Many Skies: Alternative Histories of the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars

by Arthur Upgren

Overview

What if Earth had several moons or massive rings like Saturn?  What if the Sun were but one star in a double-star or triple-star system?  What if Earth were the only planet circling the Sun? 

These and other imaginative scenarios are the subject of Arthur Upgren's inventive book Many Skies: Alternative Histories of the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars. Although the night sky as we know it seems eternal and inevitable, Upgren reminds us that, just as easily, it could have been very different.

Had the solar sytem happened to be in the midst of a star cluster, we might have many more bright stars in the sky.  Yet had it been located beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, we might have no stars at all.  If Venus or Mars had a moon as large as ours, we would be able to view it easily with the unaided eye.  Given these or other alternative skies, what might Ptolemy or Copernicus have concluded about the center of the solar sytem and the Sun?

This book not only examines the changes in science that these alternative solar, stellar, and galactic arrangements would have brought, it also explores the different theologies, astrologies, and methods of tracking time that would have developed to reflect them. Our perception of our surroundings, the number of gods we worship, the symbols we use in art and literature, even the way we form nations and empires are all closely tied to our particular (and accidental) placement in the universe.

Many Skies, however, is not merely a fanciful play on what might have been.  Upgren also explores the actual ways that human interferences such as light pollution are changing the night sky.  Our atmosphere, he warns, will appear very different if we have belt of debris circling the globe and blotting out the stars, as will happen if advertisers one day pollute space with brilliant satellites displaying their products.

From fanciful to foreboding, the scenarios in Many Skies will both delight and inspire reflection, reminding us that ours is but one of many worldviews based on our experience of a universe that is as much a product of accident as it is of intention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813553504
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	04/09/2012
Edition description:	First Paperback Edition
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Arthur Upgren is emeritus professor of astronomy at Wesleyan University and senior research scientist at Yale University. He is also the author of several popular books on science and astronomy, including Night Has a Thousand Eyes and The Turtle and the Stars: Observations of an Earthbound Astronomer.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I The Sun and the Moon

1 Our Three Moons 7

2 Within a Triple Star 18

3 Our Backward Stellar Magnitude System 35

4 An Improper Proper Motion 39

5 All Our Yesterdays 45

6 We Are Alone 52

II The Planets

7 The Rings of Earth 67

8 Next Door to a Giant 73

9 Double Planet 82

10 Debris in the Solar System 88

11 Seasons of Paradox 97

12 More Than One Pluto 103

III The Stars

13 What If the Sun Were Red? or Blue? 111

14 The Vernal Equinox Lies in Virgo 117

15 Vega and Deneb Change Places 125

16 The Pleiades Star Cluster Is as Close as the Hyades 129

17 The Great Popcorn Balls 134

18 The Milky Way Lies along Our Equator 141

19 We Are Alone II 147

IV Homemade Skies

20 Ring of Rubbish 155

21 The Tangled Skein of Celestial Mechanics 159

22 A Second Chance 162

23 Chicxulub, the Worst Sky of All 175

Personal Note 187

Bibliography 189

Index 191

Editorial Reviews

"Upgren has produced an intriguing book. He uses 'what-if' scenarios to show how astronomical history might be changed and how current knowledge about astronomy could be applied to these situations. This book is not just for the science fiction aficionado, but for readers to ponder as they simultaneously learn astronomy. Recommended."

CHOICE

"Many Skies offers a series of suggestions that are likely to stimulate reflection on how and why the science of astronomy developed and evolved."

Science Books & Film

Clearly written and easy to understand, [this] book will point you to the stars in a way that should make them lasting friends.

author of Sharing the Sky and Impact Jupiter - David H. Levy

"Art Upgren not only reminds us of the simple pleasures of star gazing, he reconnects us with the generations of those who have dared to ask how it all works. Upgren's book thus carves a path along which we can reacquaint ourselves with the universe."

director, Hayden Planetarium - Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

"Many Skies offers a series of suggestions that are likely to stimulate reflection on how and why the science of astronomy developed and evolved."

From the Publisher