Many of these articles have been reproduced with commentaries about them by the author and Owen Gingerich, and subsequently collected and extended by Marcia Bartusiak over a broader range of time and with her own introductions. These sources are designated in the references by the acronyms:
LGSB = Kenneth R. Lang (1941–) and Owen Gingerich (1930–): A Source Book in Astronomy and Astrophysics 1900–1975. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1979.
MBARK = Marcia Bartusiak (1950–): Archives of the Universe: 100 Discoveries that Transformed Our Understanding of the Cosmos. New York: Vintage Books, Random House 2004.
Part I. Everything Moves
1. The Earth Moves
1. John Milton (1608–1674): Paradise Lost. London: Samuel Simmons 1667, Book VIII, The Argument, lines 79 to 84. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co. 1993 [ed. Roy C. Flannagan (1897–1952)], p. 433.
2. The ancient Roman philosopher Marcus Cicero declared more than two thousand years ago that: “When we lift our eyes to the heavens and consider the celestial bodies, what can be more manifest, more obvious, than there must be a supreme intelligence by which they are ordered … a deity who is ever present and all-powerful. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC): De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), Book II, Number 2, 45 BC. English translation by Hubert M. Poteat, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1950, p. 227.
3. Robert Millikan (1868–1953): Evolution in Science and Religion, The Terry Lectures for 1927. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1927, p. 79.
4. Around 1510, Copernicus was privately circulating a manuscript in which the Earth and other planets were placed in uniform circular motion about a central Sun. It was entitled Nicolai Copernici de hypothesibus motuum coelestium a se constitutes commentariolus, or A Little Commentary About Nicolaus Copernicus’ Hypotheses of Celestial Motions, and is commonly referred to as the Commentariolus, or Little Commentary. Though never intended for printed distribution, hand-written manuscript copies were distributed to Copernicus’ close friends. The surviving copies of the Little Commentary indicate that it contained all his fundamental new ideas about the nature of heavenly motions, which also appeared in his longer, more influential book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or On the Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies, commonly referred to as the De revolutionibus. It was published 33 years later, in 1543, just in time for the dying author to hold the pages that would make him immortal. See MBARK, pp. 51–60.
5. The author’s synthesis of the English translations given by Arthur Koestler (1905–1983): The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe. New York: Penguin Books 1964, pp. 205, 206, and James MacLachlan (1928–): Nicolaus Copernicus: Making the Earth a Planet. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005, p. 63.
6. Owen Gingerich (1930–): “The Astronomy and Cosmology of Copernicus,” in his The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, New York: American Institute of Physics 1993, pp. 181–182. His translation of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543): De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg, 1543). Book 1, Chapter 10. Also in Owen Gingerich (1930–): God’s Universe. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2006, pp. 17–18 and pp. 86–87.
7. The tiny, wobbling annular parallax shift of a nearby star’s position was not definitely observed until 1838, by the German astronomer Friedrich Bessel (1784–1846) for the star 61 Cygni, published in Astronomische Nachrichten 16, 65–96 (1839). See MBARK, pp. 153–159.
8. In 1852 the French physicist Léon Foucault (1819–1868) showed that the plane of oscillation of his swinging pendulum in the Pantheon of Paris slowly shifted in direction as the Earth turned below it. The concept of a rotating Earth has a long history. The Greek astronomer Heraclides Ponticus proposed in the 4th century BC that both the Sun and stars might not be moving, and that the Earth could instead be turning under them once every day. A rotating Earth was also considered and dismissed by both Aristotle and Ptolemy. The fact that the Earth remained motionless was just obvious to everyone. The ground certainly seems to be at rest beneath our feet, providing the terra firma on which we carry out our lives. And if the Earth was spinning about every 24 hours, its atmosphere and everything on the planet might be flung off it into surrounding space.
9. Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, p. 5.
10. The term spyglass, or “glass used to spy,” was replaced with the Latin telescopium, or the English equivalent telescope, when Galileo attended a banquet of Rome’s Academia dei Lincei in 1611; the word is coined from the Greek roots tele for “far off ” and scope meaning “to look.”
11. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Letter to the Doge of Venice, 1609, located in Le Opere di Galileo Galilei: Edizione Nazionale 10, 250–251. This Letter to the Chief Magistrate of Venice describes the benefits of the telescope in war, including its ability “to discover at a much greater distance than usual the hulls and sails of the enemy, so that for two hours and more we can detect him before he detects us and, distinguishing the number and kind of his vessels, judge his force, in order to prepare for chase, combat or flight.” [English translation by Albert Van Helden (1940–), in his introduction to Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, or The Sidereal Messenger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1989, pp. 7 and 8.]
12. Although few of Galileo’s many telescopes survive, he probably used one with an objective lens of about 0.05 meters (2 inches) in diameter to make his startling discoveries. The collecting area of such a lens is roughly fifty times that of the pupil of the unaided eye, which is about 0.007 meters across. The increase in light-collecting power of even this small telescope enabled Galileo to discover a host of previously unknown features in the Universe. As a result, the Cosmos became much richer and more complex than had even been imagined at the time.
13. Owen Gingerich (1930–) and Albert Van Helden (1940–): “How Galileo Constructed the Moons of Jupiter,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 42, 259–264 (2011).
14. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Sidereus Nuncius, Venetiis: Apud Thomam Baglionum 1610. English translation by Albert Van Helden (1940–): The Sidereal Messenger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1989. Also see MBARK, pp. 76–89. In Prague, the Tuscan ambassador had a copy of Sidereus Nuncius delivered to the astronomer Johannes Kepler, imperial mathematician to the emperor Rudolf II. Late that summer, Kepler borrowed a telescope, and used it to verify the existence of Jupiter’s moons. He then confirmed Galileo’s observations in a short pamphlet in which he also coined the term satellite that is now used to designate any object that orbits a planet. See Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): Narratio de Observatis a se Quatuor Jovis Satellitibus, or Narration about Four Satellites of Jupiter Observed (1610). The four large moons that Galileo discovered are now known as the “Galilean satellites” in his honor; these incredible new worlds have been revealed in fascinating detail from NASA’s Galileo Mission.
15. John Donne (1572–1631): An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary, lines 279, 280. London: Samuel Macham 1611.
16. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro accidente, or History and Demonstrations Concerning Sunspots and Their Phenomena (1613) and commonly called Letters on Sunspots, reproduced in English translation by Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, the quotation is from the first Letter on Sunspots, see p. 94 of the Drake translation.
17. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro accidente, or History and Demonstrations Concerning Sunspots and Their Phenomena (1613) and commonly called Letters on Sunspots. Reproduced in English translation by Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, the quotation is from p. 119.
18. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Introduction to Sidereus Nuncius (1610), English translation by Albert Van Helden (1940–): The Sidereal Messenger, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1989, pp. 17–18.
19. Galileo’s third Letter on Sunspot (1613), translated by Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, p. 128.
20. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Letter to Benedetto Castelli, December 21, 1613. Translated by Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1978, pp. 224–225.
21. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany: Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matters of Science (written and circulated in 1615, published in 1636), English translation by Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, pp. 176–216. A marginal note by Galileo attributes the quoted epigram to Cardinal Cesare Baronio, p. 186.
22. Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, p. 164.
23. This passage is from Galileo’s The Assayer (1623). English translation in Stillman Drake (1910–1993): Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Anchor Books, 1957, p. 239. A contemporary saying asks: “How can you fly like an eagle when you work with a bunch of turkeys.”
24. Galileo’s confession before seven Cardinal-Inquisitors on June 22, 1633, English translation in James MacLachlan (1928–): Galileo Galilei: First Physicist. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1997, p. 76.
25. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): Astronomia Nova … (New Astronomy Based upon Causes, or Celestial Physics, Treated by Means of Commentaries on the Motions of the Star Mars, from Observations of Tycho Brahe). Prague: Romanorvm Imperatoris 1609. See MBARK, pp. 67–75.
26. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): Kepler: Gesammelte Werke 16, 37, Max Casper and Walther von Dyck (Eds.): Munich: C. H. Beck 1938, translated by Arthur Koestler (1905–1983): The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe. London: Hutchinson 1959, pp. 394, 395.
27. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): Quotation in James R. Voelkel (1962–): Johannes Kepler and the New Astronomy, New York: Oxford University Press 1999, p. 66.
28. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): Kepler: Gesammelte Werke 3, dedication, translated by Arthur Koestler (1905–1983): Ibid. p. 325.
29. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), Letter to Herwart von Hohenberg, the Bavarian Chancellor and Kepler’s patron, dated 10 February 1605. Reproduced in Kepler: Gesammelte Werke, 15, 145, translated by Arthur Koestler: The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe. New York: Penguin Books 1964, p. 345.
2. Gravity Guides Movement and Bends Space-Time
1. Alexander Pope (1688–1744): An Essay on Man, Epistle II, lines 19 to 22. London: Printed for J. Wilford 1734.
2. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day 1642 according to the Julian calendar then in force in England; the rest of Europe was already using the modern Gregorian calendar, for which the date was January 4, 1643.
3. The Holy Bible, King James Version, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Revelation 14: 4–5.
4. Isaac Newton (1642–1727): “An Account of a New Catadioptrical Telescope, invented by Mr. Isaac Newton,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 81 (25 March 1672), pp. 4004–4007.
5. Isaac Newton (1643–1727): “A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton containing his New Theory about Light and Colours,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 80 (19 Feb. 1671/72), pp. 3075–3087.
6. Isaac Newton (1642–1727): King’s College Library, Cambridge: Keynes Manuscript 130 (7). Quoted by Michael White: Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley 1997, p. 43.
7. Newton was withdrawn, cautious, and suspicious; disliked exposing his thoughts, beliefs, or discoveries to possible criticism or distasteful priority disputes; and published almost nothing except under extreme pressure from his friends. Most of his extensive and unpublished religious writings have therefore remained unpublished and gone relatively unnoticed until recent times when they have become available. They have now been released and can be examined online at The Newton Project.
8. Herbert Westren (H. W.) Turnbull (1885–1961): The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, Volume III 1688–1694. Published for the Royal Society by Cambridge University Press 1961, No. 398, pp. 233–236.
9. Isaac Newton (1643–1727): Principia, Scholium Generale, end of Book III. The System of the World. This General Scholium first appeared in the second edition of the Principia, in 1713, and not the first edition published in 1687. English translation by Andrew Motte in 1729, revised by Florian Cajori, Berkeley: University of California Press 1934, pp. 544–546.
10. John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946): “Newton, The Man”. In The Royal Society Newton Tercentenary Celebrations 15 July 1946, Cambridge, Printed for the Royal Society (London) by the University Press 1947, pp. 27–34.
11. I. Bernard Cohen (1914–2003): “Newton,” Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 10, New York: Scribner’s 1974, p. 64. Also see John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946): Ibid., p. 28.
12. Isaac Newton (1643–1727): The Principia, Second Edition of 1713. English translation by I. Bernard Cohen (1914–2003) and Anne Whitman (1937–1984), Berkeley: University of California Press 1999, p. 943. See MBARK, pp. 90–98.
13. William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Julius Caesar (1599), Act II, Scene II, lines 30, 31. Also called The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and The Life and Death of Julius Caesar.
14. Edmond Halley (1656–1742): “Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 24, 1882–1899 (1705), A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets. London: John Senex 1705. Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 99–106.
15. Jan H. Oort (1900–1992): “The Structure of the Cloud of Comets Surrounding the Solar System, and a Hypothesis Concerning its Origin,” Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands 11, 91–110 (1950). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 132–137, and MBARK, pp. 440–445.
16. William Herschel (1738–1822): “Account of a Comet,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 71, 492–501 (1781). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 128–131.
17. Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811–1877): “Comparaison des observations de la nouvelle planète avec la théorie déduite des perturbations d’Uranus,” Comptes rendus 23, 771 (1846). John Couch Adams (1819–1892): “An explanation of the observed irregularities in the motion of Uranus, on the hypothesis of disturbances caused by a more distant planet; with a determination of the mass, orbit, and position of the disturbing body, “Appendix to the Nautical Almanac for the Year 1851 (London, 1846), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 7, 149–152 (1847). See MBARK, pp. 160–167.
18. Johann Gottfried Galle (1812–1910): Letter to Le Verrier, 1846, manuscript letter in the library of the Paris Observatory, and quoted by Morton Grosser (1942–): The Discovery of Neptune. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1962.
19. Isaac Newton (1642–1727): In Sir David Brewster (1781–1868), Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, Volume II, Chapter 27. Edinburgh: T. Constable and Co. 1855.
20. Pablo Neruda (1904–1973): Those Lives, lines 4, 5. English translation by Alastair Reid (1926–2014) in his Isla Negra: A Notebook, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1981, p. 133, reproduced by permission of the translator.
21. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Autobiographical Notes, in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (P. Schilpp, Ed.), New York: Tudor 1949, p. 8.
22. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): From an interview, Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929. Reproduced by Alice Calaprice (1941–): The Expanded Quotable Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2000, p. 155.
23. Abraham Pais (1918–2000): Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1982, p. 311.
24. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939. Reproduced by Alice Calaprice (1941–) Ibid, pp. 374–377. As it turned out, Einstein’s concern was real, for the Germans were investigating the possibility of constructing nuclear weapons during World War II (1939–1945), but without success. After the war, Einstein renounced the use of nuclear weapons and urged their international abolishment, but it was too late for that.
25. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Letter to V. Besso, March 21, 1955. Reproduced in Albert Einstein — Michele Besso Correspondence 1903–1955 [Paul Arthur Speziali (1897–1993), Ed.]. Paris: Hermann 1972, p. 537 and Abraham Pais (1918–2000): Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1982, p. 302.
26. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Autobiographical Notes, in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist [P. Schilpp (1897–1993), Ed.], New York: Tudor 1949, p. 95. Also reproduced by Alice Calaprice (1941–): Ibid. p. 220.
27. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “What I Believe,” Forum and Century 84, 193–194 (1930), quoted by Max Jammer (1915–2010): Einstein and Religion. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1999, p. 73.
28. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “Religion and Science,” New York Times Magazine, November 9, 1930, pp. 1–4. Reproduced in part by Alice Calaprice (1941–) in The Expanded Quotable Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2000, p. 207.
29. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): The World As I See It. New York: Philosophical Library 1949, p. 7.
30. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “What I Believe,” Forum and Century 84, 193–194 (1930), Reproduced by Alice Calaprice (1941–) Ibid. p. 11.
31. The five famous papers of the miracle year 1905 have been discussed by John S. Rigden (1934–2017): Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2005. Also see MBARK, pp. 295–301.
32. Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811–1877): “Theorie du movement de Mercure,” Annales de l’Observatoire imperial de Paris, Memoires, t. 5, Paris: Mallet-Bachelier 1859.
33. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie” (“Explanation of the Perihelion Motion of Mercury by Means of the General Theory of Relativity”), Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 11, 831–839 (1915). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 820–825.]
34. Einstein’s conversations or letters quoted by Abraham Pais (1918–2000): Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1982, p. 253.
35. In 1704, Isaac Newton (1642–1727) first speculated that the gravity of massive bodies might bend light, and in 1780 Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) calculated the amount of the Sun’s deflection using the Newtonian theory of gravitation. Einstein confirmed these results in 1911, but in his 1915 paper explaining the motion of Mercury, he corrected the calculation by taking the curvature of space-time into account, increasing the light bending by a factor of two to 1.75 seconds of arc for a light ray grazing the Sun’s edge.
36. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “On the Future of International Science,” Observatory 39 (501), 270–272 (June 1916).
37. Willem de Sitter (1872–1934): “On Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation, and its Astronomical Consequences,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 76, 699–728 (1916), 77, 155–184 (1916), 78, 3–28 (1917).
38. Frank Watson Dyson (1868–1939): “On the Opportunity Afforded by the Eclipse of 1919 May 29 of Verifying Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 77, 445 (1917).
39. Alice (Allie) Vibert Douglas (1894–1988): The Life of Arthur Stanley Eddington. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons 1956, p. 40.
40. “Joint Eclipse Meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society,” Observatory 545, 389–398 (1919), Frank Watson Dyson (1868–1939), Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944), and Charles Davidson (1875–1970): “A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London) 220, 291–333 (1920). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 826–832, and MBARK, pp. 302–312.
41. Russell Alan Hulse (1950–) and Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (1941–): “A High Sensitivity Pulsar Survey,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 191, L59–L61 (1974); “Discovery of a Pulsar in a Binary System,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 195, L51–L53 (1975). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 546–551.
42. Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (1941–), L. A. Fowler (–), and Peter M. McCulloch (–): “Measurements of General Relativistic Effects in the Binary Pulsar PSR 1913 + 16,” Nature 277, 437–440 (1979), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 551–554; Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (1941–) and Joel M. Weisberg (–): “A New Test of General Relativity — Gravitational Radiation and the Binary Pulsar PSR 1913+16,” The Astrophysical Journal 253, 908–920 (1982); Thibault Damour (1951–) and Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. (1941–): “On the Orbital Period Change of the Binary Pulsar PS 1913+16,” Astrophysical Journal 366, 501–511 (1991). Albert Einstein had predicted gravitational radiation in 1916 as a consequence of his recently derived General Theory of Relativity. He showed that the gravity waves would travel at the speed of light, as electromagnetic radiation does; but while electromagnetic waves move through space, gravity waves squeeze and stretch space-time itself. The vibrations are so weak, and their interaction with matter so feeble, that Einstein questioned whether they would ever be detected.
43. B. P. Abbott (–) et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration): “Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger,” Physical Review Letters 116, 061102, 1–167 (2016). B. P. Abbott (–) et al. (with 100 co-authors): “Astrophysical Implications of the Binary Black Hole Merger GW150914,” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 818, L22-L37 (2016). B. P. Abbott (–) et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration): “GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence,” Physical Review Letters 116, 241103,1–10. Also see Clara Moskowitz (–): “Gravitational Waves Discovered from Colliding Black Holes,” Scientific American, February 11, 2016. Dennis Overbye (1944–): “Gravitational Waves Detected, Confirming Einstein’s Theory,” New York Times, February 12, 2016. David Castelvecchi (–): “Gravitational Waves: 6 Cosmic Questions They Can Tackle,” Nature, February 10, 2016.
44. Stephen W. Hawking (1942–): “Gravitational Radiation from Colliding Black Holes,” Physical Review Letters 26, 1344–1346 (1971).
45. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Letter to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium on March 20, 1936. In Helen Dukas (1896–1982) and Banesh Hoffman (1906–1986) (Eds.): Albert Einstein The Human Side. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1979, pp. 51–52.
3. Motion within Matter
1. William Blake (1757–1827): Auguries of Innocence, written in 1803, first published in Alexander Gilchrist (1828–1861): The Life of William Blake. London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. 1863. In The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake [Ed. David V. Erdman (1911–2001): Berkeley: University of California Press 1982, p. 490, lines 1 to 4.
2. Isaac Newton (1642–1727): Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. London: Smith and Walford 1704, New York: Dover 1952, 2012, Book Three, Part I, p. 400.
3. John Dalton (1766–1844): “On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids,” Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 1803. A New System of Chemical Philosophy, London: Strand 1808, 1810, and 1827.
4. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944): The Little Prince (English translation by Katherine Woods). New York: Harcourt, Brace and World 1943, pp. 87, 93.
5. Henri Becquerel (1852–1908): “Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence (On the Rays Emitted by Phosphorescence),” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences 122, 420–421 (1896); “Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents (On the Invisible Rays Emitted by Phosphorescent Bodies,” 122, 501–503 (1896); “Sur diverses propriétés des rayons uranique (On the Diverse Properties of Rays from Uranium),” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Science 123, 855–858 (1898).
6. Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934): “Rayons emis par les composes de l’uranium et du thorium (Rays Emitted by Compounds of Uranium and Thorium,” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Science 125, 1101–1103 (1898). Pierre Curie (1859–1906), Mme. Pierre Curie (1867–1934), and Gustave Bémont (1867–1932): “Sur une nouvelle substance fortement radio-active contenue das la pechblende (On a New, Strongly Radio-active Substance Contained in Pitchblende),” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Science 127, 1215–1217 (1898). Pierre Curie (1859–1906): “Sur la radioactivité induite et sur lémanation du radium (Induced Radio-activity and the Emanation from Radium),” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Science 136, 223–226 (1903).
7. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) and Frederick Soddy (1877–1956): “The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity, Part I, Part II” Philosophical Magazine 4: 370–396, 569–585 (1902).
8. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) and Thomas Royds (1884–1955): “Spectrum of Radium Emanations,” Philosophical Magazine 16, 313–317 (1908), Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) and Thomas Royds (1884–1955): “The Nature of the α Particle from Radioactive Substances,” Philosophical Magazine 17, 281–286 (1909).
9. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937): “Radium — the Cause of the Earth’s Heat,” Harper’s Magazine February 390–396 (1905).
10. George Gamow (1904–1968): “Zur Quantentheorie der Atomzertrümmerung (On the Quantum Theory of the Atomic Nucleus),” Zeitschrift für Physik 52, 510–515 (1928). Also see his Constitution of Nuclei and Radioactivity. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1931.
11. Herman Melville (1819–1891): Moby Dick. New York: Harper and Brothers 1851, London: Richard Bentley 1851, London: Marshall Cavendish Paperworks 1987; a reproduction of the 1922 edition, p.141.
12. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937): “Origin of Actinium and Age of the Earth,” Nature 123, 313–314 (1929). Claire Patterson (1922–1995): “Age of the Meteorites and the Earth,” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 10, 230–237 (1956).
13. James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879): “Illustration of the Dynamical Theory of Gases: Part I. On the Motion and Collision of Perfectly Elastic Spheres,” Philosophical Magazine 19, 19–32 (1860); “Part II. On the Process of Diffusion of two or more Kinds of moving Particles among one another,” Philosophical Magazine 20, 21–27 (1860). In the previous year, Maxwell described why Saturn’s rings do not fall down into the planet. The rings contain a vast number of small particles moving around Saturn. See James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879): On the Stability of the Motion of Saturn’s Rings. London: Macmillan and Co. 1859. The energy of moving atoms and molecules is called kinetic energy, after the Greek word kinesis meaning “motion” — the word cinema has the same root, referring to motion pictures.
14. Robert Brown (1773–1858): “A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations Made on the Particles Contained in the Pollen of Plants,” London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 4, 161–173 (1828). Also see Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat,” Annalen der Physik 17, 549–560 (1905); Jean (Jean-Baptiste) Perrin (1870–1942): “Mouvement brownien et réalité moléculaire,” Annales de Chimie et de Physique 18, 1–114 (1909); Jean (Jean-Baptiste) Perrin (1870–1942): Les Atomes. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan 1913.
15. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937): “The Scattering of a and b Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom,” Philosophical Magazine 21, 669–688 (1911); “The Structure of the Atom,” Philosophical Magazine 27, 488–498 (1914).
16. Francis W. Aston (1877–1945): “Physics at the British Association,” Nature 106, 357 (1920). Here Aston states that: “The elements may be considered as composed of hydrogen nuclei, or ‘protons’ as Sir Ernest Rutherford would have us call them.” Also see Francis W. Aston (1877–1945): “The Mass Spectra of Chemical Elements,” Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 39, 611–625 (1920).
17. James Chadwick (1891–1974): “Possible Existence of a Neutron,” Nature 129, 312 (1932), “The Existence of a Neutron,” Proceedings of the Royal Society A136, 692–708 (1932).
18. Jonathan Homer Lane (1819–1880): “On the Theoretical Temperature of the Sun; under the Hypothesis of a Gaseous Mass maintaining its Volume by its Internal Heat, and depending on the Laws of Gases as Known to Terrestrial Experiment,” American Journal of Science and Arts (2nd series) 50, 57–74 (1870).” Reproduced by A. J. Meadows (1934–): Early Solar Physics. Oxford: Pergamon Press 1970, pp. 257–276.
4. How Light Moves Through Space and Interacts with Matter
1. The Holy Bible, King James Version, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans 1: 20.
2. The Holy Bible, King James Version, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, I Corinthians 1: 10.
3. Michael Faraday (1791–1867): “Observations on Mental Education,” a lecture given on May 6, 1854 before the Prince Consort and the Royal Institution, reproduced by Faraday in his Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics. London: Taylor and Francis 1859, p. 491.
4. Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851): “Experiments on the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle,” Annals of Philosophy 16, 273–276 (1820). Also see André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836): “Conclusions d’un Mémoire sur l’Action Mutuelle de deux courans électriques, sur celle qui existe entre un courant électrique et un aimans, et celle de deux aimans l’un sur l’autre,” Journal de Physique 91, 76–78 (1820).
5. Michael Faraday (1791–1867): Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1, Volume 2. London: Richard and John Edward Taylor 1849.
6. Michael Faraday (1791–1867): “Thoughts on Ray-vibration,” Philosophical Magazine 28, 345–350 (1846), p. 350.
7. Lewis Campbell (1830–1908) and William Garnett (1850–1932): The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, Second Edition. London: Macmillan and Co. 1884, p. 135.
8. Lewis Campbell (1830–1908) and William Garnett (1850–1932): Ibid. p. 225
9. Simon Schaffer (1955–): “James Clerk Maxwell,” in Peter Harman (1943–) and Simon Mitton (1946–) (Eds.): Cambridge Scientific Minds. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2002, p. 137.
10. Basil Mahon (1937–): The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons 2004, p. 173.
11. James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879): “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 155, 459–512 (1865); also see James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879): A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1873.
12. Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925): Electrical Papers, Second Edition, Volumes 1 and 2, London: Macmillan Co. 1892, 1894. Reproduced in Providence, Rhode Island: Chelsea Publishing 1970. The quotation is from Nancy Forbes (–) and Basil Mahon (1937–): Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books 2014, p. 240.
13. Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894): “On the Action of a Rectilinear Electric Oscillation Upon a Neighboring Circuit,” Annalen der Physik (1888), English translation of Hertz’ book by Daniel Evan Jones (1860–1941): Electric Waves: Being Researches On the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space. London and York: Macmillan and Co. 1893.
14. Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937): “Wireless Telegraphic Communication,” Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1909.
15. Ole Rømer (1644–1710): “A demonstration concerning the motion of light,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 136, 893–894 (June 25, 1677). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 117–120.
16. Albert Abraham Michelson (1852–1931): “Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 27, 71–77 (1878), 28, 124–160 (1879), Nature 21, 94–96, 120–122, 226 (1879–1880); “Measurement of the Velocity of Light between Mount Wilson and Mount San Antonio,” Astrophysical Journal 65, 1–14, 14–22 (1927). Also see Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953): “Biographical Memoir of Albert Abraham Michelson,” Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science 19, 121–146 (1938).
17. Albert Abraham Michelson (1852–1931): Light Waves and Their Uses. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1903, pp. 1–2; “Form Analysis,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 45, 110–116 (1906); “On Metallic Coloring in Birds and Insects,” Philosophical Magazine (6) 21, 554–569 (1911); Also see Dorothy Michelson Livingston (1906–1994): The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1973, pp. 4, 5,15, 16.
18. Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695): Traité de la lumière. Paris: Gauthier-Villars Editeurs, Libraires du Bureau des Longitudes 1690, English translation, Treatise on Light, by Silvanus P. Thompson (1851–1916), London: Macmillan and Co. 1912; Isaac Newton (1643–1727): Opticks or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colors of Light, London: Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford 1704, Query 18; James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879): “Lecture on the Aether in 1873”, in W. D. Niven (1842–1917) (Ed.): The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Vol. 2. Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press 1890, Reproduced New York: Dover 1965, p. 322; For a complete history of the aether, see E. T. (Edmond Taylor) Whittacker (1873–1956): A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity (First Edition): From the Age of Descartes to the Close of the Nineteenth Century. Dublin: Longmans, Green and Co. 1910; History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity (Second Edition): Vol. 1 The Classical Theories, Vol. 2 The Modern Theories 1900–1926. London: Nelson 1951.
19. Albert A. Michelson (1852–1931): “The Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Aether,” American Journal of Science (3) 22, 130–129 (1881). Also see: “On the Application of Interference Methods to Astronomical Measurements,” Philosophical Magazine 30, 1–21 (1890). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 1–7.
20. Albert A. Michelson (1852–1931) and Edward W. Morley (1838–1923): “On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether,” American Journal of Science 34, 333–345 (1887).
21. Dorothy Michelson Livingston (1906–1994): The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1973.
22. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper (On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies),” Annalen der Physik 17, 891–921(1905). [English translation in The Principle of Relativity. London: Methuen and Company 1923, reproduced New York: Dover Publications 1952, pp. 35–65.]
23. On January 15, 1931 at a dinner given in Einstein’s honor at the Athenaeum of the California Institute of Technology. See “Professor Einstein at the California Institute of Technology: Addresses at the Dinner in His Honor,” Science 73, 375–381 (1931). Also see Dorothy Michelson Livingston (1906–1994): The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1973, p. 335.
