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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time
The field of Order and Chaos had a remarkable expansion in the last 50 years. The main reason was the use of computers, and the development of new theoretical methods that we call now 'the theory of chaos'. The author describes this fascinating period in a relaxed and sometimes humorous autobiographical way. He relates his interactions with many people in dynamical astronomy and he quotes several anecdotes from these interactions. He refers also to his experiences when he served in various international positions, such as general secretary of the IAU and chairman of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. In recent years the theory of chaos has been extended to new areas, like relativity, cosmology and quantum mechanics and it continues expanding in almost all branches of physics. The book describes many important ideas in this field in a simple way. It refers also to problems of more general interest, like writing papers and giving lectures and the interaction of authors and referees. Finally it gives some useful prospects for the future of dynamical astronomy and related fields. George Contopoulos, PhD U.Athens1953; Professor of Astronomy U.Thessaloniki 1957-75; U.Athens 1975-96; Emeritus 1996-; Member, Academy of Athens 1997-. Visiting Professor Yale U., Harvard U., MIT, Cornell U., U.Chicago, U.Maryland, U. Florida, Florida State U., U. Milan; Res. Associate, Yerkes Obs., Inst.Adv.Study Princeton, Inst.Space Studies, Goddard Flight Center, Columbia U., ESO. Author or Editor of 15 books, and about 250 papers on Galactic Dynamics, Relativity and Celestial Mechanics. Positions held: Gen.Secretary of the IAU; Director General Nat.Obs.of Greece, Pres.Hellenic Astron.Soc.;Nat.Representative of Greece in NATO, etc. Distinctions: Amer. Astron.Soc. Brouwer Prize; U.Chicago, Honorary Doctor's Degree; IAU, Pres. Commission 33 (Galaxy); Member Academia Europaea; Associate Royal Astron. Soc.; Chairman of the European Journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics"; Assoc. Editor of "Cel. Mech. Dyn. Astron."; Over 4500 citations and 300 acknowledgements.
A wealth of new experimental and theoretical results has been obtained in solar physics since the first edition of this textbook appeared in 1989. Thus all nine chapters have been thoroughly revised, and about 100 pages and many new illustrations have been added to the text. The additions include element diffusion in the solar interior, the recent neutrino experiments, methods of image restoration, observational devices used for spectroscopy and polarimetry, and new developments in helioseismology and numerical simulation. The book takes particular advantage of the results of several recent space missions, which lead to substantial progress in our understanding of the Sun, from the deep interior to the corona and solar wind.
XMM satellites were also presented. Concerning extra-galactic cartography, res- ults from the local universe were discussed, like the distribution of super-clusters, and methods to be used with the VLT and the Planck and Hersehe! (ESA, 2007) satellites. The latest results from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey were also debated. The Organization of this workshop is indebted to the colleagues of the Local Organizing Comittee for the help and good humour provided before, during and after the workshop. Special thanks are due to Carlos Martins for the great help and effort provided in the critical moments. We acknowledge the financial support from FCT/Portugal under POCTI Pro- gram from Quadro Comunitario de Apoio III that also made possible the public- ation of these Proceedings and to Sociedade Portuguesa de Astronomia without which the organization of this workshop would not be possible. Guest Editors LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Barbosa, Domingos (barbosa@supernova. ist. utl. pt) CENTRA-Instituto Superior Tecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Por- tugal Bartlett, James G. (bartlett@cdf. in2p3. fr) APC-PCC/ College de France, 11 pl. Marrelin -Berthelot, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France Blanchard, Alain (alain. blanchar@astro. obs-mip. fr) Observatoire Astronomique, Midi-Pyrenees, 14 Avenue Ed. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France Blinnikov, Sergey (sergei. blinnikov@i tep. ru) Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, B. Cheremushk 25, 117218, Moscow, Russia Bouchet, Fran
This volume contains a comprehensive treatment of X-ray spectroscopy, as applied in astrophysics. It is presented in the form of extensive notes of lectures given by seven distinguished scientists at the Tenth Summer School of the European Astrophysics Doctoral Network. The subjects covered are: basic line and continuum radiation processes in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy; atomic physics of collision- and radiation-dominated plasmas; X-ray spectroscopic observations with ASCA and BeppoSAX; future X-ray spectroscopy missions; X-ray optics, and X-ray spectroscopy instrumentation. The book, which will appeal to both researchers and graduate students, is timely in view of the scheduled launches of the big X-ray observatories AXAF and XMM in 1999.
