Students in an introductory physics class learn a variety of different, and seemingly unconnected, concepts. Gravity, the laws of motion, forces and fields, the mathematical nature of the science - all of these are ideas that play a central role in understanding physics. And one thing that connects all of these physical concepts is the impetus the great scientists of the past had to develop them - the desire to understand the motion of the planets of the solar system. This desire led to the revolutionary work of Copernicus and Galileo, Kepler and Newton. And their work forever altered how science is practiced and understood. Planetary Motions: A Historical Perspective enables students to understand how the discoveries of the luminaries of the Scientific Revolution impact the way physics is practiced today. BLNicolas Copernicus - his revolutionary work On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres that placed the sun, rather than the earth, at the center of the universe forever altered how people would see our place in the cosmos BLGalileo - his work did not prove Copernicus correct, but did destroy the ancient physics of Aristotle BLJohannes Kepler - his painstaking work eventually led to his laws regarding how the planets revolve around the sun BLIsaac Newton -his work remains the center of classical physics as studied in classrooms today Jargon and mathematics is kept to a minimum, and the volume includes a timeline and an annotated bibliography of useful print and online works for further research. Planetary Motions is an ideal introduction for students studying physics and astronomy and who need to understand the history and nature of the scientific enterprise.

Systematically explores the early origins and basic definition of life.

Investigates the major theories of the origins of life in light of modern research with the aim of distinguishing between the necessary and the optional and between deterministic and random influences in the emergence of what we call life.

Treats and views life as a cosmic phenomenon whose emergence and driving force should be viewed independently from its Earth-bound natural history.

Synthesizes all the fundamental life-related developments in a comprehensive scenario, and makes the argument that understanding life in its broadest context requires a material-independent perspective that identifies its essential fingerprints

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) represents one of the most significant crossroads at which the assumptions and methods of scientific inquiry come into direct contact with-and in many cases conflict with-those of religion. Indeed, at the core of SETI is the same question that motivates many interested in religion: What is the place of humanity in the universe? Both scientists involved with SETI (and in other areas) and those interested in and dedicated to some religious traditions are engaged in contemplating these types of questions, even if their respective approaches and answers differ significantly. This book explores this intersection with a focus on three core points: 1) the relationship between science and religion as it is expressed within the framework of SETI research, 2) the underlying assumptions, many of which are tacitly based upon cultural values common in American society, that have shaped the ways in which SETI researchers have conceptualized the nature of their endeavor and represented ideas about the potential influence contact might have on human civilization, and 3) what sort of empirical evidence we might be able to access as a way of thinking about the social impact that contact with alien intelligence might have for humanity, from both religious and cultural perspectives. The book developed as a result of a course the author teaches at the University of Texas at Austin: Religion, Science, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

The amount of cosmological data has dramatically increased in the past decades due to an unprecedented development of telescopes, detectors and satellites. Efficiently handling and analysing new data of the order of terabytes per day requires not only computer power to be processed but also the development of sophisticated algorithms and pipelines.
Aiming at students and researchers the lecture notes in this volume explain in pedagogical manner the best techniques used to extract information from cosmological data, as well as reliable methods that should help us improve our view of the universe.

This textbook is intended as an introduction to the physics of solar and stellar coronae, emphasizing kinetic plasma processes. It is addressed to observational astronomers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates without a ba- ground in plasma physics. Coronal physics is today a vast field with many different aims and goals. So- ing out the really important aspects of an observed phenomenon and using the physics best suited for the case is a formidable problem. There are already several excellent books, oriented toward the interests of astrophysicists, that deal with the magnetohydrodynamics of stellar atmospheres, radiation transport, and radiation theory. In kinetic processes, the different particle velocities play an important role. This is the case when particle collisions can be neglected, for example in very brief phenomena - such as one period of a high-frequency wave - or in effects produced by energetic particles with very long collision times. Some of the most persistent problems of solar physics, like coronal heating, shock waves, flare energy release, and particle acceleration, are likely to be at least partially related to such p- cesses. Study of the Sun is not regarded here as an end in itself, but as the source of information for more general stellar applications. Our understanding of stellar processes relies heavily, in turn, on our understanding of solar processes. Thus an introduction to what is happening in hot, dilute coronae necessarily starts with the plasma physics of our nearest star.

