Earth & Space Science for Everybody
by
Lasse A. Kivioja
Prof. Emeritus, Purdue University
This is a new type of a book that brings its 1,400 pictures to Internet connected computers or to Digital Book Readers in seconds by clicking on a given link. (More than 200 gadgets could be used to read e-books in August 2011.) The Internet links have pictures, etc., which are given in the text, and more conveniently, in the so called ‘Quick Pick Links’ document (QPL) which can be downloaded in a few seconds here at this author’s website. See below how to download it.
(In the ‘Quick Pick Links’ (QPL) document, read the early history of GPS system invention and development in chapter 11.2.)
An Internet connection is mandatory to be able to see the 1400 photos and pictures of this book. When a hard copy of this book is being read, a computer or a digital book reader must be used to see the book’s 1400 pictures.
This new type of a book is truly an Internet-age book with an automatic updating feature, which always stays up to date. The book’s reputable Internet links produce the latest available daily news, expert explanations and photos with galleries for planet Earth and for its surrounding space. Therefore, the book will never get out of date.
The book is like today’s newspaper with its daily news, but in addition, the book also has galleries for the old daily news of the past.
The book is available in he following versions:
eBook, Kindle, Hardcover and Softcover
http://bookstore.trafford.com/Products/SKU-000167265/Earth--Space-Science-For-Everybody.aspx
Customer Reviews:
This informative, strictly science based book is written in 'Plain English', to be easily read and understood for everyone from 9 to 99.
The book overviews all existing material from the center of the Earth to the top of its atmosphere: to the Moon, to the Sun, to Earth’s orbit, to inner and outer solar planets, to Earth's location in the Milky Way Galaxy and to other galaxies in the universe up to a distance of 13.7 billion light-years. The entire known universe is within the 13.7 billion light-year distance (2011) from the Earth.
Distant galaxies and their mutual motions are outlined all the way to the outer edges of the known universe with newest photographs taken by probes, the best ground-based and orbiting telescopes of many kinds.
There are no mathematical formulas in this book. All dimensions, sizes, distances and velocities of the Earth, Moon, Sun, our solar system, our Milky Way Galaxy and other galaxies are given in the most easily understood Metric and English units.
American units of length are based on the Metric System, as stated by The Metric Act of US Congress of 1866:
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/laws/metric-act.html
It is the law of the land. The basic relation for distances is: one meter = 39.37 inches exactly. From this, the lengths for an inch, a foot, a yard, a fathom and a mile are obtained exactly in metric units.
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html
The necessary distances needed in the Earth and Space Sciences range from millimeters for ground movements and for precise distance and GPS measurements to light-years for stellar distances. One example of poor selection of units would be using miles or kilometers for expressing fingernail growth of 1 mm/week as:
0.000 001 km/week = 0.000 000 62 miles/week. Those distances, of course, are the same, but 1 mm/week is the most reasonable one to use.
Similarly, for instance:
149,597,887.5 kilometers = 92,955,631.8 miles.
Which sizes of these quantities are easier to grasp?
The ‘Quick Pick Links’ contain links for viewing photos, galleries, text and tables. Some additional explanatory links and expert descriptions provide further clarifications and also checks for the validity of the book’s text.
Many ‘Quick Pick Links’ have the newest references, sometimes in underlined links.
Additionally and very importantly, many of the ‘Quick Pick Links’ with galleries, update themselves daily, weekly, or as new information becomes available. This book will always be current because it is updating itself daily, as a reviewer on Amazon.com states in the link below. Printed books with their photos, pictures and galleries become old on the day they are shipped to customers.
Because many new discoveries and photos are published every week, this automatic daily updating feature trumps the traditional high school and middle school textbooks and other printed books even with their subsequent ‘new’ editions printed at intervals of a few years. This means also that the daily info in this book’s ‘Quick Pick Links’ comes up to the day the reader clicks the link. Printed school and other books with their sparse printed Internet links on their pages are partially useful only after the links are typed into an Internet browser.
