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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time
Approaching the settlement of our Moon from a practical perspective, this book is well suited for space program planners. It addresses a variety of human factor topics involved in colonizing Earth's Moon, including: history, philosophy, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, politics & policy, sociology, and anthropology. Each chapter identifies the complex, interdisciplinary issues of the human factor that arise in the early phases of settlement on the Moon. Besides practical issues, there is some emphasis placed on preserving, protecting, and experiencing the lunar environment across a broad range of occupations, from scientists to soldiers and engineers to construction workers. The book identifies utilitarian and visionary factors that shape human lives on the Moon. It offers recommendations for program planners in the government and commercial sectors and serves as a helpful resource for academic researchers. Together, the coauthors ask and attempt to answer: "How will lunar society be different?"
One of the questions about which humanity has often wondered is the arrow of time. Why does temporal evolution seem irreversible? That is, we often see objects break into pieces, but we never see them reconstitute spontaneously. This observation was first put into scientific terms by the so-called second law of thermodynamics: entropy never decreases. However, this law does not explain the origin of irreversibly; it only quantifies it. Kinetic theory gives a consistent explanation of irreversibility based on a statistical description of the motion of electrons, atoms, and molecules. The concepts of kinetic theory have been applied to innumerable situations including electronics, the production of particles in the early universe, the dynamics of astrophysical plasmas, quantum gases or the motion of small microorganisms in water, with excellent quantitative agreement. This book presents the fundamentals of kinetic theory, considering classical paradigmatic examples as well as modern applications. It covers the most important systems where kinetic theory is applied, explaining their major features. The text is balanced between exploring the fundamental concepts of kinetic theory (irreversibility, transport processes, separation of time scales, conservations, coarse graining, distribution functions, etc.) and the results and predictions of the theory, where the relevant properties of different systems are computed.
The full story of how our relationship with light shapes our health, productivity and mood. 'A sparkling and illuminating study, one of those rare books that could genuinely improve your life' Sunday Times Since the dawn of time, humans have worshipped the sun. And with good reason. Our biology is set up to work in partnership with it. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. New research suggests that our sun exposure over a lifetime - even before we were born - may shape our risk of developing a range of different illnesses, from depression to diabetes. Bursting with cutting-edge science and eye-opening advice, Chasing the Sun explores the extraordinary significance of sunlight, from ancient solstice celebrations to modern sleep labs, and from the unexpected health benefits of sun exposure to what the Amish know about sleep that the rest of us don't. As more of us move into light-polluted cities, spending our days in dim offices and our evenings watching brightly lit screens, we are in danger of losing something vital: our connection to the star that gave us life. It's a loss that could have far-reaching consequences that we're only just beginning to grasp.
This multiauthor book is a compilation of fourteen papers that result from activities within the scientific programme "Response of the Earth System to Impact Processes" (IMPACT) of the European Science Foundation. The program deals with all aspects of meteorite impact research and operates through workshops, exchange programs and short courses. Most of the papers are initiated from the 4th IMPACT workshop "Meteorite Impacts in Precambrian Shields" that took place in Lappajärvi, Finland, in 2000. The volume begins with a detailed view of thirty confirmed meteorite impact structures found in the Fennoscandian Shield and its nearest surroundings. The following papers describe impact structures in different areas.
Stellar pulsations provide a complex system in stars. This complexity is studied by analyzing the non-sinusoidal, semi-regular, or irregular light curves. This unique volume summarizes the application of recent theoretical results obtained from stellar pulsation studies. In addition, the latest developments in hydrodynamic simulations are discussed. A historical sketch of the study of beat Cepheids, first known for their variable amplitudes, is given as an introduction to the book. This introduction clearly demonstrates how complicated the study of variable stars can be, and therefore challenges and invites the reader to study the entire book.
