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Astronomy Cafe
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Back to the
Astronomy Cafe
More Questions and Answers
about the Cosmos from
"Ask the Astronomer"
Sten Odenwald
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
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Copyright © 2003 by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Published in the United States of America by Westview Press, A Member of
the Perseus Books Group, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-
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A Cataloging-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the
Library of Congress.
ISBN 0-8133-4166-3
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials
-1984.
Text design by Trish Wilkinson
Typeset in 11 -point Adobe Garamond by the Perseus Books Group
10 987654321
This book is dedicated to the astronauts of Columbia who gave
their lives so that the rest of us might hold on to our dreams of
exploring space.
Michael Anderson
David Brown
Kalpana Chawla
Laurel Clark
Rick Husband
William McCool
Ilan Ramon
They were born on Earth, yet their spirits touched the stars.
Contents
Introduction ix
1 The World's Grea