Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions about Everything under the Sun, Moon, and Stars - Softcover

Neil De Grasse Tyson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385488378 ISBN 13: 9780385488372

Publisher: Main Street Books, 1998

Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry comes a follow-up guide to more of the most popular questions about the universe.

In this companion volume to Merlin's Tour of the Universe, Neil de Grasse Tyson presents a completely new collection of questions and answers about the cosmos for stargazers of all ages. Whether waxing about Earth and its environs, the Sun and its stellar siblings, the world of light, physical laws, or galaxies near and far, Merlin--a fictional visitor from Planet Omniscia and our guide to the universe--is easy to understand, often humorous, and always entertaining.

Merlin fields a wide range of questions from many curious mortals, and in so doing draws on his own vast knowledge as well as the expertise of many close friends, including Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, and Santa. Merlin hasn't been stumped yet, responding to questions including:

If aliens exploded our moon, what effect would it have on us?
What are your thoughts on the theory that a star named Nemesis is circling our solar system and was responsible for killing off the dinosaurs?
Is it true that if I leave a container on my roof for a period of time, I can actually collect space particles from outer space?

Delightfully illustrated throughout, Just Visiting This Planet is a timeless book for lovers of the universe by one of its brightest lights.

About this title

About the Author

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, director of its world-famous Hayden Planetarium, host of the hit radio and TV show StarTalk, and an award-winning author. He lives in New York City.

From the Back Cover

In a companion volume to Merlin's Tour of the Universe, here is a completely new collection of questions and answers about the cosmos for stargazers of all ages. Whether waxing about Earth and its environs, the Sun and its stellar siblings, the world of light, physical laws, or galaxies near and far, Merlin--a fictional visitor from planet Omniscia--is easy to understand, often humorous, and always entertaining. Merlin fields a wide range of questions from many curious mortals, and in so doing draws on his own vast knowledge as well as the expertise of many close friends, including Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, and Santa. So far, Merlin has not been stumped, responding to questions on mysteries such as:

If aliens exploded our moon, what effect would it have on us?

What are your thoughts on the theory that a star named Nemesis is circling our solar system and was responsible for killing off the dinosaurs?

Is it true that if I leave a container of my roof for a period of time, I can actually collect space particles from outer space?

From the Inside Flap

on volume to Merlin's Tour of the Universe, here is a completely new collection of questions and answers about the cosmos for stargazers of all ages. Whether waxing about Earth and its environs, the Sun and its stellar siblings, the world of light, physical laws, or galaxies near and far, Merlin--a fictional visitor from Planet Omniscia--is easy to understand, often humorous, and always entertaining.

Merlin fields a wide range of questions from many curious mortals, and in so doing draws on his own vast knowledge as well as the expertise of many close friends, including Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, and Santa.

So far, Merlin has not been stumped, responding to questions on mysteries such as:

If aliens exploded our moon, what effect would it have on us?
What are your thoughts on the theory that a star named Nemesis is circling our solar system and was responsible for killing off the dinosaurs?
Is it true that if I leave a co

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Merlin is as old as Earth and has been an eyewitness to nearly all major human discoveries in the physical sciences. On temporary leave from home--the planet Omniscia in the Draziw star system of the Andromeda galaxy--Merlin has chosen Earth and its scientific legacy as a topic of academic research. Merlin has advanced degrees in astrophysics, geophysics, chemistry, and philosophy, all earned at Omniscia's planetwide Universe-ity.

A consummate scholar-educator, Merlin loves nothing more than to answer your questions about our favorite universe. Steadfastly succinct yet always friendly, Merlin's replies are occasionally enriched by recollections from the past--a past that contains a motley assortment of Merlin's Earth-based friends and acquaintances, including Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, and Santa.


Dear Merlin,

With all the motion of Earth through space, when I jump, how come I don't land in a different place?

JOSHUA WALTON
DUVALL, WASHINGTON

You do land in a different place in space, but the ground stays with you. If you jump straight up and manage to stay airborne for one second, then you will land over 500 yards east (the rotation of Earth carried you there) and 18 miles farther around the Sun (the orbit of Earth carried you there) and about 125 miles farther around the center of the Milky Way galaxy (the orbit of the solar system took you there). Incidentally, all this happens in one second even if you do not jump.


Dear Merlin,

What is a blue moon?

LINDA HAYDEN, MOONMAIDEN
ARCADIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

In the absence of blue-tinted moon glasses or peculiar atmospheric optics, a blue moon is simply the second full moon in a calendar month. With months of twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, and thirty-one days and the average cycle of full moons requiring twenty-nine and a half days, the average time between blue moons is about two and a half years. Occasionally, however, blue moon enthusiasts get a treat. In 1999, 2018, and again in 2037, January has two full moons. In each year, February follows with no full moon, but then March dons two full moons of its own.


