The book reviews methods for the numerical and statistical analysis of astronomical datasets with particular emphasis on the very large databases that arise from both existing and forthcoming projects, as well as current large-scale computer simulation studies. Leading experts give overviews of cutting-edge methods applicable in the area of astronomical data mining. Case studies demonstrate the interplay between these techniques and interesting astronomical problems. The book demonstrates specific new methods for storing, accessing, reducing, analysing, describing and visualising astronomical data which are necessary to fully exploit its potential.

The knowledge of the amount and nature of matter present in the Universe is undoubtedly one of the most relevant topics in astrophysics and cosmology. It started with the pioneering work of Zwicky in 1933, who found the need for a large amount of dark matter in the Coma cluster. An important step has been the recent finding through the observation of distant type Ia supernovae of the presence of a significant vacuum energy density causing an accelerating expansion of the Universe. Nevertheless, the nature of most of the matter in the Universe is still unknown. Its solution requires the interplay of several fields of astrophysics and cosmology as well as particle physics, all of which are covered in this volume: Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, large scale structures, galaxy clusters, intergalactic absorption, dark matter components of galaxies, globular clusters, supernovae of type Ia distance measurements, gravitational lensing, X-ray observations, Lyman-alpha observations, dark energy, direct detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), detection of neutrino oscillations, particle candidates for dark matter, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis of baryonic matter.

Therefore, this volume presents a very useful synopsis of all constituents of matter in the Universe.

THE EDITORS: DAVID L. BLOCK AND KENNETH C. FREEMAN (SOC CO-CHAIRS), IVANIO PUERARI, ROBERT GROESS AND LIZ K. BLOCK 1. Harvard College Observatory, 1958 The past century has truly brought about an explosive period of growth and discovery for the physical sciences as a whole, and for astronomy in particular. Galaxy morphology has reached a renaissance . . The year: 1958. The date: October 1. The venue: Harvard College Observatory. The lecturer: Walter Baade. With amazing foresight, Baade penned these words: "Young stars, supergiants and so on, make a terrific splash - lots of light. The total mass of these can be very small compared to the total mass of the system". Dr Layzer then asked the key question: " . . . the discussion raises the point of what this classification would look like if you were to ignore completely all the Population I, and just focus attention on the Population II . . . " We stand on the shoulders of giants. The great observer E. E. Barnard, in his pioneering efforts to photograph the Milky Way, devoted the major part of his life to identifying and numbering dusty "holes" and dust lanes in our Milky Way. No one could have dreamt that the pervasiveness of these cosmic dust masks (not only in our Galaxy but also in galaxies at high redshift) is so great, that their "penetration" is truly one of the pioneering challenges from both space-borne telescopes and from the ground.

This Second Edition of Sun, Earth and Sky updates the popular text by providing comprehensive accounts of the most recent discoveries made by five modern solar spacecraft during the past decade. Their instruments have used sound waves to peer deep into the Sun's inner regions and measure the temperature of its central nuclear reactor, and extended our gaze far from the visible Sun to record energetic outbursts that threaten Earth. Breakthrough observations with the underground Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are also included, which explain the new physics of ghostly neutrinos and solve the problematic mismatch between the predicted and observed amounts of solar neutrinos. This new edition of Sun, Earth and Sky also describes our recent understanding of how the Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to a million degrees, and just where the Sun's continuous winds come from. As humans we are more intimately linked with our life-sustaining Sun than with any other astronomical object, and the new edition therefore provides modern interpretations of ozone depletion and global warming that are related to both the Sun and to human activities. introduces the Sun and its physics, and describes all aspects of the Sun's interaction with us on Earth.

New interferometers as the VLTI, the Keck-I and CHARA along with their sophisticated instrumentation have provided new levels of accuracy, spectral resolution and access to various spectral bands from the optical to the thermal infrared. Investigations are now enabled on a wealth of astrophysical sources with unprecedented levels of angular resolution and sensitivity, producing a considerable body of new, exciting scientific results.

Celebrating the completion of the first phase of the VLTI development, the organisors of the ESO workshop "The Power of Optical/IR Interferometry," held in April 2005, saw an opportunity to invite the community to come together to review and discuss not just interferometers, but science with interferometers and its impact on astronomy as a whole. The workshop was also intended to showcase ideas and concepts for the future of interferometry, and in particular for the second generation of VLTI instrumentation.

This volume contains the proceedings of this workshop and serves as reference for astronomers working with optical and infrared interferometry.

