Discovering the Essential Universe 6th Edition Comins Solutions Manual

Product Details:

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1464181705
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1464181702
Author: Neil F. Comins

Neil Comins’ Discovering the Universe confronts the challenges of the one-term astronomy course by heightening student curiosities about the cosmos, by using the context of astronomy to teach the process of science, and by highlighting common misconceptions and showing students how to think their way past them. With its signature combination of vivid writing and spectacular images, the new edition offers new findings, new study help, and an expanded new media/supplements package centered on W.H. Freeman’s breakthrough online course space, LaunchPad.

Table of Content:

CHAPTER 1 Discovering the Night Sky
NAVIGATING THE NIGHT SKY
1-1 The night sky is full of patterns
1-2 Constellations make locating stars easy
1-3 The celestial sphere aids in navigating the sky
1-4 An “alt”ernative coordinate system
1-5 Earth orbits the Sun in a plane called the ecliptic
EARTHLY CYCLES
1-6 Earth’s rotation creates the day-night cycle and its revolution defines a year
THE SEASONS
1-7 The seasons result from the tilt of Earth’s rotation axis combined with Earth’s revolution aroun
1-8 Clocks and calendars are based on Earth’s rotation and revolution
1-9 Precession is a slow, circular motion of Earth’s axis of rotation
THE PHASES OF THE MOON
1-10 The phases of the Moon originally inspired the concept of the month
ECLIPSES
1-11 Eclipses do not occur during every new or full Moon phase
1-12 Three types of lunar eclipses occur
1-13 Three types of solar eclipses also occur
SCALES OF THE UNIVERSE
1-14 Astronomical distances are, well, astronomical
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 2 Gravitation and the Motion of the Planets
SCIENCE: KEY TO COMPREHENDING THE COSMOS
2-1 Science is both a body of knowledge and a process of learning about nature
CHANGING OUR EARTH-CENTERED VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE
2-2 The belief in a Sun-centered cosmology formed slowly
DISCOVERY 2-1 Earth-Centered Universe
2-3 Copernicus devised the first comprehensive heliocentric cosmology
2-4 Tycho Brahe made astronomical observations that disproved ancient ideas about the heavens
KEPLER’S AND NEWTON’S LAWS
2-5 Kepler’s laws describe orbital shapes, changing speeds, and the lengths of planetary years
DISCOVERY 2-2 Units of Astronomical Distance
2-6 Galileo’s discoveries strongly supported a heliocentric cosmology
2-7 Newton formulated three laws that describe fundamental properties of physical reality
2-8 Newton’s description of gravity accounts for Kepler’s laws
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 3 Light and Telescopes
THE NATURE OF LIGHT
3-1 Newton discovered that white is not a fundamental color and proposed that light is composed of p
3-2 Light travels at a finite but incredibly fast speed
3-3 Einstein showed that light sometimes behaves as particles that carry energy
3-4 Visible light is only one type of electromagnetic radiation
OPTICS AND TELESCOPES
3-5 Reflecting telescopes use mirrors to concentrate incoming starlight
3-6 Telescopes brighten, resolve, and magnify
3-7 Eyepieces, refracting telescopes, and binoculars use lenses to focus incoming light
3-8 Shaping telescope mirrors and lenses is an evolving science
3-9 Storing and analyzing light from space is key to understanding the cosmos
3-10 Earth’s atmosphere hinders astronomical research
CAPTURING NONVISIBLE LIGHT: NONOPTICAL ASTRONOMY
3-11 Specially designed telescopes gather electromagnetic energy in all of the nonvisible parts of t
BLACKBODY RADIATION
3-12 An object’s peak color shifts to shorter wavelengths as it is heated
3-13 The relative intensities of different emitted colors reveal a star’s surface temperature
IDENTIFYING THE ELEMENTS BY ANALYZING THEIR UNIQUE SPECTRA
3-14 Each chemical element produces its own unique set of spectral lines
3-15 The various brightness levels of spectral lines depend on conditions in the spectrum’s source
ATOMS AND SPECTRA
3-16 An atom consists of a small, dense nucleus surrounded by electrons
3-17 Spectra occur because electrons absorb and emit photons with only certain wavelengths
3-18 Spectra provide information about motion of objects toward or away from us but not across the s
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 4 Formation of the Solar System
THE SOLAR SYSTEM CONTAINS HEAVY ELEMENTS, FORMED FROM AN EARLIER GENERATION OF STARS
4-1 Stars transform matter from lighter elements into heavier ones
4-2 Gravity, rotation, collisions, and heat shaped the young solar system
THE FORMATION OF THE PLANETS
4-3 The giant planets formed in sequence
4-4 The inner planets formed primarily from collisions
DEBRIS: REMNANTS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
4-5 The changing orbits of the giant planets spread debris throughout the solar system
