|
Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time
On Earth, lakes provide favorable environments for the development
of life and its preservation as fossils. They are extremely
sensitive to climate fluctuations and to conditions within their
watersheds. As such, lakes are unique markers of the impact of
environmental changes. Past and current missions have now
demonstrated that water once flowed at the surface of Mars early in
its history. Evidence of ancient ponding has been uncovered at
scales ranging from a few kilometers to possibly that of the Arctic
ocean. Whether life existed on Mars is still unknown; upcoming
missions may find critical evidence to address this question in
ancient lakebeds as clues about Mars' climate evolution and its
habitability potential are still preserved in their sedimentary
record. Lakes on Mars is the first review on this subject. It is
written by leading planetary scientists who have dedicated their
careers to searching and exploring the questions of water, lakes,
and oceans on Mars through their involvement in planetary
exploration, and the analysis of orbital and ground data beginning
with Viking up to the most recent missions. In thirteen chapters,
Lakes on Mars critically discusses new data and explores the role
that water played in the evolution of the surface of Mars, the past
hydrological provinces of the planet, the possibility of heated
lake habitats through enhanced geothermal flux associated with
volcanic activity and impact cratering. The book also explores
alternate hypotheses to explain the geological record. Topographic,
morphologic, stratigraphic, and mineralogic evidence are presented
that suggest successions of ancient lake environments in Valles
Marineris and Hellas. The existence of large lakes and/or small
oceans in Elysium and the Northern Plains is supported both by the
global distribution of deltaic deposits and by equipotential
surfaces that may reflect their past margins. Whether those
environments were conducive to life has yet to be demonstrated but
from comparison with our planet, their sedimentary deposits may
provide the best opportunity to find its record, if any. The final
chapters explore the impact of climate variability on declining
lake habitats in one of the closest terrestrial analogs to Mars at
the Noachian/Hesperian transition, identify the geologic,
morphologic and mineralogic signatures of ancient lakes to be
searched for on Mars, and present the case for landing the Mars
Science Laboratory mission in such an environment.
What does it take to consider a planet potentially habitable? If a
planet is suitable for life, could life be present? Is life on
other planets inevitable? Searching for Habitable Worlds answers
these questions and provides both the general public and astronomy
enthusiasts with a richly illustrated discussion of the most
current knowledge regarding the search for extrasolar planets.
Nearly everyone wants to know if we are alone in the universe. This
book might not have the answers, but shows where we should look.
This book is a fun and accessible book for everyone from middle
schoolers to amateur astronomers of all ages. The use of
non-technical language and abundant illustrations make this a quick
read to inform everyone about the latest movement in the search for
other planets that we might be able to inhabit. After a brief
discussion on why humans are hard-wired to be curious, and to
explore the unknown, the book describes what extrasolar planets
are, how to detect them, and how to pin down potential targets. In
addition, a data-driven list of the best candidates for
habitability is profiled and the next generation of
exoplanet-hunting scientific instruments and probes are identified.
The study of dark matter, in both astrophysics and particle
physics, has emerged as one of the most active and exciting topics
of research in recent years. This book reviews the history behind
the discovery of missing mass (or unseen mass) in the Universe, and
ties this into the proposed extensions to the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (such as Supersymmetry), which were being proposed
within the same time frame. This book is written as an introduction
to these problems at the forefront of astrophysics and particle
physics, with the goal of conveying the physics of dark matter to
beginning undergraduate majors in scientific fields. The book goes
onto describe existing and upcoming experiments and techniques,
which will be used to detect dark matter either directly on
indirectly.
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.
Can you spot the Big Dipper in the night sky? Or Orion's Belt? Or
Cassiopeia? Even in cities, and without the aid of a telescope,
these are a few of the easier constellations to find. In fact, a
great deal can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye - if you
know what you're looking for. Night Sky presents 200 colour
photographs of stunning nocturnal vistas all visible to the naked
eye. From the majesty of the Northern Lights (Aurora borealis) as
seen from Norway or Canada, and the Southern Lights (Aurora
australis) as seen from Australia, to seeing the clarity of the
Milky Way over an Italian forest, from witnessing a lunar eclipse
in Indonesia to charting the course of the International Space
Station across the Indian night, and from seeing a Geminid meteor
shower in New Mexico to recognizing the Great Bear (Ursa Major)
constellation over New England, the book is a feast of nocturnal
delights. Where necessary, additional inset photographs indicate
the formation of a constellation. Presented in a landscape format
and with 200 outstanding colour photographs supported by
fascinating captions, Night Sky is a stunning collection of images.