24. Max Planck (1858–1947): “Religion und Naturwissenshchaft (Religion and Natural Science),” Lecture delivered in May 1937. English translation in Max Planck (1858–1947): Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, Translated from German by Frank Gaynor (1911–), New York: Philosophical Library 1949, pp. 151–187, quotes from pp. 159, 173.
25. Gustav R. Kirchhoff (1824–1887): “On the Simultaneous Emission and Absorption of Rays of the Same Definite Refrangibility,” Philosophical Magazine 19, 193–197 (1860).
26. Joseph Stefan (1835–1893): “Über die Beziehung zwischen Wärmestrahlung und der Temperatur (On the Relationship Between Thermal Radiation and Temperature),” Sitzungsber. Ak. Wiss. Wien. Math, Naturw. 79, 391–397 (1879). Joseph Stefan discovered this expression by comparisons to experimental measurements of the Irish physicist John Tyndall (1829–1893).
27. Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834–1906): “Observations on Invisible Heat-Spectra and the Recognition of Hitherto Unmeasured Wave-lengths, Made at the Allegheny Observatory,” Philosophical Magazine 21, 394–409 (1886). Isaac Newton had previously used a glass prism to cast sunlight into an elongated band of colors, or wavelengths, which he called a spectrum, from the Latin for “spector.”
28. Wilhelm Wien (1864–1928): “Eine neue Beziehung der Strahlung schwarzer Körper zum zweiten Hauptsatz der Wärmetheorie (A New Relation Between the Radiation of Black Bodies and the Second Law of Thermodynamics),” Sitz. Acad. Wiss. Berlin 1, 55 (1893); “On the Division of Energy in the Emission-Spectrum of a Black Body,” Philosophical Magazine 43, 214 (1894).
29. Max Planck (1858–1947): “Über das Gesetz der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum (On the Law of Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum),” Annalen der Physik 4, 553–563 (1901); “Zur Theorie der Wärmestrahlung (On the Theory of Thermal Radiation),” Annalen der Physik 31, 758–768 (1910); The Theory of Heat Radiation. [English translation by Morton Masius (1883–1979)] 1914, Reproduced New York: Dover 1959.
30. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt (On a Heuristic Point of View about the Creation and Conversion of Light),” Annalen der Physik 17, 132–148 (1905).
31. Gilbert N. Lewis (1875–1946): “The Conservation of Photons,” Nature 118, 874–875 (1926).
32. William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828): “A Method of Examining Refractive and Dispersive Powers, by Prismatic Reflection,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 92, 365–380 (1802).
33. Joseph Fraunhofer (1787–1826): Denkschriften der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München (Memoranda of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Munich) 5 193–226 (1817), Edinburgh Journal of Science 8, 93–96 (1828), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 204–210.
34. Robert William Bunsen (1811–1899): Letter written by Bunsen to the English chemist Henry Enfield Roscoe (1833–1915) in November 1859. Quoted by Roscoe in: The Life and Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, London 1906, p. 71. See Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824–1877): “On the Chemical Analysis of the Solar Atmosphere,” Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 21, 185–188 (1861). Reproduced by A. J. Meadows in: Early Solar Physics, Pergamon Press, Oxford 1970, pp. l03–106; Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen: “Chemical Analysis of Spectrum Observations,” Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 20, 89–109 (1860), 22, 329–349, 498–510 (1861). Also see MBARK, pp. 211–217.
5. The Stars are Moving
1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882): Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, Part the First — III (1847), New York: Maynard, Marrill & Co. 1893, p. 43, lines 4, 5.
2. This apparent change in stellar location is known as precession, and it can be detected with the unaided eye in a human lifetime.
3. Edmond Halley (1656–1742): “Considerations on the Change of the Latitudes of Some of the Principal Fixt Stars,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 30, 736–738 (1718). Also see Jacques Cassini (1677–1756): “Du Mouvement apparent des Etoiles fixes en Longitude,” Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris (1740), Mémoires 273–283.
4. Tobias Mayer (1723–1762): “Du motu fixarum proprio commentatio (Comment on the Proper Motion of Stars),” Lecture to the Göttingen Scientific Society on 12 January 1760.
5. William Herschel (1738–1822): “On the Proper Motion of the Sun and Solar System; with an Account of Several Changes That Have Happened Among the Fixed Stars Since the Time of Mr. Flamsteed,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 73, 274–283 (1783), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 139–144; “On the Direction and Velocity of the Motion of the Sun and Solar System,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 95, 233–256 (1805); “On the Quantity and the Velocity of the Solar Motion,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 96, 205–237 (1806).
6. Jacobus C. Kapteyn (1851–1922): “Star Streaming,” Report of the 75th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (South Africa) 236–265 (1905), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 514–519.
7. Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784–1846): “On the Parallax of 61 Cygni,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 4, 152–161 (1838). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 153–159.
8. Edmond Halley (1656–1742): Catalogus Stellarum Australium. London: R. Hartford 1679.
9. Edmond Halley (1656–1742): “Some Considerations about the Cause of the Universal Deluge, Laid before the Royal Society, on the 12th of December 1694,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 33, No. 383, 123–125 (1724). The great flood that destroyed most living things on Earth is described in The Holy Bible, King James Version, The First Book of Moses, called Genesis 6: 17.
10. Angus Armitage (1902–1976): Edmond Halley. London: Thomas Nelson 1966, p. 123.
11. Alan Cook (1922–2004): Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1998, pp. 163, 164.
12. Christian Doppler (1803–1853): “Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels (On the Colored Light of Some Binary Stars and Some Other Stars of the Heavens),” Abhandlungen der königlichen. Böhmischen Gesselschaft der Wissenschaften (Proceedings of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences) 2, 465–482 (1842, 1843). Doppler did not refer to distinct wavelengths, and his proposed color changes of the stars are not perceptible.
13. Hermann C. Vogel (1841–1907): “Determination of the Motions in the Line of Sight by Means of Photography,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 50, 239–242 (1890); “On the Spectrographic Method of Determining the Velocity of Stars in the Line of Sight,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 52, 87–96 (1892). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 228–232.
14. Lewis Boss (1846–1912): Preliminary General Catalogue of 6188 Stars for the Epoch 1900: Including Those Visible to the Naked Eye and Other Well-determined Stars. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington 1910. Boss states that the direction the Sun travels relative to nearby stars, known as the solar apex or apex of the Sun’s way, is toward R.A. 270.5° ± 1.5° and Dec. + 34.3° ± 1.3°. The star Vega has RA = 279° and Dec. + 38.8°.
15. William Wallace Campbell (1862–1938): Stellar Motions: With Special Reference to Motions Determined by Means of the Spectrograph. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1913. In these Silliman Lectures of 1909–1910, Campbell gave a speed of solar motion as 19.5 ± 0.6 kilometers per second towards R.A. 268.5° ± 2.0° and Dec. + 25.3° ± 1.8°.
16. Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC–AD 17/18): Metamorphoseon libri (Books of Transformations, written in 1 AC), Book the First, The Giants’ War, lines 26 to 29.
17. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Sidereus Nuncius, Ventis: Apud Thomon Baglionum 1610. English translation by Albert Van Helden (1940–): The Sidereal Messenger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1989, p. 62.
18. Thomas Wright (1711–1786): An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe, Founded upon the Laws of Nature, and Solving by Mathematical Principles the General Phenomena of the Visible Creation; and Particularly the Via Lactea (London: H. Chapele 1750). Facsimile reprint edition entitled An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe edited with an introduction by Michael A. Hoskin (1930–), London: Macdonald & Company 1971, New York: Neale Watson Academic Publications 1971. Also see MBARK, pp. 168–174.
19. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens), Part One, On the Systematic Constitution among the Fixed Stars 1755. English translation by Ian C. Johnston (1938–), Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications 2008, pp. 30–40. Also see MBARK, pp. 174–181.
20. William Herschel (1738–1822): “On the Construction of the Heavens,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 75, 346–352 (1785); Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): The Construction of the Heavens: William Herschel’s Cosmology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2012.
21. American Institute of Physics: Oral History Transcript of an Interview with Dr. Harlow Shapley by Charles Weiner (1932–2012) and Helen Wright (1914–1997) on June 8, 1966.
22. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “Thermokinetics of Liometopum Apiculatum Mayr,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 6 (4), 204–211 (1920); “Note on the Thermokinetics of Dolichoderine Ants,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10 (10), 436–439 (1924).
23. Robert W. Smith (1952–): The Expanding Universe: Astronomy’s ‘Great Debate’ 1900–1931. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1982, pp. 68 and 78; Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): “The ‘Great Debate’: What Really Happened,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 7, 169–182 (1976); Helen Wright (1914–1997): Explorer of the Universe, a Biography of George Ellery Hale. New York: Dutton 1966, p. 326.
24. Owen Gingerich (1931–): “How Shapley Came to Harvard, or Snatching the Prize from the Jaws of Debate,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 19, 201–207 (1988).
25. Charles A. Whitney (1929–): The Discovery of Our Galaxy. New York: Random House 1971, p. 218.
26. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): Beyond the Observatory. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1967, p. 123.
27. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): Beyond the Observatory. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1967, pp. 47 and 48.
28. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): Of Stars and Men: Human Response to An Expanding Universe. Boston: Beacon Press 1958, pp. 149 and 150.
29. Pope Pius XII (1876–1958): “The Proofs for the Existence of God in the light of Modern Natural Science,” Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, November 22, 1951.
30. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Fate and Freedom. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1927, pp. 67 and 85.
31. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “The Orbits of Eighty-Seven Eclipsing Binaries — a Summary,” Astrophysical Journal 38, 158–174 (1913).
32. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “On the Nature and Cause of Cepheid Variation,” Astrophysical Journal 40, 448–465 (1914).
33. Henrietta Leavitt (1868–1921): “1777 Variables in the Magellanic Clouds,” Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College 60, No. 4 (1908), “Periods of Twenty-five Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud,” Harvard College Observatory Circular No. 173, 1–3 (1912), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 398–400, and MBARK, pp. 383–389.
34. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “Studies Based on the Colors and Magnitudes in Stellar Clusters. VI. On the Determination of the Distances of Globular Clusters,” Astrophysical Journal 48, 89–124 (1918), pp. 90, 91. Ejnar Hertzsprung had already determined the mean luminosity of nearby Cepheids of reliably known distance five years before Shapley arrived at a similar result. See Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873–1967): “Über die räumliche Verteilung der Veränderlichen vom δ Cephei-Typus,” Astronomische Nachrichten 196, 201–208 (1913). Shapley checked and extended his distance estimates using other luminous stars in the globular clusters, which were assumed to have the same intrinsic luminosity as stars of an identical type and known luminosity near the Sun, and he also used the apparent angular diameters of the clusters to infer their distances under the assumption that they all have the same linear diameter.
35. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): Letter from Harlow Shapley to Henry Norris Russell of October 31, 1917, quoted by Robert W. Smith (1952–): Ibid, p. 60.
36. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “Studies Based on the Colors and Magnitudes in Stellar Clusters VII, The Distances, Distribution in Space, and Dimensions of 69 Globular Clusters,” Astrophysical Journal 48, 154–181 (1918). Also see LGSB, pp. 523–534 and MBARK, pp. 390–397.
37. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “Globular Clusters and the Structure of the Galactic System,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 30, No. 173, 42–54 (1918).
38. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Stellar Movements and the Structure of the Universe. London, Macmillan 1914, p. 32. Letter from A. S. Eddington to Harlow Shapley on October 24, 1918, quoted by Robert W. Smith (1952–): Ibid. p. 67.
39. Jacobus C. Kapteyn (1851–1922): “First Attempt at a Theory of the Arrangement and Motion of the Sidereal System,” Astrophysical Journal 55, 302–327 (1922), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 542–549.
40. Karl G. Jansky (1905–1950): “A Note on the Source of Interstellar Interference,” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 23, 1158–1163 (1935), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 30–33, and MBARK, pp. 455–462; Grote Reber (1911–2002): “Cosmic Static,” Astrophysical Journal 100, 279–287 (1944), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 34–35, and MBARK, pp. 462–464.
41. Eric E. Becklin (1940–) and Gerald “Gerry” Neugebauer (1932–2014): “Infrared Observations of the Galactic Center,” Astrophysical Journal 151, 145–161 (1968), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 67–74, and MBARK, pp. 522–527.
42. Bruce Balick (1943–2014) and Robert L. Brown (1943–2014): “Intense Sub-Arcsecond Structure in the Galactic Center,” Astrophysical Journal 194, 265–270 (1974).
43. Sheperd Samuel Doeleman (1967–) et al.: “Event-horizon-scale Structure in the Supermassive Black Hole Candidate at the Galactic Center,” Nature 455, 78–90 (2008).
44. Andrea M. Ghez (1965–): “Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way’s Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits,” Astrophysical Journal 689, 1044–1062 (2008).
45. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “Studies Based on the Colors and Magnitudes in Stellar Clusters XII, Remarks on the Arrangement of the Sidereal Universe,” Astrophysical Journal 49, 311–316 (1919), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 390–397. Also see Harlow Shapley (1885–1972) and Heber D. Curtis (1872–1942): “The Scale of the Universe, Part 1, Part 2” Bulletin of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, D.C.) 2, 171–193 (1921), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 523–534, and Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): “The ‘Great Debate’: What Really Happened,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 7, 169–182 (1976).
6. The Universe is Expanding and Breaking Away
1. John Milton (1608–1674): Paradise Lost. London: Samuel Simmons 1667, The Second Book, The Argument, lines 890 to 894. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co. 1993 [Ed. Roy Flannagan (–)], p. 197.
2. Charles Messier (1730–1817): Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des Amas d’Étoiles (Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters), Mémoires de mathématique et de physique, presentés à l’Académie Royale des Sciences for 1771. Final 1781 version of 103 objects published in Connaissance des Temps for 1784. English translation by Kenneth Glyn Jones (1915–1995): Messier’s Nebulae and Star Clusters. London: Faber and Faber 1968, Second Edition, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
3. William Parsons, The Third Earl of Rosse (1800–1867): “Observations on the Nebulae,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 140, 499–514 (1850). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 189–195.
4. James E. Keeler (1857–1900): “The Crossley Reflector of the Lick Observatory,” Astrophysical Journal 11, 325–349 (1900), Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 12, 144–147 (1900). Modern estimates of the total number of galaxies out to a red shift z is 6 billion z3, or 6 × 109 z3; see Kenneth R. Lang (1941–): Essential Astrophysics. Heidelberg: Springer 2013, pp. 498, 499.
