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*For our exhibits at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City, we think of icy Pluto as one of the “kings of comets,” an informative title that Pluto surely appreciates more than “puniest planet.”
†One astronomical unit, abbreviated AU, is the average distance between Earth and the Sun.
*What the Chinese call their astronauts.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Beginning of Science
SECTION 1 THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE The challenges of knowing what is knowable in the universe
1. Coming to Our Senses
2. On Earth as in the Heavens
3. Seeing Isn’t Believing
4. The Information Trap
5. Stick-in-the-Mud Science
SECTION 2 THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE The challenges of discovering the contents of the cosmos
6. Journey from the Center of the Sun
7. Planet Parade
8. Vagabonds of the Solar System
9. The Five Points of Lagrange
10. Antimatter Matters
SECTION 3 WAYS AND MEANS OF NATURE How Nature presents herself to the inquiring mind
11. The Importance of Being Constant
12. Speed Limits
13. Going Ballistic
14. On Being Dense
15. Over the Rainbow
16. Cosmic Windows
17. Colors of the Cosmos
18. Cosmic Plasma
19. Fire and Ice
SECTION 4 THE MEANING OF LIFE The challenges and triumphs of knowing how we got here
20. Dust to Dust
21. Forged in the Stars
22. Send in the Clouds
23. Goldilocks and the Three Planets
24. Water, Water
25. Living Space
26. Life in the Universe
27. Our Radio Bubble
SECTION 5 WHEN THE UNIVERSE TURNS BAD All the ways the cosmos wants to kill us
28. Chaos in the Solar System
29. Coming Attractions
30. Ends of the World
31. Galactic Engines
32. Knock ’Em Dead
33. Death by Black Hole
SECTION 6 SCIENCE AND CULTURE The ruffled interface between cosmic discovery and the public’s reaction to it
34. Things People Say
35. Fear of Numbers
36. On Being Baffled
37. Footprints in the Sands of Science
38. Let There Be Dark
39. Hollywood Nights
SECTION 7 SCIENCE AND GOD When ways of knowing collide
40. In the Beginning
41. Holy Wars
42. The Perimeter of Ignorance
References
Death By Black Hole & Other Cosmic Quandaries Page 35