Dear Merlin,

Our planet is becoming overburdened with atomic waste and hazardous materials at an alarming rate. Why can't we put some of it on space flights when room is available and have the astronauts nudge the stuff in the direction of the Sun?

LESTER DUBACH HELLMAN
PRESCOTT VALLEY, ARIZONA

What you call a "nudge" from an already orbiting space station amounts to shoving the atomic waste in the right direction at a speed of about 7,000 miles per hour. Only then will it escape the gravitational pull of Earth. If the high-speed nudge fails, the waste will reenter Earth's atmosphere and create an even greater health risk. The solution for your planet is to find sources of energy that do not produce atomic and otherwise hazardous wastes.


Dear Merlin,

At about 10:30 p.m. this past July 31, my mom and I saw a small reddish light move quickly across the sky. It tracked through the Big Dipper. It did not blink, like a plane's light might. It was gone from our sight after fifteen seconds or so. Do you think it was a satellite? If so, what kind? And where are they going? How can we see more of them?

CARA AND KERRY
DUBYK FURLONG, PENNSYLVANIA

Since your mother also saw the light, Merlin presumes you were not hallucinating. You probably saw an artificial satellite in low Earth orbit with a polar trajectory. During the several hours after sunset and before sunrise, if a satellite happens to fly over your town, it will be visible because of reflected sunlight before it enters (or after it exits) Earth's cone-shaped shadow in space.

Polar trajectories are ideal for spy satellites because they orbit from pole to pole while Earth turns continuously, which eventually allows the satellite to see every part of Earth's surface, including you and your mother. Next time, wave.


Dear Merlin,

My question relates to time. I am told that time began at the beginning of the universe, but if time had a beginning, then what was "time" before it began? And if time were to end, wouldn't there still be "time" after it ended?

PAUL W. QUANDT
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA

Where there are no repeating phenomena, the measurement of time, and time as we know it, cannot be defined. The interval that separates two events is commonly measured by something that repeats--the vibrating crystals of a modern digital watch, the pendulum and gears of a grandfather clock, the rising and setting Sun, heartbeats, etc. We presume that outside the universe (this includes before the beginning and after the end), there are no events and, of course, no measuring devices. In such a place, time would have no meaning. In practical terms, time would be irrelevant. But do not let this upset you. There are many systems where time is mostly irrelevant, and you needn't leave the universe to find them. All those who use mathematics to describe the physical universe will use time in their equations only when something changes in their system. Otherwise, the system is in "steady state," and time is handily excised from the computations. For example, the structural engineers who design today's suspension bridges have few occasions to use time in their equations. A bridge is the graceful conquest of balanced forces. Were it not for corrosion, continental drift, and the Sun becoming a red giant, a bridge would last forever--in timeless, blissful, and steady state.


Dear Merlin,

How will the universe end?

S. KENT WALLACE
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

Merlin asked that question of the British author T.S. Eliot in 1925. He replied with poetic clairvoyance:

This is the way the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Latest evidence suggests that there is not enough mass and gravity to halt or reverse the expansion of the universe. In this scenario, star formation ultimately consumes nearly all interstellar gas. The remaining stars exhaust all their fuel as the universe expands forever and cools to a dark, frigid, thermodynamic death. After about 10 years (10 sextillion times the current age of the universe), even the proton, the very fabric of matter itself, will decay. Such a fate may sound unpleasant, but if the universe recollapses, that will be equally horrific for its inhabitants. The scene will simply make better headlines as the universe shrinks back into the cosmic maelstrom that was the fireball from which it was born.


Dear Merlin,

Enclosed is a tiny calendar as a gift from us. Printed on the upper half is

From the Demings
ALICE & BOB
Y'all come to see us
Fredericksburg, Texas.

Just peel off the back and you can stick it on the dashboard of your car.

ALICE AND BOB DEMING
FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS

Thank you, Alice and Bob. Your hospitality is befitting of your residence in the state of Texas. Unlike most Texans, however, Merlin does not drive a car. Merlin has other ways of getting around the galaxy, none of which don a dashboard.


Dear Merlin,

What is your mission on Earth?

ARNOLD LIVINGSTON
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Merlin is just visiting this planet. While here, Merlin intends

1. To be friendly and conversational.
2. To attract cosmic queries from all interested readers.
3. To help enlighten Earth residents about their rich scientific past and present.
4. To introduce readers, on special occasions, to some of Merlin's friends.
5. And to promote truth, justice, and the cosmic way.

Edition details

• Publisher: Main Street Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385488378
• ISBN 13: 9780385488372
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352
• Illustrator: Stephen J. Tyson