This book presents a review about the physics of clusters of galaxies beyond the standard thermal view. The book first gives a general introduction to clusters of galaxies. It discusses the properties of the hot, virialised gas in these clusters. But the main focus is upon what is beyond this thermal gas: the surrounding warm-hot intergalactic medium, non-thermal emission components and the chemical enrichment of the clusters and their environments. What is the evolution of the hot gas in clusters and the surrounding cosmic web? How does it reach equilibrium? What is the role of magnetic fields and shocks? Has the WHIM been detetected? Are there non-thermal components in clusters? How does the metallicity evolve? These questions and many others are addressed from three different points of view: observations, theory of the physical processes and numerical simulations.

The book is written as a tutorial review. It is meant as an introduction for professionals and students wishing to work in this field. This means that no attempt is made to give a complete overview of all the work that has been done in this field, but to focus upon what needs to be known to be able to work in this field, and to explain to the reader basic processes, techniques and observations that experts often assume to be common knowledge.

Damage mechanics is concerned with mechanics-based analyses of microstructural events in solids responsible for changes in their response to external loading. The microstructural events can occur as cracks, voids, slipped regions, etc., with a spatial distribution within the volume of a solid. If a solid contains oriented elements in its microsctructure, e.g. fibers, the heterogeneity and asisotropy aspects create situations which form a class of problems worthy of special treatment. This book deals with such treatments with particular emphasis on application to technological composite materials.

Chapter one describes the basic principles underlying both the micromechanics approach and the continuum damage mechanics approach. It also reviews the relevant statistical concepts. The next three chapters are devoted to developments of the continuum damage mechanics approach related to characterization of damage with internal variables, evolution of damage and its coupling with other inelastic effects such as plasticity. Chapter 5 describes observations of damage from notches in composite laminates and puts forward some pragmatic modelling ideas for a complex damage configuration. The next two chapters form the bulk of the micromechanics approach in this volume. The first one deals with microcracking and the other with interfacial damage in composite materials.

Cosmology in Scalar-Tensor Gravity covers all aspects of cosmology in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Considerable progress has been made in this exciting area of physics and this book is the first to provide a critical overview of the research. Among the topics treated are:
-Scalar-tensor gravity and its limit to general relativity,
-Effective energy-momentum tensors and conformal frames,
-Gravitational waves in scalar-tensor cosmology,
-Specific scalar-tensor theories,
-Exact cosmological solutions and cosmological perturbations,
-Scalar-tensor scenarios of the early universe and inflation,
-Scalar-tensor models of quintessence in the present universe and their far-reaching consequences for the ultimate fate of the cosmos.

Removes the scanning artefacts and transmission imperfections to produce a most comprehensive and beautifully detailed set of images of the lunar surface.

To help practical astronomers, all the photographs are systematically related to an Earth-based view.

Organized to make it easy for astronomers to use, enabling ground-based images and views to be compared with the Orbiter photographs.

A CD is included, providing the enhanced and cleaned photographs for screen viewing, lectures, etc..

This thesis describes one of the most precise experimental tests of Lorentz symmetry in electrodynamics by light-speed anisotropy measurement with an asymmetric optical ring cavity. The author aims to answer the fundamental, hypothetical debate on Lorentz symmetry in the Universe. He concludes that the symmetry is protected within an error of 10-15, which means providing one of the most stringent upper limits on the violation of the Lorentz symmetry in the framework of the Standard Model Extension. It introduces the following three keys which play an important role in achieving high-precision measurement: (1) a high-index element (silicon) interpolated into part of the light paths in the optical ring cavity, which improves sensitivity to the violation of the Lorentz symmetry, (2) double-pass configuration of the interferometer, which suppresses environmental noises, and (3) continuous data acquisition by rotating the optical ring cavity, which makes it possible to search for higher-order violations of Lorentz symmetry. In addition to those well-described keys, a comprehensive summary from theoretical formulations to experimental design details, data acquisition, and data analysis helps the reader follow up the experiments precisely.

Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges.
During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing.
In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now included meteorology and geophysics. Jesuits established some of the earliest observatories in Africa, South America and the Far East.
Jesuit observatories constitute an often forgotten chapter of the history of these sciences.

The author, a well-known astronomer himself, describes the evolution of astronomical ideas, touching only lightly on most of the instrumental developments. Richly illustrated, the book starts with the astronomical ideas of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian philosophers, moves on to the Greek period and then on to the golden age of astronomy, that of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. Finally, Pecker concludes with modern theories of cosmology. Written with astronomy undergraduates in mind, this is a fascinating survey of astronomical thinking.

These proceedings collect the selected contributions of participants of the First Karl Schwarzschild Meeting on Gravitational Physics, held in Frankfurt, Germany to celebrate the 140th anniversary of Schwarzschild's birth. They are grouped into 4 main themes: I. The Life and Work of Karl Schwarzschild; II. Black Holes in Classical General Relativity, Numerical Relativity, Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Alternative Theories of Gravity; III. Black Holes in Quantum Gravity and String Theory; IV. Other Topics in Contemporary Gravitation. Inspired by the foundational principle ``By acknowledging the past, we open a route to the future", the week-long meeting, envisioned as a forum for exchange between scientists from all locations and levels of education, drew participants from 15 countries across 4 continents. In addition to plenary talks from leading researchers, a special focus on young talent was provided, a feature underlined by the Springer Prize for the best student and junior presentations.

These are the Proceedings of the Yohkoh 10th Anniversary Meeting, a COSPAR Colloquium held in Kona, Hawaii, USA, on January 20-24, 2002. The title of the meeting was Multi-Wavelength Observations of Coronal Structure and Dynamics. In these proceedings the many and varied advances of the dynamics solar atmosphere in the past ten years of observations by Yohkoh have been reviewed.

This volume contains the Proceedings of the Fifth Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanola de Astronomfa, SEA). The meeting was held at the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha in Toledo, from September 9 to 13, 2002. The event brought together 219 participants who pre sented their latest results in many different subjects. In comparison with the previous scientific meetings of the Society, the numbers of oral talks and poster contributions (122 and 64, respectively) are rapidly increasing, confirming that the SEA conferences are becoming a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. During the meeting, the SEA made public the granting of the Prize to the Best Spanish Ph. D. Thesis in As tronomy and Astrophysics for the period 2000-2001 ex aequo to Dr. A. Zurita and Dr. E. Villaver. This is the second time that the SEA is awarding this prize, which aim is to encourage young spanish astrophysicists to pursue a high level scientific career. The Society is indebted to the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, and, in particular, to the San Pedro Martir staff, for its hospitality. It is also indebted to the Local Organizing Committee for its dedication and the good atmosphere that prevailed at any moment, and to the Scientific Organizing Committee for its excel lent work."

The concept of time has fascinated humanity throughout recorded history, and it remains one of the biggest mysteries in science and philosophy. Time is clearly one of the fundamental building blocks of the universe and thus a deeper understanding of nature at a fundamental level also demands a comprehension of time. Furthermore, the origins of the universe are closely intertwined with the puzzle of time: Did time emerge at the Big Bang? Why does the arrow of time 'conspire' with the order of the initial state of the universe?

This book addressesmany ofthe most important questions about time: What is time, and is it fundamental or emergent? Why is there such an arrow of time, closely related to the initial state of the universe, and why do the cosmic, thermodynamic and other arrows agree? These issues are discussed here by leading experts, and each offers a new perspective on the debate. Their contributions delve into the most difficult research topic in physics, also describing the latest cutting edge research on the subject. The book also offers readers a comparison between the different outlooks of philosophy, physics and cosmology on the puzzle of time.

This volume is intended to be useful for research purposes, but most chapters are also accessible to a more general audience of scientifically educated readers looking for deeper insights.