This text treats our knowledge of the solar system from an astrophysical point of view. Part 1 deals with the formation of the solar system and its interaction with the interplanetary medium. Part 2 presents its various objects: planets and satellites, asteroids, comets, trans-neptunian objects and interplanetary dust. The final sections on extrasolar planetary systems and on the search for life in the Universe round off an introduction to a field that has grown dramatically following the space missions of the last twenty years. Over the last decade many exciting observations have helped to reshape our understanding of the solar system and planetary science. In the third corrected and revised edition of this classic on the astrophysics of our solar system, students and lecturers in astronomy and planetary science as well as planet observers will find a mine of up-to-date information.
This book is the result of a meeting held in August, 1986 in Irsee, West Germany. As the title suggests, the aim of the meeting was to discuss physical processes in interstellar clouds, determine the current status, aims and future direction of the research in this area. Interstellar clouds contain nearly all the mass of diffuse gas in our galaxy, some 10% of the total galactic mass. They represent the birth site for stars and the final "dumping ground" for matter ejected from stars (winds, ex plosive ejecta) and thus play an integral part in the galactic recycling of material. Not only are the clouds important for the structure and evolution of our galaxy, they are also interesting objects of study "per se." Because of their vast scales (up to about 100 parsec), extreme temperatures (as low as about lOOK), and long life 8 times (estimated a about 10 years) a number of physical and chemical processes occur in these environments, which we are not able to study elesewhere, certainly not in laboratories. It is for this reason that the meeting, and hence this book, was organized in such a way that firstly the latest observational results were sum m ized, going from the global, large scales, to finer details and dynamics, then progressing onwards to the processes -dynamical, chemical, electromagnetic, etc."
This book presents the basics and advanced topics of research of gamma ray physics. It describes measuring of Fermi surfaces with gamma resonance spectroscopy and the theory of angular distributions of resonantly scattered gamma rays. The dependence of excited-nuclei average lifetime on the shape of the exciting-radiation spectrum and electron binding energies in the spectra of scattered gamma rays is described. Resonant excitation by gamma rays of nuclear isomeric states with long lifetime leads to the emission and absorption lines. In the book, a new gamma spectroscopic method, gravitational gamma spectrometry, is developed. It has a resolution hundred million times higher than the usual Moessbauer spectrometer. Another important topic of this book is resonant scattering of annihilation quanta by nuclei with excited states in connection with positron annihilation. The application of the methods described is to explain the phenomenon of Coulomb fragmentation of gamma-source molecules and resonant scattering of annihilation quanta to study the shape of Fermi surfaces of metals.
Der bekannte Astronom Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916) gilt als der Begr}nder der Astrophysik und als hervorragender Forscher mit einer erstaunlichen Bandbreite seiner Interessen. Arbeiten zur Himmelsmechanik, Elektrodynamik und Relativit{tstheorie weisen ihn als vorz}glichen Mathematiker und Physiker seiner Zeit aus. Untersuchungen zur Photographischen Photometrie, Optik und Spektroskopie zeigen den versierten Beobachter, der sein Me instrument beherrscht. Schlie lich arbeitete Schwarzschild als Astrophysiker und an Sternatmosph{ren, Kometen, Struktur und Dynamikvon Sternsystemen. Die in seinem kurzen Leben entstandene F}lle von wissenschafltichen Arbeiten ist in drei B{nden der Gesamtausgabe gesammelt, erg{nzt durch biographisches Material und ein Essay des Nobelpreistr{gers S. Chandrasekhar und Annotationen von Fachleuten in jedem der drei B{nde.
The Symposium on which the present book is based focused on out-of-ecliptic results obtained by the highly successful Ulysses mission prior to the start of its first polar pass. Topics addressed include the solar corona, the large-scale structure of the solar wind and heliosphere, energetic particles and cosmic rays, and interstellar gas and cosmic dust. The papers published here provide an up-to-date account of our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the heliosphere near solar minimum. Particular emphasis is placed on in-situ measurements made by Ulysses covering the range of solar latitudes from the Equator to 50 degrees South.
