Planets universe

Gehrels, T. (1978), Protostars and Planets, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 1-756. 

Brown, H. 1952. The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. 

Benedick, R. E., "Ozone Diplomacy New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet." Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991. 

All of the energy that drives the atmosphere is derived from a minor star in the universe—our sun. The planet that we inhabit, earth, is 150 million km from the sun. The energy received from the sun is radiant energy—electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic spectrum is shown in Fig. 17-1. Although this energy is, in part, furnished to the atmosphere, it is primarily received at the earth s surface and redistributed by several... 

The entire observable universe, of which the Earth is a veiy tiny part, contains matter m the form of stars, planets, and other objects scattered in space, such as particles ol dust, molecules, protons, and electrons. In addition to containing matter, space also is filled with energy, part of it in the form of microwave radiation. 

In addition to ordinai y matter, scientists have evidence for the existence in the universe of dark matter. Some of the dark matter is ordinai y matter, such as dust in outer space and planets going around other stars. Astronomers cannot see ordinai y dark matter because any light coming from such matter is too faint to be observed in telescopes. However, most of the dark matter in the universe is believed not to be ordinary matter. At the present time it is not known what this mysterious dark matter is, or what it is made of. Scientists know that this dark matter exists because it exerts a gravitational force on stars (which are made of ordinary matter), causing the stars to move faster than they otherwise would. According to present estimates, there is perhaps five times as much dark matter in the universe as ordinary matter. 

Earth and the sun, and, as far as is kno wn, the stars and planets in the rest of the visible universe, are made of ordinai y matter. However, according to a theoi y fir.st proposed by Paul Dirac in 1928, for every kind of particle of ordinary matter that exists in nature, there can exist an antiparticle made of antimatter. Some antiparticles have been discovered for example, the antiparticle of the electron, called the positron, was discovered in 1932 in cosmic rays falling on earth and have also been created in experiments performed in the laboratory. Antimatter is very simi-... 

Proponents of the strong form of artificial life emphasize that artificial life is fundamentally about the exploration of life as it could be, as compared to life as we know it [lang89]. It is an attempt to enlarge our currently meager set of examples of life in the set of all possible life - more precisely, our meager one data point of life as it has evolved on this, planet (see figure 12.21) - in hopes abstracting the set of basic principles that are universal to all life forms. 

Outside our own solar system, might there be planetary environments where life flourishes hi recent years, astronomers have discovered planets orbiting stars other than our own. Whether or not these planets support life is still impossible to say. Nevertheless, the more we discover about the variety of the universe, the more likely it becomes that we are not alone. 

The phenomenon of attraction of masses is one of the most amazing features of nature, and it plays a fundamental role in the gravitational method. Everything that we are going to derive is based on the fact that each body attracts other. Clearly this indicates that a body generates a force, and this attraction is observed for extremely small particles, as well as very large ones, like planets. It is a universal phenomenon. At the same time, the Newtonian theory of attraction does not attempt to explain the mechanism of transmission of a force from one body to another. In the 17th century Newton discovered this phenomenon, and, moreover, he was able to describe the role of masses and distance between them that allows us to calculate the force of interaction of two particles. To formulate this law of attraction we suppose that particles occupy elementary volumes AF( ) and AF(p), and their position is characterized by points q and p, respectively, see Fig. 1.1a. It is important to emphasize that dimensions of these volumes are much smaller than the distance Lgp between points q and p. This is the most essential feature of elementary volumes or particles, and it explains why the points q and p can be chosen anywhere inside these bodies. Then, in accordance with Newton s law of attraction the particle around point q acts on the particle around point p with the force d ip) equal to... 

Knoll AH. 2003. Life on a Young Planet. Princeton Princeton University Press. 

Cochran JK, Bacon MP, Krishnaswami S, Turekian KK (1983) °Po and °Pb distributions in the central and eastern Indian Ocean. Earth Planet Sci Lett 65 433-445 Cochran JK, Livingston HD, Hirschberg DJ, Surprenant LD (1987) Natural and anthropogenic radionuclide distributions in the northwest Atlantic-ocean. Earth Planet Sci Lett 84 135-152 Cochran JK (1992) The oceanic chemistiy of the uranium and thorium-series nuclides In Uranium-series disequihbrium applications to earth, marine, and environmental sciences. Ivanovich M, Harmon RS (eds) Oxford University Press, New York, p 334-395... 

Alivet saves every penny to pay her sister s unbonding fee, but her plan is destroyed when one of her potions kills a wealthy client—and Alivet finds herself wanted for murder. Her only hope is the darkly attractive man who may have engineered her downfall but who still offers her a last chance of salvation. A Poison Master from the planet Hathes, Arieth Mahedi Ghairen needs an alchemist of Alivet s expertise to find the one drug that can take down the Lords— and free the universe from their rule. 

Fucoxanthin, lutein, neoxanthin, violaxanthin, and zeaxanthin are the most common xanthophylls on our planet. They are found in the photosynthetic machinery of algae (fucoxanthin) and higher plants (Figure 7.1). Interestingly, lutein and zeaxanthin have also been found in the retina of humans and some primates (Khachik et al., 1997 Landrum and Bone, 2001). It is likely that these carotenoids possess some universal photophysical properties essential for both photosynthesis and vision (Britton, 1995). 

The question of the origin of life on Earth leads directly to the question of the formation of our planet, of the solar system and of the universe. The ancient philosophers, as we have seen, attempted to answer such questions, but the models which we discuss and argue about today were proposed by scientists only in the last century. 

The second important source for the hydrosphere and the oceans are asteroids and comets. Estimating the amount of water which was brought to Earth from outer space is not easy. Until 20 years ago, it was believed that the only source of water for the hydrosphere was gas emission from volcanoes. The amount of water involved was, however, unknown (Rubey, 1964). First estimates of the enormous magnitude of the bombardment to which the Earth and the other planets were subjected caused researchers to look more closely at the comets and asteroids. New hypotheses on the possible sources of water in the hydrosphere now exist the astronomer A. H. Delsemme from the University of Toledo, Ohio, considers it likely that the primeval Earth was formed from material in a dust cloud containing anhydrous silicate. If this is correct, all the water in today s oceans must be of exogenic origin (Delsemme, 1992). 

The number of known extrasolar planets grows monthly the first discovery was made on October 1, 1995, by Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz from the University of Geneva, who found a planet orbiting around the sun-like star 51 Pegasus. 

In which development phase of the universe could there have been the greatest chance of panspermia processes taking place A research group from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research has tried to provide answers to this difficult question on the basis of research results from astronomy and astrophysics. Using mathematical models, they concluded that the maximum number of habitable planets in our galaxy must have been present at the time when our solar system and the young Earth were evolving (von Bloh et al., 2003). 

Knoll, A.H. (2003). Life on a Young Planet — the First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth. Princeton University Press, Princeton... 

Chemistry without numbers is poetry astrochemistry without numbers is myth. A molecule placed around a star, in a nebula, lost in the interstellar medium, on a planet or within a cell has the potential for very complex and beautiful chemistry but unless we can understand the local conditions and how the molecule interacts with them we have no idea what chemistry is really happening. To understand astrochemistry we need to understand the physical conditions that occur within many diverse molecular environments. The exploration of the molecular universe will take us on a long journey through the wonders of astronomy to the new ideas of astrobiology... 

Our mission is to explore the molecular universe with an understanding of all of the local molecular environments and constrain possible chemical reactions using the concepts of physical chemistry. With such a wide brief we need a focus and I have chosen the origins of life on Earth and on all planets - astrobiology. 

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