom
of Theodoric, such standard of scholarly interests and of literary
appreciation as was practicable with the resources available; and, in
like manner, he brought with him to his monastery a scholarly
enthusiasm for classic literature, of which literature he may not
unnaturally have felt himself to be almost the sole surviving
representative. It is difficult to over-estimate the extent of the service
rendered by Cassiodorus to literature and to later generations in
initiating the training of monks as scribes, and in putting into their
hands for their first work in the scriptorium the masterpieces of
classic literature. He belonged both to the world of ancient Rome,
which he had outlived, and to that of the Middle Ages, the thought
and work of which he helped to shape. With the close of the official
career of Cassiodorus as Secretary of State for the Gothic kingdom
of Italy, the history of ancient Europe may, for the purpose of my
narrative, be considered to end. With the consecration of
Cassiodorus, as Abbot of the monastery of Vivaria, (which took place
about 550, when he was seventy years of age), and the instituting by
him of the first European scriptorium, I may begin the record of the
production of books during the Middle Ages.
CHAPTER I.
THE MAKING OF BOOKS IN THE MONASTERIES.
I HAVE used for the heading of the chapter the term “the making of
books” rather than “literary work,” because the service rendered
by the earlier monastic scribes (a service of essential importance for
the intellectual life of the world) consisted chiefly, as has been
indicated, not in the production of original literature, but in the
reproduction and preservation of the literature that had been
inherited from earlier writers,—writers whose works had been
accepted as classics. While it was the case that in this literary labour
it was the Benedictines who for centuries rendered the most
important service, the first of the European monasteries in which
such labour was carried on as a part of the prescribed routine or rule
of the monastic life was that of Vivaria or Viviers, founded by
Cassiodorus, which was never formally associated with the
Benedictine Order, and which had, in fact, adopted, in place of the
Benedictine Rule, a rule founded on the teachings of Cassian, who
had died early in the fifth century. The work done, under the
instructions of Cassiodorus, by the scribes of Viviers, served as an
incentive and an example for Monte Cassino, the monastery founded
by S. Benedict, while the scriptorium instituted in Monte Cassino was
accepted as a model by the long series of later Benedictine
monasteries which during the succeeding seven centuries became
centres of literary activity.
After the destruction of the Gothic kingdom of Italy, it was with
these monasteries that rested the intellectual future of Europe.
Mankind was, for the time at least, to be directed and influenced, not
so much by royal chancellors or prætorian guards, as by the monks
preaching from their cells and by the monastic scribes distributing
the world’s literature from the scriptorium.
Cassiodorus and S. Benedict.—In the literary history
of Europe, the part played by Cassiodorus was so important and the
service rendered by him was so distinctive, that it seems pertinent
for the purposes of this story to present in some detail the record of
his life and work. As is indicated by the name by which he is known
in history, Cassiodorus was of Greek lineage, his family belonging to
the Greek city of Scyllacium in Southern Italy. His full name was
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator. His ancestors had, for
several generations, held under the successive rulers of Italy
positions of trust and honour, and the family ranked with the
patricians. The father of the author and abbot, usually referred to as
Cassiodorus the third, was finance minister under Odovacar, and
when the Herulian King had been overcome and slain by Theodoric,
the minister was skilful enough to make himself necessary to the
Gothic conqueror, from whom he received various important posts,
and by whom he was finally appointed Prætorian Prefect. The
Cassiodorus with whom this study is concerned, known as
Cassiodorus the fourth, was born about 479, or three years after the
Gothic conquest.[10] He began his official career as early as twenty,
and it was while holding, at this age, the position of Consilarius, that
he brought himself to the favourable attention of Theodoric by means
of an eloquent panegyric spoken in praise of that monarch.
Theodoric appointed him Quæstor, an office which made him the
mouth-piece of the sovereign. To the Quæstor belonged the duty of
conducting the official correspondence of the Court, of receiving
ambassadors, and of replying in fitting harangues to their addresses,
so that he was at once foreign secretary and Court orator. He also
had the responsibility of giving a final revision to all the laws which
received the signature of the King, and of seeing that these were
properly worded and did not conflict with previous enactments.[11]
Theodoric, who had received what little education he possessed
from Greek instructors in Constantinople, was said never to have
mastered Latin, and he doubtless found the services of his eloquent
and scholarly minister very convenient.
It was the contention of Theodoric that his kingdom represented
the natural continuation of the Roman Empire, and that he was
himself the legitimate successor of the emperors. He took as his
official designation not Rex Italiæ, but Gothorum et Romanorum
Rex. This contention was fully upheld by the Quæstor, who felt
himself to be the representative at once of the official authority of the
