There are as many different kinds of stars as there are stars themselves. Each an individual, every one unique. In this arresting and lavishly illustrated volume, noted astronomy writer and teacher Jim Kaler choose 100 stars to illustrate the mind-boggling variety of the stars' shapes and sizes, their immense ages, and the vast range of configurations in which they exist.||From AG Draconis to Z Andromedae, this alphabetically arranged volume first lists each star's resident constellation, its class, its apparent brightness as viewed from Earth, its distance from our Sun, and its visual luminosity. Then the real story begins. In choosing his "top 100," Kaler has aimed not just at providing a representative sample of the Universe's extraordinarily diverse population, but at capturing their complexity, their dynamism, and the amazing view they provide into the extraordinary physical forces at play in the Universe.||James B. Kaler is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has held both Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, and has been awarded medals for his work from the University of Liege (Belgium) and the University of Mexico. He is the author of six books and dozens of articles on astronomy, including The Little Book of Stars (Copernicus Books, 2000) and lectures frequently. He also directs and maintains several educational websites, including the highly regarded and award-winning "Stars of the Week" site at the University of Illinois: http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sow.html.||Reviews:||¿Most people know about Sirius, Canopus and Antares, but not everyone will be familiar with EG 129, HZ 21 and Polaris Australis, the dim star close to the south pole of the sky. Enter The Hundred Greatest Stars by James Kaler...Following a very clear general introduction to stellar astronomy, Kaler embarks on an informative tour through his hundred favourite stars, each given a page of text with an appropriate illustration on the facing page¿The really clever aspect of the book is that as well as describing the hundred stars, often bringing out aspects which are unfamiliar, Kaler succeeds in giving an excellent broad survey of recent developments in stellar astronomy. As is to be expected, the text is immensely authoritative¿The illustrations are beautiful...¿|¿New Scientist

Constituting the first holistic overview including practical remedies, this handbook provides the background needed by anyone grappling with the complex issue of outdoor lighting and its effects. It describes not only the problems that astronomers and other night sky observers face in reducing the problems of information loss due to light pollution, as well as the problems lighting technologists face in optimising outdoor lighting installations that cause little or no light pollution. The first part is directed to decision makers and managers of outdoor space and covers the areas of general interest, culminating in recommendations to reduce the impact of light pollution. The second part is directed primarily to scientists and engineers, as a support to the design and maintenance of outdoor lighting installations, with special reference to astronomical observations. Elaborating issues from the first part, these contributions include examples that refer to specific outdoor lighting projects and to more general policy and educational measures. Written for designers of lighting equipment and managers of astronomical observatories, but also aimed at the authorities and decision makers responsible for the organization and maintenance of the public space, it will serve a good purpose in graduate or postgraduate curricula for scientists, engineers, economists and law students. This handbook fills the gap that exists between astronomical textbooks, engineering texts and popular brochures about light pollution.

This unique volume contains the proceedings of two "Non-Sleeping Universe" conferences: "Stars and the ISM" and "From Galaxies to the Horizon." The book provides an overview of recent developments in a variety of areas, covering a very wide range of spatial and temporal scales.

The study of the Solar system, particularly of its newly discovered outer parts, is one of the hottest topics in modern astrophysics with great potential for revealing fundamental clues about the origin of planets and even the emergence of life. The three lecturers of the 35th Saas-Fee Advanced Course, which have been updated and collected in this volume, cover the field from observational, theoretical and numerical perspectives.

This book is the second volume under the title Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA). These OSA books are 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. This book offers a unique collection of chapters dealing with socio-dynamical aspects of the astronomy (and related space sciences) community: characteristics of organizations, operational techniques, strategies for development, conference series, coordination policies, observing practicalities, computing strategies, sociology of large collaborations, publications studies, research indicators, research communication, public outreach, creativity in arts and sciences, and so on. The experts contributing to this book 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 book 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.