4-6 The asteroid belt is leftover debris
4-7 The infalling debris from the giant planets led to the Late Heavy Bombardment
CATEGORIES OF THE PRESENT-DAY SOLAR SYSTEM
4-8 The categories of solar system objects have evolved
4-9 The orbits of the planets are related
4-10 The Sun developed while the planets matured
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 5 Exoplanets
EXOPLANETS—PLANETS OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
5-1 Protoplanetary disks are a common part of the star-forming process
5-2 Astronomers have at least seven different ways of detecting planets outside our solar system
5-3 Exoplanets orbit a breathtaking variety of stars
5-4 Exoplanets with a wide range of sizes, masses, and compositions have been observed
5-5 Stars with multiple planets have been observed
5-6 Many exoplanets have extraordinary orbits, as compared to those in our solar system
5-7 Planets that are not orbiting stars have also been observed
5-8 There are billions and billions of planets
5-9 Planets with liquid water are being discovered
5-10 The search for life on exoplanets is under way
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 6 The Terrestrial Planets and Their Moons
COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY
6-1 Comparisons of the eight planets show distinct similarities and significant differences
EARTH: A DYNAMIC, VITAL WORLD
6-2 Earth’s atmosphere has evolved over billions of years
6-3 Plate tectonics produce major changes on Earth’s surface
6-4 Earth’s interior consists of a rocky mantle and an iron-rich core
6-5 Earth’s magnetic field shields us from the solar wind
THE MOON AND TIDES
6-6 The Moon’s surface is covered with craters, plains, and mountains
6-7 Visits to the Moon yielded invaluable information about its history
6-8 The Moon probably formed from debris cast into space when a huge planetesimal struck the young E
6-9 Tides have played several important roles in the history of Earth and the Moon
6-10 The Moon is moving away from Earth
MERCURY
6-11 Photographs from Mariner 10 and Messenger spacecraft reveal Mercury’s lunarlike surface
6-12 Mercury has a higher percentage of iron than Earth
6-13 Mercury’s rotation and revolution are coupled
6-14 Mercury’s atmosphere is the thinnest of all terrestrial planets
VENUS
6-15 The surface of Venus is completely hidden beneath a permanent cloud cover
6-16 The greenhouse effect heats Venus’s surface
6-17 Venus is covered with gently rolling hills, two “continents,” and numerous volcanoes
MARS
6-18 Mars’s global features include plains, canyons, craters, and volcanoes
6-19 Although no canals exist on Mars, it does have some curious natural features
6-20 Mars’s interior is less molten than the inside of Earth
6-21 Martian air is thin and often filled with dust
6-22 Surface and underground features indicate that water once flowed on Mars
6-23 Search for microscopic life on Mars continues
6-24 Mars’s two moons look more like potatoes than spheres
COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY OF THE INNER PLANETS
6-25 Comparisons of planetary features provide new insights
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 7 The Outer Planets and Their Moons
JUPITER
7-1 Jupiter’s outer layer is a dynamic area of storms and turbulent gases
7-2 Jupiter’s interior has four distinct regions
7-3 Impacts provide probes into Jupiter’s atmosphere
JUPITER’S MOONS AND RINGS
7-4 Io’s surface is sculpted by volcanic activity
7-5 Europa harbors liquid water below its surface
7-6 Ganymede is larger than Mercury
7-7 Callisto bears the scars of a huge asteroid impact
7-8 Other debris orbits Jupiter as smaller moons and ringlets
SATURN
7-9 Saturn’s atmosphere, surface, and interior are similar to Jupiter
7-10 Saturn’s spectacular rings are composed of fragments of ice and ice-coated rock
7-11 Titan has a thick atmosphere, clouds, and lakes filled with liquids
7-12 Rhea has ice
7-13 Enceladus has water jets, an atmosphere, and a magnetic field
URANUS
7-14 Uranus sports a hazy atmosphere and clouds
7-15 A system of rings and satellites revolves around Uranus
NEPTUNE
7-16 Neptune was discovered because it had to be there
7-17 Neptune has rings and captured moons
COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY OF THE OUTER PLANETS
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 8 Vagabonds of the Solar System
DWARF PLANETS
8-1 Pluto and its moon, Charon, are about the same size
8-2 Ceres is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, while Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake are trans-
SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES
ASTEROIDS
8-3 Most asteroids orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter
8-4 Jupiter’s gravity creates gaps in the asteroid belt
8-5 Asteroids also orbit outside the asteroid belt
COMETS
8-6 Comets come from far out in the solar system
8-7 Comet tails develop from gases and dust pushed outward by the Sun