Attilio Ferrari I want to recall here the basic points I raised at the beginning of the Workshop as the main targets of discussion (in the name of the Scientific Committee). I attempted to focus the attention of participants on the fact that, in many instances, we tend to discuss jets in terms of simple physics, more or less as one did at the time extragalactic radio sources were discovered: for instance, we still use equipartition arguments. However, we must realize that processes in jets, leading to their morphologies and energetics clearly depend on complex plasma phenomena. Therefore, the same standard arguments used to derive characteristic parameters should be questioned; some of the speakers were invited to attempt a critical analysis of this point, an~ in fact I believe that this "inquisitive attitude" was actually present all along the Workshop. Observers were asked to choose the parameters to be used in a statistical sample of jets. For this they were urged, first of all, to distinguish between primary and secondary features. For instance, are knots and wiggles common to all jets? Are relativistic flow velocities expected in all active nuclei? Are jets denser or lighter than the external medium? On the theoretical side I asked to discuss whether or not existing models are in accordance with the limited statistical sample that we have today. And which should be the lines of development to be pursued first, and to what extent.
This peer-reviewed book provides detailed insights into how space and its applications are, and can be used to support the development of the full range and diversity of African societies, as encapsulated in the African Union's Agenda 2063. Following on from Part 1 and 2, which were highly acclaimed by the space community, it focuses on the role of space in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, but covers an even more extensive array of relevant and timely topics addressing all facets of African development. It demonstrates that, while there have been significant achievements in recent years in terms of economic and social development, which have lifted many of Africa's people out of poverty, there is still a great deal that needs to be done to fulfill the basic needs of Africa's citizens and afford them the dignity they deserve. To this end, space is already being employed in diverse fields of human endeavor to serve Africa's goals for its future, but there is much room for further incorporation of space systems and data. Providing a comprehensive overview of the role space is playing in helping Africa achieve its developmental aspirations, the book will appeal to both students and professionals in fields such as space studies, international relations, governance, and social and rural development.
In summary, we can conclude that the contributions of the different ionization processes to the total ionization rate for the most abundant interstellar species are basically known. The ionization of the noble gases He and Ne is almost completely dominated by photoionization, whereas for H charge-exchange with the solar wind is most important. For other species, such as 0 and Ar, both processes contribute significantly. Electron impact ionization can typically contribute by '" 10% to the total rate in the inner Solar System. Because direct measurements of the solar EUV flux are not yet continuously available, the variation of the ionization rate over the solar cycle still contains a relatively large uncertainty. The recent measurements of pickup ion distributions and of the neutral helium gas provide an independent tool to determine the total ionization rate that can be used to cross calibrate with the results obtained for the individual ionization processes. Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to M. Allen for supplying us with new data on photoioniza tion cross-sections compiled by him. We thank also M. Gruntman for drawing our attention to and support in collecting the most recent data on charge-exchange cross-sections. D. R. was supported by grant No. 2 P03C. 004. 09 from the Com mittee for Scientific Research (Poland). This work was also supported in part through NASA contract NAS7-918, NSF Grant INT-911637, NASA Grant NAGW- 2579.
Recombination lines at radio wavelengths have been - and still are - a pow erful tool for modern astronomy. For more than thirty years they have allowed astronomers to probe the gases from which stars form. They have even been detected in the Sun. In addition, observations of these spectral lines facilitate basic research into the atom, in forms and environments that can only exist in the huge dimensions and extreme conditions of cosmic laboratories. We intend this book to serve as a tourist's guide to the world of Radio Recombination Lines. It contains three divisions: a history of their discovery, the physics of how they form and how their voyage to us influences their spectral profiles, and a description of their many astronomical contributions to date. The appendix includes supplementary calculations that may be useful to some astronomers. This material also includes tables of line frequencies from 12 MHz to 30THz (AlOJLm) as well as FORTRAN computer code to calculate the fine structure components of the lines, to evaluate radial matrix integrals, and to calculate the departure coefficients of hydrogen in a cosmic environment. It also describes how to convert observational to astrophysical units. The text includes extensive references to the literature to assist readers who want more details."