The information received from BeppoSAX, Chandra and other instruments in the last two years has more than doubled the number of samples of Gamma-Ray Bursts localized and followed up for afterglow search. This has also increased the interest of astronomers in GRBs. This book reviews the research of the last two years and covers the global properties of GRBs, GRB afterglows, GRB host galaxies, cosmology using GRBs, and theories for GRBs and their afterglows. Theoretical and observational aspects are presented as well as tools for the analysis of the data.

This volume covers different aspects of recent theoretical and observational work on magnetic reconnection, a fundamental plasma-physical process by which energy stored in magnetic field is converted, often explosively, into heat and kinetic energy. This collection of papers from the fields of solar and space physics, astrophysics, and laboratory plasma physics is especially timely in view of NASA's upcoming Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, which will use Earth's magetosphere as a laboratory to test, through in-situ measurement of the plasma, energetic particles, and electric and magnetic fields, the various and sometimes competing models and theories of magnetic reconnection.
This volume is aimed at researchers in solar physics, magnetospheric physics and plasma physics.
Previously published in Space Science Reviews journal, Vol. 160/1-4, 2011.

IAU Symposium 172 Dynamics, Ephemerides and Astrometry of the Solar System was held in Paris in July, 1995. 250 scientists from 33 countries attended the symposium; 24 invited lectures and 165 contributed papers were presented (117 of which were posters). The papers covered topics on celestial mechanics (chaos and evolution of the solar system, asteroids, theories of the motion of the planets, the moon and the natural satellites), methods (symplectic mappings and elliptic functions), astrometry (CCD observations, VLBI and radar observations), ephemerides (representation and numerical integration) and on the history of celestial mechanics.

Astronomy is a scienti?c discipline that has developed a rapid and impressive growth in Spain. Thirty years ago, Spain occupied a purely anecdotal presence in the international context, but today it occupies the eighth position in the world in publication of astronomical articles, and, among other successes, owns and op- ates ninety per cent of the world's largest optical telescope GTC (Gran Telescopio Canarias). The Eighth Scienti?c Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanol a de Astronom a, SEA), held in Santander in July 7-11 2008, whose p- ceedings are in your hands, clearly shows the enthusiasm, motivation and quality of the present Spanish astronomical community. The event brought together 322 participants, who represent almost 50% of Spanish professional astronomers. This percentage, together with the continuously increasing, with respect to previous SEA meetings, number of oral presentations and poster contributions (179 and 127 respectively), con?rms that the SEA conferences have become a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. The most important and current topics of modern Astrophysics were taken into accountat thepreliminarymeeting, aswell as the numberandqualityofparticipants and their contributions, to select the invited speakers and oral contributors. We took a week to enjoy the high quality contributions submitted by Spanish astronomers to the Scienti?c Organizing Committee. The selection was dif?cult. We wish to acknowledge the gentle advice and commitment of the SOC members."

Representatives of several scientific communities, such as planetary scientists, astronomers, space physicists, chemists and astrobiologists have met with the aim to review the knowledge on four major themes: (1) the study of the formation and evolution processes of the outer planets and their satellites, beginning with the formation of compounds and planetesimals in the solar nebula, and the subsequent evolution of the interiors of the outer planets, (2) a comparative study of the atmospheres of the outer planets and Titan, (3) the study of the planetary magnetospheres and their interactions with the solar wind, and (4) the formation and properties of satellites and rings, including their interiors, surfaces, and their interaction with the solar wind and the magnetospheres of the outer planets. Beyond these topics, the implications for the prebiotic chemical evolution on Europa and Titan are reviewed. At the time of publication, the study of the outer planets is particularly motivated by the fact that the Saturn system is being investigated by the Cassini-Huygens mission.