If the ‘Quick Pick Links’ and the e-book version are open on the desktop (the book showing a paragraph being read and ‘Quick Pick Links’ showing the intended photos, etc.) both can be seen simultaneously by clicking between the text and the ‘Quick Pick Links’ as the reading of the book continues. Even more conveniently, the book’s text and the ‘Quick Pick Links’ could be on different browsers.
This is the fastest and the most convenient way to read this book.
'Quick Pick Links’
The 'Quick Pick Links' should be used to speed up obtaining the intended Internet pages with photos and expert explanations from the recommended Google search terms and the chosen Internet addresses listed in the text of the book.
Two examples are demonstrated in the following:
1. From Google: < astronomy picture of the day archive >, get
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
2. From Google: < spaceweather >. Get
These links open with the page and galleries for the day the link is clicked. These two galleries have daily news (pages) for hundreds of days in the past.
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Download the 'Quick Pick Links' from
Word Document or from HTML
by clicking on one of the underlined links above. Destination: > desktop is recommended.
The Word Document download of the ‘Quick Pick Links’ is a 129-page, 10,813-word document with 5 to 17 underlined clickable links per each of its pages. In total, it has over 1400 links of the intended photos, tables, general information and expert explanations to supplement the text of this book.
For example, if one is reading the book on page 114, in Chapter 21.7. <Asteroids and Comets Hitting ‘Our’ Moon >, choose the fifth Internet link in the book. One could (tediously) type the following Internet address into the address box of a browser:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast03nov99_1.htm
Much easier, this same Internet site is just a 'click away' in The 'Quick Pick Links' in the Word (or in HTML) download, as follows:
1. Open the WORD downloaded 'Quick Pick Links’.
2. From Edit, select Go To panel. From 3 selections there, choose Find…
3. Into the Find-panel type: 21.7.
4. Click on this panel’s: Find Next. (One must be before ‘it’, it only goes forward).
5. The 'Quick Pick Links' 'goes' to the page, where 21.7. is high-lighted.
6. Click on the desired link in the ‘Quick Pick Links’ getting:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast03nov99_1.htm
7. A five-page NASA link: ‘Leonids on the Moon’ appears quickly on the computer desktop.
(When there, subscribe to: NASA SCIENCE NEWS in the NASA panel!)
When reading any paragraph in the book and wanting to see its recommended photos, etc., any link of the 'Quick Pick Links' can be accessed quickly.
Many of the carefully selected ‘Quick Pick Links’ are from NASA, GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (GFSC), USGS, USNO, NOAA, HUBBLE, CHANDRA, ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA, SOHO, NAOJ, SPITZER and some other organizations. To see what those organizations are, type the acronym into Google’s search box.
The book can be ordered from bookstores worldwide and from numerous Internet booksellers. Type “kivioja” (without quotes), or 9781425119751 , or
http://bookstore.trafford.com/Products/SKU-000167265/Earth--Space-Science-For-Everybody.aspx
into the bookseller's search box for books to bring the book’s information for ordering, pricing and shipping. The book is available in hard cover, soft cover and also in the eBook version(s) that do not require any special digital book reader. Amazon’s Kindle and some other Digital Book Readers have the book. The eBook prices are less than $10. (December 2011).
View prices of the book and read the book’s ‘Overview’ (= 'About the Book'), 'Free Preview' and 'About the Author' as copied below:
The Overview
(Trafford sometimes calls this About the Book)
About the Book
This is a new kind of a book that has its over 1,400 photos/pictures/galleries/expert explanations available in a small download at the author’s website www.lakivioja.com as a Word or HTML Document, called ‘Quick Pick Links’ (free, of course). Many of these links update themselves daily keeping this book updated almost ‘forever’ with the newest news and photos.
Carefully selected ‘Quick Pick Links’ are reputable, such as US Government links of NASA, GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, NIST, AGU, USGS, NOAA, NAOJ, USNO, HUBBLE, SPITZER, CHANDRA, STEREO, SOHO, ESA (European Space Agency), Japanese JAXA, many ground based and Earth Orbiting Telescopes and Space Probes.