5. Cornelius Easton (1864–1929): “A New Theory for the Milky Way,” Astrophysical Journal 12, 136–158 (1900). By using radio telescopes in the 1950s, which see through interstellar dust, astronomers were eventually able to map out the spiral arms of the Milky Way. The radio astronomers tuned into the emission of interstellar hydrogen atoms, at 21-centimeters wavelength. See Jan H. Oort (1900–1972), Frank J. Kerr (1918–2000), and Gart Westerhout (1927–2012): “The Galactic System as a Spiral Nebula,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 118, 379–380 (1958). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 643–657, and MBARK, pp. 433–439.
6. William Lowell Putnam, III (1924–2014): “An Apology,” in Origins of the Expanding Universe: 1912–1932, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Volume 471 [Eds. Michael J. Way (–) and Deidre Hunter (–)]. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2013, pp. 259 to 264.
7. Nicholas U. Mayall (1906–1993): “Edwin Powell Hubble 1889–1953, Biographical Memoir of the National Academy of Sciences,” Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences 1970, p. 177.
8. Gale E. Christianson (1942–2010): Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1995.
9. Edwin P. Hubble (1889–1953): “Photographic Investigations of Faint Nebulae,” Publications of the Yerkes Observatory 4, 69–85 (1920).
10. Nicholas U. Mayall (1906–1993): Ibid. p. 181.
11. Grace Lillian Burke Hubble (1889–1981): Quoted by Gale E. Christianson (1942–2010): Ibid. p. 183, from 1980 record in the Edwin P. Hubble Manuscript Collection, Henry Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
12. Grace Lillian Burke Hubble (1889–1981): Ibid. p. 183.
13. Pope Pius XII (1876–1958): “The Proofs for the Existence of God in the light of Modern Natural Science,” Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, November 22, 1951.
14. Edwin P. Hubble (1889–1953): The Nature of Science and Other Lectures. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press 1954, pp. 18, 19, 40, and 41.
15. Allan R. Sandage (1926–2010): Quoted by John Noble Wilford (1933–): “Sizing Up the Cosmos: An Astronomer’s Quest,” New York Times, March 12, 1991.
16. Vesto M. Slipher (1875–1969): “Spectrographic Observations of Nebulae,” Publications of the American Astronomical Society 3, 98–100 (1914).
17. Vesto M. Slipher (1875–1969): “A Spectrographic Investigation of Spiral Nebulae,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 56, 403–410 (1917). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 704–707, and MBARK, pp. 418–420.
18. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “The Highest Known Velocity,” Scientific American 161 (July), 18–19 (1929); Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): The Mathematical Theory of Relativity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1923, pp. 161–166.
19. Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873–1967): Letter to Vesto M. Slipher on March 14, 1914, Lowell Observatory Archives. The extraordinarily high velocities of recession meant that some of the spiral nebulae could not long remain a part of the Milky Way system. The combined gravitational pull of the entire 100 billion stars in the Milky Way is not enough to retain any spiral nebula moving at speeds in excess of 1,000 kilometers per second.
20. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972) and Heber D. Curtis (1872–1942): “The Scale of the Universe,” Bulletin of the National Research Council for the National Academy of Sciences 2, 171–217 (1921). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 704–707.
21. Edwin P. Hubble’s (1889–1953) Letter to Harlow Shapley on February 19, 1924 and Shapley’s Letter to Hubble on February 27, 1924, Widener Library, Harvard University. Quoted in Robert W. Smith (1952–): The Expanding Universe: Astronomy’s ‘Great debate’, 1900–1931. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1982, pp. 114, 119.
22. Edwin P. Hubble (1889–1953): “Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae,” Publications of the American Astronomical Society 5, 261–264 (1925), reprinted in Observatory 48, 139–142 (1925), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 713–715, and MBARK, pp. 407–414.
23. Ernst Öpik (1893–1985): “An Estimate for the Distance of the Andromeda Nebula,” Astrophysical Journal 455, 406–410 (1922). Francis G. Pease (1881–1938): “The Rotation and Radial Velocity of the Central Part of the Andromeda Nebula,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 4, 21–24 (1918).
24. Edwin P. Hubble (1889–1953): “A Relation between Distance and Radial Velocity among Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 15, 168–173 (1929). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 725–728, and MBARK pp. 421–424.
25. Carl W. Wirtz (1876–1939): “Einiges zur Statistik der Radialbewegungen von Spiralnebeln und Kugelsternhaufen,” Astronomische Nachrichten 215, 349–354 (1922); “De Sitter’s Kosmologie und die Radialbewungen der Spiralnebel,” Astronomische Nachrichten 222, 21–26 (1924).
26. Kunt Lundmark (1889–1958): “The Motions and the Distances of Spiral Nebulae,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 85, 865–894 (1925).
27. Edwin Hubble (1899–1953) and Milton L. Humason (1891–1972): “The Velocity Distance Relation Amongst Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” Astrophysical Journal 74, 43–80 (1931), pp. 57, 58.
28. Edwin Hubble (1899–1953): Letter to Vesto M. Slipher on March 6, 1953. Lowell Observatory Archives.
29. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): Through Rugged Ways of the Stars. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1969, pp. 57, and 58.
30. Willem de Sitter (1872–1934): “On Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation, and its Astronomical Consequences,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 76, 699–728 (1916), 77, 155–184 (1916), 78, 3–28 (1917). Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): The Mathematical Theory of Relativity. Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press 1923, p. 162.
31. Edwin Hubble (1899–1953): Letter to Willem de Sitter on August 21, 1930. Huntington Library. Quoted by Robert W. Smith (1952–): Ibid. pp. 151, 183.
32. Howard P. Robertson (1903–1961): “On Relativistic Cosmology,” Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 5 (31), 835–848 (1928); “On the Foundations of Relativistic Cosmology,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 15 (11): 822–829 (1929).
33. Helge Kragh (1944–) and Robert W. Smith (1952–): “Who Discovered the Expanding Universe?” Journal for the History of Astronomy 41, 141–162 (2003).
34. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “The Highest Known Velocity,” Scientific American 161 (July), 18–19 (1929).
35. Edwin Hubble (1899–1953) and Milton L. Humason (1891–1972): “The Velocity Distance Relation Amongst Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” Astrophysical Journal 74, 43–80 (1931). Hubble and Humason preferred the designation extra-galactic nebulae for the remote spirals, but we now call them spiral galaxies or elliptical galaxies depending on their shape. The designation nebulae is currently reserved for cloudy, gaseous material enveloping individual bright stars.
36. Milton L. Humason (1891–1972): “The Large Apparent Velocities of Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflet 1, 149–152 (1931), p. 152.
37. Edwin Hubble (1899–1953) and Milton L. Humason (1891–1972): Ibid. p. 80.
38. Edwin P. Hubble (1889–1953): “The Law of Red-Shifts,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 113, 658–666 (1953), p. 666; The Realm of the Nebulae. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1936, p. 6.
39. Blaise Pascal (1623–1662): Pensées (Thoughts), Part XV, Transition from Knowledge of Man to Knowledge of God (1660), English translation by A. J. Krailsheimer (1921–2001), New York: Penguin Classics, 1995, pp. 60, 66 (numbers 199, 201 in papers classified by Pascal).
40. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937): “Origin of Actinium and Age of the Earth,” Nature 123, 313–314 (1929); Clair C. Patterson (1922–1995): “Age of the Meteorites and the Earth,” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 10, 230–237 (1956).
41. Walter Baade (1893–1960): “The Resolution of Messier 32, NGC 205, and the Central Region of the Andromeda Nebula,” Astrophysical Journal 100, 137–136 (1944). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 425–430, and MBARK, pp. 744–749.
42. Walter Baade (1893–1960): “A Revision of the Extragalactic Distance Scale,” Transactions of the International Astronomical Union 8, 397–398 (1952), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 750–752, and MBARK, pp. 430–432.
43. Allan Sandage (1926–2010): “Current Problems in the Extragalactic Distance Scale,” The Astrophysical Journal (Supplement) 127, 513–526 (1958).
44. Robert P. Kirshner (1949–): The Extravagant Universe. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2002, p. 150.
45. Wendy L. Freedman (1957–) et al: “Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant,” Astrophysical Journal 553, 47–72 (2001).
46. Martin Ryle (1918–1984): “Evidence for the Stellar Origin of Cosmic Rays,” Proceedings of the Physical Society (London) A62, 491–499 (1949). Also see Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) and Nicolai Herlofson (1935–): “Cosmic Radiation and Radio Stars,” Physical Review 78, 616 (1950). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 779–780.
47. Thomas Gold (1920–2004): “The Origin of Cosmic Radio Noise,” Proceedings of the Conference on Dynamics of Ionized Media, Department of Physics, University College, London 1951. Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 782–785.
48. Walter Baade (1893–1960) and Rudolph Minkowski (1895–1976): “Identification of the Radio Sources in Cassiopeia, Cygnus A, and Puppis A,” Astrophysical Journal 119, 216–214 (1954). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 786–791.
49. As remembered by Thomas Gold (1920–2004) and quoted by Simon Singh (1964–) in Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe. New York, Forth Estate/Harper Collins 2004, p. 414.
50. Martin Ryle (1918–1984): “The Nature of Cosmic Radio Sources,” Proceedings of the Royal Society (London) A248, 289–308 (1958). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 792–800.
51. Cyril Hazard (–), M. B. Mackey (–), and A. J. Shimmins (–): “Investigation of the Radio Source 3C 273 by the Method of Lunar Occultations,” Nature 197, 1037–1039 (1963). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 803–808.
52. Maarten Schmidt (1929–): “3C 273: A Star-like Object with Large Red-Shift,” Nature 197, 1040 (1963). Reproduced in LGSB, p. 808, and MBARK, 503–507.
53. Martin J. Rees (1942–): “Black hole models for active galactic nuclei,” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 22, 471–506 (1984).
54. Walter Baade (1893–1960) and Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “Cosmic Rays From Super-Novae,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 20 (5), 259–263 (1934); “On Super-Novae,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 20 (5), 254–259 (1934). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 469–473 and MBARK, pp. 339–343.
55. Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “A super-nova in NGC 4157,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 49, 204 (1937).
56. William A. Fowler (1911–1995) and Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “Nucleosynthesis in Supernovae,” Astrophysical Journal 132, 565–590 (1960).
57. Walter Baade (1893–1960): “The Absolute Photographic Magnitude of Supernovae,” Astrophysical Journal 88, 285–304 (1938).
58. Walter Baade (1893–1960) and Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “Photographic Light-Curves of the Two Supernovae in IC 4182 and NGC 1003,” Astrophysical Journal 88, 411–422 (1938). Rudolph Minkowski (1894–1976): “The Spectra of the Supernovae in IC 4182 and NGC 1003,” Astrophysical Journal 89, 156–217 (1939). Also see Virginia Trimble (1943–): “Supernovae. Part 1 — the Events,” Reviews of Modern Physics 54, 1183–1224 (1952); “Supernovae. Part 2 — the Aftermath,” Reviews of Modern Physics 55, 511–564 (1983).
59. Rudolph Minkowski (1894–1976): “Spectra of Supernovae,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 53, 224–225 (1941).
60. See Saul Perlmutter (1959–): “Supernovae, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe,” Physics Today 56 (4), 53–62 (2003).
61. Adam G. Riess (1969–), William H. Press (1948–), and Robert P. Kirshner (1949–): “A Precise Distance Indicator: Type Ia Supernova Multicolor Light-Curve Shapes,” Astrophysical Journal 473, 88–109 (1996).
62. Mario Hamuy (1960–) et al.: “The Hubble Diagram of the Calán/Tololo Type Ia Supernovae and the Value of H0,” Astrophysical Journal 112, 2398–2407 (1996), with several dedicated, young, international astronomers that included José Maza, Mark Philips, and Nick Suntzeff.
63. Saul Perlmutter (1959–) et al.: “Measurements of the Cosmological Parameters Omega and Lamda from the First Seven Supernovae at z ≥ 0.35,” Astrophysical Journal 483, 565–581 (1997); “Discovery of a Supernova Explosion at Half the Age of the Universe,” Nature 391, 51 (1998).
64. Adam G. Riess (1969–) et al.: “Observational Evidence From Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant,” Astronomical Journal 116, 1009–1038 (1998), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 608–617.
65. Saul Perlmutter (1959–) et al.: “Measurement of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae,” Astrophysical Journal 517, 565–586 (1999), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 618–623.
66. Alan H. Guth (1947–): “Inflationary Universe: A Possible Solution to the Horizon and Flatness Problems,” Physical Review D23, 347–356 (1981).
67. Alan H. Guth (1947–): “Inflation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 90 (11), 4871–4877 (1993).
68. Andrei D. Linde (1948–): “A New Inflationary Universe Scenario: A Possible Solution of the Horizon, Flatness, Homogeneity, Isotropy and Primordial Monopole Problems,” Physics Letters B108, 389–393 (1982).
69. Anna Ijjas (1985–), Paul J. Steinhardt (1952–), and Abraham Loeb(1962–): “Pop Goes the Universe,” Scientific American 316, 32–39 (2017).
70. Allan H. Guth (1947–) and David I. Kaiser (1971–): “Inflationary Cosmology: Exploring the Universe from the Smallest to the Largest Scales,” Science 307, 884–890 (2005).
71. Allan H. Guth (1947–), David I. Kaiser (1971–), and Yasunori Nomura (1974–): “Inflationary Paradigm after Planck 2013,” Physics Letters B733, 112–119 (2014).
72. Alexander Vilenkin (1949–): “Creation of Universes from Nothing,” Physics Letters B117, No. 1–2, 25–28 (1982).
73. Andrei D. Linde (1948–): “Quantum Creation of the Inflationary Universe,” Letttere Al Nuovo Cimento 39, No. 17, 401–405 (1984).
Part II. Nothing Stays the Same
7. Natural History of the Stars
1. Jorge Louis Borges (1899–1986): “The Garden of Forking Paths,” in his Ficciones, New York: Grove Press 1962, p. 71.
2. With the advent of telescopes, many fainter novae were discovered, and the term supernova was adopted to describe the much brighter and longer lasting events such as Tycho’s supernova of 1572 and Kepler’s supernova of 1604. Although these supernovae are uncommon within our own Milky Way Galaxy, they can often be seen amongst the billions of other galaxies.