The book reviews the present status of understanding the nature of the most luminous objects in the Universe, connected with supermassive black holes and supermassive stars, clusters of galaxies and ultraluminous galaxies, sources of gamma-ray bursts and relativistic jets. Leading experts give overviews of essential physical mechanisms involved, discuss formation and evolution of these objects as well as prospects for their use in cosmology, as probes of the intergalactic medium at high redshifts and as a tool to study the end of dark ages. The theoretical models are complemented by new exciting results from orbital and ground-based observatories such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, HST, SDSS, VLT, Keck, and many others.

This book is intended as a historical and critical study on the origin of the equations of motion as established in Newton's Principia. The central question that it aims to answer is whether it is indeed correct to ascribe to Galileo the inertia principle and the law of falling bodies. In order to accomplish this task, the study begins by considering theories on the motion of bodies from classical antiquity, and especially those of Aristotle. The theories developed during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are then reviewed, with careful analysis of the contributions of, for example, the Merton and Parisian Schools and Galileo's immediate predecessors, Tartaglia and Benedetti. Finally, Galileo's work is examined in detail, starting from the early writings. Excerpts from individual works are presented, to allow the texts to speak for themselves, and then commented upon. The book provides historical evidence both for Galileo's dependence on his forerunners and for the major breakthroughs that he achieved. It will satisfy the curiosity of all who wish to know when and why certain laws have been credited to Galileo.

Since the discovery of the cluster soft excess (CSE) over eight years ago, its properties and origin have been the subject of debate. With the recent launch of new missions such as XMM-Newton and FUSE, we are beginning to answer some of the complex issues regarding the phenomenon. This conference proceedings is an attempt to bring together the latest research results and covers both observational and theoretical work on the CSE and related topics. One of the main topics is the possible relationship between the CSE and the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), which is believed to harbor 50% of the baryons in the near Universe. New data from both XMM-Newton and FUSE have indicated a possible causal link between the WHIM and CSE. Evidence is based on the apparent detection of O VII emission lines in the soft excess spectrum of the outskirts of several clusters, as well as reports of absorption lines at local and higher redshifts (seen in the spectra of distant sources) as signature of the WHIM. However, while there has been considerable optimism in attributing a substantial fraction of the cluster soft excess flux to WHIM emission, other work shows that, for example, the amount of WHIM material predicted by theoretical simulations falls way short of that necessary to account for the CSE. Other work indicates that at the cores of some cluster this excess emission is so strong, it is impossible to invoke the thermal model without at the same time enlisting radically new physics. Thus alternative interpretations involving non-thermal processes are also reported and being pursued in earnest. Whatever the origin of CSE may turn out to be, results in this book show that it has become beyond reasonable doubt that the phenomenon itself is observationally established. This book reports the scientific progress made by bringing together scientists from a wide range of disciplines. It clearly demonstrates the importance of such meetings and participants if we are to solve this puzzle. This volume is aimed at scientists and graduate students in astronomy who want to learn about the latest results on cluster soft excess observations and theoretical implications.

The first edition of The Sun From Space, completed in 1999, focused on the early accomplishments of three solar spacecraft, SOHO, Ulysses and Yohkoh, primarily during a minimum in the Sun's 11-year cycle of magnetic activity. This comprehensive Second Edition includes the main findings of these three spacecraft over an entire activity cycle, including two minima and a maximum, and discusses the significant results of six further solar missions. It contains the relevant discoveries of the past decade, integrated into chapters completely rewritten for the purposes of this book. This provides a fresh perspective on the major topics of solar enquiry, written in an enjoyable, easily understood text accessible to all readers, from the interested layperson to the student or professional.

After describing the scientific objectives of the nine solar missions and a historical perspective on studies of the Sun and heliosphere, the author presents key advances in our understanding of the solar interior, the heating of the million-degree outer atmosphere of the Sun, known as the solar corona, the origin and nature of the solar winds, the cause, prediction and propagation of explosive solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and all aspects of space-weather interactions of the Sun with the Earth, with unprotected astronauts on the Moon or Mars, and with spacecraft in outer space.