All links are in the Public Domain.
To comprehend this Sun-orbiting planet Earth and its place in the surrounding space requires some general idea of a few approximate numerical values of distances and sizes for only a few objects, such as:
Radius of Earth is = 6371 km = 3959 miles.
Average acceleration of gravity at sea level is: 1 G = 981 m/s/s = 981 Gal = 981,000 mGal = 32.2 ft/s/s. This means that the speed of a freely falling object increases every ‘falling second’ by 9.81 m/s, = 32.2 ft/s (ignoring air drag and other disturbances).
Sun’s gravity is = 27.5 G, Moon’s gravity is = 0.165 G
Average distance to Moon (LD = lunar distance) = 1.2 ls (light-seconds)
One light-second distance (ls) ~ 300,000 km = distance light travels in one second. (Exactly
299,792.458 km in vacuum.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-second
Distance to Sun is = 500 ls = 1 AU = One Astronomical Unit = 149,598,000 km = 92,956,000 mi.
Equatorial radius of Sun = 2.32 ls = 1.81 times the lunar distance. Imagine that!
Distance from Sun to Pluto = 39.5 AU = 5.909,121,000 km = 3,671,750,000 mi = 19,700 ls, or it takes 5 h 28 min for the Sunlight to reach Pluto.
Distance to nearest star Proxima Centauri = 4.2 ly.
Most naked-eye stars are within 2,000 ly-distance.
Diameter of the Milky Way Barred Galaxy Disk = ~ 100,000 ly, thickness = ~ 15,000 ly at its center, ~ 5,000 ly by the Sun, thinning to the edges.
Distance to Milky Way’s center from Sun and Earth= 28,000 ly
Distance to Andromeda, near galaxy similar to Milky Way = 2.5 million ly
Distance to most distant galaxies (2011) =13,700,000,000 ly = 13.7 billion ly
International System of Units:
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/
Page 13: No liquid water, food or breathable air has been found (2011) anywhere else in the known universe but here on Earth.
http://nineplanets.org/overview.html
Milky Way has billions of stars. Billions of other galaxies have billions & billions more stars, planets and moons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way (Takes ~ 20 s to open)
3-minute NASA tour of Andromeda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWxBTHVhc3I
Photos of Andromeda Galaxy:
Everything moves in space. Some galaxies are in groups, some are colliding and some are millions of light-years away from their nearest neighbors.
Page 53: The Mean Sea Level surface (= Geoid) undulates over/under the mathematical Rotation Earth Ellipsoid surface, usually less than 100 m = 300 ft. The following Internet link of the Geoidal map has been ‘automatically’ updated for 2011 for all and for this book. Talk about a book staying up-to-date ‘all by itself’!
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GOCE/SEMY0FOZVAG_1.html
Page 87: As was mentioned: Earth’s average gravity is = 1 G = 981 Gal, which is just right for human life. We cannot tolerate much stronger gravities for very long. For instance, 9 G (easily produced in centrifuges) is deadly for humans and animals in a short time.
Three numerical Examples of gravity on Earth, Sun and Moon:
1. Earth: A pen is dropped from 1 m = 39.37 inch high table to the floor (in air) under the influence of one G gravity. The pen hits the floor 0.45 s later at speed of 10 MPH = 16 km/h.
Many people break bones every day by falling and hitting the floor by a sudden stop from 10 MPH.
2. Sun: The same pen is dropped under the influence of 27.5 G from a 1 m = 39 in distance to the ‘floor’ in a spinning centrifuge. The pen is ‘sucked’ to the centrifuge’s outer wall in 0.09 s, hitting the wall at a speed of 51 MPH = 82 km/h.
3. Moon: The same pen is dropped from 1 m = 39 in high support to ‘ground’ under the Moon’s gravity of 0.165 G. The pen hits the ‘ground’ 1.1 s later at speed of 4 MPH = 6.5 km/h.
