This book summarizes the gathering of information on and the growing understanding of M33 from the 1920s, when Hubble first determined its true nature, to the 21st century, when the Hubble Telescope probed deeply into its many secrets. With its regular symmetrical spiral structure, and its being not tilted too much and near enough to allow detailed studies of its stars, M33 is well-suited for the study of a typical spiral galaxy. In this work, Paul Hodge places current research on M33 (and similar galaxies) in both historical and global perspectives. The book is written in a language accessible for specialists and non-specialists, for professional and amateur astronomers, for scientists and the curious public and, most importantly, for students.

The astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort (1900-1992) left behind an extensive collection of notes and correspondence, both on his research and on matters that concerned him in a variety of official functions. Upon Oort's death, the collection was augmented by more personal papers, letters, journals, and diaries. The resulting collection forms a rich source of information on many aspects of twentieth-century astronomy, in which Oort played such an important role. The scientific and personal material covers the entire span of time from Oort's early youth until his death. To make these papers accessible to a wide circle of users, the collection has now been catalogued and described; the result is presented in this volume. A name index and a subject index have been added to facilitate access. The inventory is accompanied by a short biographical sketch, and a number of photographs, mostly relating to Oort's career as a scientist. The original papers themselves are archived in the Leiden University Library.

This book addresses a broad range of problems related to observed manifestations of chaotic motions in galactic and stellar objects, by invoking basic theory, numerical modeling, and observational evidence. For the first time, methods of stochastic dynamics are applied to actually observed astronomical objects, e.g. the gaseous disc of the spiral galaxy NGC 3631. In the latter case, the existence of chaotic trajectories in the boundary of giant vortices was recently found by the calculation of the Lyapunov characteristic number of these trajectories.

The reader will find research results on the peculiarities of chaotic system behaviour; a study of the integrals of motion in self-consistent systems; numerical modeling results of the evolution process of disk systems involving resonance excitation of the density waves in spiral galaxies; a review of specific formations in stars and high-energy sources demonstrating their stochastic nature; a discussion of the peculiarities of the precessional motion of the accretion disk and relativistic jets in the double system SS 433; etc.

This book stands out as the first one that deals with the problem of chaos in real astrophysical objects. It is intended for graduate and post-graduate students in the fields of non-linear dynamics, astrophysics, planetary and space physics; specifically for those dealing with computer modeling of the relevant processes.

Here it is, in a nutshell: the history of one genius's most crucial work - discoveries that were to change the face of modern physics. In the early 1900s, Albert Einstein formulated two theories that would forever change the landscape of physics: the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity. Respected American academic Professor Tai Chow tells us the story of these discoveries. He details the basic ideas of Einstein, including his law of gravitation. Deftly employing his inimitable writing style, he goes on to explain the physics behind black holes, weaving into his account an explanation of the structure of the universe and the science of cosmology.

Our planet exists within a space environment affected by constantly changing solar atmosphere producing cosmic particles and electromagnetic waves. This "space weather" profoundly influences the performance of our technology because we primarily use two means for transmitting information and energy; namely, electromagnetic waves and electricity. On an everyday basis, we have developed methods to cope with the normal conditions. However, the sun remains a fiery star whose 'angry' outbursts can potentially destroy spacecrafts, kill astronauts, melt electricity transformers, stop trains, and generally wreak havoc with human activities. Space Weather is the developing field within astronomy that aims at predicting the sun??'s violent activity and minimizing the impacts on our daily lives. Space Weather, Environment, and Societies explains why our technological societies are so dependent on solar activity and how the Sun disturbs the transmission of information and energy. Footnotes expand specific points and the appendices facilitate a more thorough command of the physics involved.

String Theory is our current best candidate for the unification of all fundamental forces, including gravity, in a consistent quantum framework. In this collection of lectures delivered at the Carg se Summer School "String Theory: from Gauge Interactions to Cosmology'', world leading experts provide an up-to-date survey of the latest developments in this topic, including the gauge/gravity correspondence, superstring cosmology and cosmic strings, topological string theory and matrix models, physics beyond the standard model and the landscape of vacua of string theory, conformal field theory and critical phenomena in statistical mechanics. Many more topics are also discussed in shorter contributions by School participants. Written with an emphasis on pedagogy, this volume will be a invaluable resource to students and experts alike.

This text should appeal to all researchers who have an interest in Leonid showers. It contains over 40 research papers that present some of the first observational results of the November 1999 Leonid meteor storm, the first storm observed by modern observing techniques. The book is a glimpse of the large amount of information obtained during NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign and groundbased campaigns throughout the world. It provides an overview on the state of meteor shower research for any professional researcher or amateur meteor observer interested in studies of meteors and meteoroids and their relation to comets, the origin of life on Earth, the satellite impact hazard issue, and upper atmosphere studies of neutral atom chemistry, the formation of meteoric debris, persistent trains, airglow, noctilucent clouds, sprites and elves.