new kingdom and of the literary prestige of the old Empire, and who
did what was in his power to preserve in Ravenna the classical
traditions of old Rome and to make the Court the centre of literary
influence and activity. Theodoric and his Goths had accepted the
creed of the Arians, but the influence of his minister, who was a
Christian of the Athanasian or Trinitarian faith, was sufficient to
preserve a spirit of toleration throughout the kingdom. It is to
Cassiodorus that is due what was probably the first official utterance
of toleration that Europe had known, an utterance that in later
European history was to be so largely set at nought: Religionem
imperare non possumus, quia nemo cogitur ut credat invitus.[12] [We
must not enforce (acceptance of) a creed, since no one can think or
can believe against his will.] It is not one of the least of the services
of Cassiodorus that he should at this early date, when the bitterness
of controversy was active in the Church, have been able to set a
standard of wise and Christian toleration. His action had a good
effect later in his own monastery and in the monasteries whose work
was modelled on that of Viviers. It was only in monastic centres like
Viviers and Monte Cassino, where Christian influence and
educational work were held to be of more importance than
theological issues, that literary activity became possible, and it was
only in such monasteries that labour was expended in preserving the
writings of “pagan” (that is, of classic) authors.
In 514, Cassiodorus became Consul, a title which, while no longer
standing for any authority, was still held to be one of the highest
honours, and in 515 he received the title of patrician. In 519, he
published, under the title of Chronicon, an abstract of history from
the deluge to the year 519. Hodgkin points out that in his record of
events of the fifth century, a very large measure of favourable, or
rather of partial attention is given to the annals of the Goths. Shortly
after the publication of the Chronicon, Cassiodorus began work on
his History of the Goths, which was finally completed in twelve
books, and the chief purpose of which was to vindicate the claims of
the Goths to rank among the historic nations of antiquity, by bringing
them into connection with Greece and Rome, and by making the
origin of Gothic history Roman. This history of Cassiodorus is known
only by tradition, not a single copy of it having been preserved. The
system of scribe-work in the monasteries, to which we owe nearly all
of the old-world literature that has come down to us, did not prove
adequate to preserve the greatest work of its founder. A treatise on
the origin of the Goths by a later writer named Jordæus, concerning
whom little is known, is avowedly based upon the history of
Cassiodorus, and is the principal source of information concerning
the character of this history.
At the time of the death of Theodoric, Cassiodorus was holding the
important place of Master of the Offices, a post which combined
many of the duties that would to-day be discharged by a Home
Secretary, a Secretary of War, and a Postmaster-General. Under the
regency of Queen Amalasuentha, Cassiodorus received his final
official honour in his appointment as Prætorian Prefect. In the
collection of letters published under the title of Variæ, Cassiodorus
gives accounts of the work done by him in these various official
stations, and these letters present vivid and interesting pictures of
the methods of the administration of the kingdom, and also throw
light upon many of its relations with foreign powers.
Cassiodorus continued to do service as minister for the
successors of Amalasuentha, Athalaric, Theodadad, and Witigis, and
retired from official responsibility only a few months before the
capture of Ravenna by Belisarius, in 540, brought the Ostrogothic
monarchy to an end. At the time of the entry of the Greek army,
Cassiodorus, now a veteran of sixty years, was in retirement in his
monastery in Bruttii (the modern Calabria). It was doubtless because
of the absence of Cassiodorus from the capital, that no mention is
made of him in the narrative of the campaign written by Procopius
the historian, who, as secretary to Belisarius, entered Rome with the
latter after the victories over Witigis.
Cassiodorus must have possessed very exceptional adaptability of
character, not to say elasticity of conscience, to be able, during a
period extending over nearly half a century, to retain the favour of so
many of the successive rulers of Italy and apparently to make his
services necessary to each one of them. It is certain, however, that
Italy benefited largely by the fact that through the various contests
and changes of monarchs, it had been possible to preserve a certain
continuity of executive policy and of administrative methods. The
further fact that the “perpetual” or at least the continuing minister was
at once a Greek and a Roman, and not only a statesman but a
scholar, and that he had succeeded in preserving through all the
devastations of civil wars and of foreign invasions a great collection
of classic books and a persistent (even though restricted) interest in
classic literature, exercised an enormous influence upon the culture
of Europe for centuries to come. The career of Cassiodorus had, as
we have seen, been varied and honourable. It was, however, his
exceptional fortune to be able to render the most important and the
most distinctive service of his life after his life’s work had apparently
been completed.
Shortly after his withdrawal to Bruttii, and when, as said, he was
already more than sixty years old, he retired to his monastery,