Page 90: Some comets and asteroids have hyperbolic orbits. After swinging once around the Sun, they will never return. Sometimes, they are called 'Bethlehem Comets'. Asteroids approaching the Sun may develop tails.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061119.html
Page 94: Asteroids/comets as large as 50 m (150 ft) across collide with Earth once in about 600 years. Solar system gravel, sand, comets and asteroids hit Earth’s atmosphere at speeds from 12 km/s to 72 km/s. Incoming objects in hyperbolic orbits have higher speeds. Shooting stars are usually gravel pieces that glow in their deceleration in the atmosphere and then float down on Earth as dust. All of us inhale some of that dust. 70 percent of that stuff fall in the ocean, 30 % fall on land.
http://www.barringercrater.com/
Page 113: Moon’s surface is as dangerous place for visiting astronauts as an open rifle firing range here on Earth. See link:
http://jakemendelssohn.name/footprints.htm
The dust/sand/gravel meteorite pieces hit the Moon faster than at 10 km/s = 6.2 miles/second. (Muzzle velocities of bullets from military rifles are about one km/s = 0.62 mi/s). Note the ‘peppered ground’ around the footprint of the astronaut in previous link!
Pages 222-223: Different gravity values at the sports events have significant effects on the World, Olympic and National Athletic Records.
For instance, the same javelin throw, at the same topographical elevation as in Columbus, Ohio, would have been 11 cm = 4.33 in longer than Jan Zelesky’s 1996 World Record throw of 98.48 m = 323.09 ft in Jena, Germany. Trajectories, lengths of jumps and throws under different gravity conditions are easy to compute. Gravities are also easy to measure.
Page 254-256: Tidal forces (2/3 by the Moon 1/3 by the Sun) produce the ocean water tides (averages are up to 1 m = 3 ft in the open oceans) and Solid Earth-Tides twice every day. They heave continents and the sea floors up and down up to 40 cm/day = 16 in/day.
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8r.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051113.html
Pages 304-315: Isostasy = Archimedes’ Flotation Principle for internal parts of the Earth, deals with lighter Earth layers floating upon heavier layers. In the next link, read about snow/ice accumulation of 75 m = 250 ft thick during 50 years from July 1942, averaging 1.5 m/y = 5 ft/y at one location of parked airplanes in Greenland. One spot in Greenland cannot be used for the total accumulation of land-supported ice for the entire Greenland.
http://www.b-29s-over-korea.com/lost_squadron/lost_squadron.html
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Free Preview:
Free Preview
This is a new type of a book that brings its 1,400 pictures to Internet connected computers (or Digital Book Readers) in seconds by clicking on a link. The 1,400 ‘Quick Pick Links’ can be downloaded (free) in few seconds from author’s website www.lakivioja.com
This book is a factual Science based up-to-date overview of this unique, well-balanced, highly livable planet Earth.
The book is almost like a Tour Guide through the entire universe. The book does not need annual new editions because many the ‘Quick Pick Links’ update themselves daily with daily galleries, photos, explanations, bibliographies and references up to the date the link is clicked.
The book is written in 'plain English' to be easily read and understood by everybody. All astronomical numerical values are given in most suitable Metric and English Units, such as ground movements in millimeters and stellar distances in light-years.
The pages of this book have no pictures and no mathematical formulas.
Pictures
No pictures in the book? However, from the Internet at the author’s website www.lakivioja.com over 1,400 spectacular and up-to-date photos are only a mouse-click away on the computer monitor (or on a book reader). The carefully selected reputable Internet 'Quick Pick Links' have more of the newest news and better up-to-date color photos than any book can have on its printed pages.
Units of Speed
For example, if a satellite's orbital velocity in its Earth orbit is given as 15,659 miles per hour = 4.35 miles per second = 25,200 km/h = 7 km/s, this book uses more easily understood smaller numerical values for the same item.
Units of Distances
Some examples: Earth to Sun average distance may be given as 92,955,622 miles = 149,597,871 km, or in light-seconds: light from the Sun reaches Earth in 500 seconds = 8 minutes 20 seconds. For that distance, this book uses 500 light-seconds = 1 Astronomical Unit = 1 AU.