The Study of Travelling Interplanetary Phenomena (STIP) was formally established by the International Council of Scientific Unions' Special Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) in August 1973 with M. Dryer as Convenor and M. A. Shea as Secretary. The scientific objec tives of STIP are the study and search for understanding of quiet (i.e. normal or background) and active periods in the interplanetary medium. The concepts of informal, extemporaneous interdisciplinary research is continuo sly emphasised, and these concepts have proved to be extremely successful in conducting the very productive studies undertaken by the members. About 200 scientists are actively participating in STIP, their interests ranging from solar physics (insofar as it concerns the initi ation of phenomena which move out from the Sun) to the observation and study of comets and planetary magneto spheres and ionospheres. Solar wind plasma and fields, solar and galactic cosmic rays, interstellar interactions, solar radio astronomy and interplanetary scintillations of discrete radio sources are among the topics of interest."

Active Galactic Nuclei radiate over the electro-magnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays. Understanding the physics of these objects therefore requires the synthesis of results from many different domains of Astronomy. It was the aim of the conference "Active Galactic Nuclei across the Electromagnetic Spectrum" to provide a forum where this exchange could take place. Some 300 astronomers participated to the conference, 250 of them presented results either as oral papers or in the form of posters. Observations in all domains of the electro magnetic spectrum in which astronomical observations can be made from the ground or from space were presented. Many theoretical contributions were also given. There has been a tremendous growth in the number and quality of Astronomical obser vations in many spectral domains over the past several years. Students of Active Galactic Nuclei have been particularly keen to make use of the available facilities (both space born and on the ground), often in a very organised way, in order to obtain repeated simultane ous data covering large bands of the spectrum. This approach has produced a qualitatively new set of data for understanding the physics of Active Galactic Nuclei. The task of the meeting was to review this data in a coherent way."

This is the latest effort in a sequence of presentations begun in 1949 with a series of lectures on long-focus photographic astrometry given by the author as Fulbright professor in Paris at the invitation by the late H. Mineur, at that time Director of the Institut d' Astrophysique. These earlier lectures were published as a series of review articles in Popular Astronomy (1951) and appeared both as Contributions de l'Institut d'Astrophysique, Serie A, No. 81 and as reprint No. 75 of Sproul Observatory. A more elaborate presenta tion was given in 1963 in Stars and Stellar Systems, which was followed by Principles of Astrometry (1967, W. H. Freeman & Co.). During the second half of 1974, again under Fulbright auspices, at the invitation of Pik Sin The, I lectured at the Astronomical Institute in Amster dam, followed by a short course in May-June 1978 at the invitation of E. P. J. van den Heuvel. I gave a more extensive course at the Institut d' As trophysique at the invitation of J. C. Pecker of the College de France and of J. Audouze, Director of the LA.P. Both in Amsterdam and in Paris I had presented occasional astrometric topics at various times. The opportunity to lecture in France and in Holland has facilitated, influenced and improved the organization and contents of the presentations on the subject of long-focus photographic astrometry."

Astrometry is on the threshold of great changes due to the fact that this decade, alone, is witnessing an improvement of stellar positions equivalent to the total improvement of the previous two centuries. The Hipparcos Satellite has concluded its observations, and the catalog is in preparation. Preliminary results assure that the Hipparcos catalog will provide positions, parallaxes and annual proper motions for over 100,000 stars with accuracies of 1.5 milliarcseconds. In addition, the Tycho catalog will provide positions of about 30 milliarcseconds accuracy for over 1 million stars, and annual proper motions with 3 milliarcsecond accuracy will subsequently be ob tained by means of first epoch positions from the Astrographic Catalog. Optical interferometers on the ground are beginning operation, and these instruments can provide observational accuracies of approximately one milliarcsecond. Also, the traditional reference frame based on the Fun damental Catalog of bright stars is being replaced by the extragalactic ref erence frame, based on radio sources with accuracies of one milliarcsecond. Thus, astrometry will change from a fundamental reference frame defined in terms of the dynamical reference frame of the solar system with accuracies of 100 milliarcseconds to a space-fixed, extragalactic reference frame with accuracies of one milliarcsecond. Future astrometric observations should be in the 1 -100 milliarcsecond accuracy range. There are a number of concepts for future astrometric instruments in space. Most of these can provide sub-milliarcsecond astrometric accuracies."

