how this site is set up

The purpose of this site is to help people understand their physical location in the universe, along with all that may imply. One sequence of pages provides a series of astronomical perspectives ranging outward to infinity and inward to our home planet. Each top-level page in the sequence, which begins on the present page, furnishes a general overview of its topic (e.g., the Milky Way or the Solar System) and includes further links to related content. All pages in this sequence have white text on black backgrounds. Click each main image to see the next one, or use the navigation bar at the bottom of the page to jump around.

A second collection of pages presents a detailed discussion of extrasolar planetary systems, with special emphasis on the region of space near our Sun. This set of pages intersects with the first one at Nearby Exoplanetary Systems, and its main topics are indexed at Planets Around Other Stars. In this more specialized sequence, all pages have black text on white backgrounds.

Please click around. There are many hidden treasures. Here is a complete index.

references

I'm not an astronomer, but I do love space and all the dark and shiny stuff out there. I try to ensure that all the information presented on this site conforms with current astronomical knowledge. As much as possible, content is based on recent publications in peer-reviewed journals, especially The Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Nature, Science, and Icarus. Publications and fact sheets available on NASA.gov, PlanetQuest, and other NASA-related Web sites are also consulted. Here is a partial list of references.

glossary

A glossary of astronomical terms used in this presentation is available here.

useful & fascinating sites

copyright information

All text is written and copyrighted by Raymond Harris (2006-2011), except for clearly identified quotations from existing works. With credit to the author, original text on this site may be quoted in any medium on any planet (or other human habitat) and reproduced freely for non-profit educational purposes.

Some images on this site were created by Deep Fly, sometimes by collaging public domain images. In each case authorship is stated. These images may be reproduced freely for non-profit educational purposes, without further permission from me, with credit to Deep Fly.

All other images appearing on this site have been approved by their creators or copyright holders for free reproduction for non-profit educational purposes. Credits are listed for each image. In a few cases image credits are not available, and where so, this is indicated.

To contact me, send an e-mail to ruprecht147 at the address hotmail dot com. News, corrections, feedback, and other jolly stuff are most welcome (but not spam).

postscript

This site and others like it are all reminiscent of a scene in A Wrinkle in Time (1962), the young-adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Her youthful protagonists travel via tesseract to "Orion's belt" and survey the universe through an extrasolar crystal ball:

. . . she seemed to see an enormous sweep of dark and empty space, and then galaxies swinging across it. Finally they seemed to move in closer to one of the galaxies. "Your own Milky Way," Mrs. Whatsit whispered to Meg. They were headed directly toward the center of the galaxy; then they moved off to one side; stars seemed to be rushing at them. . . . They seemed to be moving in toward a planet. She thought she could make out polar ice caps. Everything seemed sparkling clear. (Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, Chapter 3: The Tesseract)

A similar inrushing sweep of imagery opens the movie Contact (1997), beginning with the Big Bang and ending in the pupil of its heroine's eye. Perhaps the most widely cited example is the short film Powers of Ten, made in 1968 by the design team of Charles and Ray Eames. The utmost-to-inmost montage is evidently a representative narrative of our age, evolving along with our astronomical sophistication. Here is one more for the mix.