™ comics PRaise for the manga guide series The Manga Guide to THE inside! “Highly Recomended.” — Choice Magazine “Stimulus for the next generation of scientists.” — Scientific computing “A great fit of FOrm and subject. Recomended.” — Otaku USA Magazine UNIvERSE Kenji Ishikawa Kiyoshi Kawabata verte Corp. A Carton Guide to the Cosmos Explore our solar system, the Milky Way, ways to measure and observe heavenly and faraway galaxies with your intrepid bodies, and how astronomers calculate heroines, Gloria, Kana, and Yamane, in distances in space the Manga Guide™ to the Universe. Discoveries by Copernicus, Galileo, Together, you’l search out the universe’s Kepler, Huble, and other astronomers greatest mysteries: dark mater, cosmic expansion, and the Big Bang itself. how a star’s temperature, size, and magnitude are related As you rocket acros the night sky, you’l learn al about modern astrophysics and the mystery of cosmic background radiation astronomy, as wel as the clasical findings and scientists’ exciting predictions for the and theories on which they’re built. You’l future of the universe even learn why some scientists believe So dust of your flight suit and take a finding extraterestrial life is inevitable! fantastic voyage through the cosmos in You’l also learn about: The Manga Guide to the Universe. Theories of the universe’s origins, evolution, and geometry BONUS: INCLUDES A Galery of Astronomical Marvels TH E F I N EST I N G E E K E NTE RTA I N M E NT™ www.nostarch.com $19.95 ($22.95 CDN) SHELvE IN: Science/ASTronoMy “ I L I E F LAT .” This book uses a lay-f la t b ind ing that won't snap shut. Find more Manga Guides at ww.nostarch.com/manga ™ iShikAwA THE MANGA GUIDE TO THE UNIvERSE VekrATweA cboATrAp . Praise for the Manga Guide series “Highly recommended.” —choice magazine on the manga guide to databases “Stimulus for the next generation of scientists.” —scientific computing on the manga guide to molecular biology “A great fit of form and subject. Recommended.” —otaku usa magazine on the manga guide to physics “The art is charming and the humor engaging. A fun and fairly painless lesson on what many consider to be a less-than-thrilling subject.” —school library journal on the manga guide to statistics “This is really what a good math text should be like. Unlike the majority of books on subjects like statistics, it doesn’t just present the material as a dry series of pointless- seeming formulas. It presents statistics as something fun, and something enlightening.” —good math, bad math on the manga guide to statistics “I found the cartoon approach of this book so compelling and its story so endearing that I recommend that every teacher of introductory physics, in both high school and Wow! college, consider using it.” —american journal of physics on the manga guide to physics “A single tortured cry will escape the lips of every thirty- something biochem major who sees The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology: ‘Why, oh why couldn’t this have been written when I was in college?’” —the san francisco examiner “A lot of fun to read. The interactions between the char- acters are lighthearted, and the whole setting has a sort of quirkiness about it that makes you keep reading just for the joy of it.” —hack a day on the manga guide to electricity “The Manga Guide to Databases was the most enjoyable tech book I’ve ever read.” —rikki kite, linux pro magazine “For parents trying to give their kids an edge or just for kids with a curiosity about their electronics, The Manga Guide to Electricity should definitely be on their bookshelves.” —sacramento book review “This is a solid book and I wish there were more like it in the IT world.” —slashdot on the manga guide to databases “The Manga Guide to Electricity makes accessible a very intimidating subject, letting the reader have fun while still delivering the goods.” —geekdad blog, wired.com “If you want to introduce a subject that kids wouldn’t normally be very interested in, give it an amusing storyline and wrap it in cartoons.” —make on the manga guide to statistics “This book does exactly what it is supposed to: offer a fun, interesting way to learn calculus concepts that would otherwise be extremely bland to memorize.” —daily tech on the manga guide to calculus “The art is fantastic, and the teaching method is both fun and educational.” —active anime on the manga guide to physics “An awfully fun, highly educational read.” —frazzleddad on the manga guide to physics “Makes it possible for a 10-year-old to develop a decent working knowledge of a subject that sends most college students running for the hills.” —skepticblog on the manga guide to molecular biology “This book is by far the best book I have read on the subject. I think this book absolutely rocks and recommend it to anyone working with or just interested in databases.” —geek at large on the manga guide to databases “The book purposefully departs from a traditional physics textbook and it does it very well.” —dr. marina milner-bolotin, ryerson university on the manga guide to physics “Kids would be, I think, much more likely to actually pick this up and find out if they are interested in statistics as opposed to a regular textbook.” —geek book on the manga guide to statistics “The Manga Guide to Statistics offers a visualization of statistics that can’t be found in any mere textbook.” —anime 3000 “A great introduction for readers of any age, and an exemplar of technical communication.” —linux users of victoria on the manga guide to electricity ™ The Manga Guide to the Universe Caution: construction ahead ™ The Manga Guide to the Universe Kenji ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and verte Corp. The Manga Guide to the Universe. Copyright © 2011 by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp. The Manga Guide to the Universe is a translation of the Japanese original, Manga de wakaru uchu, published by Ohmsha, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, © 2008 by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp. This English edition is co-published by No Starch Press, Inc. and Ohmsha, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. Printed in Canada 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ISBN-10: 1-59327-267-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-267-8 Publisher: William Pollock Supervising Editor: Kiyoshi Kawabata Author: Kenji Ishikawa Illustrator: Yutaka Hiiragi Producer: Verte Corp. Production Editors: Ansel Staton and Serena Yang Developmental Editor: Tyler Ortman Translator: Arnie Rusoff Technical Reviewers: Adam Blythe Smith and Kebra Ward Compositor: Riley Hoffman Copyeditor: Paula L. Fleming Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services For information on book distributors or translations, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly: No Starch Press, Inc. 38 Ringold Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 phone: 415.863.9900; fax: 415.863.9950; Contents Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Prologue A Tale That Begins on the Mon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Story of Kaguya-hime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Cosmic Myths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Ancient India’s View of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Ancient Egypt’s View of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Ancient Babylonia’s View of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 In China, Where Astronomy Was Originally Developed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 In Ancient Greece, Where the Size of Earth Was Calculated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Eratosthenes’ Calculation Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 If Earth Is Round, the Moon Must Be Round Too. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 1 is earth the Center of the Universe? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 A Mysterious Light Appeared in the Sky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Close Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Does the Sun Revolve Around Earth? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 A Heliocentric Model Was Proposed 2,300 Years Ago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 From the Geocentric Theory to the Heliocentric Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Galileo’s Discoveries—and Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Putting Things in Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 What Is the Approximate Distance to the Horizon? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Measuring the Size of the Universe: How Far to the Moon? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Corner Cube Mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 How a Corner Cube Mirror Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Before the Corner Cube Prism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Geocentric Theory vs. Heliocentric Theory—the Outcome of a Battle Royale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 What Kind of Orbit Did a Planet Trace in the Geocentric Theory? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 The Tychonic System That Embellished the Geocentric Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Just How Progressive Was Copernicus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Kepler Completed the Heliocentric Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 What Did Galileo Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 What Has the Heliocentric Theory Taught Us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A Somewhat Complicated Explanation of Kepler’s Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 First Law: The Orbit of Every Planet Is an Ellipse with the Sun at the Focus . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Second Law: A Line Joining a Planet and the Sun Sweeps Out Equal Areas During Equal Intervals of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Third Law: The Square of the Orbital Period of a Planet Is Directly Proportional to the Cube of the Semimajor Axis of Its Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 2 From the solar system to the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 What If Kaguya-hime Came from a Planet in Our Solar System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Kaguya-hime and the Solar System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Mercury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Venus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Mars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Jupiter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Saturn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Uranus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Neptune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Pluto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 The Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 The Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 The Size of the Milky Way Galaxy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 What’s in the Middle of the Galaxy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Top Five Mysteries of the Galaxy That Have Not Yet Been Explained! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 What Is the Galaxy’s Shape, and How Did It Form? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 What’s at the Center? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 How Are Supermassive Black Holes Formed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 What Is the Galaxy Made Of? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 What Will Happen When We Collide with the Andromeda Galaxy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 The Milky Way Galaxy Is One of Many Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 The Universe Is Steadily Getting Larger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Why Can We See the Milky Way? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 A Disc-Shaped Galactic Model Is the Easiest to Understand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Results of Scientific Observation Also Prove a Disc-Shaped Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 An Idea from Kant Enlarged the Perceived Universe in a Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 How Did Technology for Observing the Universe Progress?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Famous Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 What Can a Radio Telescope Observe? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Another Way to Measure the Size of the Universe: A Triangulation Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Triangulation Can Give Us the Distance to Stars Beyond the Solar System . . . . . . . . . . . 126 How Big Is the Solar System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 3 The Universe Was Born With a Big Bang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Galaxies Are Islands of Light in the Void of Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 The Winning Team Learns a Lesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 What Is the Large-Scale Structure of the Cosmos?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Planetary System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Galaxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Group of Galaxies or Cluster of Galaxies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Supercluster of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 viii Contents