-- Similarly, Earth to Moon average distance is given as 1.2 light-seconds (ls) instead of 238,854 miles = 384,399 km.
--Also, the mean distance of planet Mars from the Sun is simply 1.5 AU.
--On the average, Pluto's is 39.5 AU from the Sun.
--Nearest star (Proxima Centauri is 4.2 ly away from us instead of 2,500,000,000 miles = 39,900.000.000 km.
--The outer reaches of the known universe are 13.7 billion ly = 13,700,000,000 ly away (2011). What is beyond the 13.7 billion ly-distance in all directions: up, down, east or west is totally unknown.
For the same item, small numbers are easier to comprehend and keep in mind than large numbers.
Photos, Bibliographies and Expert Descriptions
The photos of the book are just a mouse click away from over the 1,400 'Quick Pick Links'. All links can be quickly downloaded as a Microsoft Word Document, or as an HTML Document from the author's website: www.lakivioja.com
--Keeping the icon of this small document on the desktop is recommended to quickly see the recommended photos, references, bibliographies and expert descriptions during, before, or after reading a paragraph.
--Many ‘Quick Pick Links’ have daily Photo Galleries and Archives covering several years back.
--In addition to the newest Internet photos, many links have descriptions written by Astronomy and Earth Science experts complementing the book's text and offer 'on the spot' Bibliographies, References and also checks to the validity of the book’s text.
--Many 'Quick Pick Links' update themselves daily, or whenever new information becomes available. In this way, the book automatically keeps itself up-to-date ‘forever’ about this Earth and the Space around it.
--Many of these Internet sites have the newest available information about the Earth and photographs from the largest ground based observatories and from orbiting telescopes and probes with many types of sensors.
--It is obvious that no printed book can have as many, as up-to-date and as good color photos as the Internet has on its links listed in the 'Quick Pick links'.
--The ‘Quick Pick Links’ are reputable. All its inks have been carefully selected by the author. All of them are in the Public Domain, so they are free to use by all.
In the Text of the Book
--The book outlines Earth's constitution from its center core to the top of its atmosphere.
--Daily news from the Internet about the Earth, the Sun, its asteroids, comets, meteor showers and occasionally news about its nine (eight in 2006) planets and their moons are available here, better than in any other book printed on paper.
A good example of this is offered by NASA’s link about a new finding (2011) about the density of near Earth asteroids:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111001.html (Read the text under the photo.)
--Location and movements of the Milky Way Galaxy relative to other near-by and far-away galaxies up to the edges of the known universe are outlined.
--The overview 3-dimensional model of the entire universe is described in the book. It puts the Milky Way galaxy and all other known and unknown galaxies 'into a bottle' so that the realities of the space around, above, and under us can better be visualized. The described miniature 3-D model ‘contains’ all the estimated 125 - 3,000 billion galaxies, and it is small enough to fit in many backyards. It has never before been published to the knowledge of the author.
The absolutely Unique Planet Earth in the Known Universe:
This Earth is the only known livable planet, (or moon) anywhere in the Universe (2011). It truly is a unique 'Garden Spot' with its liquid water, breathable air, food to eat, reasonable temperatures, radiation and gravity.
There are no other known heavenly bodies anywhere where the birds sing and where one can smell roses.
This Earth is 'it'. Love it. Don't mess it up. Improve our Earth the little you can and keep it neat!
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About the Author
Author Biography
Lasse A. Kivioja was born in Finland and immigrated to the United States in 1955. During his studies for his Master of Science degree in Physics at The University at Helsinki he worked part-time at the Finnish Geodetic Institute. Specializing in Earth’s gravity, he was an instructor and received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Geodetic Science at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, working there at The Mapping and Charting Laboratory. He is a Professor Emeritus from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, where he lectured and conducted research in Geodetic Sciences for 26.5 years and published several refereed articles including:
In Bulletin Geodesique, he published a new exact non-iterative mathematical method for computing astro-latitudes and astro-longitudes for Astrolabe observations.