This book argues that while the historiography of the development
of scientific ideas has for some time acknowledged the important
influences of socio-cultural and material contexts, the significant
impact of traumatic events, life threatening illnesses and other
psychotropic stimuli on the development of scientific thought may
not have been fully recognised. Howard Carlton examines the
available primary sources which provide insight into the lives of a
number of nineteenth-century astronomers, theologians and
physicists to study the complex interactions within their
'biocultural' brain-body systems which drove parallel changes of
perspective in theology, metaphysics, and cosmology. In doing so,
he also explores three topics of great scientific interest during
this period: the question of the possible existence of life on
other planets; the deployment of the nebular hypothesis as a theory
of cosmogony; and the religiously charged debates about the ages of
the earth and sun. From this body of evidence we gain a greater
understanding of the underlying phenomena which actuated
intellectual developments in the past and which are still relevant
to today's knowledge-making processes.
Right now, you are orbiting a black hole. The Earth orbits the Sun,
and the Sun orbits the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive
black hole, the strangest and most misunderstood phenomenon in the
galaxy. In A Brief History of Black Holes, the award-winning
University of Oxford researcher Dr Becky Smethurst charts five
hundred years of scientific breakthroughs in astronomy and
astrophysics. She takes us from the earliest observations of the
universe and the collapse of massive stars, to the iconic first
photographs of a black hole and her own published findings. A
cosmic tale of discovery, Becky explains why black holes aren't
really 'black', that you never ever want to be 'spaghettified', how
black holes are more like sofa cushions than hoovers and why,
beyond the event horizon, the future is a direction in space rather
than in time. Told with humour and wisdom, this captivating book
describes the secrets behind the most profound questions about our
universe, all hidden inside black holes. 'A jaunt through space
history . . . with charming wit and many pop-culture references' -
BBC Sky At Night Magazine
Travelling from the edge of our Solar System, through the Milky Way
and to the outer edges of the observable universe, Deep Space is a
spectacular photographic guide to galaxies, nebulae, supernova,
clusters, black holes and quasars. Learn about the birth of stars
in our own galaxy, planets beyond our own solar system, when they
were first discovered and how we have managed to photograph these
places. Ranging from the Magellanic Clouds within the Milky Way to
stellar life cycles, from other spiral galaxies such as the
Andromeda Galaxy, to the Sombrero Galaxy, and from nebulae such as
the Pillars of Creation to black and white dwarfs, this is
accessibly written for the general reader to grasp the science and
magnitude of deep space. Featuring 200 outstanding colour
photographs and expert captions, Deep Space is most certainly out
of this world.
At the XXIX IAU General Assembly held in Honolulu from 3-14 August
2015, the meetings known as Special Sessions and Joint Discussions
were replaced by new 'Focus Meetings'. Astronomy in Focus XXIXB
presents the most relevant contributions from the Focus Meetings
together with summaries of all the accepted papers and posters. It
covers the following topics: the legacy of Planck; x-ray surveys of
the hot and energetic cosmos; stellar physics in galaxies; stellar
explosions; gravitational waves and structure formation; the search
for water and life's building blocks; red supergiants in the local
Universe; advances in stellar physics from asteroseismology;
scale-free processes in the Universe; and the frontiers of our
understanding of cluster and galaxy evolution. The publications
Astronomy in Focus XXIXB (together with its companion, XXIXA), the
proceedings of the six main Scientific Symposia and Reports on
Astronomy: Commission Legacy Reports, fully cover the XXIX IAU
General Assembly.
Few launch vehicles are as iconic and distinctive as NASA's
behemoth rocket, the Saturn V, and none left such a lasting
impression on those who watched it ascend. Developed with the
specific brief to send humans to the Moon, it pushed rocketry to
new scales. Its greatest triumph is that it achieved its goal
repeatedly with an enviable record of mission success. Haynes'
Saturn V Manual tells the story of this magnificent and hugely
powerful machine. It explains how each of the vehicle's three
stages worked; Boeing's S-IC first stage with a power output as
great as the UK's peak electricity consumption, North American
Aviation's S-II troubled second stage, Douglas's workhorse S-IVB
third stage with its instrument unit brain - as much a spacecraft
as a rocket. From the decision to build it to the operation of its
engines' valves and pumps, this lavishly illustrated and deeply
informative book offers a deeper appreciation of the amazing Saturn
V.
|
|