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Dear Friends, It seems like it was only yesterday that we drove the last of you to the airport. The memories and the spirit of the Scientific Detectors for Astronomy Workshop (SDW2002) remain fresh and strong. For us, this was a very special event, a great gathering of what may be one of the friendliest and most cooperative technical communities on our little planet. We have tried to capture the spirit of the Workshop in these Proceedings and we hope you are able to relive your week in Hawaii. For those readers who did not attend, we invite you into this community. As you probably noticed, there is a new name on the cover: Jenna Beletic was the ace up our sleeve for these Proceedings. As a summer intern at Keck, she took up the task of organizing, proofreading, editing and formatting the papers. She also made the graphics (her artistic talents shine on pages xxxiii and xxxv), contacted authors and prepared the mountain of paperwork which goes with producing a book. Jenna's enthusiasm at learning, her passion for the job and creativity (e. g. find 100 ways to get Paola and Jim to do their jobs) have been a motivating addition to our team of "old workshop foxes..".... and a source for a good deal of paternal pride. We are honoured to have her as a fellow editor.

In Shakespeare and the Dawn of Modern Science, renowned astronomy expert Peter Usher expands upon his allegorical interpretation of Hamlet and analyzes four more plays, Love's Labour's Lost, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, and The Winter's Tale. With painstaking thoroughness, he dissects the plays and reveals that, contrary to current belief, Shakespeare was well aware of the scientific revolutions of his time. Moreover, Shakespeare imbeds in the allegorical subtext information on the appearances of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars that he could not have known without telescopic aid, yet these plays appeared coeval with or prior to the commonly accepted date of 1610 for the invention and first use of the astronomical telescope. Dr. Usher argues that an early telescope, the so-called perspective glass, was the likely means for the acquisition of these data. This device was invented by the mathematician Leonard Digges, whose grandson of the same name contributed poems to the First and Second Folio editions of Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare and the Dawn of Modern Science is an important addition to literature, history, and science collections as well as to personal libraries.

Eclipses have long been seen as important celestial phenomena, whether as omens affecting the future of kingdoms, or as useful astronomical events to help in deriving essential parameters for theories of the motion of the moon and sun. This is the first book to collect together all presently known records of timed eclipse observations and predictions from antiquity to the time of the invention of the telescope. In addition to cataloguing and assessing the accuracy of the various records, which come from regions as diverse as Ancient Mesopotamia, China, and Europe, the sources in which they are found are described in detail. Related questions such as what type of clocks were used to time the observations, how the eclipse predictions were made, and how these prediction schemes were derived from the available observations are also considered. The results of this investigation have important consequences for how we understand the relationship between observation and theory in early science and the role of astronomy in early cultures, and will be of interest to historians of science, astronomers, and ancient and medieval historians.

Cool commentary on current human peccadilloes MACROSCOPIC TOPICS Toe-holds on the slopes of the MATTERHORN of Human Maturation. It is a struggle for each human to make the long climb from infancy through adulthood to the final quietus. These topics do not pretend to tell any one human how to live their life; they only try to encourage thinking on the various phases. EXX-RAYS FROM THE AGING CAGE Visions from the good and productive side of growing older. The purpose in these visions is to throw some light on the need for a positive attitude. Exercise for the brain keeps major negatives outside the cage. Together with appropriate physical initiatives that make sure the mental walls are free from sealed cage doors. COSMIC CYBERTREKS Explorations in the mega void of the universe ... a challenge. Time is eternal, and space is infinite in the cosmos. In terms of measuring events in the universe, where occurrences are matured over many millions of years, using Earth's rules as a guide for establishing cosmic laws is an invisible drop of spit in the seas. The trek experiences are fascinating and challenge accepted dogma for so many concepts of what is logical out in the void.