Radio techniques were the nrst to lead astronomy away from the quiescent and limited Universe revealed by traditional observations at optical wave lengths. In the earliest days of radio astronomy, a handful of radio physicists and engineers made one startling discovery after another as they opened up the radio sky. With this collection of classic papers and the extensive intro ductory material, the reader can experience these exciting discoveries, as well as understand the developing techniques and follow the motivations which prompted the various lines of inquiry. For instance he or she will follow in detail the several attempts to detect radio waves from the sun at the turn of the century; the unravelling by Jansky of a "steady hiss type static"; the incredible story of Reber who built a 9 meter dish in his backyard in 1937 and then mapped the Milky Way; the vital discoveries by Hey and colleagues of radio bursts from the Sun and of a discrete source in the constellation of Cygnus; the development of receivers and interferometry in the post-war years by the groups led by Ryle in Cambridge and Pawsey in Sydney; the nrst measurements and exciting identiftcations of Taurus A (the Crab Nebula), Centaurus A, Virgo A, Cassiopeia A, and Cygnus A, the last opening the neld of radio cosmology; the early development of synchroton theory; and the prediction and discovery seven years later of the 21 cm line of neutral hy drogen."

"Meteoric phenomena" is the accepted term for the complex of physi cal phenomena that accompany the entry of meteoric bodies into the at mosphere of the earth (or of any planet). "Meteoric bodies" are usually defined as cosmic bodies observed by optical or radar techniques, when they enter the atmosphere. The limiting sensitivity of present-day radar equipment makes it possible to record meteors of up to stellar magnitude +14, while the most brilliant bolides may reach magnitude -19. On a mass 7 7 scale this corresponds approximately to a range of 10- to 10 g. How ever, met or astronomy is also concerned with larger objects, namely crater-forming meteorites, or objects that cause large-scale destruction when they arrive through the atmosphere (an example is the Tunguska River meteorite). Consideration of the interaction of such objects with 12 the terrestrial atmosphere extends the mass range to 10 g. On the other hand, scientists studying fragmentation processes in meteoric bod 7 ies have to consider particles with masses less than 10- g, and the use of data from meteoric-particle counters on rockets and artificial satel lites, from microcraters on the lunar surface, and from noctilucent clouds 12 lowers the minimum mass to 10- g. Therefore, the mass range of meteoric bodies, or meteoroids, encompasses 24 orders of magnitude. Although recent years have witnessed considerable development in meteor research, both in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the main mono graphs on meteor physics were published twenty or more years ago."

This volume provides an overview of the field of Astrostatistics understood as the sub-discipline dedicated to the statistical analysis of astronomical data. It presents examples of the application of the various methodologies now available to current open issues in astronomical research. The technical aspects related to the scientific analysis of the upcoming petabyte-scale databases are emphasized given the importance that scalable Knowledge Discovery techniques will have for the full exploitation of these databases. Based on the 2011 Astrostatistics and Data Mining in Large Astronomical Databases conference and school, this volume gathers examples of the work by leading authors in the areas of Astrophysics and Statistics, including a significant contribution from the various teams that prepared for the processing and analysis of the Gaia data.

IAU Symposium 135 on Interstellar Dust was hosted and co-sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Center from July 26-30, 1988. The symposium was held at the lovely campus of Santa Clara University situated around the historic Santa Clara Mission in California. The meeting was made possible by generous grants from the Astron omy and Relativity Branch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Galactic Astronomy Program of the National Science Foundation. The International Astronomical Union provided travel grants to a few participants from countries with limited travel funds. We are particularly grateful for the support and services rendered by the dedicated staff at NASA's Ames Research Center and to the" SET! Institute for professionally and expeditiously administering the U.S. grants. This symposium brought together 199 scientists representing 19 different coun tries. The wide range of interest and expertise of the participants - all in some way related to interstellar dust - is reflected in the great variety of topics that were discussed during the symposium ranging from UV, visible and IR observations of interstellar extinction to quantum-statistical calculations of the IR emission from highly vibrationally excited molecules. During the course of the meeting, 41 invited review papers and 140 contributed papers were presented. This book is a collection of the invited review papers. The contributed papers have been published in a companion volume, NASA CP-3036, available from National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22161, USA.

th The 4 ESO CCO Workshop, Optical Detectors for Astronomy, was held during September 13-16, 1999 at its usual location, the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany. We prefer to remember this workshop as a "meeting of friends," who came to Garching to visit ESO and to present their work, rather than a formal meeting. Based on our experience with the 1996 ESO CCO workshop, we deliberately put emphasis on creating an environment that encouraged the participants to stay together and informally exchange ideas. These informal events began with a tour of the BWM auto factory and continued with a reception at "SchloB Beletic," the conference dinner at a real SchloB of the Bavarian International School (where the participants enjoyed basket, baseball, table soccer, rock climbing and eventually dancing) and concluded with a tour of the Paulaner Brewery and dinner at the Seehaus in the Englisher Garten. The lunch "Biergarten," adjacent to the poster session area, was a daily meeting point. The result was a good mixture of excellent presentations and posters, collected in these Proceedings, and many occasions for people to get in touch and to have fun together, as witnessed by the selection of workshop pictures that we randomly placed between papers. This book contains a special contribution.