Galaxies are vast ensembles of stars, gas and dust, embedded in dark matter halos. They are the basic building blocks of the Universe, gathered in groups, clusters and super-clusters. They exist in many forms, either as spheroids or disks. Classifications, such as the Hubble sequence (based on mass concentration and gas fraction) and the colormagnitude diagram (which separates a blue cloud from a red sequence) help to understand their formation and evolution. Galaxies spend a large part of their lives in the blue cloud, forming stars as spiral or dwarf galaxies. Then, via a mechanism that is still unclear, they stop forming stars and quietly end in the red sequence, as spheroids. This transformation may be due to galaxy interactions, or because of the feedback of active nuclei, through the energy released by their central super-massive black holes. These mechanisms could explain the history of cosmic star formation, the rate of which was far greater in the first half of the Universe s life. Galaxies delves into all of these surrounding subjects in six chapters written by dedicated, specialist astronomers and researchers in the field, from their numerical simulations to their evolutions.

Harbord's Glossary of Navigation was for more than 100 years the leading handbook for the navigation on the seas. Original edition of 1862, this is a reprint of the second edition 1874.

Relativistic cosmology has in recent years become one of the most exciting and active branches of current research. In conference after conference the view is expressed that cosmology today is where particle physics was forty years ago, with major discoveries just waiting to happen. Also gravitational wave detectors, presently under construction or in the testing phase, promise to open up an entirely novel field of physics. It is to take into account such recent developments, as well as to improve the basic text, that this second edition has been undertaken. The most affected is the last part on cosmology, but there are smaller additions, corrections, and additional exercises throughout. The books basic purpose is to make relativity come alive conceptually. Hence the emphasis on the foundations and the logical subtleties rather than on the mathematics or the detailed experiments per se. Aided by some 300 exercises, the book promotes a deep understanding and the confidence to tackle any fundamental relativistic problem. To request a copy of the Solutions Manual, visit: http: //global.oup.com/uk/academic/physics/admin/solutions

This volume contains papers presented at IAU Colloquium No. 90. at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in May of 1985. A few additional contributions are included from authors who for various reasons were unable to attend the meeting. Four years have passed since the last major international conference on chemically peculiar stars of the upper main sequence was held in Liege. Belgium in 1981. Previous conferences were held in 1975 (Vienna. Austria) and in 1965 (Greenbelt. Maryland. USA). As the proceedings of this Colloquium show. the recent availability of ultraviolet spectra of large numbers of normal and chemically peculiar A and B stars is having a major impact on the way we study these objects. and has led to many new. exciting and unanticipated results. Simultaneously. the more traditional study of optical spectra has been advanced through the increasing use of very high spectral resolution with high signal-to-noise detectors. The chemically peculiar (CP) stars on the upper main sequence belong in the standard framework within which we understand stellar evolution and the history of matter. Recent work has made it clear that the unusual chemistry and magnetic structure of these objects is of relevance across the broad domain of stellar astronomy. from the upper main sequence to horizontal branch stars and white dwarfs. Metal poor (J>. Boo) as well as metal rich (Ap. Am) stars are an integral part of the picture.

This book-unique in the literature-provides readers with the mathematical background needed to design many of the optical combinations that are used in astronomical telescopes and cameras. The results presented in the work were obtained by using a different approach to third-order aberration theory as well as the extensive use of the software package Mathematica (R). Replete with workout examples and exercises, Geometric Optics is an excellent reference for advanced graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in applied mathematics, engineering, astronomy, and astronomical optics. The work may be used as a supplementary textbook for graduate-level courses in astronomical optics, optical design, optical engineering, programming with Mathematica, or geometric optics.

The present 15th volume of the ISSI Space Science Series is devoted to Auroral Plasma Physics. The aurora is arguably the most intriguing phenomenon in space plasma physics. Not only is it the most spectacular manifestation of the Sun-Earth connection chain, but the underlying plasma processes are expected to be ubiqui- tous in the plasma universe. Recognizing the enormous progress made over the last decade in the understanding of the physics of the auroral acceleration processes, it seemed timely to write a comprehensive and integrated book on the subject. Re- cent advances concern the clarification of the nature of the acceleration process of the electrons that are responsible for the visible aurora, the recognition of the fundamental role of the large-scale current systems in organizing the auroral mor- phology, and of the interplay between particles and electromagnetic fields. The project began in March 1999, as a natural follow-up of the project on Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses that resulted in volume 6 of this se- ries, with a planning meeting by a core-group that coordinated the project. The group consisted of J. E. Borovsky, Los Alamos National Laboratory; C. W. Carl- son, University of California, Berkeley; G. Haerendel, Max-Planck-Institut fur ex- traterrestrische Physik, Garching; B. Hultqvist, Swedish Intitute ofSpace Physics, H. E. J. Koskinen, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki; W. Lotko, Kiruna; Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; K. A. Lynch, University of New Hampshire, Durham and G. Marklund, Royal Institute ofTechnology, Stockholm. G. Paschmann, ISSI, Bern, was the project leader.