8-8 Comets are fragile yet durable
8-9 Comets do not last forever
METEOROIDS, METEORS, AND METEORITES
8-10 Small, rocky debris peppers the solar system
8-11 Meteorites are space debris that land intact
8-12 The Allende meteorite provides evidence of catastrophic explosions
8-13 Asteroid impacts with Earth have caused mass extinctions
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 9 The Sun: Our Extraordinary Ordinary Star
THE SUN’S ATMOSPHERE
9-1 The photosphere is the visible layer of the Sun
9-2 The chromosphere is characterized by spikes of gas called spicules
9-3 The outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, is exceptionally hot
THE ACTIVE SUN
9-4 Sunspots reveal the solar cycle and the Sun’s rotation
9-5 The Sun’s magnetic fields create sunspots
9-6 Solar magnetic fields also create other atmospheric phenomena
THE SUN’S INTERIOR
9-7 Thermonuclear reactions in the core of the Sun produce its energy
9-8 The solar model describes how energy escapes from the Sun’s core
DISCOVERY 9-1 T hermonuclear Fusion
9-9 The Sun has gotten brighter over time
9-10 The mystery of the missing neutrinos inspired research into the fundamental nature of matter
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 10 Characterizing Stars
LEAVING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
10-1 Distances to nearby stars are found using stellar parallax
DISCOVERY 10-1 Distances to Nearby Stars
MAGNITUDE SCALES
10-2 Apparent magnitude measures the brightness of stars as seen from Earth
10-3 Absolute magnitudes and luminosities do not depend on distance
DISCOVERY 10-2 T he Distance–Magnitude Relationship
THE TEMPERATURES OF STARS
10-4 A star’s color reveals its surface temperature
10-5 A star’s spectrum also reveals its surface temperature
10-6 Stars are classified by their spectra
TYPES OF STARS
10-7 The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram identifies distinct groups of stars
10-8 Luminosity classes set the stage for understanding stellar evolution
10-9 A star’s spectral type and luminosity class provide a second distance-measuring technique
DISCOVERY 10-3 Kepler’s Third Law and Stellar Masses
STELLAR MASSES
10-10 Binary stars provide information about stellar masses
10-11 Main-sequence stars have a relationship between mass and luminosity
10-12 The orbital motion of binary stars affects the wavelengths of their spectral lines
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 11 The Lives of Stars from Birth Through Middle Age
PROTOSTARS AND PRE–MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS
11-1 Gas and dust exist between the stars
11-2 Supernovae, collisions of interstellar clouds, and starlight trigger new star formation
11-3 When a protostar ceases to accumulate mass, it becomes a pre–main-sequence star
11-4 The evolutionary track of a pre–main-sequence star depends on its mass
11-5 H II regions harbor young star clusters
11-6 Plotting a star cluster on an H-R diagram reveals its age
MAIN-SEQUENCE AND GIANT STARS
11-7 Stars spend most of their lives on the main sequence
EVOLUTION OF LOW MASS (0.08–0.4 M(Omitted)) STARS
11-8 Red dwarfs convert essentially their entire mass into helium
EARLY AND MIDDLE EVOLUTION OF INTERMEDIATE (0.4–8 M(Omitted)) AND HIGH-MASS STARS
11-9 When core hydrogen fusion slows down, a main-sequence star with mass greater than 0.4 M(Omitted
11-10 Helium fusion begins at the center of a giant
11-11 Life in the giant phase has its ups and downs
VARIABLE STARS
11-12 A Cepheid pulsates because it is alternately expanding and contracting
11-13 Cepheids enable astronomers to estimate vast distances
11-14 Globular clusters are bound groups of old stars
11-15 Mass transfer in close binary systems can produce unusual double stars
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 12 The Deaths and Remnants of Stars
INTERMEDIATE-MASS (0.4 M(Omitted)–8 M(Omitted)) STARS AND PLANETARY NEBULAE
12-1 Intermediate-mass stars become supergiants before expanding into planetary nebulae
12-2 The burned-out core of an intermediate-mass star becomes a white dwarf
HIGH-MASS STARS (GREATER THAN 8 M(Omitted)) AND TYPE II SUPERNOVAE
12-3 A series of fusion reactions in high-mass stars leads to luminous supergiants
12-4 High-mass stars blow apart in Type II supernova explosions
12-5 Supernova remnants are observed in many places
NEUTRON STARS AND PULSARS
12-6 The cores of many Type II supernovae become neutron stars
12-7 A rotating magnetic field explains the pulses from a neutron star
12-8 Neutron stars have internal structure
12-9 Colliding neutron stars may provide some of the heavy elements in the universe
12-10 Binary neutron stars create pulsating X-ray sources
THE RELATIVITY THEORIES
12-11 Einstein revolutionized our understanding of space, time, and gravity
INSIDE A BLACK HOLE
12-12 Matter in a black hole becomes much simpler than elsewhere in the universe
12-13 Falling into a black hole is an infinite voyage