This book contains lectures presented in the symposium on "wave Instabili ties in S: pace Plasmas" organized wi thin the progrem of .t.y . XIX URSI General Assembly held in Helsinki, Finland, during tJ: l
Three eminent scientists, each well known for the clarity of their writing, present for students and researchers what is known about the internal structure, origin and evolution of White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars and Black Holes, all objects at the final stage of stellar evolution. They cover fascinating topics such as pulsation of white dwarfs, millisecond pulsars or the dynamics around black holes. The book is written for graduate students in astrophysics, but is also of interest to professional astronomers and physicists.
With over 150,000 copies sold since its first publication, this is one of the most popular astronomy books of all time. This unique guidebook to the night sky shows you how to observe a host of celestial wonders. Its distinct format of object-by-object spreads illustrates how deep-sky objects and planets actually look through a small telescope, while its large pages and spiral binding allow for use outside. Along with updated star names and astronomical information, this new edition provides links to a dedicated webpage with up-to-date tables and images, and an improved planets chapter. The many Dobsonian-friendly images and small telescope views have been revised to account for changes in modern telescope technology, such as larger field of view eyepieces. With dedicated chapters on Northern and Southern Hemisphere objects, it's never been easier to explore the night sky, wherever you are. Additional resources are available on the accompanying website: www.cambridge.org/turnleft.
The Symposium 'Meteorite Research' was conceived originally at the second meeting of the UNESCO Working Group on Meteorites, held in Paris October 18-20, 1965, under the chairmanship of Professor J. Orce ' In addition to the Chairman the fol lowing were present: Dr. G. Harbottle, Dr. M. H. Hey, Dr. B. H. Mason, Dr. P. M. Millman, Professor K. I. Sztr6kay. Dr. E. M. Fournier d'Albe represented the UNESCO Secretariat. Recommendation No.4 from the minutes of this meeting reads as follows: "The Working Group, in view ofthe need to strengthen international co-operation in meteorite research, asks that the International Atomic Energy Agency be requested to consider the possibility of organizing, in 1968, an interdisciplinary conference on meteorites, in collaboration with UNESCO and the appropriate international scientific organizations." After approval in principle of this recommendation had been secured from various international agencies and unions, plans for the symposium were consolidated at the third and final meeting of the Working Group, held in Paris October 12-14, 1966, the members in attendance being the same as for the second meeting."
This book gives an in-depth analysis of the physical phenomena of thrust production by laser radiation, as well as laser propulsion engines, and laser-propelled vehicles. It brings together into a unified context accumulated up-to-date information on laser propulsion research, considering propulsion phenomena, laser propulsion techniques, design of vehicles with laser propulsion engines, and high-power laser systems to provide movement for space vehicles. In particular, the reader will find detailed coverage of: designs of laser propulsion engines, operating as both air-breathing and ramjet engines to launch vehicles into LEOs; Assembly of vehicles whereby laser power from a remote laser is collected and directed into a propulsion engine; and, the laser-adaptive systems that control a laser beam to propel vehicles into orbits by delivering laser power through the Earth's atmosphere. This book is essential reading for researchers and professionals involved in laser propulsion.
In the last few years great improvements in the study of stellar jets and bipolar outflows have been achieved, both observationally and theoretically. High resolution observations at various frequencies (radio, IR, optical and X-ray) of these features in different types of objects have shown a large variety of morphologies at all scales often revealing contrasting symmetries which do not allow straightforward kinematic interpretations valid for all cases. In particular, at present, it seems very difficult to give a statistical definition of what the "standard properties" of jets and bipolar outflows are. On the theoretical side, the identification of physical processes capable of producing the observed rich morphological variety of jets and bipolar outflows and supporting them over long lifetimes is still controversial. Furthermore several models are actively discussed in an attempt of reaching a complete understanding of the phenomenon. The workshop provided an unique opportunity for both observers and theoreticians to gather together and produce an updated and exhaustive picture of the field. In addition the meeting has been enriched by the presentation of some works on jets in external galaxies. This topic was focused on what people working on stellar jets could learn from colleagues working on extragalactic jets and vice versa. Invited papers were prepared with the aim of giving the state of the art about scientific subjects; contributed papers and some selected poster papers presented, on the contrary, very recent results in the various fields.