Vivaria, and during the thirty-six years of activity that remained for
him, he not only completed a number of important literary
productions of his own, but he organised the literary work of the
monastery scriptorium, which served as a model for that of Monte
Cassino, and, through Monte Cassino, for the long series of
Benedictine monasteries that came into existence throughout
Europe. It was the hand of Cassiodorus which gave the literary
impetus to the Benedictine Order, and it was from his magnificent
collection of manuscripts, rescued from the ruins of the libraries of
Italy, that was supplied material for the pens of thousands of
monastic scribes.
After his retirement to Bruttii, Cassiodorus founded a second
monastery, known as Mons Castellius, the work of which was
planned for a more austere class of hermits than those who had
associated themselves together at Vivaria. Of both monasteries he
retained the practical control, and, according to Trithemius (whose
opinion is accepted by Montalembert) of Vivaria he became
abbot.[13] Hodgkin, while himself citing the extract from Trithemius,
thinks it possible that Cassiodorus never formally became abbot, but
says that the direction and supervision of the work of the two
monasteries rested in any case in his hands.[14]
His treatise on the Nature of the Soul (De Anima) was probably
completed just before he began his monastic life, and was itself an
evidence of the change in the direction of his thoughts and of his
ideals. Cassiodorus had now done with politics. As Hodgkin points
out, the dream of his life had been to build up an independent Italian
State, strong with the strength of the Goths, and wise with the
wisdom of the Romans. It is evident that he also felt himself charged
with a special responsibility in preserving for later generations the
literature and the learning of the classic world. With the destruction
of the Gothic kingdom, that dream had been scattered to the winds.
The only institutions which retained a continuity of organisation were
those belonging to the Church, and it was through the Church that
must be preserved for later generations the thought and the
scholarship of antiquity. It was with a full understanding of this
change in the nature of his responsibilities, that Cassiodorus decided
to consecrate his old age to religious labours and to a work even
more important than any of his political achievements: the
preservation, by the pens of monastic copyists, of the Christian
Scriptures, of the writings of the early Fathers, and of the great
works of classical antiquity.
Some years before his retirement from Ravenna, Cassiodorus had
endeavoured to induce Pope Agapetus (535-536) to found a school
of theology and Christian literature at Rome, modelled on the plan of
the schools of Alexandria and Nisibis. The confusion consequent on
the invasion of Italy by Belisarius had prevented the fulfilment of this
scheme. The aged statesman was now, however, planning to
accomplish, by means of his two monasteries, a similar educational
work.
Hodgkin summarises the aims of earlier monasticism, (aims which
were most fully carried out in the monasteries of the East and of
Africa,) as follows: In the earlier days of monasticism, men like the
hermits of the Thebaïd had thought of little else but mortifying the
flesh by vigils and fastings, and withdrew from all human voices in
order to enjoy an ecstatic communion with their Maker. The life in
common of monks like those of Nitria and Lerinum had chastened
some of the extravagances of these lonely enthusiasts, while still
keeping in view their main purpose. S. Jerome, in his cell at
Bethlehem, had shown what great results might be obtained for the
Church of all ages from the patient literary toil of one religious
recluse. And finally, S. Benedict, in that Rule of his, which was for
centuries to be the code of monastic Christendom, had sanctified
work as one of the most effectual preservatives of the bodily and
spiritual health of the ascetic.
“It was the glory of Cassiodorus,” says Hodgkin,[15] “that he first
and pre-eminently insisted on the expediency of including intellectual
labour in the sphere of monastic duties.... This thought [may we not
say this divinely suggested thought?] in the mind of Cassiodorus was
one of infinite importance to the human race. Here, on the one hand,
were the vast armies of monks, whom both the unsettled state of the
times and the religious ideas of the age were driving irresistibly into
the cloister; and who, when immured there with only theology to
occupy their minds, became, as the great cities of the East knew
only too well, preachers of discord and mad fanaticism. Here, on the
other hand, were the accumulated stores of two thousand years of
literature, sacred and profane, the writings of Hebrew prophets,
Greek philosophers, Latin rhetoricians, perishing for want of men
with leisure to transcribe them. The luxurious Roman noble with his
slave amanuenses multiplying copies of his favourite authors for his
own and his friends’ libraries, was an almost extinct existence. With
every movement of barbarian troops over Italy, whether those
barbarians called themselves the men of Witigis or of Justinian,
some towns were being sacked, some precious manuscripts were
perishing from the world. Cassiodorus perceived that the boundless,
the often wearisome leisure of the convent might be profitably spent
in arresting this work of denudation, in preserving for future ages the
intellectual treasure which must otherwise inevitably have perished.
That this was one of the great services rendered by the monasteries
to the human race, the most superficial student has learned, but not