In Bulletin Geodesique and in Surveying and Mapping he published a method for computing coordinates and azimuths along any Geodetic Line for any 'way-points' and any 'end-points' in GPS positioning, solving the two Main Problems of Geometric Geodesy (Direct and Inverse Problems) by very precise computer integration using the original differential formulas for all geodetic line elements on the surface of any Earth Ellipsoid besting all older methods. Famous mathematicians spent some time solving these two elliptical integration problems. Among them are: Clairaut 1713-1765, Lagrange 1736-1813, Laplace 1749-1827, Legendre 1752-1833, Gauss 1777-1855, Bessel 1784-1846, Jordan 1838-1922, Helmert 1843-1917.
None of these famous men had electronic calculators. Numerous geodesist published variations to the classical methods until about 1970.
Published in Bulletin Geodesique studies of world sea-level variations influenced by melting of land-supported ice masses.
He was a consultant at the National Geodetic Survey, Fredericksburg, Virginia. He developed and published in Surveying and Mapping methods of improving observational accuracies of first order theodolites. He made an autocollimation addition to a first order theodolite to account for its axis wobbles.
He was a consultant at Argonne National Laboratories in Argonne, Illinois. He developed and published a new method suitable for leveling the 1104-meter long ring with about 200 supports to a few micron (0.001 millimeter) accuracies in the Advanced Photon Source.
He was a consultant at USAF Geodetic Survey Squadron, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Developed and published an improved method for astronomical azimuth observations In Bulletin Geodesique increasing achievable accuracies in the use of theodolites and leveling instruments using Mercury Leveling with autocollimation methods. Many first order theodolites were calibrated to account for small inherent systematic errors.
He is a Life Fellow in AAGS (The American Association for Geodetic Surveying).
He has a US Patent on Mercury Leveling Instruments.
======================
With the book’s unique updating feature, the book brings new information every day to even the experts working in the fields of Earth & Space Sciences, as the Earth is continuing its dynamic processes that have formed it and continue to change it continuously.
Every week brings new information for eons to come. There is always new scientific information waiting to be found and understood. Most of the book’s information comes from books and publications over the last 60 years.
All readers can learn more about the new and old ‘things’ concerning this Earth and its surroundings in this intriguing gem of a book with its unique ‘Quick Pick Links’ feature.
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There were some clever Earth and star observers much earlier, such as: some
Egyptian(s) devised 365-day annual calendar around 3100 BCE (Before the common era).
Many tribes measured the time (some still do) and their and their children’s ages in moons (not years), making 3-year-old kids 36 and 75-year old Methuseleh 900 at his death. See link:
http://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time/ancient.cfm
Even devoted religious believers should take Methusaleh’s biblical age of 900 years with a ‘grain of salt’. The biblical scribes of the Old Testament likely did not understand the difference in the meanings of words ‘one year’ and ‘one moon’. This numerical mix-up should not affect a person’s faith and religious beliefs.
Another item, where the biblical scribes used a wrong word, was about calling the Star of Bethlehem a star. The Star of Bethlehem was likely a solar system comet visible to the naked eye for only a few weeks. The word comet was probably not even in their vocabularies. For many scientific reasons, the Star of Bethlehem definitely could not have been a star.
A likely look-alike event to the ‘Bethlehem Star’ can be seen in link below, which is about the recent ‘Great Comet McNaught 2006’. The McNaught 2006 could have been a similar to the one the ‘Three Wise Men’ saw some 2000 years ago. See photos in link:
Naturally, the knowledge of modern Astronomy of the biblical scribes was poor. For instance, in those days and also later, many believed a shooting star in the skies was the final destruction of a star. One shooting star was thought to reduce the number of stars in the skies by one.