During the past several years, research teams around the world have developed astrophysics-relevant utilizing high energy-density facilities such as intense lasers and z-pinches. Research is underway in many areas, such as compressible hydrodynamic mixing, strong shock phenomena, radiation flow, radiative shocks and jets, complex opacities, equations of stat, and relativistic plasmas. Beyond this current research and the papers it is producing, plans are being made for the application, to astrophysics-relevant research, of the 2 MJ National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the 600 kj Ligne d'Integration Laser (LIL) and the 2 MJ Laser Megajoule (LMJ) in Bordeaux, France; petawatt-range lasers now under construction around the world; and current and future Z pinches. The goal of this conference and these proceedings is to continue focusing attention on this emerging research area. The conference brought together different scientists interested in this emerging new field, with topics covering: - Hydrodynamic instabilities in astrophysics, - Supernovae and supernova remnant evolution, - Astrophysical shocks, blast waves, and jets, - Stellar opacities, - Radiation and thermal transport, - Dense plasma atomic physics and EOS, - X-ray photoionized plasmas, - Ultrastrong magnetic field generation.

The authors, leading representatives of Russian space research and industry, show the results and future prospects of astronautics at the start of the third millennium. The focus is on the development of astronautics in Russia in the new historical and economic conditions, but the book also covers the development in the USA, Europe, China, Japan, and India. It spotlights the basic trends in space related issues: necessary restructuring of space industry and spaceports, improvement of carrier rockets, booster units, spacecraft, and component elements. The possibilities of the wide use of space technologies and its numerous applications such as navigation and communication, space manufacturing, space biotechnology, pollution research, etc. are described. The book contains a huge amount of facts described in a way understandable without specialist knowledge and accompanied by many photographs, charts and diagrams, mostly in color. Therefore the book will be interesting both to experts and to lay readers.

Understanding star formation is one of the key fields in present-day astrophysics. This book treats a wide variety of the physical processes involved, as well as the main observational discoveries, with key points being discussed in detail. The current star formation in our galaxy is emphasized, because the most detailed observations are available for this case. The book presents a comparison of the various scenarios for star formation, discusses the basic physics underlying each one, and follows in detail the history of a star from its initial state in the interstellar gas to its becoming a condensed object in equilibrium. Both theoretical and observational evidence to support the validity of the general evolutionary path are presented, and methods for comparing the two are emphasized. The author is a recognized expert in calculations of the evolution of protostars, the structure and evolution of disks, and stellar evolution in general. This book will be of value to graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics as well as to active researchers in the field.

This volume contains the proceedings of the meeting entitled, "The IGM/Galaxy Connection: The Distribution of Baryons at z = 0. " The meeting was held August 8 -10 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) located in Boulder, Colorado on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains (see conference photo). We organized this meeting because we felt it was time to address the link between galaxies and the intergalactic medium at low redshift. In this vein, we posed several questions to the conference participants: Where are the baryons in the local universe and in what phase do they reside? What signatures of galaxy evolution have been imprinted on the IGM? What percentage of intergalactic gas is left from the galaxy formation process? What does the distribution of baryons at z = 0 tell us about the early universe? The conference was an overwhelming success with lots of friendly interaction and discussion among the participants. At lunch we were treated to splendid views from the NCAR terrace and discussions rang ing from the importance of the LSR, GSR, and LGSR velocity frames to how long the desserts would last with 90 astronomers and the hot Boul der sun. From an inventory of the baryons, to the associations between galaxies and Lya absorbers, to the mechanisms by which galaxies obtain and lose gas, the conference covered many topics. The results of these endeavors are contained in these pages and eloquently summarized by Chris Impey."

This biography summarizes the seminal contributions to auroral and space science of Carl Stormer (1874 - 1957). He was the first to develop precise photographic methods to calculate heights and morphologies of diverse auroral forms during four solar cycles. Stormer independently devised numerical techniques to determine the trajectories of high-energy charged particles allowed and forbidden in the Earth's magnetic field. His theoretical analyses explained cosmic ray access to the upper atmosphere, 20 years before they were identified by other scientists. Stormer's crowning achievement, "The Polar Aurora," published when he was 81 years old, stands to this day as a regularly cited guide in graduate-level courses on space physics. The authors present the life of this prodigious scientist in relation to the cultural life of early 20th century in Norway and to the development of the space sciences in the post-Sputnik era.