This book, the first of a two-volume set, focuses on the basic physical principles of blackbody radiometry and describes artificial sources of blackbody radiation, widely used as sources of optical radiation, whose energy characteristics can be calculated on the base of fundamental physical laws. Following a review of radiometric quantities, radiation laws, and radiative heat transfer, it introduces the basic principles of blackbody radiators design, details of their practical implementation, and methods of measuring their defining characteristics, as well as metrological aspects of blackbody-based measurements. Chapters are dedicated to the effective emissivity concept, methods of increasing effective emissivities, their measurement and modeling using the Monte Carlo method, techniques of blackbody radiators heating, cooling, isothermalization, and measuring their temperature. An extensive and comprehensive reference source, this book is of considerable value to students, researchers, and engineers involved in any aspect of blackbody radiometry.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was successfully launched on June 18, 2009 and joined an international eet of satellites (Japan's SELENE/Kaguya, China's Chang'E, and India's Chandrayaan-1) that have recently orbited the Moon for scienti c exploration p- poses. LRO is the rst step to ful ll the US national space goal to return humans to the Moon's surface, which is a primary objective of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission - rectorate (ESMD). TheinitialLROmissionphasehasaone-yeardurationfullyfundedunder ESMD support. LRO is expected to have an extended phase of operations for at least two additional years to undertake further lunar science measurements that are directly linked to objectives outlined in the National Academy of Science's report on the Scienti c Context for Exploration of the Moon (SCEM). All data from LRO will be deposited in the Planetary Data System (PDS) archive so as to be usable for both exploration and science by the widest possible community. A NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO) solicited proposals for LRO instruments with associated exploration measurement investigations. A rigorous evaluation process - volving scienti c peer review, in combination with technical, cost and management risk assessments, recommended six instruments for LRO development and deployment. The competitively selected instruments are: Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Rad- tion (CRaTER), Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE), Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), Lunar Orbiter Laser - timeter (LOLA), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC).

This book gathers selected and expanded contributions presented at the 5th Symposium on Space Optical Instruments and Applications, which was held in Beijing, China, on September 5-7, 2018. This conference series is organized by the Sino-Holland Space Optical Instruments Laboratory, a cooperative platform between China and the Netherlands. The symposium focused on key technological problems regarding optical instruments and their applications in a space context. It covered the latest developments, experiments and results on the theory, instrumentation and applications of space optics. The book is split into five main sections: The first covers optical remote sensing system design, the second focuses on advanced optical system design, and the third addresses remote sensor calibration and measurement. Remote sensing data processing and information extraction are then presented, followed by a final section on remote sensing data applications.

It has been known for a long time that stars are similar to our Sun. But it was only in 1810 that they were shown to be made of an incandescent gas. The chemical composition of this gas began to be determined in 1860. In 1940, it was demonstrated that the energy radiated by the stars is of thermonuclear origin. How stars form from interstellar matter and how they evolve and die was understood only recently, with our knowledge still incomplete. It was also realized recently that close double stars present a wide variety of extraordinary phenomena, which are far from being completely explored.This book explains all these aspects, and also discusses how the evolution of stars determine that of galaxies. The most interesting observations are illustrated by spectacular images, while the theory is explained as simply as possible, without however avoiding some mathematical or physical developments when they are necessary for a good understanding of what happens in stars. Without being a textbook for specialists, this book can be profitably read by students or amateurs possessing some basic scientific knowledge, who would like to be initiated in-depth to the fascinating world of stars.The author, an emeritus astronomer of the Paris Observatory, worked in various domains of astronomy connected with the subject of this book: interstellar matter and evolution of stars and galaxies. He directed the Marseilles observatory from 1983 to 1988 and served for fifteen years as Chief Editor of the professional European journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. He has written many articles and books about physics and astronomy at different levels.

In 1942, the logician Kurt Godel and Albert Einstein became close friends; they walked to and from their offices every day, exchanging ideas about science, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German science. By 1949, Godel had produced a remarkable proof: "In any universe described by the Theory of Relativity, time cannot exist," Einstein endorsed this result reluctantly but he could find no way to refute it, since then, neither has anyone else. Yet cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded as if this discovery was never made. In "A World Without Time," Palle Yourgrau sets out to restore Godel to his rightful place in history, telling the story of two magnificent minds put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day, and attempts to rescue the brilliant work they did together.