EVIDENCE FOR BLACK HOLES
12-14 Several binary star systems contain black holes
12-15 Other black holes range in mass up to billions of solar masses
12-16 Black holes and neutron stars in binary systems often create jets of gas
GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
12-17 Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the known universe
12-18 Black holes evaporate
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 13 The Galaxies
THE MILKY WAY
13-1 Studies of Cepheid variable stars revealed that the Milky Way is only one of many galaxies
13-2 Cepheid variables help us locate our Galaxy’s center
13-3 Nonvisible observations help map the galactic disk
13-4 The galactic nucleus is an active, crowded place
13-5 Our Galaxy’s disk is surrounded by a two-shell spherical halo of stars and other matter
13-6 The Galaxy is rotating
MYSTERIES AT THE GALACTIC FRINGES
13-7 Most of the matter in the Galaxy has not yet been identified
TYPES OF GALAXIES
13-8 The winding of a spiral galaxy’s arms is correlated to the size of its central bulge
13-9 Explosions create flocculent spirals, and waves create grand-design spirals
13-10 Bars of stars run through the central bulges of barred spiral galaxies, and some disk galaxies
13-11 Elliptical galaxies display a wide variety of sizes and masses
13-12 Galaxies without global structure are called irregular
13-13 Hubble presented spiral and elliptical galaxies in a tuning fork–shaped diagram
CLUSTERS AND SUPERCLUSTERS
13-14 Galaxies exist in clusters that may form still larger clumps called superclusters
13-15 Galaxies in a cluster can collide and combine
13-16 Dark matter helps hold together individual galaxies and clusters of galaxies
SUPERCLUSTERS IN MOTION
13-17 The redshifts of superclusters indicate that the universe is indeed expanding
DISCOVERY 13-1 The Tully–Fisher Relation and Other Distance-Measuring Techniques
DISCOVERY 13-2 The Expanding Universe
13-18 Astronomers are looking back to a time when galaxies were first forming
QUASARS
13-19 Quasars look like stars but have huge redshifts
OTHER ACTIVE GALAXIES
13-20 Active galaxies can be either spiral or elliptical
SUPERMASSIVE ENGINES
13-21 Supermassive black holes exist at the centers of most galaxies
13-22 Jets of protons and electrons ejected from around black holes help explain active galaxies
13-23 Gravity focuses light from quasars
Summary of Key Ideas
CHAPTER 14 Cosmology
COSMOLOGY
14-1 General relativity predicts an expanding (or contracting) universe
14-2 The expansion of the universe creates a Dopplerlike redshift
14-3 The Hubble constant is related to the age of the universe
THE BIG BANG
14-4 Remnants of the Big Bang have been detected
14-5 The universe has two symmetries—isotropy and homogeneity
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SPACETIME, MATTER, ENERGY, AND EVERYTHING
14-6 All physical forces in nature were initially unified
14-7 Equations explain the evolution of the universe, even before matter and energy, as we know them
14-8 Homogeneity and isotropy are results of inflation
14-9 During the first second, most of the matter and antimatter in the universe annihilated each oth
14-10 The universe changed from being controlled by radiation to being controlled by matter
THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE
14-11 Galaxies formed from huge clouds of primordial gas
14-12 Star formation activity determines a galaxy’s initial structure
THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE
14-13 The average density of matter is one factor that determines the future of the universe
14-14 The overall shape of spacetime affects the future of the universe
14-15 Dark energy is causing the universe to accelerate outward
Summary of Key Ideas
DISCOVERY 14-1 Superstring Theory and M-Theory
CHAPTER 15 Astrobiology
15-1 Astrobiology connects the cosmos and the origins of life
15-2 The existence of life depends on chemical and physical properties of matter
15-3 Evidence is mounting that life might exist elsewhere in our solar system
15-4 Searches for advanced civilizations try to detect their radio signals
15-5 The Drake equation: How many civilizations are likely to exist in the Milky Way?
15-6 Humans have been sending signals into space for more than a century
Summary of Key Ideas
Appendices
A: Powers-of-Ten Notation
B: Temperature Scales
C The Planets: Orbital Data
D: The Planets: Physical Data
E: Major Satellites of the Planets by Mass
F: The Nearest Stars
G: The Visually Brightest Stars
H: The Constellations
I: Some Useful Astronomical Quantities
J: Some Useful Physical Constants
K: Common Conversions between U.S. Customary and Metric Units
L: Mass and Energy Inventory for the Universe
M: Reading Graphs
N: Periodic Table of the Elements
O: Tides
P: Energy and Momentum
Q: Radioactivity and the Ages of Objects
R: Gravitational Force
S: Largest Optical Telescopes in the World
Glossary

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