Habent sua Jata colloquia. The present volume has its ongms in a spring 1984 international workshop held, under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, by The Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas of Tel-Aviv University in cooperation with The Van Leer Jerusalem Foundation. It contains twelve of the twenty papers presented at the workshop by the twenty-six participants. As Proceedings of conferences go, it is a good representative of the genre, sharing in the main characteristics of its ilk. It may even be one of the rare instances of a book of Proceed ings whose descriptive title applies equally well to the workshop's topic and to the interrelations between. the various papers it includes. Tension and Accommodation are the key words. Thus, while John Glucker's paper, 'Images of Plato in Late Antiqu ity, ' raises, by means of the Platonic example, the problem of interpreta tion of ancient texts, suggesting the assignment of proper weight to the creator of the tradition and not only to his many later interpreters in assessing the proper relationship between originator and commentators, Abraham Wasserstein's 'Hunches that did not come off: Some Prob lems in Greek Science' illustrates the long-lived Whiggish tradition in the history of science and mathematics. As those familiar with my work will undoubtedly note, Wasserstein's position is far removed from my stance on ancient Greek mathematics."
With full color illustrations. This TR is actually a textbook on atmospheric entry for several classes at AFIT. It teaches from an analytical perspective, with finding closed-form solutions being the preferred approach. The over-arching goal is to instill and understand how families of solutions behave as well as the general trends, trade-offs, and the nature of atmospheric entry before picking point designs to study in detail. By thoroughly understanding the classic analytic analyses first, we can better use the computer to solve the hard problems. The book's approach is to use easily visualized variables to solve the analytical problems first and keep them (more-or-less) consistent as we move to the computer. This is a back to the basics approach for a new generation of students who've become more comfortable with numerical solutions than analytical ones. The pages are loaded with equations because the details of many of the derivations are included. This book pulls together many classical analyses and presents them in a consistent notation for the first time. It provides a convenient starting point for an analytical understanding of atmospheric entry, with plenty of references to those original works. It ties together results that were originally published years apart by different authors. And, peppered throughout, you'll find some new approaches and results.
Prior to the 1920s it was generally thought, with a few exceptions, that our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the entire Universe. Based on the work of Henrietta Leavitt with Cepheid variables, astronomer Edwin Hubble was able to determine that the Andromeda Galaxy and others had to lie outside our own. Moreover, based on the work of Vesto Slipher, involving the redshifts of these galaxies, Hubble was able to determine that the Universe was not static, as had been previously thought, but expanding. The number of galaxies has also been expanding, with estimates varying from 100 billion to 2 trillion. While every galaxy in the Universe is interesting just by its very fact of being, the author has selected 60 of those that possess some unusual qualities that make them of some particular interest. These galaxies have complex evolutionary histories, with some having supermassive black holes at their core, others are powerful radio sources, a very few are relatively nearby and even visible to the naked eye, whereas the light from one recent discovery has been travelling for the past 13.4 billion years to show us its infancy, and from a time when the Universe was in its infancy. And in spite of the vastness of the Universe, some galaxies are colliding with others, embraced in a graceful gravitational dance. Indeed, as the Andromeda Galaxy is heading towards us, a similar fate awaits our Milky Way. When looking at a modern image of a galaxy, one is in awe at the shear wondrous nature of such a magnificent creation, with its boundless secrets that it is keeping from us, its endless possibilities for harboring alien civilizations, and we remain left with the ultimate knowledge that we are connected to its glory.
GEVIN GIORBRAN has authored three books including "Exploring A Many Worlds Universe" in which he describes in detail how our universe eventually ends as space expands perfectly flat and time reaches absolute zero, a prediction based upon his model of an infinite and timeless Multiverse, and all three books were written prior to 1998 when astrophysicists discovered the expansion of the universe is in fact accelerating towards absolute zero. While other scientists continue to grapple with this discovery, in Everything Forever Giorbran eloquently explains for the lay reader the governing role a cosmic zero plays in the evolution of all universes and all life.