Astrobiology not only investigates how early life took hold of our planet but also life on other planets - both in our Solar System and beyond - and their potential for habitability. The book take readers from the scars on planetary surfaces made by space rocks to the history of the Solar System narrated by those space rocks as well as exoplanets in other planetary systems. But the true question is how life arose here or elsewhere. Modern comparative genomics has revealed that Darwin was correct; a set of highly conserved genes and cellular functions indicate that all life is related by common ancestry. The Last Universal Common Ancestor or LUCA sits at the base of the Tree of Life. However, once that life took hold, it started to diversify and form complex microbial communities that are known as microbial mats and stromatolites. Due to their long evolutionary history and abundance on modern Earth, research on the biological, chemical and geological processes of stromatolite formation has provided important insights into the field of astrobiology. Many of these microbialite-containing ecosystems have been used as models for astrobiology, and NASA mission analogs including Shark Bay, Pavilion and Kelly Lakes. Modern microbialites represent natural laboratories to study primordial ecosystems and provide proxies for how life could evolve on other planets. However, few viral metagenomic studies (i.e., viromes) have been conducted in microbialites, which are not only an important part of the community but also mirror its biodiversity. This book focuses on particularly interesting sites such as Andean lake microbialites, a proxy of early life since they are characterized by very high UV light, while Alchichica and Bacalar lakes are characterized by high-salt and oligotrophic waters that nurture stromatolites. However, it is only the oasis of Cuatro Cienegas Basin in Mexico that stored past life in its marine sediments of the Sierra de San Marcos. This particular Sierra has a magmatic pouch that moves the deep aquifer to the surface in a cycle of sun drenched life and back to the depths of the magmatic life in an ancient cycle that now is broken by the overexploitation of the surface water as well as the deep aquifer in order to irrigate alfalfa in the desert. The anthropocene, the era of human folly, is killing this unique time machine and with it the memory of the planet.

This well-documented and fascinating book tells how, over the centuries, a series of visionaries, scientists, technologists, and politicians fostered the involvement of Italy in space exploration. The lives of these pioneers was often far from easy, yet they persevered. The fruits of their efforts can today be witnessed in Italy's success within the cutting-edge space sector. Italy's history in space started at the end of the fourteenth century and continued with the development of fireworks. Later, the nineteenth century marked the beginning of research into rockets in a more scientific way. After World War II, rocket technology was advanced with the aid of German scientists, and in the 1960s Luigi Broglio, the father of Italian space exploration, designed the San Marco satellite. In 1979 the first Italian Space Plan was launched, but it was the foundation of the Italian Space Agency in 1988 that kick-started a program of exploration in various fields of cosmic research. The outcome was construction of the Vega launcher and collaboration in the International Space Station. Now the Italian space industry stands ready to play an important role in the Gateway orbital station. All of this history, and more, is explored in this riveting book.

The book summarizes the results of the experimental studies of phase relations in the chemical systems relevant to Earth, carried out by the author in a time period of over 20 years between 1979 and 2001. It is based on 1000 piston-cylinder experiments at pressures up to 4 GPa, and close to 700 experiments carried out with a multi-anvil apparatus at pressures up to 24 GPA. This is the largest published collection of calculated phase diagrams for the chemical systems relevant to Earth. This is also the first time that the phase relations at the relatively low pressures of the lithospheric mantle, mainly applicable to the experimental thermobarometry of metamorphic rocks and mantle xenoliths, are seamlessly integrated with the phase relations of the sublithospheric upper mantle and the uppermost lower mantle, primarily applicable to inclusions in diamond and schocked meteorites. "Tibor Gasparik has devoted his career to determining the high-pressure, high-temperature phase relations of the geologically important Sodium-Calcium-Magnesium-Aluminium-Silicon (NCMAS) oxide system. This book is his opus magnum, summarizing more than 1700 experiments in over 120 figures. ... I have found Phase Diagrams for Geoscientists to be a useful first port-of-call for finding the P-T stability fields ... and I can recommend the book as a reference for geoscientists requiring an overview of the stable phase assemblages in the top 700 km of the Earth." (David Dobson, Geological Magazine, Vol. 142 (2), 2005)

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy has become a powerful tool for astrophysics since the launch of Chandra and XMM-Newton, ten years ago. The grating spectrometers on both instruments still continue to provide excellent data, while imaging calorimeters are being prepared for future missions like Astro-H and IXO. The synergy with other wavelength bands like the UV has been boosted by the addition of COS to HST. X-ray spectroscopy offers unique diagnostics to study almost any object in the Universe. This book contains review papers on highlights and the state-of-the-art of X-ray spectroscopy for a broad range of objects and on the prospects for future studies.

This up-to-date and concise account of a critical period of the early universe directly links the latest theories and experiments. Targeted at cosmological problems rather than specific methods, it begins with an introduction reviewing the early universe and looks at why reionization is important. The process of reionization analyzes simple analytical considerations and compares existing observations, while a further chapter describes some of the issues regarding the transition from Population III to Population II stars, as well as the constraints that can be derived from WMAP. Further chapters survey the latest numerical modeling and future perspectives for studying the dark ages using galaxies as probes.
Written by a scientist with much experience in both research and writing, this account is equally suitable for young researchers as well as master and PhD students.

Our Universe is amazing. This is its story, told in simple language. The story tells how the Universe came to be what it is today. It starts with the Big Bang and describes how stars, black holes, and our solar system developed. It explores the evolution of life on Earth and investigates the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. It peers into the future and wonders about the Universe's likely old age and death, or whatever else may be its end. The challenge the book takes up is to explain all of this, including some of the astonishing concepts we have in science, such as Einstein's theories of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, using virtually no mathematics and without dumbing-down. All are described narratively and explained using examples and anecdotes. The book is written for young people with a thirst for learning about the science of space, as well as for 'grown-ups' who want a better understanding of this fascinating subject.