all who have learned it know that the monks’ first decided impulse in
this direction was derived from Cassiodorus.”
The German biographer of Cassiodorus, Franz, uses similar
language:
Das Verdienst, zuerst die Pflege der Wissenschaften in den
Bereich der Aufgaben des Klosterlichen Lebens aufgenommen zu
haben, kann man mit vollem Rechte für Cassiodorus in Anspruch
nehmen.[16]
In the account given by Cassiodorus of the scriptorium of his
monastery, he describes, with an enthusiasm which ought to have
been contagious, the noble work done there by the antiquarius[17]:
“He may fill his mind with the Scriptures while copying the sayings of
the Lord; with his fingers he gives life to men and arms against the
wiles of the devil. As the antiquarius copies the words of Christ, so
many wounds does he inflict upon Satan. What he writes in his cell
will be scattered far and wide over distant provinces. Man multiplies
the words of Heaven, and, if I may dare so to speak, the three
fingers of his right hand are made to express the utterances of the
Holy Trinity. The fast travelling reed writes down the holy words and
thus avenges the malice of the Wicked One, who caused a reed to
be used to smite the head of the Saviour.” The passage here quoted
refers only to the work of the copyists of the Christian Scriptures.
There are other references, however, in the same work to indicate
that the activity of the scriptorium was not confined to these, but was
also employed on secular literature.[18]
The devotion and application of the monks produced in the course
of years a class of scribes whose work in the transcribing and
illuminating of manuscripts far surpassed in perfection and beauty
the productions of the copyists of classic Rome. In the monasteries
north of the Alps the work of the scribes was, for the earlier
centuries, devoted principally to the production of copies of missals
and other books of devotion and of portions of the Scriptures. In Italy,
however, where classical culture never entirely disappeared,
attention continued to be given to the transcription of the Latin texts
of which any manuscripts had been preserved, and it was these
transcripts of the monks of Cassiodorus and S. Benedict that gave
the “copy” for the first editions of Cicero, Virgil, and the other classic
writers, produced by the earliest printers of Germany and Italy.
Cassiodorus took pains to emphasise the importance of binding
the sacred codices in covers worthy of the beauty of their contents,
following the example of the householder in the parable, who
provided wedding garments for all who came to the supper of his
son. One pattern volume had been prepared containing samples of
various sorts of covers, from which the scribe might choose that
which pleased him best. The abbot had also provided, to help the
nightly toil of the scriptorium, mechanical lamps of some ingenious
construction which appears to have made them self-trimming and to
have insured a continuously sufficient supply of oil. The labour of the
scribes was regulated on bright days by sun-dials, and on cloudy
days and during the hours of the night by water-clocks.
In order to set an example of literary diligence to his monks, and to
be able to sympathise with the difficulties of scribe work,
Cassiodorus himself transcribed (probably from the translation of
Jerome) the Psalter, the Prophets, and the Epistles. In addition to his
labours as a transcriber, Cassiodorus did a large amount of work as
an original author and as a compiler. According to the judgment of
Migne, Franz, and Hodgkin, the importance of his original writings
varied very considerably, and is by no means to be estimated in
proportion to their bulk. One of the most considerable of these was
his great commentary on the Psalms, in the text of which he was
able to discover refutations of all the heresies that had thus far
racked the Church, together with the rudiments of all the sciences
which had become known to the world. This was followed by a
commentary on the Epistles and by a history of the Church, the latter
having been undertaken in co-operation with his friend Epiphanius.
This history, known as the Historia Tripartita, is said to have had a
larger circulation than any other of the author’s works. A fourth work,
which gives more of the personality of the writer, was an educational
treatise entitled, Institutiones Divinarum et Humanarum Lectionum.
In the first part of this treatise, which bore the title of De Institutione
Divinarum Litterarum, the author gives an account of the
organisation of his scriptorium. In the second division of the treatise,
entitled De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum, the author
states his view of the relative importance of the four liberal arts,
Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, and Mathematics, the last named of
which he divides into the four “disciplines” of Arithmetic, Geometry,
Music, and Astronomy. Geometry and Astronomy occupy together
one page, Arithmetic and Music each two pages, Grammar two
pages, Rhetoric six pages, while to Logic are devoted eighteen
pages. The final production of his industrious life was a treatise
called De Orthographia, which was completed when its author was
ninety-three years old, and which was planned expressly to further
the work of the monastic scribes in collecting and correcting the
codices of ancient books.
The death of Cassiodorus occurred in 575, in the ninety-sixth year
of his age. An inheritor of the traditions of imperial Rome,
Cassiodorus had been able, in a career extending over nearly a
century, to be of signal service to his country under a series of
foreign rulers. He had succeeded, through his personal influence
with these rulers, in maintaining for Italy an organisation based on
Roman precedents, and in preserving for the society of the capital an
interest in the preservation and cultivation of classic literature. When
the political institutions of Italy had been shattered and the very
existence of civilisation was imperilled, he had transferred his
services to the Church, recognising, with the adaptability which was
the special characteristic of the man, that with the Church now
rested the hopes of any continuity of organised society, of intellectual
interest, of civilisation itself. He brought to the Church the advantage
of exceptional executive ability and of long official experience, and
he also brought a large measure of scholarship and an earnest zeal
for literary and educational interests. It is not too much to say that
the continuity of the thought and civilisation of the ancient world with
that of the Middle Ages was due, more than to any other one man, to
the life and labours of Cassiodorus.
S. Benedict.—The Life of S. Benedict, written by Pope Gregory I.
(who was born in 543, the year of the death of the saint), was for
centuries one of the most popular books circulated in Europe. The
full title is: Vita et Miracula Venerabilis Benedicti conditoris, vel
Abbatis Monasterii; quod appellatur arcis Provinciæ Campaniæ.
“The Life and Miracles of the Venerable Benedict, Founder and
Abbot of the Monastery which is called (of) the Citadel of the
Province of Campania.” This biography was, later, translated by
Pope Zacharias from the original Latin into Greek.
The great achievement of Benedict was the one literary product of
his life, the Regula. It comprises seventy-three short chapters,
probably not designed by the author for use beyond the bounds of
the communities under his own immediate supervision. It proved to
be the thing for which the world of religious and thoughtful men was
then longing, a complete code of monastic duty. By a strange
parallelism, almost in the very year in which the great Emperor
Justinian was codifying the results of seven centuries of Roman
secular legislation for the benefit of the judges and the statesmen of
the new Europe, Benedict, on his lonely mountain top, was
composing his code for the regulation of the daily life of the great
civilisers of Europe for seven centuries to come.
The Rule of S. Benedict, Chap. 48. Concerning Daily Manual
Labour.—“Idleness is the enemy of the soul: hence brethren ought at
certain seasons to occupy themselves with manual labour, and again
at certain hours with holy reading. Between Easter and the calends
of October let them apply themselves to reading from the fourth hour
until the sixth hour.... From the calends of October to the beginning
of Lent, let them apply themselves to reading until the second hour.
During Lent, let them apply themselves to reading from morning until
the end of the third hour, and in these days of Lent, let them receive
a book apiece from the library and read it straight through. These
books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent.”[19]
This simple regulation, uttered by one the power and extent of
whose far-reaching influence have rarely been equalled among men,
gave an impulse to study that grew with the growth of the Order, and
that secured a continuity of intellectual light and life through the dark
ages, the results of which have endured to modern times. “Wherever
a Benedictine house arose, or a monastery of any one of the Orders,
which were but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books were
multiplied and a library came into existence, small indeed at first, but
increasing year by year, till the wealthier houses had gathered
together collections of books that would do credit to a modern
university.”[20]
It was, of course, the case that the injunction to read, an injunction
given at a time when books were very few and monks were
becoming many, carried with it an instruction for writing until copies
of the books prescribed should have been produced in sufficient
numbers to meet the requirements of the readers. The armaria could
be filled only through steady and persistent work in the scriptoria,
and, as we shall see later, such scribe-work was accepted not only
as a part of the “manual labour” prescribed in the Rule, but not
infrequently (in the case of the skilled scribes) in lieu of some portion
of the routine of religious observance. Benedict would not have his
monks limit themselves to spiritual labour, to the action of the soul
upon itself. He made external labour, manual or literary, a strict
obligation of his Rule. The routine of the monastic day was to include
seven hours for manual labour, two hours for reading.[21] In later
years, the Benedictine monasteries became centres of instruction,
supplying the place, as far as was practicable, of the educational
system of the departed empire. As Order after Order was founded,
there came to be a steady development of interest in books and an
ever increasing care for their safe-keeping. S. Benedict had
contented himself with general directions for study; the Cluniacs
prescribed the selection of a special officer to take charge of the
books, with an annual audit of them and the assignment to each
brother of a single volume.
“The followers of the Saint continued in their patient labour,
praying, digging, and transcribing. The scriptoria of the Benedictine
monastery will multiply copies not only of missals and theological
treatises, but of the poems and histories of antiquity. Whatever may
have been the religious value or the religious dangers of the
monastic life, the historian at least is bound to express his gratitude

