This text presents a comprehensive account of the magnetic fields of various celestial bodies - the Sun, the Moon, planets, stars, the Milky Way, and galaxies, as well as the interplanetary, interstellar and intergalactic media. The original Chinese edition was published in Beijing in 1978. The present English edition has been enhanced and thoroughly rewritten. This monograph is characterized by its detail and may be used as a reference and textbook for scientific researchers and students of astronomy, space physics, geophysics and other related sciences.

Der Blick zu den Sternen.- Ovids gewoelbter Himmel.- Der Sonnenwagen.- Jupiter und Kallisto.- Jupiter und Europa.- Perseus und Andromeda.- Der Sternenhimmel im Jahreskreis.- Der Himmel im Fruhling.- Sternzug: "Deichsellinie bis Spica".- Der Himmel im Sommer.- Sternzuge: "Funfsternreihe" und "Grosses Dreieck".- Der Himmel im Herbst.- Sternzug: "Kolurlinie".- Der Himmel im Winter.- Sternzuge: "Grosser Wagen und Polarstern" und "Grosses Sechseck um Orion".- Himmelskarten fur das ganze Jahr.- Tabellen.- Karten.- Sternbilder und uberliefertes Wissen.- Adler.- Andromeda.- Barenhuter.- Becher.- Delphin.- Drache.- Fische.- Fuhrmann.- Grosser Bar.- Grosser Hund.- Hase.- Herkules.- Jungfrau.- Kassiopeia.- Kleiner Bar.- Kleiner Hund.- Krebs.- Leier.- Loewe.- Noerdliche Krone.- Noerdliche Wasserschlange.- Orion.- Pegasus.- Perseus.- Rabe.- Schlange, Schlangentrager.- Schutze.- Schwan.- Skorpion.- Steinbock.- Stier.- Waage.- Walfisch.- Wassermann.- Widder.- Zwillinge.- Wissenschaftliche Bilder.- Das Universum antiker Astronomen.- Beobachtung der Sonne.- Beobachtung der Sterne.- Die Bewegung der Sonne vor dem Fixsternhintergrund.- Die Deutung der Beobachtungen als Zwei-Kugel-Universum.- Die Bewegung von Planeten vor dem Fixsternhintergrund.- Kopernikanisches Universum.- Die Philosophie der Bilder.- Das naturwissenschaftliche Bild.- Zeiten "normaler Wissenschaft".- Selbst und Sein.- Quellen und weiterfuhrende Literatur.- Quellenhinweise.- Schrifttum.- Fruhe Quellen uber Sternbilder und Mythen.- Menschen, Goetter und Damonen.- Namen und Kurzbeschreibungen.- AEhnliche oder nahezu aquivalente Gottheiten.- Symbole, Kennzeichen und Eigenschaften.- Funktion, Tatigkeit und Aufgabe.- Die Lage des Mondes und der Planeten auf der Ekliptik.- Himmelskarten und besondere Objekte.- Danksagung.- International gebrauchliche Fachbezeichnungen und Sternbildabkurzungen.- Verzeichnis der Sterne und Sternbilder.- Verzeichnis zur Mythologie.- Gesamtverzeichnis.

This book reproduces the proceedings of the last of a series of "Euroconferences" dedicated to the ongoing near-infrared sky surveys DENIS and 2MASS. It presents the current status of both projects and some of the most outstanding results they have recently achieved in various areas of galactic and extragalactic astronomy. The book contains substantial articles by researchers directly involved in the survey data processing and interpretation which thoroughly describe the astrophysical context in which deep and homogeneous near-infrared surveys will eventually bring about significant breakthrough. They deal with the determination of basic parameters of the galactic structure, the stellar content of the bulge, the construction of unbiased and statistically significant samples of isolated very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, the improvement of the low-end of the stellar luminosity and mass functions, the complete census of young stellar objects in nearby giant molecular clouds, the accurate determination of the luminosity function of late-type giants in the Magellanic Clouds and the structure of the local universe. The analysis of a very small subsample of the full expected set of data promises an extraordinary harvest of discoveries in the 21st century, especially when these data are merged with the results of major related space missions such as Hipparcos and ISO. This book would be of general interest to graduate students in astronomy and professional astronomers involved in most areas of observational astronomy.