Has anyone ever seen with their own eyes that the Earth goes around the sun? Even to this day, no one has. However, 500 and even 2000 years ago, some astronomers managed to point out that this is the case. At that time, people's range of activities was strictly confined, the technology and tools used were extremely primitive, and many of the mathematical methods used today had not been developed. How did those astronomers make and verify this discovery? This book explains this exciting demonstration process. It enables anyone with a basic junior-high-school knowledge of geometry and a certain degree of spatial imagination to understand this and other interesting discoveries in the solar system. By demonstrating this interesting process, the book not only satisfies readers' curiosity using the simplest mathematics, but also inspires them to explore the new and unknown world.
This book provides a guide to engineering successful and reliable products for the NewSpace industry. By discussing both the challenges involved in designing technical artefacts, and the challenges of growing an organisation, the book presents a unique approach to the topic. New Space Systems Engineering explores numerous difficulties encountered when designing a space system from scratch on limited budgets, non-existing processes, and great deal of organizational fluidity and emergence. It combines technical topics related to design, such as system requirements, modular architectures, and system integration, with topics related to organizational design, complexity, systems thinking, design thinking and a model based systems engineering. Its integrated approach mean this book will be of interest to researchers, engineers, investors, and early-stage space companies alike. It will help New Space founders and professionals develop their technologies and business practices, leading to more robust companies and engineering development.
Interest in the concept of time has a long history and has been a topic of study for a wide range of investigators. No change can take place without specification of time. While philosophers and physicists have been intrigued by the concept of subjective perception of time and its relationship to real time, natural scientists have been concerned mainly with investigating time as a factor in understanding the behaviour of animals from the migratory habits of birds to the periodical breeding cycles. The immense bulk of temporal perception studies, the variety of approaches, methods of measurement and even terminology has led to a difficulty in reaching a global interpretation of the results. This book aims to give an integrative approach of time sense and to focus the analysis on temporal factors in the processing of movement, trying to link temporal perception studies in the final common pathway, that is motion. To give some clues of human brain integrative processes at higher levels. And, finally, to clarify the neurophysiological substrate of these operations.
This volume contains papers presented at an international
conference to celebrate Fred Hoyle's monumental contributions to
astronomy, astrophysics and astrobiology and more generally to
humanity and culture. The contributed articles highlight the
important aspects of his scientific life and show how much of an
example and inspiration he has been for over three generations in
the 20th century.
This unique , authoritative book introduces and accurately depicts the current state-of-the art in the field of space storms. Professor Koskinen, renowned expert in the field, takes the basic understanding of the system, together with the pyhsics of space plasmas, and produces a treatment of space storms. He combines a solid base describing space physics phenomena with a rigourous theoretical basis. The topics range from the storms in the solar atmosphere through the solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere to the production of the storm-related geoelectric field on the ground. The most up-to-date information available ist presented in a clear, analytical and quantitative way. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is a phenomenological introduction to space weather from the Sun to the Earth. Part 2 comprehensively presents the fundamental concepts of space plasma physics. It consists of discussions of fundamental concepts of plasma physics, starting from underlying electrodynamics and statistical physics of charged particles and continuing to single particle motion in homogeneous electromagnetic fields, waves in cold plasma approximation, Vlasov theory, magnetohydrodynamics, instabilities in space plasmas, reconnection and dynamo. Part 3 bridges the gap between the fundamental plasma physics and research level physics of space storms. This part discusses radiation and scattering processes, transport and diffiusion, shocks and shock acceleration, storms on the Sun, in the magnetosphere, the coupling to the atmosphere and ground. The book is concluded wtih a brief review of what is known of space stroms on other planets. One tool for building this briege ist extensive cross-referencing between the various chapters. Exercise problems of varying difficulty are embedded within the main body of the text.
Dark matter research is one of the most fascinating and active fields among current high-profile scientific endeavours. It holds the key to all major breakthroughs to come in the fields of cosmology and astroparticle physics. The present volume is particularly concerned with the sources and the detection of dark matter and dark energy in the universe and will prove to be an invaluable research tool for all scientists who work in this field. |
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