The author is known also for his famous books "Astrophysical Formulae," "Sun, Earth and Sky," and the prize-winning "Wanderers in Space," he has succeeded once again in addressing a complex scientific topic in a very approachable way. Hence, this generously illustrated book, whilst primarily addressing students, will also be of interest to a broader readership covering all levels from the amateur to the expert.

Sometime in the distant past, some fourteen billion years ago, all that is and all that was burst into creation in a tumultuous event. Time and space had no meaning before this genesis event that sparked creation. Cosmic Entity describes how space and time--the universe--came from nothing--a perfect balance of positive and negative energy. All matter that exists today, from the rings of Saturn to the dirt beneath your feet, was created from the seething fireball when the infant universe was less than one second old. This raw material existed in the form of protons (or hydrogen). Cosmic Entity explains how the elements were formed, how matter is synthesized within the cores of stars, and how supernovae (exploding stars) serve to create even heavier elements and seed the galaxies with this raw material. A billion or so years after creation, give or take an eon, the universe expanded and cooled enough for interesting structures--beautiful spiral and elliptical islands of stars called galaxies--to form from the sea of matter. Galaxies grouped together into clusters and colossal super cluster walls of galaxies evident today.

Research and publications in the field of Astronomy have undergone dramatic changes in the last half-century. While activities just slowed down during World War II in the US and in Latin America, they were very strongly affected by the difficult conditions prevailing among the European belligerent nations. Half a century ago, re search activities were mostly confined to observatories (linked or not to universities) and usually separated from the teaching of physical sciences. Hence, directors of observatories played an important role in the choice of the research fields, and "schools" of research appeared at various places, de veloping specific instrumentation, reduction techniques and mathematical methods to achieve their scientific goals. Reorganising the research activities after the war was no minor under taking, specially because communications were interrupted for over five years and isolated continental Europe from overseas activities. Scarcity of observing instruments (some of them being requisitioned by occupy ing armies), enormous gaps in the available litterature led to local research activities, conducted independently of similar efforts undertaken elsewhere."

This textbook presents ultraviolet and X-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy, cosmic ray astronomy, neutrino astronomy, and gravitational wave astronomy as distinct research areas, focusing on the astrophysics targets and the requirements with respect to instrumentation and observation methods. The purpose of the book is to bridge the gap between the reference books and the specialized literature. For each type of astronomy, the discussion proceeds from the orders of magnitude for observable quantities. The physical principles of photon and particle detectors are then addressed, and the specific telescopes and combinations of detectors, presented. Finally the instruments and their limits are discussed with a view to assisting readers in the planning and execution of observations. Astronomical observations with high-energy photons and particles represent the newest additions to multimessenger astronomy and this book will be of value to all with an interest in the field.

Nanodust and nanometer-sized structures are important components of many objects in space. Nanodust is observed in evolved stars, young stellar objects, protoplanetary disks, and dust debris disks. Within the solar system, nanodust is observed with in-situ experiments from spacecraft. Nanometer-sized substructures are found in the collected cometary and interplanetary dust particles and in meteorites. Understanding the growth and destruction of dust, its internal evolution, as well as the optical properties and the detection of nanoparticles is of fundamental importance for astrophysical research. This book provides a focused description of the current state of research and experimental results concerning nanodust in the solar system. It addresses three major questions: What is nanodust? How was it discovered in the solar system? And how do we interpret the observations? The book serves as a self-contained reference work for space researchers and provides solid information on nanodust in cosmic environments for researchers working in astrophysics or in other fields of physics.