This collection of papers will address the question "What is the Magnetospheric Cusp?" and what is its role in the coupling of the solar wind to the magnetosphere as well as its role in the processes of particle transport and energization within the magnetosphere. The cusps have traditionally been described as narrow funnel-shaped regions that provide a focus of the Chapman-Ferraro currents that flow on the magnetopause, a boundary between the cavity dominated by the geomagnetic field (i.e., the magnetosphere) and the external region of the interplanetary medium. Measurements from a number of recent satellite programs have shown that the cusp is not confined to a narrow region near local noon but appears to encompass a large portion of the dayside high-latitude magnetosphere. It appears that the cusp is a major source region for the production of energetic charged particles for the magnetosphere. This book will be of great interest to scientists in Space Physics as well as to those working in research organizations in governments and industries, university departments of physics, astronomy, space physics, and geophysics. Part of this book has already been published in a journal.
The reader has been introduced to a number of topics, taken from Toka- mak research, in order to trace the the development of applications of spec- troscopy in controlled fusion research over the last 35 years, from the early toroidal devices like ZETA to present-day Tokamaks. The subject of plasma spectroscopy has grown in sophistication in terms of the expansion of the atomic processes which have to be considered and their associated data base, the complexity of the experimental techniques and the wide range of diag- nostic applications. Plasma spectroscopy has increased our appreciation of the subtle role of impurities in determining much of the plasma behaviour. Control of impurities, by techniques such as wall conditioning, magnetic divertors, pellet or atomic beam injection and radiation mantles, offers a wealth of future investigations. Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge the help and inspiration he has derived from his students past and present in writing this article. In particular he is indebted toM O'Mullane for his technical help in preparing the manuscript and whose research work is featured in the sections on MARFEs and ion transport. References Abbey, A. F., Barnsley, R., Dunn, J., Lea, S. N. and Peacock, N.J.: 1993, UVand X-ray Spectroscopy of Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. (editors, E Silver and S. Khan) Cambridge University Press, 493. Afrosimov, V. V., Gordeev, Y.S. et al.: 1979, J.E. T.P. Lett. 28, 501. Alper, B.: 1995, p.r.ivate communication, JET.
Describes the instruments and initial results of the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. This collection of papers describes the instrument and initial results obtained from the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS), one of the post-focus instruments of the 1.6 meter New Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. The FISS primarily aims at investigating structures and dynamics of chromospheric features. This instrument is a dual-band Echelle spectrograph optimized for the simultaneous recording of the H I 656.3 nm band and the Ca II 854.2 nm band. The imaging is done with the fast raster scan realized by the linear motion of a two-mirror scanner, and its quality is determined by the performance of the adaptive optics of the telescope. These papers illustrate the capability of the early FISS observations in the study of chromospheric features. Since the imaging quality has been improved a lot with the advance of the adaptive optics, one can obtain much better data with the current FISS observations. This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers working in the field of solar physics and space sciences. Originally published in Solar Physics, Vol. 288, Issue 1, 2013, and Vol. 289, Issue 11, 2014.
The general discussions of the roles of photometric and spectroscopic classification at Cordoba in 1971 (lAU Symposium No. 50), and of the calibration of classification indices at Geneva in 1972 (IAU Symposium No. 54), revealed clearly the steadily in creasing importance of abundance parameters. The multipliCity of these, however, raised so many new problems that it was logical that the 1975 meeting at Lausanne should be concerned with ways in which differences in abundance affect both spectral types and photometric indices. Commissions 29 and 36 joined with Commission 45 in sponsoring this Symposium. Since the date of the meeting came shortly after the formal retirement of Professor William W. Morgan from the University of Chicago, it was quickly agreed that this meeting should be dedicated to him in recognition of his unique contributions to spectral classification. In the opening paper of the Symposium Dr. Bengt Stromgren has summarized these. To his remarks we should add only that it was about 1940 that Morgan first distinguished the group of G- and K-type stars with weak CN bands and metallic lines - stars which have since been recognized as having the abundance of all metals relative to hydrogen much lower than in stars of the solar population. Spectra of two of these, HD 81192 (Boss 2527) and 8 Lep, were later shown as examples of the group in the Yerkes Atlas of 1943."