If standard gravitational theory is correct, then most of the matter in the universe is in an unidentified form which does not emit enough light to have been detected by current instrumentation. This proceedings was devoted to a discussion of the so-called "missing matter" problem in the universe. The goal of the School was to make current research work on unseen matter accessible to students of faculties without prior experience in this area. Due to the pedagogical nature of the School and the strong interactions between students and the lectures, the written lectures included in this volume often contain techniques and explanations not found in more formal journal publications.

If standard gravitational theory is correct, then most of the matter in the universe is in an unidentified form which does not emit enough light to have been detected by current instrumentation. This proceedings was devoted to a discussion of the so-called "missing matter" problem in the universe. The goal of the School was to make current research work on unseen matter accessible to students of faculties without prior experience in this area. Due to the pedagogical nature of the School and the strong interactions between students and the lectures, the written lectures included in this volume often contain techniques and explanations not found in more formal journal publications.

Some 25 years after the birth of inflationary cosmology, this volume sets out to provide both an authoritative and pedagogical introduction and review of the current state of the field. Readers learn about the arguments supporting the many different scenarios of cosmic inflation. Articles are written by eminent scientists, many of whom have made pioneering contributions to the field of inflationary cosmology.

The workshop "From Dust to Terrestrial Planets" was initiated by a working group of planetary scientists invited to ISSI by Johannes Geiss in November 1997. The group split to focus on three topics, one of which was the history of the early solar system, including the formation of the terrestrial planets in the inner solar system. Willy Benz, Gunter Lugmair, and Frank Podosek were invited to convene planetary scientists, astrophysicists, and cosmochemists to synthesize the current knowledge on the origin and evolution of our inner planetary system. The convenors raised the interest of scientists from all over the world in the detailed assessment of the available astronomical, chronological, geochemical and dynamical constraints of the first period of inner solar system evolution. In partic ular, this included appraisal of the newest results from astronomical observations by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Infrared Space Observatory, and other space and ground-based facilities of solar-like systems and nebular disks, possibly repre senting early stages of the solar accretion disk and planet formation. At the same time, the current models of the origin, evolution, transport, and accretion processes of circum stellar disks were presented. This included the new insights provided by the recent discovery of extrasolar giant planets, which were considered insofar as they are relevant to the overall dynamics of the inner part of the solar system.

It is now a well-established tradition that every four years, at the end of winter, a group of 'celestial mechanicians' from all over the world gather in the Austrian Alps at the invitation of R. Dvorak. This time the colloquium was held at Badhofgastein from March 19 to March 25, 2000 and was devoted to the 'New Developments in the Dynamics of Planetary Systems'. The papers covered a large range of questions of current interest: t- oretical questions (resonances, KAM theory, transport, ... ) and questions about numerical tools (synthetic elements, indicators of chaos, ... ) were particularly well represented; of course planetary theories and Near Earth Objects were also quite popular. Three special lectures were delivered in honor of deceased colleagues whom, to our dismay, we will no longer meet at the 'Austrian Colloquia'. W. Jefferys delivered the Heinrich Eichhorn lecture on 'Statistics for the Twenty-first Century Astrometry', a topic on which Heinrich Eichhorn was a specialist. A. Roy delivered a lecture honoring Victor Szehebely on 'Lifting the Darkness: Science in the Third Millenium', in which in wove anecdotes and remembrances of Victor which moved the audience very much. A. Lemaitre spoke in honor of Michele Moons on 'Mech anism of Capture in External Resonance'. The end of her talk was devoted to a short and moving biography of Michele illustrated by many slides."

In the nineteenth century the beauty of the night sky is the source of both imaginative wonder in poetry and political and commercial power through navigation. The Romantic Imagination and Astronomy examines the impact of astronomical discovery and imperial exploration on poets including Barbauld, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Rossetti.

Geometrical Physics in Minkowski Spacetime is an overview and description of the geometry in spacetime, and aids in the creation and development of intuition in four-dimensional Minkowski space. The deepest understanding of relativity and spacetime is in terms of the geometrical absolutes, and this is what the book seeks to develop. The most interesting topics requiring special relativity are covered, including:SpacetimeVectors in SpacetimeElectromagnetismAsymptotic Momentum ConservationCovectors and Dyadics in SpacetimeEnergy Tensor Although the book is not meant for the complete beginner in special relativity, the mathematical prerequisites for the early chapters of the book are very few - linear algebra and elementary geometry (done using vectors and a scalar product). For the later chapters, multivariable calculus and ordinary differential equations are often needed.

Many times all of us could hear from mass media that an asteroid approached and swept past the Earth. Such an asteroid or comet will inevitably strike the planet some day. This volume considers hazards due to collisions with cosmic objects, particularly in light of recent investigations of impacts by the authors. Each chapter written by an expert contains an overview of an aspect and new findings in the field. The main hazardous effects cratering, shock, aerial and seismic waves, fires, ejection of dust and soot, tsunami are described and numerically estimated. Numerical simulations of impacts and impact consequences have received much attention in the book. Fairly small impacting objects 50 -100 m in diameter pose a real threat to humanity and their influence on the atmosphere and ionosphere is emphasized. Especially vulnerable are industrially developed areas with dense population, almost all Europe is one of them.

These are the proceedings of a meeting in honour of Massimo Capaccioli at the occasion of his 70th birthday. The conference aimed at summarizing the results from the main current and past digital sky survey projects and at discussing how these can be used to inspire ongoing projects and better plan the future ones. Over the last decades, digital sky surveys performed with dedicated telescopes and finely-tuned wide-field cameras, have revolutionized astronomy. They have become the main tool to investigate the nearby and far away universe, thus providing new insights in the understanding of the galaxy structure and assembly across time, the dark components of the universe, as well as the history of our own galaxy. They have also opened the time domain leading to a new understanding of the transient phenomena in the universe. By providing public access to top quality data, digital surveys have also changed the everyday practice of astronomers who have become less dependent on direct access to large observing facilities. The full scientific exploitation of these surveys has also triggered significant advances in both space and ground based technology and in the field of multi-object spectroscopy. The various sections of this book are devoted to different relevant aspects of astrophysics in the era of digital sky surveys and include both review and shorter, more focused contributions.

For decades experiments conducted on space stations like MIR and the ISS have been gathering data in many fields of research in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering. The EU-sponsored Ulisse Internet Portal provides metadata from space experiments of all kinds and links to the data. Complementary to the portal, this book will serve as handbook listing space experiments by type of infrastructure, area of research in the life and physical sciences, data type, what their mission was, what kind of data they have collected and how one can access this data through Ulisse for further research.

The book will provide an overview of the wealth of space experiment data that can be used for research, and will inspire academics (e.g. those looking for topics for their PhD thesis) and research departments in companies for their continued development.

This book traces the development of the Jewish calendar from its origin until it reached, in the tenth century CE, its present form. Drawing on a wide range of sources - literary, documentary and epigraphic; Jewish, Graeco-Roman and Christian - this is the first comprehensive book to have been written on this subject. The unification of the calendar is seen as an element in the unification of Jewish identity.

IAU Colloquium 165, Dynamics and Astrometry of Natural and Artificial Celestial Bodies, was held in Poznan, Poland, in July 1996, bringing together over 200 scientists from 27 countries who discussed their work in 179 oral and poster presentations. The present volume contains 83 of the papers presented at the meeting. The meeting brought together specialists from diverse fields who focused on the very close collaboration between dynamics and astrometry, where one discipline contributes to the progress of the other. The oral sessions were organized into general categories pertaining to: solar system dynamics; new observational techniques, catalogues, and astrometry; dynamics and observational problems of artificial satellites and space debris; rotation of solar system objects; reference systems and astronomical standards; new mathematical techniques; and three all-day poster sessions. This volume is divided into seven parts, comprising 83 contributions, a list of participants and an index.

The subject of this workshop (held May-June 1989) plays the central role in high energy heavy ion collisions; contains the possibilities of various phase transitions (gas vapor, meson condensation, quark gluon plasma); and plays an important role in the static and dynamical behavior of stars, especi"

This book is the sixth volume under the title Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA). The OSA series is intended to cover a large range of fields and themes. In practice, one could say that all aspects of astronomy-related life and environment are considered in the spirit of sharing specific expertise and lessons learned.

The chapters of this book are dealing with socio-dynamical aspects of the astronomy (and related space sciences) community: characteristics of organizations, strategies for development, legal issues, operational techniques, observing practicalities, educational policies, journal and magazine profiles, public outreach, publication studies, relationships with the media, research communication, evaluation and selection procedures, research indicators, national specificities, contemporary history, and so on.

The experts contributing to this volume have done their best to write in a way understandable to readers not necessarily hyperspecialized in astronomy while providing specific detailed information and sometimes enlightening lessons learned' sections. The book concludes with an updated bibliography of publications related to socio-astronomy and to the interactions of the astronomy community with the society at large.

This volume will be most usefully read by researchers, teachers, editors, publishers, librarians, sociologists of science, research planners and strategists, project managers, public-relations officers, plus those in charge of astronomy-related organizations, as well as by students aiming at a career in astronomy or related space science.