These proceedings celebrate the achievements of the great astronomer Zdenek Kopal, and reflect the state of the art of the dynamically evolving field of binary research, which owes so much to Kopal's pioneering work.

IAU Transactions XXIIB summarizes the work of the XXIInd General Assembly. The discourses given during the Inaugural and Closing Ceremonies are reproduced in Chapters I and III, respectively. The proceedings of the two sessions of the General Assembly will be found in Chapter II, which includes the Resolutions and the report of the Finance Committee. The Statutes, Bye-Laws and a few working rules of the Union are published in Chapter IV. The Accounts and other aspects of the administration of the Union are recorded in Chapter V, together with the report of the Executive Committee for this last triennium, and provide the permanent record for the Union in the period 1991-1994. This volume also contains the Commission reports from The Hague compiled by the Presidents of the Commissions (Chapter VI). Finally, Chapter VII contains the list of countries adhering to the Union and the alphabetical, geographical and commission membership lists of about 8000 individual members. The IAU still appears to be unique among the scientific Unions in maintaining this category of individual membership which contributes in a crucial way to the spirit and the aims of the Union.

Ever wondered if the chemical processes taking place in space could be related to the origins of life? The authors of this book, both experienced astrochemists, embark on a discussion to find the answers to this question and more, and include a general introduction to astrochemistry for chemistry students. They explore chemistry occurring in the universe from its very early beginnings until the present era. Based on our current understanding, astrochemistry is known to occur in interstellar gas, on dust grains and in interstellar ices, in stellar atmospheres and envelopes, in dense star- and planet-forming regions, and on planets and other bodies in planetary systems. Recent observational discoveries supported by remarkable laboratory work emphasize chemical complexity, leading to answers to the tantalizing question: can this complexity be related to the origin of life? This book provides the tools to enable chemistry students to make their own computational investigations of astrochemistry and directs study across the chemical sciences and astronomy. Concentrating on fundamental processes, this book is a useful teaching aid.

The scope of the book is to give an overview of the history of astroparticle physics, starting with the discovery of cosmic rays (Victor Hess, 1912) and its background (X-ray, radioactivity).
The book focusses on the ways in which physics changes in the course of this history. The following changes run parallel, overlap, and/or interact:
- Discovery of effects like X-rays, radioactivity, cosmic rays, new particles but also progress through non-discoveries (monopoles) etc.
- The change of the description of nature in physics, as consequence of new theoretical questions at the beginning of the 20th century, giving rise to quantum physics, relativity, etc.
- The change of experimental methods, cooperations, disciplinary divisions.
With regard to the latter change, a main topic of the book is to make the specific multi-diciplinary features of astroparticle physics clear."

Many new tests of gravity and, in particular, of Einstein's general relativity theory will be carried out in the near future: The Lense--Thirring effect and the equivalence principle will be tested in space; moreover, gravitational waves will be detected, and new atomic interferometers and clocks will be built for measurements in gravitational and inertial fields. New high-precision devices have made these experiments feasible. They will contribute to a better understanding of gravitational physics. Both experimental developments and the theoretical concepts are collected in this volume. Exhaustive reviews give an overall insight into the subject of experimental gravitation.

IAU Transactions are published as a volume corresponding to each General Assembly. Volume A is produced prior to the Assembly and contains Reports on Astronomy, prepared by each Commission President. The intention is to summarize the astronomical results that have affected the work of the Commission since the production of the previous Reports up to a time which is about one year prior to the General Assembly. Volume B is produced after the Assembly and contains accounts of Commission Meetings which were held, together with other material. The reports included in the present volume range from outline summaries to lengthy compilations and references. Most reports are in English.

Written by active research scientists who study the volcanism of Earth and of other planets, the contributions provide the first general review of volcanic activity throughout the Solar System. Successive chapters describe past and present volcanic activity as it is observed throughout the Solar System. These chapters relate to readers not only our present knowledge of volcanism throughout the Solar System but also how frontline scientists working in this field conduct their research.

Quantum physics may appear complicated, especially if one forgets the "big picture" and gets lost in the details. However, it can become clearer and less tangled if one applies a few fundamental concepts so that simplified approaches can emerge and estimated orders of magnitude become clear. Povh and Rosina's Scattering and Structures presents the properties of quantum systems (elementary particles, nucleons, atoms, molecules, quantum gases, quantum liquids, stars, and early universe) with the help of elementary concepts and analogies between these seemingly different systems. In this new edition, sections on quantum gases and an up to date overview of elementary particles have been added.