3. John Donne (1572–1631): Letter to the Countess of Huntington (1609–10), lines 5 to 8. In John Donne: The Major Works [John Carey (Ed., 1934–)]. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008, p. 198. The disappearance of this new star may have inspired another English poet, John Milton, who in wrote:
“The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fixed in steadfast gaze …
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow
Until their Lord himself bespoke, and bid them go.”
See John Milton (1608–1674): On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, The Hymn (1629), Part VI, lines 68, 69 and 75, 76. John T. Shawcross (Ed., 1924–2011): The Complete Poetry of John Milton. New York: Doubleday 1963, p. 66.
4. Tycho Brahe (1546–1601): De Nova et Nullius Aevi Memoria Prius Visa Stella, or On the New and Never Previously Seen Star. Copenhagen: Haunie 1573, English translation in MBARK, pp. 61–66; Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Lectures in November 1604 at the University of Padua, Italy. See MBARK, pp. 61–66. Described by Dava Sobel (1947–): Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love. New York: Walker & Company 1999, pp. 52–53, and by David Freedberg (1948–): The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, his Friends, and the Beginning of Modern Natural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2002, pp. 84–85. By comparing his nightly observations with those of other astronomers in distant lands, Galileo found that the nova displayed no parallax. In contrast, when the Moon is observed from two widely separated places on the surface of the Earth, it shows a small parallax shift in position against the background of the distant stars. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): De Stella Nova. Prague: P. Sessli 1606.
5. Angus Armitage (1902–1976): William Herschel. London: Thomas Nelson 1962, New York: Doubleday 1963, p. 21.
6. William Herschel (1738–1822): “Account of a Comet,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 71, 492–501 (1781). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 128–131.
7. Owen Gingerich (1930–): “The 1784 Autobiography of William Herschel,” in his The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1992, p. 163.
8. William Herschel (1738–1822): “A Letter from William Herschel,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 73, 1–3 (1783). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 132–133.
9. John Keats (1795–1821): On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer (1816), lines 9–14. Richard Holmes notes that Balboa, not Cortez, reached the Pacific, and that Keats later replaced “wondering eyes” with “eagle eyes,” see Richard Holmes (1945–): The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. New York: Vintage Books, Random House 2008, p. 207.
10. William Herschel (1738–1822): “Catalogue of One Thousand new Nebulae and Clusters of Stars,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 76, 457–499 (1786), “Catalogue of a second Thousand of new Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; with a few introductory Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 79, 212–255 (1789), “Catalogue of 500 new Nebulae, nebulous Stars, planetary Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; with Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 92, 477–528 (1802). Also see Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): William Herschel and the Construction of the Heavens. London: Oldbourne 1963. The Construction of the Heavens: William Herschel’s Cosmology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2012. During this time, William also discovered infrared radiation when he put sunlight through a prism to spread it into its colors and used a thermometer to measure their temperatures. See William Herschel (1738–1822): “Experiments on the Refrangibility of the Invisible Rays of the Sun,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 90, 284–292 (1800). Herschel noticed that an unseen portion of the sunlight produced heat beyond the red edge of the visible spectrum. Because the thermometer recorded higher temperatures in this invisible sunlight than in normal visible sunlight, Herschel called them calorific, or heat, rays. The term infrared, referring to wavelength rather than heat, did not appear until the late 19th century.
11. Charles Messier (1730–1817): Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des Amas d’Étoiles (Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters). Mémoires de mathématique et de physique, prepared in 1781, in Connaissance des Temps for 1784. English translation by Kenneth Glyn Jones (1915–1995): Messier’s Nebulae and Star Clusters. London: Faber and Faber 1968.
12. William Herschel (1738–1822): “Catalogue of a Second Thousand of new Nebulae and Clusters of Stars with a few introductory Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 79, 212–255 (1789), p. 226, Introductory Remarks, pp. 212–226. Quoted by Angus Armitage (1902–1976): William Herschel. London: Thomas Nelson 1962, New York: Doubleday 1963, p. 118.
13. Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802): The Botanic Garden, Part 1, The Economy of Vegetation. London: J. Johnson 1791, Canto I, Part I, lines 97–114. Erasmus’ grandson, Charles Darwin, would continue these interests in his The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. London: John Murray 1859.
14. Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802): The Botanic Garden, Part 1, The Economy of Vegetation. London: J. Johnson 1791, Canto IV, lines 371–388, and Canto IV, Part X, lines 9–31.
15. William Herschel (1738–1822): “On Nebulous Stars, Properly So Called,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 81, 71–88 (1791). Quoted by Angus Armitage (1902–1976): William Herschel. London: Thomas Nelson 1962, New York: Doubleday 1963, p. 114. This object is now known as the planetary nebula NGC 1514. Herschel named such an object a planetary nebula, since it seemed to have both the round disk of planets and the pale light of nebulae. In his time, a planetary nebula seemed to be a pre-stellar object about to gather into a nebulous star and from thence to a true star. Modern telescopes of larger size have revealed that planetary nebulae, including those observed by Herschel, mark the end of some stars’ lives, rather than their beginning. They display an outer expanding atmosphere that has been expelled by the gusty winds of a dying central star.
16. William Herschel (1738–1822): “Observations Relating to the Sidereal Part of the Heavens,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 104, 248–284 (1814), p. 284. Quoted by Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): The Construction of the Heavens: William Herschel’s Cosmology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2012, p. 162.
17. William Herschel (1738–1822): “On the Utility of Speculative Inquiries,” read on April 14, 1780 to the Philosophical Society of Bath. Quoted by Stanley L. Jaki (1924–2009): The Road of Science and the Ways of God. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1978, pp. 110, 111. Also see Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): “William Herschel and God,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 14, 1–6 (2014). William has been extensively misquoted as saying “an undevout astronomer must be mad” — which the English poet Edward Young wrote in his Night Thoughts. Edward Young (1683–1765): The Complaint: or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality. London: R. Dodsley 1743, Part IX, lines 771–773.
18. Constance A. Lubbock (1905–1993): The Herschel Chronicle. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1933, p. 197. Quoted by Angus Armitage (1902–1976): William Herschel. London: Thomas Nelson 1962, New York: Doubleday 1963, p. 35.
19. Joseph Addison (1672–1719): Hymn, The Spacious Firmament on High or Creation (1712), lines 1 to 4. See Arthur Quiller-Couch (Ed., 1863–1944): The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1900, No. 433 Hymn, p. 496.
20. Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): The Creation, composed 1796 to 1798; Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770–1827): Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, Fourth Movement, Ode to Joy, composed 1822 to 1824; musical setting of parts of the German poet Friedrich von Schiller’s (1759–1805) poem, published in 1786. This final movement to the Ninth Symphony was used by Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) in a concert to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall and has been adopted as the anthem of the European Union.
8. How the Sun and Planets Came into Being
1. Alexander Pope (1688–1744): Essay on Man. The First Epistle, 1732, lines 23 to 28. Quoted by Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, Part Three, 1755. English translation by Ian C. Johnston (1938–), Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications 2008, p. 130.
2. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens), Part One, On the Systematic Arrangement of the Fixed Stars. Part Two, Section One, Concerning the Origin of the Planetary World Structure in General and the Causes of its Movements, 1755. English translation by Ian C. Johnston (1938–), Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications 2008, p. 22–49.
3. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens): Of the Creation of the Whole Extent of its infinitude in Space as Well as Time, 1755. English translation by William Hastie (1842–1903) and reproduced in Milton K. Munitz (1913–1995): Theories of the Universe: From Babylonian Myth to Modern Science. New York: The Free Press 1957, p. 238.
4. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Ibid. p. 246.
5. Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794): Quoted by Charles Coulston Gillispie (1918–2015): Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749–1827: A Life in Exact Science. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1997, p. 5.
6. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens), Part One, On the Systematic Arrangement of the Fixed Stars, 1755. English translation by Ian C. Johnston (1938–), Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications 2008, p. 42.
7. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Ibid. p. 47.
8. Stanley L. Jaki (1924–2009): “The Five Forms of Laplace’s Cosmogony,” American Journal of Physics 44, 4–11 (1976).
9. Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821): Correspondence de Napoléon Ier 30 (1870), p. 330. Quoted by Charles Coulston Gillispie (1918–2015): Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749–1827: A Life in Exact Science. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1997, p. 176.
10. Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821): Quoted by Roger Hahn (1932–2011) in his Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749–1827: A Determined Scientist. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2008, p. 191.
11. Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827): Quoted by Michael J. Crowe (1936–), The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1986, p. 78. From Hervé Faye (1814–1902), Sur l’origine du monde, second edition, Paris: Gauthier-Villars 1885, p. 131.
12. William Herschel (1738–1822): Quoted by Constance A. Lubbock (1855–1939), The Herschel Chronicle, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1933, p. 310. Also by Michael Hoskin (1930–): “William Herschel and God,” Journal of the History of Astronomy 45, 247–252 (2014).
13. Michel Mayor (1942–) and Pierre-Yves Frei (1964–): New Worlds in the Cosmos: The Discovery of Exoplanets. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2003, p. 18.
14. Michel Mayor (1942–) and Didier Queloz (1966–): “A Jupiter-Mass Companion to a Solar-Type Star,” Nature 378, 355–359 (1995). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 598–603.
15. Geoffrey W. Marcy (1954–) and R. Paul Butler (1960–): “A planetary companion to 70 Virginis,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 464, L147–L151 (1996). R. Paul Butler (1960–) and Geoffrey W. Marcy (1954–): “A Planet Orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris, Astrophysical Journal Letters 464, L153–L156 (1996). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 603–607.
16. Michael J. Crowe (1936–): The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900: The idea of a plurality of worlds from Kant to Lowell. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1986; Steven J. Dick (1949–): Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1982.
17. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, Part Three, 1755. English translation by Ian C. Johnston (1938–), Arlington, Virginia: Richer Resources Publications 2008, p. 138. Also in Stanley L. Jaki (1924–2009): “An English Translation of the Third Part of Kant’s Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens” in Cosmology, History of Science, and Theology, Eds. Allen D. Breck (1914–2000) and W. Yourgrau (1908–1974), New York: Plenum Press 1977, p. 396.
18. Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827): Exposition du Système du Monde. Paris: Bachelier 1824. English translation by Henry H. Harte (1790–1848): The System of the World, Dublin: University Press 1830, Volume II, Book V, Chapter VI, p. 326. Also see MBARK, pp. 121–123.
19. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “Herschel’s Researches on the Structure of the Heavens,” Occasional Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society 1, 27–32 (1938–1941), p. 30. Quoted by Michael A. Hoskin (1930–): Discoverers of the Universe: William and Caroline Herschel. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2011, p. 74.
9. The Ways Stars Shine
1. John Updike (1932–2009): “The Astronomers,” in Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1963, p. 186.
2. Cecilia H. Payne (1900–1979): “The Relative Abundances of the Elements,” in her Stellar Atmospheres. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1925. Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 243–253, and MBARK, pp. 250–256.
3. Bengt Strömgren (1908–1987): “The Opacity of Stellar Matter and the Hydrogen Content of the Stars,” Zeitschrift für Astrophysik 4, 118–152 (1932).
4. Pierre Jules César (P. J. C. Janssen) (1824–1907): “Éclipse de soleil du 18 Aout 1868,” Annales de Chimie et de Physique 15, 414–426 (1878). Summary of some of the Results Obtained at Cocanada, during the Eclipse last August. Letter to the French Academy of Sciences.
5. Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836–1920): “Spectroscopic Observations of the Sun. III, IV,” Proceedings of the Royal Society 17, 350–356, 415–418 (1869); The Chemistry of the Sun. London: Macmillan and Co. 1887. Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 268–271.
6. William Ramsay (1852–1916): “Helium, a Gaseous Constituent of Certain Minerals. Part I, II,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 58, 80–89, 59, 325–330 (1895). Helium is one of the noble elements that also include neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. These so-called noble elements do not combine with most other chemical elements, behaving like people of nobility who are unwilling to associate with ordinary, common folks. Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 for his discovery of these inert gaseous elements in the Earth’s atmosphere.
7. For seven important papers by A. S. Eddington on various topics see LGSB.
8. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): The Internal Constitution of the Stars. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1926. Also see Kenneth R. Lang (1941–): The Life and Death of Stars. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2013.
9. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Stars and Atoms. London: Oxford University Press 1927; The Nature of the Physical World: The Gifford Lectures 1927. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1928; Science and the Unseen World: Swarthmore Lecture 1929. New York: Macmillan 1929; The Expanding Universe. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1933; New Pathways in Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1935.
10. Matthew Stanley (1975–): Practical Mystic: Religion, Science and A. S. Eddington. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2007.
11. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Science and the Unseen World. New York: Macmillan 1929, pp. 23, 41, and 90.
12. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1889–1951): Why I Believe In God: Science and Religion: As a Scientist Sees It. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Publications 1930, p. 7. Science and the Unseen World. New York: Macmillan 1929, p. 42.
13. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): New Pathways in Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1935, p. 317.
14. J. W. N. Sullivan (1886–1937): “Interview with Sir A. S. Eddington,” in Contemporary Mind: Some Modern Answers. London: Humphrey Toulmin 1934, pp. 124–129; quotation p. 125.
15. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1889–1951): Why I Believe In God: Science and Religion: As a Scientist Sees It. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Publications 1930, p. 11, Science and the Unseen World. New York: Macmillan 1929, pp. 43 and 53.
16. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “The Internal Constitution of the Stars,” Nature 106, 14–20 (1920), pp. 357, 358, The Observatory 43, 341–358 (1920), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 281–290, see p. 289.
17. Jonathan Homer Lane (1819–1880): “On the Theoretical Temperature of the Sun; under the Hypothesis of a Gaseous Mass maintaining its Volume by its Internal Heat, and depending on the Laws of Gases as Known to Terrestrial Experiment,” American Journal of Science and Arts (2nd series) 50, 57–74 (1870).
18. William Thomson (1824–1907): “On the Age of the Sun’s Heat,” Macmillan’s Magazine, March 5, 288–293 (1862), Popular Lectures I, 349–368. William Thomson is better known today as Lord Kelvin.
19. Alice Vibert Douglas (1894–1988): The Life of Arthur Stanley Eddington. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons 1956, p. 60. Also see LGSB, p. 287.
20. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Ibid. See LGSB, pp. 287–288.
21. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “The Principle of the Conservation of the Motion of the Center of Gravity,” Annalen der Physik 20, 627–633 (1906). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 276–280.]
22. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Ibid. See LGSB p. 288.
23. Hans Bethe (1906–2005): “Energy Production in Stars,” Physical Review 55, 434–456 (1939). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 320–338, and MBARK, pp. 349–357.
24. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912–2007): “Element Transformation Inside Stars II,” Physikalische Zeitschrift 39, 633–646 (1938). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 309–319.] C. F. von Weizsäcker has written serious, philosophical books that include Christianity and the nature of science; see his The History of Nature. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1949, and The Relevance of Science. Creation and Cosmogony, Gifford Lectures 1959–1960. St. James’s Place, London: Collins 1964.
25. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Stars and Atoms. London: Oxford University Press 1927, p. 102, Internal Constitution of the Stars. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1926, p. 301.
26. Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784–1846): “On the Parallax of 61 Cygni,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 4, 152–161 (1838). Bessel measured an annual parallax for 61 Cygni of 0.31 seconds of arc, close to the modern value of 0.286. Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 153–159.
27. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Science and the Unseen World. New York: Macmillan 1929, p. 14.
28. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “The Radiative Equilibrium of the Sun and Stars,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 77, 16–35, 596–597 (1917). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 225–235, and MBARK, pp. 258–259.
29. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “On the Relation between the Masses and Luminosities of the Stars,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 84, 308–332 (1924). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 291–302, and MBARK, pp. 259–260.
30. James Hopwood Jeans (1877–1946): “Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society Friday 1925, January 9,” The Observatory 48, 28–39 (1925), p. 30.
31. Rupert Brooke (1887–1915): 1914 IV. The Dead, 1915, lines 9 to 14. Quoted by Eddington in his The Nature of the Physical World. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1928, p. 317.
32. Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1844–1957): Ode (poem), 1874. Quoted by Eddington ibid, pp. 325–326.
33. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “Arthur Stanley Eddington 1882–1944,” The Astrophysical Journal 101, 133–135 (1945).
10. The Paths of Stellar Life
1. Robert Frost (1874–1963): The Road Not Taken (1916). In Edward Connery Lathem (Ed., 1926–2009): The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston 1969, p. 105.
2. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “Spiritual Autobiography,” in Louis Finkelstein (1895–1991) (Ed.): Thirteen Americans: Their Spiritual Autobiographies. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press 1953, p. 33.
3. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Ibid. p. 33.
4. Charles A. Young (1834–1908): God’s Glory in the Heavens. Princeton Theological Seminary: George W. Burroughs Printer 1894, pp. 5, 12, 13, and 17.
5. The Holy Bible, King James Version, The Book of Psalms, Psalm 19: 1.
6. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Letter to Woodrow Wilson on April 6, 1905, In Arthur S. Link (1920–1998) et al. (Eds.) The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Volume 16: 1905–1907, p. 81. Quoted by David H. DeVorkin (1944–): Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American Astronomers. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2000, p. 69.
7. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Fate and Freedom. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1927, p. 67. Russell italicized the words How and Why.
8. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “Spiritual Autobiography,” in Louis Finkelstein (1895–1991) (Ed.): Thirteen Americans: Their Spiritual Autobiographies, Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press 1953, pp. 34, 47.
9. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Fate and Freedom. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1927, pp. 70, 71, 79, 80.
10. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Ibid. p. 85. Russell italicized the word why.
11. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): Ibid. pp. 151, 154.
12. Harlow Shapley (1885–1972): “Henry Norris Russell 1877–1957,” Biographic Memoirs of the National Academy of Science. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Science 1958.
13. David H. DeVorkin (1944–): Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American Astronomers. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2000.
14. Annie Jump Cannon (1863–1941) and Edward C. Pickering (1846–1919): Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College No. 91–99 (1918–1924). Also see MBARK, pp. 233–240.
15. August Ritter (1826–1908): “On the Constitution of Gaseous Celestial Bodies,” Astrophysical Journal 8, 293–315 (1898).
16. Norman Lockyer (1836–1920): Inorganic Evolution as Studied by Spectrum Analysis. London: Macmillan and Co. 1900. George Ellery Hale (1868–1938): The Study of Stellar Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1908, pp. 1–8, and 186–203.
17. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “Relations between the Spectra and Other Characteristics of Stars,” Popular Astronomy 22, 275–294 (1914). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 212–220, and MBARK, pp. 245–249.
18. Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873–1967): “Zur Strahlung der Sterne” (On the Radiation of Stars), Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Photographie 3, 429–442 (1905). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 208–211, also see MBARK, pp. 243–245]; Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873–1967): “Über die Verwendung Photographischer Effektiver Wellenlaengen zur Bestimmung von Farbenaequivalenten,” Publikationen des Astrophysikalischen Observatoriums zu Potsdam 22, Bd. 1, Nr. 63 (1911).
19. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “‘Giant’ and ‘Dwarf ’ Stars,” Observatory 36, 324–329 (1913).
20. Owen Gingerich asked Hertzsprung about the invention of the dwarf-giant distinction, and he replied: “I hasten to say that I have avoided the expressions ‘giant’ and ‘dwarf ’ because the stars are not very different in mass but in density. They are more or less ‘swollen’.” See Owen Gingerich (1930–): “The Critical Importance of Russell’s Diagram,” in Eds. Michael J. Way (–) and Deidre Hunger (–): Origins of the Expanding Universe: 1912–1932. ASP Conference Series. Vol. 471. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2013, p. 3.
21. Albert A. Michelson (1852–1931) and Francis G. Pease (1881–1938): “Measurement of the Diameter of Alpha Orionis [Betelgeuse],” The Astrophysical Journal 53, 249–259 (1921).
22. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “On the Relation between the Masses and Luminosities of the Stars,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 84, 308–332 (1924). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 291–302, and MBARK, pp. 269–260.
23. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “The Problem of Stellar Evolution,” Nature 116, 209–212 (1925).
24. Bengt Strömgren (1908–1987): “On the Interpretation of the Hertzsprung-Russell-Diagram,” Zeitschrift für Astrophysik 7, 222–269 (1933).
25. Merle F. Walker (1926–): “Studies of Extremely Young Clusters I: NGC 2264,” Astrophysical Journal Supplement 2, 365–387 (1956); Chushiro Hayashi (1920–2010): “Stellar Evolution in Early Phases of Gravitational Contraction,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 13, 450–452 (1961). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 364–373.
26. Ernst J. Öpik (1893–1985): “Stellar Structure, Source of Energy, and Evolution,” Publications de l’Observatoire Astronomique de l’Université de Tartu 30, No. 3, 1–115 (1938), partially reproduced in LGSB, pp. 342–347, and MBARK, pp. 377–380.
27. Allan R. Sandage (1926–2010): “The Color-Magnitude Diagram for the Globular Cluster M 3,” The Astronomical Journal 58, 61–75 (1953).
28. Allan R. Sandage (1926–2010): “Current Problems in the Extragalactic Distance Scale,” The Astrophysical Journal 127 (3), 513–516 (1958).
29. Allan R. Sandage (1926–2010) and Martin Schwarzschild (1912–1997): “Inhomogeneous Stellar Models II: Models with Exhausted Cores in Gravitational Contraction,” The Astrophysical Journal 116, 463–476 (1952), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 353–363.
30. Spencer R. Weart (1942–): “Oral History Transcript, Dr. Allan Sandage, May 23, 1978.” American Institute of Physics, p. 6.
31. Allan R. Sandage (1926–2010): “A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,” Truth Journal, Leadership University, 1 July 2002, p. 2.
11. The Ways Stars Die
1. Julian Huxley (1887–1975): Cosmic Death (1923), in The Captive Shrew and Other Poems of a Biologist, London and New York: Harper and Brothers 1933, p. 30.
2. In 1786, the English astronomer William Herschel provided the designation planetary nebula for their round shapes, which resembled the resolved disks of planets rather than unresolved point-like stars. Nearly a century later another Englishman, William Huggins, used his spectroscope to find a trio of emission lines in one of them, the Cat’s Eye Nebula. See William Herschel (1738–1822): “Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 76, 457–499 (1786), p. 492, and William Huggins (1824–1920): “On the Spectra of Some Nebulae,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 154, 437–444 (1864). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 218–228.
3. Ira S. Bowen (1898–1973): “The Origin of the Nebulium Spectrum,” Nature 120, 473 (1927); “The Origin of the Nebular Lines and the Structure of the Planetary Nebulae,” The Astrophysical Journal 67, 1–15 (1928). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 581–587.
4. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957) recalled this discovery of the anomalous spectrum of o Eridani B in a colloquium given at Princeton University Observatory in 1954. Mrs. Fleming was once Pickering’s maid. After famously stating that his maid could do a better job than his male assistants, Pickering hired her to work at the Observatory. See LGSB, pp. 430–431, and Eds. A. G. Davis Philip (1929–) and D. H. de Vorkin (1944–): In Memory of Henry Norris Russell, Dudley Observatory Report No. 13 (1977), pp. 90–107.
5. Walter S. Adams (1876–1956): “An A-Type Star of Very Low Luminosity,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 26, 198 (1914); “The Spectrum of the Companion of Sirius,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 27, 236–237. Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 430–432, and MBARK, pp. 327–331.
6. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): Stars and Atoms, Oxford Clarendon Press 1927, p. 50.
7. Ralph H. Fowler (1889–1944): “On Dense Matter,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 87, 114–122 (1926). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 433–439, and MBARK, pp. 331–333. This degenerate pressure is unaffected by temperature, and the degeneracy is a mathematical term that describes a limiting situation rather than a person with impaired virtue.
8. Jesse L. Greenstein (1909–2002), J. Beverly Oke (1928–2004), and Harry L. Shipman (–): “Effective Temperature, Radius, and Gravitational Redshift of Sirius B,” Astrophysical Journal 169, 563–566 (1971); Jesse L. Greenstein (1909–2002) and Virginia L. Trimble (1943–): “The Gravitational Redshift of 40 Eridani B,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 175, L1–L5 (1972).
9. Lord (George Gordon) Byron (1788–1824): Darkness (1816). London: John Murray 1816.
10. Wilhelm Anderson (1880–1940): “Über die Grenzdichte der Materie und der Energie (About the Interface of Matter and Energy),” Zeitshrift für Physik 56, 851–856 (1929); Edmund C. Stoner (1899–1968): “The Limiting Density of White Dwarf Stars,” Philosophical Magazine 7, 7th series, 63–70 (1929).
11. Subramanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995): “The Maximum Mass of Ideal White Dwarfs,” The Astrophysical Journal 74, 81–82 (1931).
12. Lev Landau (1908–1968): “On the Theory of Stars,” Physikalishe Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion 1, 285–288 (1932). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 456–459.
13. Subramanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995): “The Highly Collapsed Configurations of a Stellar Mass, Second Paper,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 95, 207–225 (1935). See MBARK, p. 336.
14. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society Friday, January 11, 1935,” The Observatory 58, 33–41 (1935), p. 38. See MBARK, pp. 336–338. Also see Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “On ‘Relativistic Degeneracy’,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 95, 195–206 (1935), p. 195.
15. The two types of supernovae are described by Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) and William A. “Willy” Fowler (1911–1995): “Nucleosynthesis in Supernovae,” The Astrophysical Journal 132, 565–590 (1960); and by Virginia L. Trimble (1943–): “Supernovae. Part 1 — The Events,” Reviews of Modern Physics 54, 1183–1224 (1982).
16. Hans Bethe (1906–2005): “Supernova mechanisms,” Reviews of Modern Physics 62, 801–866 (1990).
17. Walter Baade (1893–1960) and Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “Cosmic Rays From Super-Novae,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 20 (5), 259–263 (1934). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 339–343. Also see LGSB, p. 469.
18. J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) and George M. Volkoff (1914–2000): “On Massive Neutron Cores,” Physical Review 55, 374–381 (1939). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 469–477.
19. Antony Hewish (1924–): “The Diffraction of Radio Waves in Passing through a Phase-Changing Ionosphere,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A209, 81–96 (1951); “The Diffraction of Galactic Radio Waves as a Method of Investigating the Irregular Structure of the Ionosphere,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A214, 494–514 (1952).
20. Antony Hewish (1924–), S. Jocelyn Bell (1943–), John D. H. Pilkington (–), Paul Frederick Scott (–), and Robin Ashley Collins (–): “Observations of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source,” Nature 217, 709–713 (1968); Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 498–504, and MBARK, 513–518. We now know that the name pulsar is misleading, for the compact stars don’t pulsate — they rotate, but the name has stuck. It designates a succession of repeating pulses of radio emission rather than a pulsating star.
21. John D. H. Pilkington (–), Antony Hewish (1924–), S. Jocelyn Bell (1943–), and T. W. Cole (–): “Observations of some further pulsed radio sources,” Nature 218, 126–129 (1968). The pulsars could probably have been discovered many years earlier, when other large radio telescopes were constructed, but radio astronomers were used to adding up signals over long time intervals to detect faint cosmic radio signals. The long time resolutions precluded the detection of the pulsars that could only be found when Hewish decided to investigate solar wind effects over short intervals of time. Pulsars are relatively faint radio sources when averaged over their period since there is no emission between the brief radio pulses.
22. Antony Hewish (1924–): “My Life in Science and Religion — A Personal Story,” Seminar presented to The Faraday Institute on January 22, 2013. Also see his foreword to John Polkinghorne (1930–) and Nicholas Beale (–): Questions of Truth. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press 2009.
23. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943–): A Quaker Reflects: Can A Scientist Also Be Religious? 2013 James Backhouse Lecture, sponsored by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia, pp. 3, 9, 36, 39, 41, and 43; quotation p. 39.
24. Thomas Gold (1920–2004): “Rotating Neutron Stars as the Origin of the Pulsating Radio Sources,” Nature 218, 731–732 (1968). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 505–508, and MBARK pp. 518–521. But Tommy wasn’t always right. Before men were sent to the Moon, he predicted that upon landing astronauts would sink into a thick layer of dust, suffocating and vanishing without a trace. Unmanned spacecraft were set out to explore the territory, and found that there is no thick dust layer on the Moon, and that people can walk on it without sinking in over their heads.
25. David H. Staelin (1938–2011) and Edward C. Reifenstein, III (1937–): “Pulsating Radio Sources Near the Crab Nebula,” Science 162, 1481–1483 (1968); David W. Richards (–) and John M. Comella (–): “The Period of Pulsar NP 0532,” Nature 222, 551–552 (1969).
26. Herbert Friedman (1916–2000), S. W. Lichtman (–) and E. T. Byram (–): “Photon Counter Measurements of Solar X-rays and Extreme Ultraviolet Light,” Physical Review 83, 1025–1030 (1951).
27. Kenneth R. Lang (1941–): Sun, Earth and Sky, Second Edition. New York: Springer 2006, and The Sun from Space, Second Edition. Berlin, Heidelerg: Springer 2009.