The author has the distinction of being the only wife of a European astronaut who has also worked in the area of human spaceflight. Her story is told from a unique perspective. Lena De Winne provides a first-hand account of the ins and outs of the complex astronaut spaceflight system. This book captures the individual stories of crewmembers Roman Romanenko, Bob Thirsk, Frank De Winne and their spouses Julia, Brenda and Lena, as they prepare and embark on a unique spaceflight mission. Delivered with raw emotional intensity, it reads like a novel, sharing the aspirations, anguish, surprises and disappointments of its subjects. Yet it is resolutely biographical, offering a vivid recollection of events as they happened. An easy but precise overview of space science and technology is also provided. Readers will not only become familiarised with the human space flight program, they will also be left with an exhilarating sense of having been a part of the adventure. The book is suffused with an intimacy and honesty that renders the lives of the crew and their spouses in an unprecedented light.

With illustrations and photographsp in full color.

A selection of the History, Scientific American, and Quality Paperback Book Clubs For a very brief moment during the 1960s, America was moonstruck. Boys dreamt of being an astronaut; girls dreamed of marrying one. Americans drank Tang, bought "space pens" that wrote upside down, wore clothes made of space age Mylar, and took imaginary rockets to the moon from theme parks scattered around the country. But despite the best efforts of a generation of scientists, the almost foolhardy heroics of the astronauts, and 35 billion dollars, the moon turned out to be a place of "magnificent desolation," to use Buzz Aldrin's words: a sterile rock of no purpose to anyone. In Dark Side of the Moon, Gerard J. DeGroot reveals how NASA cashed in on the Americans' thirst for heroes in an age of discontent and became obsessed with putting men in space. The moon mission was sold as a race which America could not afford to lose. Landing on the moon, it was argued, would be good for the economy, for politics, and for the soul. It could even win the Cold War. The great tragedy is that so much effort and expense was devoted to a small step that did virtually nothing for mankind. Drawing on meticulous archival research, DeGroot cuts through the myths constructed by the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations and sustained by NASA ever since. He finds a gang of cynics, demagogues, scheming politicians, and corporations who amassed enormous power and profits by exploiting the fear of what the Russians might do in space. Exposing the truth behind one of the most revered fictions of American history, Dark Side of the Moon explains why the American space program has been caught in a state of purposeless wandering ever since Neil Armstrong descended from Apollo 11 and stepped onto the moon. The effort devoted to the space program was indeed magnificent and its cultural impact was profound, but the purpose of the program was as desolate and dry as lunar dust.

Offers an accessible text and reference (a cosmic-ray manual) for graduate students entering the field and high-energy astrophysicists will find this an accessible cosmic-ray manual Easy to read for the general astronomer, the first part describes the standard model of cosmic rays based on our understanding of modern particle physics. Presents the acceleration scenario in some detail in supernovae explosions as well as in the passage of cosmic rays through the Galaxy. Compares experimental data in the atmosphere as well as underground are compared with theoretical models

Until now, important research on the historical records of comets and meteor showers from China, Japan, and Korea has remained the exclusive preserve of those with expertise in the relevant languages. With a compilation like the present volume the authors hope to ameliorate that situation. Applying the same rigorous selection criteria and style of presentation as in the previous catalogue, assembled and translated here are some 1,500 additional observations of comets and meteor showers from China, Japan, and Korea spanning nearly three millennia. With the publication of this volume, most of the important historical records of East Asian astronomical observations are now accessible in English. The introductions and appendices provide all the required information on specialized terminology, recording conventions, and nomenclature the reader will need to make use of the records. In addition to being an invaluable resource for professional astronomers, East Asian astronomical records have materially aided the research of scholars in fields as diverse as mythology, medieval iconography, ancient chronology, and the oral history of pre-literate societies. The book should be of great interest to cultural astronomers, as well as to those engaged in historical and comparative research.

This book provides a systematic introduction to the observation and application of kinetic Alfven waves (KAWs) in various plasma environments, with a special focus on the solar-terrestrial coupling system. Alfven waves are low-frequency and long-wavelength fluctuations that pervade laboratory, space and cosmic plasmas. KAWs are dispersive Alfven waves with a short wavelength comparable to particle kinematic scales and hence can play important roles in the energization and transport of plasma particles, the formation of fine magneto-plasma structures, and the dissipation of turbulent Alfven waves. Since the 1990s, experimental studies on KAWs in laboratory and space plasmas have significantly advanced our understanding of KAWs, making them an increasingly interesting subject. Without a doubt, the solar-terrestrial coupling system provides us with a unique natural laboratory for the comprehensive study of KAWs. This book presents extensive observations of KAWs in solar and heliospheric plasmas, as well as numerous applications of KAWs in the solar-terrestrial coupling system, including solar atmosphere heating, solarwind turbulence, solar wind-magnetosphere interactions, and magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. In addition, for the sake of consistency, the book includes the basic theories and physical properties of KAWs, as well as their experimental demonstrations in laboratory plasmas. In closing, it discusses possible applications of KAWs to other astrophysical plasmas. Accordingly, the book covers all the major aspects of KAWs in a coherent manner that will appeal to advanced graduate students and researchers whose work involves laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas.