Published in 2018 by Britannica Educational Publishing a trademark of Encyclopædia Britannica Inc in association with The Rosen Publishing Group Inc 29 East 21st Street New York NY 10010 Copyright 2018 The Rosen Publishing Group Inc and Encyclopædia Britannica Inc Encyclopaedia Britannica Britannica and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopædia Britannica Inc All rights reserved Distributed exclusively by Rosen Publishing To see additional Britannica Educational Publishing titles go to rosenpublishing com First Edition Britannica Educational Publishing J E Luebering Executive Director Core Editorial Mary Rose McCudden Editor Britannica Student Encyclopedia Rosen Publishing Amelie von Zumbusch Editor Nelson Sá Art Director Nicole Russo-Duca Designer Cindy Reiman Photography Manager Karen Huang Photo Researcher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names Loria Laura author Title Astronomers at work Laura Loria Description First edition New York Britannica Educational Publishing in Association with Rosen Educational Services 2018 Series Scientists at work Includes bibliographical references and index Identifiers LCCN 2016056500 ISBN 9781680487480 eBook Subjects LCSH Astronomy Vocational guidance Juvenile literature Astronomers Juvenile literature Astronomy Juvenile literature Classification LCC QB51 5 L67 2018 DDC 520 023 dc23 LC record available at https lccn loc gov 2016056500 Manufactured in the United States of America Photo credits Cover p 1 iStockphoto com ClaudioVentrella p 4 ESA NASA Hubble p 5 Lester Lefkowitz Iconica Getty Images pp 6 21 Encyclopædia Britannica Inc p 7 Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA p 8 CFHT NOAO AURA NSF NASA ESA STScI p 9 Rick Whitacre Shutterstock com p 10 Dan Kitwood Getty Images p 11 Ariel Skelley Blend Images Getty Images p 12 Tylerfinvold p 13 NASA Dryden Tom Tschida p 14 Michael Stravato The New York Times Redux p 15 Two Micron All Sky Survey 2MASS a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center California Institute of Technology funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation p 16 Chief Warrant Officer 4 Seth Rossman US Navy photo p 17 NASA p 18 Jonathan Larsen Fotolia p 19 Hubble SM4 ERO Team M-ESA NASA p 20 ESO p 22 Adam Hart-Davis Science Source p 23 ESO M R Cioni VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit p 24 Photos com Thinkstock p 25 Leemage Universal Images Group Getty Images p 26 Babak Tafreshi Science Source Getty Images p 27 Vector FX Shutterstock com p 28 NASA ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI AURA p 29 NASA JPL-Caltech interior pages background Teemu Tretjakov Shutterstock com
An Ancient Science 4 What’s Up There 6 On the Job 10 From the Lab to Space 12 Signals from Space 14 Getting the Message 16 Colorful Data 20 A Model Sky 22 Astronomy All-Stars 24 Amateur Astronomers 26 What’s Next 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 Contents
An Ancient Science A stronomy is one of the oldest sciences in the world Thousands of years ago there were no calendars or clocks People kept track of time by watching the sun and the stars It was important for them to know the time in order to plant their crops and gather their harvests These people were the first astronomers The study of astronomy involves all of the objects outside Earth’s atmosphere These include the sun moon An astronomer’s job involves identifying objects in space such as the stars and clouds of gas and dust in this image 4
This astronomer is looking through a large telescope Astronomers spend a lot of their time observing the sky VOCAB U LARY Matter is anything in the universe that takes up space planets stars galaxies and all other matter in the universe An astronomer’s job is to observe measure and interpret the data they collect about these objects This knowledge helps us understand what happens in space and how it affects us here on Earth 5