The objective of this workshop was to put together observational and theoretical works on outflows from different kinds of astrophysical objects, occurring on different scales and at various evolutionary phases, and to discuss the impact of observations from future space missions. For the stars, we thought to follow throughout the evolution the relevance (rates and dynamical rrodes) of the mass loss phenomenon, e. g. to explain how and when massive stars loose most of their ini tial mass to end up with typical WD masses. The observations of the solar wind were included for being a unique case where the origin and propagation of the outflow can be resolved. We thought that the comparison with similar phenomena occurring in galactic outflows would be fruitful, as demonstrated by recent works on galactic winds and jets. The interest of having this workshop in Torino came because there are groups in this area, at the Astronomical Observatory and at the Institute of Physics of the University, involved in the theoretical and observational studies of outflows from astrophysical objects. The members of the Scientific Organizing Conmi ttee were: V. Castellani, C. Cesarski, P. Conti, A. Ferrari, A. Gabriel, M. Grewing, Y. Kondo, H. Lamers, V. Manno, M. Rees and R. Schilizzi. The Local Organizing Conmi ttee was: L. Bianchi, G. Massone and E. Antonucci. During the workshop the following topics were treated: the solar wind, the mass loss from cool stars and from hot stars (m. s.

The present volume colleets the review and contributed papers presented at the Europhysics Study Conferenee "Acere- tion Disks and Magnetie Fields in Astrophysies" held in Noto, Sicily, Italy, from 16 to 21 June 1988, under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republie and the 10ea1 patronage of the Cent ro di Studi Superiori e di Rieer- ehe (Center for Advaneed Study and Research), a seientific institution supported by the City of Nota and the Oniversity of Catania. The attendanee to the Conferenee was limited to about fifty seleeted partieipants from Canada, China, Denmark, Franee, Germany F.R., Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sl~itzerland. Onited Kingdom and Onited States, in order to give the meeting the character and appearance of areal lolorkshop, whose main aim was to highl ight a varied but same wh at uni fied picture of the interact ion, in di fferent astrophysical systems, of rotation, turbulenee and magnetism, with speeifie referenee to aeeretion disks.

This book serves two purposes. The authors present important aspects of modern research on the mathematical structure of Einstein's field equations and they show how to extract their physical content from them by mathematically exact methods. The essays are devoted to exact solutions and to the Cauchy problem of the field equations as well as to post-Newtonian approximations that have direct physical implications. Further topics concern quantum gravity and optics in gravitational fields.
The book addresses researchers in relativity and differential geometry but can also be used as additional reading material for graduate students.

Cosmology deals with the current state of thinking about the basic questions at the center of the field of cosmology. More emphasis than usual is put on the connections to related domains of science, such as geometry, relativity, thermodynamics, particle physics, and - in particular - on the intrinsic connections between the different topics. The chapters are illustrated with many figures that are as exact as currently possible, e.g. in the case of geometry and relativity. Readers acquire a graduate-level knowledge of cosmology as it is required to understand the cosmological impact of their particular research topics, as well as an introduction into the current research in the field.

The book contains lecture papers and contributed papers on different aspects of magnetic phenomena in the solar atmosphere. The main topics addressed are the physics of solar flares, prominences, coronal mass ejections, magnetic helicity, high-energy radiation from the Sun, observations of the photosphere and chromosphere as well as highlights from the SOHO mission.

The lecture papers provide a very valuable introduction and overview on recent developments in these fields of solar physics. The comprehensive lists of references at the end of each review enable the interested reader to go into more detail. The book is particularly useful for graduate students and young researchers working in solar physics.

From the discovery of entirely new kinds of galaxies to a window into cosmic 'prehistory', Bothwell shows us the Universe as we've never seen it before - literally. Since the dawn of our species, people all over the world have gazed in awe at the night sky. But for all the beauty and wonder of the stars, when we look with just our eyes we are seeing and appreciating only a tiny fraction of the Universe. What does the cosmos have in store for us beyond the phenomena we can see, from black holes to supernovas? How different does the invisible Universe look from the home we thought we knew? Dr Matt Bothwell takes us on a journey through the full spectrum of light and beyond, revealing what we have learned about the mysteries of the Universe. This book is a guide to the ninety-nine per cent of cosmic reality we can't see - the Universe that is hidden, right in front of our eyes. It is also the endpoint of a scientific detective story thousands of years in the telling. It is a tour through our Invisible Universe.