Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

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( a.) ( b.) ( c.) IN THE BEGINNING 197 Before it formed, the solar system was basically a giant cloud of dust and gas, roughly spherical in shape. As it collapsed, it began to spin, and this caused it to flatten out. The planets formed after the collapse, which is why they all orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane. fancy name for this is conservation of angular momentum, which just means that a big thing will spin faster if it shrinks. This happened to our proto–solar-system cloud when it collapsed, too. It spun faster as it collapsed. Since the Sun was at the center of the cloud, it should have sped up the most. But, apparently contrary to this theory, the Sun currently spins only once a month. This is the key to the last of these creationist arguments about the solar system.
198 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The creationists, as usual, are oversimplifying the problem. The universe is many things, but one thing it isn’t is simple. However, it usually makes sense, so if you see something that doesn’t make sense, look around. The solution may be blowing right past you. In this case, that’s literally true. The Sun is constantly blowing a wind. This solar wind flows from the Sun’s surface at a rate of about a thousand tons of gas per second. But the Sun is pretty big and has mass to lose. It can easily shed a few billion tons a year and hardly notice the difference. The solar wind is made up of charged particles—electrons and protons. Left to themselves, they would blow straight out from the Sun into infinity. But they are not left to themselves. The Sun itself has a pretty hefty magnetic field, and this field rotates with the Sun. As it spins, the sun drags the particles along with it. This in turn acts like a brake on the Sun’s rotation, slowing its spin. This isn’t too difficult to understand. Imagine standing in your front yard with a big trash bag in your hands. Open it up, hold it out to your side, and start spinning. The bag acts like a parachute, scooping up air and slowing you down. The exact same thing is happening to the Sun. The magnetic field is like a huge parachute, scooping up particles. The “air”—the particles in the solar wind— is very tenuous, and the Sun is large and heavy, but this drag (despite what the creationists might think) has had a long time in which to work. Over 4.5 billion years it has quite possibly slowed the Sun substantially to its current rather stately monthly rotation. While this theory has not been conclusively proven, it remains a leading contender to explain the angular momentum problem. There are other theories as well, such as the idea that the Sun lost most of its angular momentum very early on, as a protostar. It may have shed a lot of its mass through long episodes of a sort of supersolar wind. While astronomers are not totally sure which of these ideas is the correct solution, the fact remains that there are plenty of ideas, and they use good, solid physics. There are not enough old supernovas to justify an old galaxy. Of all the creationist arguments involving astronomy, this one is my favorite. Basically, it goes like this: some stars, at the ends of
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Bad
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CONTENTS vii Recommended Reading 25
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2 BAD ASTRONOMY luminous, against a
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4 BAD ASTRONOMY who fully well knew
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6 BAD ASTRONOMY But if they cannot
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PART I PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Begins
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1 PPPPPP The Yolk’s on You: Egg B
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 13 and they mak
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 15 ished announ
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 17 Of course it
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 19 with the wea
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2 PPPPPP Flushed with Embarrassment
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 23 much
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25 Equat
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 27 still
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 29 press my heigh
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 31 friend about w
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 33 Incidentally,
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 35 So you might c
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38 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and t
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40 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON body
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42 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON red l
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44 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON top o
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46 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON photo
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5 PPPPPP A Dash of Seasons: Why Sum
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50 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Clear
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52 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Equat
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54 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Howev
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56 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the S
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58 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON These
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60 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the d
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62 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON That
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7 PPPPPP The Gravity of the Situati
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66 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON is co
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68 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON a poi
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70 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON you
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72 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Moon,
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74 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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76 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON galax
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78 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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80 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON exact
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82 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON The P
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84 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON But n
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86 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON of th
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88 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGH
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100 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
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13 PPPPPP Shadows in the Sky: Eclip
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16 PPPPPP When the Universe Throws
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Page 157 and 158: 146 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
Page 164 and 165: PART IV PPPPPPP Artificial Intellig
Page 166 and 167: 17 PPPPPP Appalled at Apollo: Uncov
Page 168 and 169: APPALLED AT APOLLO 157 My question
Page 170 and 171: APPALLED AT APOLLO 159 Admittedly,
Page 172 and 173: APPALLED AT APOLLO 161 These belts
Page 174 and 175: APPALLED AT APOLLO 163 solid-state
Page 176 and 177: APPALLED AT APOLLO 165 However, you
Page 178 and 179: APPALLED AT APOLLO 167 flow well be
Page 180 and 181: APPALLED AT APOLLO 169 One of the m
Page 182 and 183: APPALLED AT APOLLO 171 The shadows
Page 184 and 185: APPALLED AT APOLLO 173 they put tog
Page 186 and 187: WORLDS IN DERISION 175 Many people
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Page 192 and 193: WORLDS IN DERISION 181 This premise
Page 194 and 195: WORLDS IN DERISION 183 Venus’ orb
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Page 198 and 199: 19 PPPPPP In the Beginning: Creatio
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Page 204 and 205: IN THE BEGINNING 193 tem started ou
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Page 214 and 215: MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 203 la
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Page 224 and 225: MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 213 Th
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Page 232 and 233: PART V PPPPPP Beam Me Up We’ve tr
Page 234 and 235: 22 PPPPPP Hubble Trouble: Hubble Sp
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Page 238 and 239: HUBBLE TROUBLE 227 A DROP IN THE BU
Page 240 and 241: HUBBLE TROUBLE 229 for space telesc
Page 242 and 243: HUBBLE TROUBLE 231 staking your sci
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Page 248 and 249: STAR HUSTLERS 237 That’s a tall o
Page 250 and 251: STAR HUSTLERS 239 the names aren’
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Page 254 and 255: STAR HUSTLERS 243 The star “Phili
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 247 ar
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 249 si
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 251 it
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 253 Tr
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 255 In
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BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 257 Si
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260 RECOMMENDED READING with the ma
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262 RECOMMENDED READING One of the
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264 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vergano, for gi
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266 INDEX “Astrology: Science or
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268 INDEX earthquakes, 130, 182 pla
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270 INDEX Islam, 58-59 “It’s Sp
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272 INDEX neutrons, 34 in stars, 98
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274 INDEX Sirius, 100, 107 size con
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276 INDEX triangles, 148 true scien
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