28. Riccardo Giacconi (1931–), Herbert Gursky (1930–2006), Frank R. Paolini (–) and Bruno B. Rossi (1905–1993): “Evidence for X-rays From Sources Outside the Solar System,” Physical Review Letters 9, 439–443 (1962). Reproduced in LGSB, pp.62–66, and MBARK, pp. 495–202.
29. Riccardo Giacconi (1931–) et al.: “Discovery of Periodic X-ray Pulsations in Centaurus X-3 from UHURU,” The Astrophysical Journal 167, L67–L73 (1971).
30. John Michell (1724–1793): “On the Means of Discovering the Distance, Magnitude, etc., of the Fixed Stars, in Consequence of the Diminution of Their Light, in Case Such a Diminution Should Be Found to take Place in Any of Them, and Such Other data should be procured from observations, as would be further necessary for that purpose, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London) 74, 35–57 (1784).
31. Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1749–1827): Exposition du Systeme du Monde. Paris: 1796. English translation by Rev. Henry H. Harte (1790–1848): Dublin: Longman Reves, Orme, Brown and Green 1830.
32. Karl Schwarzschild (1873–1916): “Über das Gravitationsfeld eines Massenpunktes nach der Einsteinschen Theorie (On the Gravitational Field of a Point Mass according to Einstein’s Theory),”Sitzungberichte der K. Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1, 189–196 (1916). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 451–455.]
33. J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) and Hartland Snyder (1913–1962): “On Continued Gravitational Contraction,” Physical Review 56, 455–459 (1939). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 344–348.
34. Minoru Oda (1923–2001) et al.: “X-ray Pulsations From Cygnus X-1 Observed From UHURU,” The Astrophysical Journal 166, L1–L7 (1971).
35. B. Louise Webster (1941–1990) and Paul Murdin (1942–): “Cygnus X-1: A Spectroscopic Binary With A Heavy Companion?” Nature 235, 37–38 (1972) and independently Charles Thomas (Tom) Bolton (1943–): “Identification of Cygnus X-1 with HDE 226868,” Nature 235 (2), 271–273 (1972). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 460–465.
36. Wallace L. W. Sargent (1935–2012) et al.: “Dynamical Evidence for a Central Mass Concentration in the Galaxy M 87,” Astrophysical Journal 221, 731–744 (1978).
37. Edward E. Salpeter (1924–2008): “Accretion of Interstellar Matter by Massive Objects,” Astrophysical Journal 140, 796–800 (1964); Yacov Boris Zel’dovich (1914–1987): “The Fate of a Star and the Evolution of Gravitational Energy Upon Accretion,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 155, 67 — March (1964), English translation in Soviet Phys. Doklady 9, 195 (1964). The English astronomer James Jeans foresaw a related ejection of matter from the centers of some galaxies when he was attempting to explain why they have spiral arms. When these galaxies were still known as spiral nebulae, Jeans proposed that: “The type of conjecture which presents itself somewhat insistently is that the centers of the [spiral] nebulae are of the nature of ‘singular points,’ at which matter is poured into our Universe from some other, and entirely extraneous, spatial dimension, so that, to a denizen of our Universe, they appear as points at which matter is being continuously created.” See James Jeans (1877–1946): Astronomy and Cosmogony. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1928, p. 360. Also see Martin J. Rees (1942–): “Black Hole Models for Active Galactic Nuclei,” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 22, 471–506 (1984).
38. Andrea M. Ghez (1965–) et al.: “Stellar Orbits Around the Galactic Center Black Hole,” The Astrophysical Journal 620 (2), 744–757 (2005); “Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way’s Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits,” The Astrophysical Journal 689 (2), 1044–1062 (2008).
39. Fiction writers have presented captivating allusions to whirling masses that swallow up everything near them. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1949) described one of them in his short story A Decent into the Maelström, where a ship and most of its crew were caught in “the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens,” and pulled down into the whirling sea. In Hermann Melville’s (1819–1891): Moby Dick, the whaling ship Pequod and most of its crew also drown within spinning circles that carry them down and out of sight.
12. Darkness Made Visible
1. William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Henry V: Act IV, Prologue, Chorus (1599), lines 1 to 3.
2. The Holy Bible, King James Version, The Book of Psalms, Psalm 18: 11.
3. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) wrote a Hymn to the Night. The lyrics of The Music of the Night were written by Charles Hart (1961–) and sung in The Phantom of the Opera, 1986.
4. Edward Emerson Barnard (1857–1923): “On the Dark Markings of the Sky, with a Catalogue of 182 Such Objects,” Astrophysical Journal 49, 1–24 (1919); A Photographic Atlas of Regions of the Milky Way, Washington, D.C., Carnegie Institution 1927. See MBARK, pp. 398–403.
5. Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (1863–1932): “Über den dunklen Nebel NGC 6960 (On the Dark Nebula NGC 6960),” Astronomische Nachrichten 219, 109–116 (1923). English translation in LGSB, pp. 566–571; Robert J. Trumpler (1886–1956): “Preliminary Results on the Distances, Dimensions, and Space Distribution of Open Star Clusters,” Lick Observatory Bulletin 14, no. 420, 154–188 (1930). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 593–604, and MBARK, pp. 403–406, Hendrik C. van de Hulst (1918–2000): “The Solid Particles of Interstellar Space,” Recherches astronomiques de l’Oservatoire d’Utrecht 11, pt. 2, 1–50 (1949). Reproduced in LGSB pp. 605–611.
6. Lao-tzu (571 BC–531 BC): Tao Te Ching (6th century BC).
7. T. S. Eliot (1888–1965): Four Quartets, “East Coker,” III, lines 1, 2. New York: Harcourt 1943.
8. Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941): Fireflies. New York: Macmillan 1933, p. 267.
9. Kenneth R. Lang (1941–): “Serendipitous Astronomy,” Science 327, 29–40 (2010).
10. Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894): “Ueber die Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit der electrodynamischen Wirkungen,” Annalen der Physik 270, 551–569 (1888); Untersuchungen über die Ausbreitung der elektrischen Kraft (1893), English translation by Daniel Evan Jones (1860–1941): Electric Waves: Being Researches On the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space. London and York: Macmillan and Co. 1893.
11. Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937): “Wireless Telegraphic Communication,” Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1909.
12. Karl G. Jansky (1905–1950): “A Note on the Source of Interstellar Interference,” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 23, 1158–1163 (1935). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 30–33, and MBARK, pp. 455–462.
13. Grote Reber (1911–2002): “Cosmic Static,” Astrophysical Journal 100, 279–287 (1944). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 30–35, and MBARK, pp. 462–464.
14. In 1912, the ardent amateur balloonist Victor Franz Hess found that energetic ionizing radiation increased in intensity high in the Earth’s atmosphere and appeared to be coming from above it. Caltech physicist Robert Millikan and his students used numerous unmanned balloon flights, as well as measurements atop mountains and deep underwater, to confirm that the “radiation” was coming from outside our atmosphere and incidentally gave the radiation the name cosmic rays. Millikan thought the cosmic rays were associated with the “birth pangs of creation,” but they are now attributed to acceleration during explosive stellar death. They were subsequently found to be charged particles deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field rather than “rays.” See Victor Franz Hess (1883–1964): “Concerning Observations of Penetrating Radiation on Seven Free Balloon Flights,” Physikalische Zeitschrift 13, 1084–1091 (1912). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 13–10, and MBARK, pp. 279–284. Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953) and G. H. Cameron (–): “High Frequency Rays of Cosmic Origin. III — Measurements in Snow-Fed Lakes at High Altitudes,” Physical Review 28, 851–868 (1926); Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953) and G. H. Cameron (–): “The Origin of Cosmic Rays,” Physical Review 32, 533–537 (1928).
15. Hendrik C. Van De Hulst (1918–2000): “Radio Waves from Space: Origin of Radio Waves,” Nederlands tijdschrift voor Natuurkunde 11, 210–221 (1945). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 627–632, and partially reproduced in MBARK, pp. 467–468.]
16. Iosif S. Shkloviskii (1916–1985): “On the Nature of Galactic Radio Emission — in Russian,” Astronomicheskii Zhurnal 29, 418–449 (1952).
17. Harold I. Ewen (1922–) and Edward M. Purcell (1912–1997): “The Radio Frequency Detection of Interstellar Hydrogen,” Nature 168, 356 (1951) Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 633–635, and MBARK, pp. 469–470.
18. C. Alex Muller (–) and Jan H. Oort (1900–1992): “The Interstellar Hydrogen Line at 1,420 MHz and an Estimate of Galactic Rotation,” Nature 168, 356–358 (1951). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 633–637. The Princeton astronomer Lyman Spitzer had recently inferred a similar temperature when considering the various heating and cooling processes of interstellar space. See Lyman Spitzer (1914–1997) and Malcolm P. Savedoff (1928–): “The Temperature of Interstellar Matter,” Astrophysical Journal 111, 593–608 (1950). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 617–626.
19. Jan H. Oort (1900–1992), Frank J. Kerr (1918–2000), and Gart Westerhout (1927–2012): “The Galactic System as a Spiral Nebula,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 118, 379–389 (1958). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 643–651, and MBARK, pp. 433–439.
20. Charles H. Townes (1915–2015): How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999, p. 30.
21. Charles H. Townes (1915–2015): Ibid. pp. 65, 190–191.
22. Arthur L. Schawlow (1921–1999) and Charles H. Townes (1915–2015): “Infrared and Optical Masers,” Physical Review 112, 1940–1949 (1958).
23. Charles H. Townes (1915–2015): “Microwave and Radiofrequency Resonance Lines of Interest to Radio Astronomy,” Radio Astronomy: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium Number 4. Ed. Hendrik C. Van De Hulst (1918–2000). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1957, pp. 92–103.
24. Sander Weinreb (1936–), Alan H. Barrett (1927–1991), Marion Littleton “Lit” Meeks (1923–2013), and John C. Henry (–): “Radio Observations of OH in the Interstellar Medium,” Nature 200, 829–831 (1964). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 666–670, and MBARK, pp. 470–475.
25. Charles H. Townes (1915–2015): “The Convergence of Science and Religion,” Think 32, No. 2, 2–7 (1966). For the accidental and unexpected nature of scientific discovery also see Kenneth R. Lang (1941–): “Serendipitous Astronomy,” Science 327, 39–40 (2010).
26. Al Cheung (–) et al.: “Detection of NH3 Molecules in the Interstellar Medium by Their Microwave Emission,” Physical Review Letters 21, 1701–1705 (1968); S. H. Knowles (–) et al.: “Spectra, Variability, Size and Polarization of H2O Microwave Emission Sources in the Galaxy,” Science 163, 1055–157 (1969).
27. L. E. Snyder (–), D. Buhl (–), Benjamin Zuckerman (1943–), and Patrick E. Palmer (–): “Microwave Detection of Interstellar Formaldehyde,” Physical Review Letters 22, 679– (1969); Robert W. Wilson (1936–), K. B. Jefferts (–), and Arno A. Penzias (1933–): “Carbon Monoxide in the Orion Nebula,” The Astrophysical Journal 161, L43–L44 (1970).
28. Agnes M. Clerke (1842–1907): Problems in Astrophysics. London: Adam and Charles Black 1903, p. 400.
29. Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “On the Masses of Nebulae and of Clusters of Nebulae,” Astrophysical Journal 86, 217–246 (1937). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 729–737, and MBARK, pp. 559–564.
30. Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “Die Rotverschiebung von extragalaktischen Nebeln,” Helvetica Physica Acta 6, 110 (1933). [English translation by Sydney van den Bergh (1929–) in “The Early History of Dark Matter,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 111, 657 (1999).]
31. Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974): “Nebulae as Gravitational Lenses,” Physical Review 51, 290 (1937).
32. C. Roger Lynds (1928–) and Vahe Petrosian (1938–): “Luminous arcs in clusters of galaxies,” Astrophysical Journal 336, 1–8 (1989).
33. Nohubiro Okabe (–) et al. : “LoCuSS : The Mass Density Profile of Massive Galaxy Clusters at z = 0.2,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 769, L35–L41 (2013).
34. Vera C. Rubin (1928–2016) and W. Kent Ford, Jr. (1931–): “Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a Spectroscopic Survey of Emission Regions,” The Astrophysical Journal 150, 379–403 (1970).
35. Morton S. Roberts (–) and Arnold H. Rots (–): “Comparison of Rotation Curves of Different Galaxy Types,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 26, 483–485 (1973).
36. Vera C. Rubin (1928–2016), W. Kent Ford, Jr. (1931–), and Norbert Thonnard (–): “Rotational Properties of 21 Sc Galaxies with a Large Range of Luminosities and Radii. From NGC 4605 (R = 4 kpc) to NCG 2885 (R = 122 kpc),” Astrophysical Journal 238, 471–487 (1980), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 559–567.
37. Jeremiah P. Ostriker (1937–), P. James E. Peebles (1935–), and Amos Yahil (–):” The Size and Mass of Galaxies, and the Mass of the Universe,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 193, L1–L4 (1974).
38. Vera C. Rubin (1928–2016), in Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists [Ed. Alan Lightman (1948–) and Roberta Brawer (–)], Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1990, pp. 296, 303. Also see Vera C. Rubin (1928–2016): Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters. Woodbury, New York: American Institute of Physics Press 1997, p. 219.
39. C. J. Copi (–), David N. Schramn (1945–1997), and Michael S. Turner (1949–): “Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and the Baryon Density of the Universe,” Science 267, 192–199 (1995).
40. WMAP Astronomers: ”Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Observations,” Astrophysical Journal Supplement 180, Issue 2 (2009), Seven-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Observations, Astrophysical Journal Supplement 192, Issue 2 (2011).
41. Planck Collaboration : “Planck 2013 Results,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 1303, thirty four articles (2014). Also see Planck 2015 Result.
13. Primordial Light
1. The Holy Bible, King James Version, The First Book of Moses, called Genesis 1: 1–5.
2. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “Kosmologische Betrachtungen zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (Cosmological Considerations of the General Theory of Relativity),” Sitzungsberichte de Preubischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1, 142–152 (1917). English translation in: The Principle of Relativity (Ed. A. Sommerfeld), New York: Dover 1952, pp. 175–188. See MBARK, pp. 315–316.
3. Willem de Sitter (1872–1934): “On Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation, and Its Astronomical Consequences. Third Paper,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 78, 3–28 (1917). See MBARK, p. 316.
4. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966): “Un univers homogéne de masse constante et de rayon croissant rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extragalactiques,” Annales de la Société scientifique de Bruxelles A47, 49–56 (1927).
5. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966): “A Homogeneous Universe of Constant Mass and Increasing Radius accounting for the Radial Velocity of Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 91, 483–490 (1931). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 844–848, quotation p. 848, and MBARK, pp. 317–319.
6. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966): “L’expansion de l’espace,” La Revue des Questions Scientifiques, 4e, Série, November 17, 391–400 (1931). Lemaître was unaware of earlier work by the Russian mathematician Aleksandr Alexsandrovich Friedmann who in 1922 first considered dynamical, non-stationary solutions to Einstein’s theory for the entire Cosmos. Friedmann found contracting, expanding and oscillating model Universes, but failed to suggest any physical significance to his equations or any connection between them and astronomical observations. After taking a balloon to record-breaking heights, for meteorological and medical purposes, Friedmann became ill and died in 1925 at the relatively young age of 37, and his papers remained largely unnoticed and unread. See Alexsandrovich Friedmann (1888–1925): “Über die Krümmung des Raumes (On the Curvature of Space),” Zeitschrift für Physik 10, 377–386 (1922). Reproduced in English translation in LGSB, pp. 838–843.
7. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966): “The Beginning of the World From the Point of View of Quantum Theory,” Nature 127, No. 3210, 706 (1931). Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 322–324. In 1848, almost a century before Lemaitre’s proposals, the American poet and novelist Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) wrote Eureka: A Prose Poem, which also supposed that the Universe arose from the explosion of a simple, primordial particle in an instantaneous flash.
8. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966): L’Hypothèse de l’Atome Primitif: Essai de Cosmogonie. Paris: Neuchatel, Éditions du Griffon 1946. English translation as The Primeval Atom: An Essay on Cosmogony, New York: D. Van Nostrand Co. 1950, p. 78.
9. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): “Kosmologische Betrachtungen zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheroie (Cosmological Considerations of the General Theory of Relativity),” Koniglich Preussische Academie der Wissenshaften, Sitzungsberichte (Berlin) 1, 142–152 (1917). [English translation in The Principle of Relativity, Ed. Arnold Sommerfeld (1868–1951), New York: Dover 1952.] Albert Einstein (1879–1955) and Willem de Sitter (1872–1934): “On the Relation Between the Expansion and Mean Density of the Universe,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 18, 213–214 (1932). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 849, 850, and MBARK, pp. 313–317.
10. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): The Nature of the Physical World. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1928, p. 85; “The End of the World from the Standpoint of Mathematical Physics,” Nature 127, 447–453 (1931), p. 450; The Expanding Universe. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1933, pp. 55 and 56. The italics in the quotation are Eddington’s.
11. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): New Pathways in Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1934, p. 220. The parenthetical reference to Lemaître is Eddington’s.
12. Hermann Bondi (1919–2005) and Thomas Gold (1920–2004): “The Steady-State Theory of the Expanding Universe,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 108, 252–270 (1948). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 853–863, and MBARK, pp. 324–326.
13. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “A New Model for the Expanding Universe,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 108, 372–382 (1948).
14. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966): “Un univers homogéne de masse constante et de rayon croissant rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extragalactiques,” Annales de la Société scientifique de Bruxelles A47, 49–56 (1927); “A Homogeneous Universe of Constant Mass and Increasing Radius accounting for the Radial Velocity of Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 91, 483–490 (1931). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 844–848, and MBARK, pp. 317–319.
15. George Gamow (1904–1968): The Creation of the Universe. London: MacMillan & Co. 1952, p. 42.
16. Ralph A. Alpher (1921–2007) and Robert C. Herman (1914–1997): “Evolution of the Universe,” Nature 162, 774–775 (1948), Reproduced in MBARK, pp. 363–365; Ralph A. Alpher (1921–2007), J. W. Follin, Jr. (–), and Robert C. Herman (1914–1997): “Physical Conditions in the Initial Stages of the Expanding Universe,” Physical Review 92, 1347–1361(1953).
17. Helge Kragh (1944–): Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1996.
18. George Gamow (1904–1968): American Institute of Physics, Oral History Transcript of Interview with George Gamow by Charles Weiner (1932–2012) on April 25, 1968, p. 2.
19. George Gamow (1904–1968): “The Quantum Theory of Nuclear Disintegration,” Nature 122, 805–806 (1928); “Zur Quantentheorie der Atomzertrümmerung (On the Quantum Theory of the Atomic Nucleus),” Zeitschrift für Physik 52, 510–515 (1928).
20. George Gamow (1904–1968): American Institute of Physics, Oral History Transcript of Interview with George Gamow by Charles Weiner (1932–2012) on April 25, 1968, p. 105.
21. George Gamow (1904–1968): Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1940; Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1944; One, Two, Three … Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science. New York: Viking Press 1947, revised 1961; Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory. Garden City, New Jersey: Doubleday and Company 1966, reproduced New York: Dover Publications.
22. Karl Hufbauer (–); George Gamow 1904–1908: A Biographical Memoir, Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences 2009, pp. 29, 30.
23. Simon Mitton (1946–): Fred Hoyle: A Life in Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 2011, p. 22.
24. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): The derogatory expression Big Bang was given during a radio broadcast that was published in The Listener 41, 567 (1949), and reproduced in The Nature of the Universe. Oxford: Blackwell 1953, p. 94. The sarcastic term Bang was previously coined for the explosive beginning of the expanding Universe by Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): The Expanding Universe. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1933, p. 56; New Pathways in Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1934, p. 220.
25. Simon Mitton (1946–): Conflict in the Cosmos: Fred Hoyle’s Life in Science. Washington, D. C.: Joseph Henry Press 2005.
26. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): The Nature of the Universe. Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1953, p. 111.
27. D. Dunbar (–), F. Noel (–), Ralph E. Pixley (–), William A. Wenzel (–), and Ward Whaling (1923–): “The 7.68-MeV state in C12,” Physical Review 92, 649, 650 (1953).
28. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): In Mervyn Stockwood (Ed., 1913–1995): Religion and the Scientists. London: SCM Press 1959, p. 64.
29. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “The Universe: Some Past and Present Reflections,” Engineering and Science (California Institute of Technology Alumni Magazine) 45, 2 (November), 8–12 (1981), p. 12.
30. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): Home is Where the Wind Blows: Chapters from a Cosmologist’s Life. Mill Valley, California: University Science Books 1994, p. 259.
31. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “Recent Developments in Cosmology,” Nature 208, 111–114 (1965). Although Hoyle withdrew his support for the Steady State Cosmology in this article, he remained skeptical of the Big Bang theory throughout his life because it required a unique moment in space and time, with insufficient capacity, he thought, for the development of biological systems without Divine adjustments.
32. Arno A. Penzias (1933–) and Robert W. Wilson (1936–): “A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 MHz,” Astrophysical Journal 142, 419–421 (1965). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 873–876, and MBARK, pp. 508–512.
33. Robert H. Dicke (1916–1997), P. James E. Peebles (1935–), Peter G. Roll (1935–), and David T. Wilkinson (1935–2002): “Cosmic Black Body Radiation,” Astrophysical Journal 142, 414–419 (1965).
34. Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962): The Great Explosion, lines 8 to 16, in The Beginning and the End and other Poems. New York: Random House 1963, p. 3.
35. Robert Wilson (1933–): Interview in 1982, reported by Jeremy Bernstein (1929–) in Three Degrees Above Zero, New York, Scribner’s 1984, page 205.
36. John C. Mather (1946–) and John Boslough (1942–2010): The Very First Light: The True Inside Story of the Scientific Journey Back to the Dawn of the Universe. New York: Basic Books, Harper Collins Publishers 1996.
37. John C. Mather (1946–) et al.: “Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum by the COBE FIRAS Instrument,” Astrophysical Journal 420, 439–512 (1994). Also see John C. Mather (1946–) and John Boslough (1942–2010): Ibid. pp. 229, 235.
38. George F. Smoot (1945–) et al.: “Structure in the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer First-Year Maps,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 396, L1–L5 (1992), “Summary of results from COBE,” AIP Conference Proceedings 476, 1–10 (1999).
39. Charles L. Bennett (1956–) et al.: “First-year Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) preliminary maps and basic results.” Astrophysical Journal Supplement 248, Issue 2, 2–27 (2003). These results have been amplified and extended using instruments aboard the Planck spacecraft, launched on May 14, 2009 and operated by the European Space Agency. The results announced in 2013 indicate that the Universe contains about 5% ordinary matter, 26% dark matter, and 69% dark energy. See Planck Collaboration: “Planck 2013 Results,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 1303 (2014).
14. The Origin of the Chemical Elements
1. Benjamin “Ben” Jonson (1572–1637): The Alchemist. London: Printed by Thomas Snodham for Walter Burre 1612. Subtle, the Alchemist, is speaking in Act 2, Scene 2.1.
2. John Dalton (1766–1844): “On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids,” Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 1803; A New System of Chemical Philosophy. Manchester, London: R. Bickerstaff, Strand 1808, 1810, 1827.
3. Johann Jakob Balmer (1825–1898): “Notiz uber die Spectrallinien des Wasseroffs (Note on the Spectral Lines of Hydrogen),” Annalen der Physik und Chemie 25, 80–85 (1885).
4. Gustav Kirchhoff (1824–1887) and Robert Bunsen (1811–1899): “Chemische Analyse durch Spektralbeobachtungeii (Chemical Analysis by Observation of Spectra),” Annalen der Physik und der Chemie 110, 161–189 (1860).
5. Meghnad Saha (1893–1956): “Ionization in the Solar Chromosphere,” Philosophical Magazine 40, 479–488 (1920). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 236–242.
6. William Wordsworth (1770–1850): Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798, Stanza 6, lines 122, 123. Thomas H. Huxley (1825–1895): Letter to Charles Kingsley on September 23, 1860, in Leonard Huxley (Ed. 1860–1933), Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, Volume 1. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1900, p, 235.
7. Cecilia H. Payne (1900–1979): Stellar Atmospheres, Cambridge, England: W. Heffer and Sons 1925, Harvard Observatory Monograph No. 1. The Chapter on “The Relative Abundances of the Elements,” is reproduced in LGSB, pp. 243–248, and MBARK, pp. 250–256.
8. Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957): “On the Composition of the Sun’s Atmosphere” Astrophysical Journal 70, 11–82 (1929); The Composition of the Stars, Halley Lecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1933. In this paper Russell also provided values for the relative abundances of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon and iron that are within a factor of 2 of modern determinations.
9. Bengt Strömgren (1908–1987): “The Opacity of Stellar Matter and the Hydrogen Content of the Stars,” Zeitschrift für Astrophysik 4, 118–152 (1932). Bengt Strömgren (1908–1987): “On the Interpretation of the Hertzsprung-Russell-Diagram,” Zeitschrift für Astrophysik 7, 222–259 (1933).
10. William Draper Harkins (1873–1951): “The Evolution of the Elements and the Stability of Complex Atoms,” Journal of the American Chemical Society 39, 856–879 (1917).
11. Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944): “The Internal Constitution of the Stars,” Nature 106, 14–20 (1920); Observatory 43, 341–358 (1920); Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 281–290. Also see Eddington’s book: The Internal Constitution of the Stars. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 1926.
12. Hans E. Suess (1909–1993) and Harold C. Urey (1893–1981): “Abundances of the Elements,” Reviews of Modern Physics 28, 53–74 (1956).
13. George Gamow (1904–1968): “Expanding Universe and the Origin of the Elements,” Physical Review 70, 572–573 (1946).
14. Ralph A. Alpher (1921–2007), Hans Bethe (1906–2005) and George Gamow (1904–1968): “The Origin of Chemical Elements,” Physical Review 73, 803–804 (1948). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 864–865, and MBARK, pp. 358–362. Two years after this α-β-γ paper, Chushiro Hayashi (1920–2010) of the Nanikawa University in Japan showed that in the first moments of the expansion the temperature was hot enough to create more exotic particles, such as positrons, the anti-matter particles of the electrons. See Chushiro Hayashi (1920–2010): “Proton-Neutron Concentration Ratio in the Expanding Universe at the Stages Preceding the Formation of the Elements,” Progress in Theoretical Physics (Japan) 5, 224–235 (1950).
15. Robert V. Wagoner (1938–), William A. Fowler (1911–1995), and Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “Nucleosynthesis in the Early Stages of the Expanding Universe,” Science 152, 677–678 (1966); “On the Synthesis of Elements at Very High Temperature,” Astrophysical Journal 148, 3–49 (1967).
16. Hans A. Bethe (1906–2005): “Energy Production in Stars,” Physical Review 55, 434–456 (1939), Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 320–338, and MBARK, pp. 348–357; Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912–2007): “Über Elementumwandlungen in Innern der Sterne II (Element Transformation Inside Stars II),” Physikalische Zeitschrift 39, 633–646 (1938). [English translation in LGSB, pp. 309–319.]
17. Ernst J. Öpik (1893–1985): “Stellar Models with Variable Compositions II. Sequences of Models with Energy Generation Proportional to the 15th Power of Temperature,” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section A, 54, 49–57 (1951), Contributions from the Armagh Observatory, no. 3 (1951). Edwin E. Salpeter (1924–2008): “Nuclear Reactions in Stars without Hydrogen,” Astrophysical Journal 115, 326–328 (1952). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 349–352.
18. Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “The Synthesis of the Elements from Hydrogen,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 106, 343–383 (1946); “On Nuclear Reactions Occurring in Very Hot Stars. I. The Synthesis of Elements from Carbon to Nickel,” Astrophysical Journal Supplement 1, 121–146 (1954); Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) and William A. Fowler (1911–1995): “Nucleosynthesis in Supernovae,” Astrophysical Journal 132, 565–590 (1956).
19. William A. Fowler (1911–1995), Georgeanne R. Caughlan (1916–1994) and Barbara A. Zimmerman (–): “Thermonuclear Reaction Rates I, II,” Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics 5, 525–569 (1967), 13, 69–111 (1975), 21, 165–176 (1983).
20. E. Margaret Burbidge (1919–2010), Geoffrey R. Burbidge (1925–2010), William A. Fowler (1911–1995), and Fred Hoyle (1915–2001): “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars,” Reviews of Modern Physics 29, 547–650 (1957). Reproduced in LGSB, pp. 374–388, and MBARK, pp. 366–376.
21. Walt Whitman (1819–1892): Leaves of Grass. Book III Song of Myself (1892), Section 31, line 1.
22. Joni Mitchell (1943–): Woodstock Lyrics, August 1969, lines 9, 10.