Book Companion Logo ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY
Characters By Chapter
EDITOR:
Kristian Fabricante
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CH FIRST NAME LAST NAME DESCRIPTION
1Albert EinsteinGerman theoretical physicist. Developed Theory of Relativity.
    Planck Era - The earliest stage of the Big Bang.
    Interval of Time - (t=0 up to t=10 raised to -43 seconds)
 Max PlanckGerman theoretical physicist.
    Astrophysics - Branch of Astronomy concerned with celestial bodies.
    Antimatter - A material composed of antiparticles.
    Quark - Type of elementary particle. Fundamental constituent of matter.
    Lepton - A subatomic particle that doesn't undergo strong interactions.
    Boson - A subatomic particle that has zero or intergral spin.
 Satyendra Nath BoseIndian physicist.
 Murray Gell-MannAmerican physicist. Proposed the existence of Quarks as internal consitituents.
    Hadron - A subatomic particle that can take part in strong interaction.
    Large Hadron Collider - Largest machine in the world.
    1 Light Year - Nearly six trillion miles or ten trillion kilometers.
2Isaac NewtonWrote the Universal Law of Gravitation.
 Helios  The God of the Sun in Greek Mythology.
    Helium - A chemical element.
    Pioneer 10 & 11 - Spacecrafts that show the layout of the solar system.
    Shoemaker-Levy 9 - A comet that plunged in Jupeter's gas-rich atmosphere.
    Jupiter's Great Red Spot - A raging anti-cyclone for 350 years now.
    CMB - Cosmic Microwave Background.
3George GamowRussian-born American physicist. Predicted the existence of CMB in 1940.
 Georges LemaitreFather of the Big Bang Cosmology. The foundation of ideas about CMB.
 Ralph AlpherAmerican physicist who first estimated the temperature of CMB.
 Robert HermanAmerican physicist who first estimated the temperature of CMB.
 Edwin P. HubbleDiscovered that the universe is expanding, year 1929.
 J. Richard GottAmerican astrophysicist.
 Arno PenziasMade a first direct observation of CMB. Won a nobel prize for the discovery.
 Robert WilsonMade a first direct observation of CMB. Won a nobel prize for the discovery.
 Robert DickeThe leader of the team of physicists at Princeton for building a CMB Detector.
 John C. MatherAmerican astrophysicist with a nobel prize for observing the CMB.
 George F. SmootAmerican astrophysicist with a nobel prize for observing the CMB.
4   Magellanic Clouds - Two irregular dwarf galaxies.
    Supernova - The explosion of a star.
    Quasars - Super luminous galaxy cores.
5Fritz ZwickySwiss-American astronomer. First one to analyze the "missing mass" problem.
    Coma Berenices - An ancient asterism in the northern sky.
    The Coma Cluster - An isolated and richly populated ensemble of galaxies.
 Vera RubinAstrophysicist. Discovered a similar mass anomaly within spiral galaxies.
 Albert MichelsonScientist at Case Western Reserve University. Asserted that Aether must exist.
 Edward MorleyScientist at Case Western Reserve University. Asserted that Aether must exist.
    Aether - Material that fills the region of the Universe above the terrestrial sphere.
6   GR - Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
 Nicolaus CopernicusA mathematician who discovered that planet Earth orbitted in perfect circles.
 Alexander FriedmannRussian physicist. Showed mathematically how Einstein's universe was unstable.
 Brian SchmidtAstrophysicist.
 Alan H. GuthAmerican physicist at the Massachusets Institute of Technology.
 John WheelerTyson's General Relativity Professor in Graduate School.
7Henry CavendishEnglish Chemist who discovered Hydrogen.
 Giuseppe PiazziItalian astronomer. Discovered a new planet orbiting the sun named Ceres.
 William HerschelBritish astronomer. Discovered Uranus and infrared light.
 John GalleGerman astronomer. Discovered Neptune on the spot predicted by Le Verrier.
 Joseph Le VerrierFrench mathematician. Predicted the location of Neptune.
 Clyde TombaughDiscovered Pluto.
8   Olympus Mons - The largest Mountain on Mars.
    Phobos & Deimos - The Idaho potato-shaped moons on Mars.
9Antonie Van LeeuwenhoekDiscovered single-celled organisms.
 Johann Wilhelm RitterGerman physicist and pharmacist. Discovered UV light.
 Heinrich HertzGerman physicist.
 Karl G. JanskyAmerican Engineer who built the first successful radio telescope.
 Grote ReberBuilt a 30-foot wide metal dish radio telescope in his backyard.
    MK1 - The planet's first genuinely gigantic radio telescope.
    FAST - The world's largest radio telescope.
    Very Large Array - 27 eighty-foot-two dishes positioned on tracks.
    ALMA - The Atacama Large Millimeter Array.
    Scintillator - A material that fluoresces when struck by a charged particle.
    Limited Test Ban Treaty - Prohibits nuclear testing underwater.
    The Velas - A series of satellites.
10Gerard KuiperDutch-born American astronomer.
    Halley - The most famous comet of them all.
    Oort Cloud - Spherical reservior of clouds.
 Jan OortDutch astrophysicist.
 Michael FaradayEnglish physicist.
    Io - Jupiter's closest moon.
    Europa - Another one of Jupiter's moons.
    Charon - Pluto's largest moon.
    Aurora Borealis - Northern light.
    Australis - Southern light.
 David LevyDiscovered Asteroid 1994Ka.
 Carolyn ShoemakerDiscovered Asteroid 1994Ka.
    13123-Tyson - What they named 1994Ka in honor of Tyson.
11Carl SaganAmerican astrophysicist.
 Jocelyn BellA Graduate Student of Antony Hewish.
    Pulsars - Stars made out of neutrons that pulse radio waves.
    Cosmochemisty - Chemical Analysis of Planetary Atmospheres.
    Spectroscopy - The analysis of light by means of a spectrometer.
    Titan - Saturn's moon.
 James FergusonScottish astronomer.
 
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