Supernovae are among the most energetic phenomena in the Universe and - lated to almost all aspects of modern astrophysics including starburst gal- ies, cosmic ray acceleration, neutron star and black hole formation, nuc- osynthesis and ISM chemical enrichment, energy input to the ISM, cosmic distance scale determination, dark energy related cosmological acceleration, gamma-ray bursts, extra-solar system neutrino burst detection, gravity wave generation, and many more. Additionally, the past 15 years have been p- ticularly productive with many new results and new understanding due in particular to the closest SN in 400 years in SN 1987A in the Large M- ellanic Cloud, and the unusually bright and close SN 1993J and SN 1994I in the nearby galaxies M81 and M51, respectively. In addition, the disc- ery of the ?-ray burst GRB 980425 and its related supernova SN 1998bw, and the con?rmation of GRB 030329/SN 2003dh, tied the study of SNe and GRBs inextricably together. With the many developments since the last - jor supernova meeting in La Serena, Chile in 1997, we felt that it was an appropriate time to bring together experts and students interested in the subject for a meeting where SN and GRB properties and interrelationships could be discussed. The tenth anniversary of SN 1993J provided such an - portunity and, appropriately, the meeting was held in Spain where SN 1993J was discovered on the early morning of 28 March 1993 by a Spanish amateur astronomer, Francisco Garc ?a.
[the text below needs editing and we must be careful not to say things about Dan Brown's book that could get Springer in legal trouble] Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003; its sales have reached 40 million worldwide. The book mixes a small spice of fact into a large dollop of fiction to create an entertaining novel of intrigue, adventure, romance, danger and conspiracy, which have been imaginatively worked together to cook up the successful bestseller. Most interest in the book's origins has centred on the sensational religious aspects. Dan Brown has written: 'All of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact.' This gives an air of authenticity to the book. Brown has, however, made up the religious doctrines, or based them on questionable accounts by others. The locations of the actions of The Da Vinci Code are not, however, made up. The present book is the scientific story behind the scene of several of the book's actions that take place on the axis of France that passes through Paris. The Paris Meridian is the name of this location. It is the line running north-south through the astronomical observatory in Paris. One of the original intentions behind the founding of the Paris Observatory was to determine and measure this line. The French government financed the Paris Academy of Sciences to do so in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. It employed both astronomers - people who study and measure the stars - and geodesists - people who study and measure the Earth. This book is about what they did and why. It is a true story behind Dan Brown's fiction. This is the first English language presentation of this historical material. It is attractively written and it features the story of the community of scientists who created the Paris Meridian. They knew each other well - some were members of the same families, in one case of four generations. Like scientists everywhere they collaborated and formed alliances; they also split into warring factions and squabbled. They travelled to foreign countries, somehow transcending the national and political disputes, as scientists do now, their eyes fixed on ideas of accuracy, truth and objective, enduring values - save where the reception given to their own work is concerned, when some became blind to high ideals and descended into petty politics. To establish the Paris Meridian, the scientists endured hardship, survived danger and gloried in amazing adventures during a time of turmoil in Europe, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War between France and Spain. Some were accused of witchcraft. Some of their associates lost their heads on the guillotine. Some died of disease. Some won honour and fame. One became the Head of State in France, albeit for no more than a few weeks. Some found dangerous love in foreign countries. One scientist killed in self defence when attacked by a jealous lover, another was himself killed by a jealous lover, a third brought back a woman to France and then jilted her, whereupon she joined a convent. The scientists worked on practical problems of interest to the government and to the people. They also worked on one of the important intellectual problems of the time, a problem of great interest to their fellow scientists all over the world, nothing less than the theory of universal gravitation. They succeeded in their intellectual work, while touching politics and the affairs of state. Their endeavours have left their marks on the landscape, in art and in literature.
Fast particles of natural or1g1n (cosmic rays) have been used for a long time as an important source of astrophysical and geophysical information. A study of cosmic ray spectra, time variations, abundances, gradients, and anisotropy provides a wealth of data on physical conditions in the regions of cosmic ray generation as well as in the media through which cosmic rays propagate. Astrophysical aspects of cosmic ray physics have been considered in a number of monograpqs. The most detailed seems to be "The Origin of Cosmic Rays" by V. L. Ginzburg and S. 1. Syrovatskij (1964) which is, however, concerned mainly with galactic cosmic rays. The physics of the circumsolar space is discussed in this book only rather briefly. Several other monographs have been devoted mostly to the physics of the interplanetary medium and cosmic rays in interplanetary space. These include the books by Dorman (1963, 1975a, b), Parker (1963), Dorman and Miroshnichenko (1968). The present monograph differs from the above mentioned books in two main aspects: (i) It presents a unified theoretical approach to analys{ng the properties of fast particles in interplanetary space, based upon consideration of cosmic rays as a highly energetic component of the interplane ary plasma, which makes use of the plasma physics methods to describe the behaviour of cosmic rays.
Proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 76 held at Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA, 6-10 June 1977
A small country builds a world-class telescope in its backyard and lives happily ever after (or at least for a quarter century). That in a nutshell is the story told in this collection of essays. The country of course is the Netherlands, and the telescope is the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Tele scope (WSRT), brainchild of Jan Oort. Living happily in this context is a continuing record of discovery and as such also a continuing basis for se curing observing time on facilities in other countries and operating at other frequencies. As our community celebrates the Silver Anniversary of the radio tele scope at Westerbork, it is fitting that we pause to take account of the scientific discoveries and insights it made possible. Initially the instrument represented the very significant step away from university-run, specialist facilities to a well-supported, common-user radio imager also having spec tral and polarization capabilities. It pioneered the mode of operation now common for satellite observatories, in which data is taken and calibrated by technicians and provided to researchers ready for analysis. It has been a major source of discovery in, among other areas, research on neutral hy drogen and studies of dark matter in galaxies.
Starbursts are important features of early galaxy evolution. Many of the distant, high-redshift galaxies we are able to detect are in a starbursting phase, often apparently provoked by a violent gravitational interaction with another galaxy. In fact, if we did not know that major starbursts existed, these conference proceedings testify that we would indeed have difficulties explaining the key properties of the Universe! These conference proceedings cover starbursts from the small-scale star-forming regions in nearby galaxies to galaxy-wide events at high redshifts; one of the major themes of the conference proved to be "scalability," i.e., can we scale up the small-scale events to describe the physics on larger scales. The key outcome of this meeting a" and these proceedings a" is a resounding "yes" as answer to this fundamental, yet profound question. The enhanced synergy facilitated by the collaboration among observers using cutting-edge ground and space-based facilities, theorists and modellers has made these proceedings into a true reflection of the state of the art in this very rapidly evolving field. Ample space is provided for summaries of the large number of talks by experts in the field, while the high-quality poster contributions are all contained on the accompanying CD-ROM, thus enhancing the information content.
Since the first rocket-technology experiments of the early 20th century, space exploration has captivated the world. Recent advances and setbacks have included the new discoveries from the Galileo mission, the Mars Global Surveyor's revelation that water once existed on the Red Planet, the International Space Station, the advent of space tourism, and the devastating Space Shuttle disasters. This one-stop guide to space exploration provides a wealth of information for student researchers. A substantial 'Chronology of Events' and a narrative history outline the key events and people in the progression of space research and activity. Five topical essays--including a look at the Space Shuttle--examine several significant issues related to the politics and technology of space exploration from an international perspective. These chapters elucidate several sets of documents that give shape and substance to the larger story. Primary documents in this volume are organized by theme and represent the variety of materials available to anyone seeking a better understanding of the rise of space exploration. Also included are biographical sketches of key people associated with space flight, a listing of the human space flight missions undertaken since 1961, and an annotated bibliography of additional reading.
These proceedings summarize our present knowledge on astronomical molecules, highlight major problems to be addressed, and finally propose future work. Their theoretical understanding involves physics, numerical simulations and chemistry.
This is a book about real time in economics, a dimension increasingly unused by the edge of the profession. This, it is argued, has serious implications for economics' role as the premier policy-advising source for national governments and international organizations. It is also a book about the great waves of economic change that economists have failed even to identify, let alone analyze. This failure has created an intellectual vacuum that natural scientists are now only attempting to fill. It is a book, therefore, that challenges economics to put its house in order before it is engulfed by this rising tide. But, the question is, will economics have time? By the author of "Depression and Recovery: Western Australia 1929-1939", "Exploring Southeast Asia's Economic Past" and "Domesday Economy: A New Approach to Anglo-Norman History".
Der bekannte Astronom Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916) gilt als der Begrunder der Astrophysik und als hervorragender Forscher mit einer erstaunlichen Bandbreite seiner Interessen. Arbeiten zur Himmelsmechanik, Elektrodynamik und Relativitatstheorie weisen ihn als vorzuglichen Mathematiker und Physiker auf der Hohe seiner Zeit aus. Untersuchungen zur Photographischen Photometrie, Optik und Spektroskopie zeigen den versierten Beobachter, der sein Messinstrumentarium beherrscht, und schliesslich arbeitete Schwarzschild als Astrophysiker an Sternatmospharen, Kometen, Struktur und Dynamik von Sternsystemen. Die in seinem kurzen Leben entstandene Fulle an wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten ist in drei Banden der Gesamtausgabe gesammelt, erganzt durch biographisches Material, Annotationen von Fachleuten und einen Essay des Nobelpreistragers S. Chandrasekhar." |
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