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Horizons Exploring the Universe

Horizons : Exploring the Universe Fourteenth Edition

ASTRO 3: Introductory Astronomy Michael A. Seeds

ASTRO 3: Introductory Astronomy Michael A. Seeds

Foundations of Astronomy Fourteenth Edition Michael A.

Reading American Horizons: Primary Sources for U.S.

Exploring the Universe From Near Space to Extra

The Convoluted Universe Book Four The Convoluted

The Universe Lonely Planet

With MindTap media contributions

University of Central Florida.

Australia • Brazil • Mexico • Singapore • United Kingdom • United States

For our families

Part 2: The Stars

Part 3: The Universe of Galaxies

Part 4: The Solar System

Chapter 2 | A User’s Guide to the Sky 11 3-3 Scientific Arguments 32

2-1 THE STARS 12 4-1 Scientific Revolutions 52

Chapter 4 | The Origin of Modern Astronomy 45

4A An Ancient Model of the Universe 48–49

Chapter 7 | The Sun 114 8-2 Basic Scientific Data 159

7-1 THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE

7-2 SOLAR ACTIVITY 121 9-2 Mathematical Models 188

7B Solar Activity and the Sun–Earth Connection 130–131

10B Formation of Planetary Nebulae and

Reasoning with Numbers

11-2 BLACK HOLES 233 6-2 The Doppler Formula 111

Celestial Profile 1 | The Sun 116

12-1 Calibration 249

NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/NSF/ESA/CXC/SAO/J. Hester (Arizona State Univ.)

Concept Art Portfolios

13A Galaxy Classification 272–273

13B Interacting Galaxies 284–285

13C Galaxy Jets and Radio Lobes 288–289

14A The Nature of Space-Time 312–313

Part 3: The Universe of Galaxies

Chapter 13 | Galaxies: Normal and Active 269

Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/R. Kennicutt, SINGS Team

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Univ. of Massachusetts/Q. D. Wang et al.;

Chapter 14 | Modern Cosmology 298

Chapter 17 | Mercury, Venus, and Mars 374

Concept Art Portfolios

Mural by Peter Sawyer

Part 5: Life AFTERWORD 469

20-1 THE NATURE OF LIFE 450 GLOSSARY 482

20-2 LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 454 ANSWERS TO EVEN-NUMBERED PROBLEMS 487

20-3 INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE 461 INDEX 488

xii A NOTE TO STUDENTS

A NOTE TO STUDENTS xiii

Infrared Astronomy) at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Dana is coauthor

ABOUT THE AUTHORS xv

This chapter is a jumping-off point for your exploration of

▶ How does human history fit into the history of the

NOAA/NASA GOES Project

CO1. Image of Earth from the GOES (Geostationary Operational

▲ Figure 1-3 This box ■ represents the relative size of

2 PART 1 THE SKY

Chapter 1 HERE AND NOW 3

Enlarge your field of view again by a factor of 100, and you

4 PART 1 THE SKY

▲ Figure 1-9 This box ■ represents the relative size of the

Chapter 1 HERE AND NOW 5

Milky Way Galaxy