There were also some other wise men in the ancient times, like:
Archimedes 287 BC-212 BC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
and Eratosthenes 276 BC-194 BC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes
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This book contains no information about Heaven and Hell or anything else of religious or spiritual origins. For instance, this book reveals no information about ‘Creation versus Evolution’. This book acknowledges the fact that on the Earth, there are many people that believe in one or many Gods, who created our Earth and our solar system. This book is intended for scientific information only.
Everything moves in space: there are no stationary masses out there.
- For instance, Earth in its annual orbit around the Sun travels at 30 km/s = 18.6 miles/second.
- The Moon orbits the Earth at about 1 km/s = 0.62 miles/second.
- Most incoming asteroids and comets hit the Earth’s atmosphere with speeds of anywhere between 12 km/s and 72 km/s, or between 7.5 and 45 miles/second.
- The Sun with its planets, orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at 250 km/s = 155 miles/second. The time it takes to go once around the Milky Way center is called a galactic year.
- The distance between the Andromeda and our Milky Way Galaxies is decreasing now by about 300 km/s = 190 miles/second. Their mutual approach speed will increase for the next ~ 3 billion years until they collide.
See: http://www.galaxydynamics.org/tflops.html
- Some stars near the Milky Way’s center have been measured to orbit the center at
5,000 km/s = 3,100 miles/second.
- Some distant galaxies move at speeds approaching the speed of light 300,000 km/s = 186,400 miles/s.
On page 144, the book discusses the possibilities of living aliens visiting this Earth in the past and possibly in the future. Because space travel to any of the nearest solar systems with livable planets would take many centuries, aliens and Earthlings could not survive that long in their space ships. Therefore it is safe to say that this Earth has never been nor will ever be visited by any living aliens and that Earthlings will never walk on any planet or moon in any other solar system. Planet Earth is absolutely the only and unique 'Garden Spot’ in the entire known universe, where the birds sing and where one can smell roses.
It is likely that life exists around many of the 200 to 400 billion Milky Way’s unreachable stars. And then there are ‘billions and billions’ of other galaxies with similar possibilities!
The book describes a back-yard-size 3-D model of the whole known Universe, so that the 'Whole Shebang' can be visualized from its outside.
==========
Earth & Space Science for Everybody
by
Lasse A. Kivioja
Prof. Emeritus, Purdue University
ISBN: 1-4251-1975-1 (Original)
Soft cover:
Hard cover:
In the ‘Books’ section of www.amazon.com > search for “kivioja”.
The following link has 3 ratings for this book:
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Amazon’s Kindle’s link is:
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APPENDIX
EARLY HISTORY OF GPS
Chapter 11.2 in the 'Quick Pick Links’ document describe the history of GPS (= Global Position System = Geodetic Position System)
Abstract
In the early 1920s, Finnish professor Yrjö Väisälä invented and developed a method of using elevated targets to increase the size of individual triangles in classical first order triangulation networks (most accurate). The first practical test runs were performed by Väisälä and the Finnish Geodetic Institute in Southern Finland in the 1950s. Väisälä’s unique cameras and flashing lights were built by Väisälä himself in his Tuorla machine shop. The cameras were used to photograph light flashes simultaneously from 3 to 4 ground stations against each station’s star background. The flashing lights were taken up on instrumented weather balloons by Vilho Väisälä’s weather sonds (Yrjö and Vilho were brothers) to 20 to 30 kilometer altitudes. At 40 kilometers, the jet stream carried the balloons ’too fast’ over the horizons. The Finnish Star Triangulation network covered Southern Finland by only four triangles. The same area is covered by about 200 first and second order triangles.
Later US National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and the US Department of Defense (DOD) measured a Satellite Star Triangulation Network covering the entire Earth. The US Satellite Triangulation used the same method as was used in Finland, although the flashing lights were on satellites and the entire Earth was covered by more accurate coordinate system than ever before. For instance, only one triangle was able to cover the entire continental USA.
Then in the 1980s, many mainly US scientists and engineers developed even better geodetic positioning system after sufficiently precise atomic clocks on the ground and on the GPS satellites were developed, built and orbited.
The system known as the Global Positioning System (GPS) is one of the major inventions and developments in our time.
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