"How do alien, faraway worlds reveal their existence to Earthlings? Let Donald Goldsmith count the ways. As an experienced astronomer and a gifted storyteller, he is the perfect person to chronicle the ongoing hunt for planets of other stars." -Dava Sobel Astronomers have recently discovered thousands of planets that orbit stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy. With his characteristic wit and style, Donald Goldsmith presents the science of exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life in a way that Earthlings with little background in astronomy or astrophysics can understand and enjoy. Much of what has captured the imagination of planetary scientists and the public is the unexpected strangeness of these distant worlds, which bear little resemblance to the planets in our solar system. The sizes, masses, and orbits of exoplanets detected so far raise new questions about how planets form and evolve. Still more tantalizing are the efforts to determine which exoplanets might support life. Astronomers are steadily improving their means of examining these planets' atmospheres and surfaces, with the help of advanced spacecraft sent into orbits a million miles from Earth. These instruments will provide better observations of planetary systems in orbit around the dim red stars that throng the Milky Way. Previously spurned as too faint to support life, these cool stars turn out to possess myriad planets nestled close enough to maintain Earthlike temperatures. The quest to find other worlds brims with possibility. Exoplanets shows how astronomers have broadened our planetary horizons, and suggests what may come next, including the ultimate discovery: life beyond our home planet.

Streamlining the extensive information from the original, highly acclaimed monograph, this new An Introduction to the Physics of Interstellar Dust provides a concise reference and overview of interstellar dust and the interstellar medium. Drawn from a graduate course taught by the author, a highly regarded figure in the field, this all-in-one book emphasizes astronomical formulae and astronomical problems to give a solid foundation for the further study of interstellar medium. Covering all phenomena associated with cosmic dust, this inclusive text eliminates the need to consult special physical literature by providing a comprehensive introduction in one source. The book addresses the absorption and scattering of dust, its creation in old stars, as well as emission, cohesion, and electrical charge. With strong attention to detail, the author facilitates a complete understanding from which to build a more versatile application and manipulation of the information. Providing insightful explanations for the utilization of many formulae, the author instructs in the effective investigation of astronomical objects for determining basic parameters. The book offers numerous figures displaying basic properties of dust such as optical constants, specific heat, and absorption and scattering coefficients making it accessible for the reader to apply these numbers to the problem at hand. There is an extensive section and comprehensive introduction to radiative transfer in a dusty medium with many practical pieces of advice and ample illustrations to guide astronomers wishing to implement radiative transfer code themselves. An unparalleled amount of astronomical information in an accessible andpalatable resource, An Introduction to the Physics of Interstellar Dust provides the most complete foundational reference available on the subject.

Stellar Structure and Evolution, the second volume in the Ohio State Astrophysics Series, takes advantage of our new era of stellar astrophysics, in which modern techniques allow us to map the interiors of stars in unprecedented detail. This textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students aims to develop a broad physical understanding of the fundamental principles that dictate stellar properties. The study of stellar evolution focuses on the 'life cycle' of stars: how they are born, how they live, and how they die. As elements ejected by one generation of stars are incorporated into the next generation, stellar evolution is intertwined with the chemical evolution of our galaxy. Focusing on key physical processes without going into encyclopedic depth, the authors present stellar evolution in a contemporary context, including phenomena such as pulsations, mass loss, binary interactions, and rotation, which contribute to our understanding of stars.

The winner of UCL's annual HEP thesis prize, this work describes an analysis of the data from the second flight of the Antarctica Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). ANITA is a balloon-borne experiment that searches for radio signals originating from ultra-high energy neutrinos and cosmic rays interacting with the Antarctic ice or air. The search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin is one of the outstanding experimental challenges of the 21st century. The ANITA experiment was designed to be the most sensitive instrument to ultra-high energy neutrinos that originate from the interactions of cosmic rays with the cosmic microwave background. The methodology and results of the neutrino and cosmic ray searches are presented in the thesis.

The Navier-Stokes equations describe the motion of fluids and are an invaluable addition to the toolbox of every physicist, applied mathematician, and engineer. The equations arise from applying Newton's laws of motion to a moving fluid and are considered, when used in combination with mass and energy conservation rules, to be the fundamental governing equations of fluid motion. They are relevant across many disciplines, from astrophysics and oceanic sciences to aerospace engineering and materials science. This Student's Guide provides a clear and focused presentation of the derivation, significance and applications of the Navier-Stokes equations, along with the associated continuity and energy equations. Designed as a useful supplementary resource for undergraduate and graduate students, each chapter concludes with a selection of exercises intended to reinforce and extend important concepts. Video podcasts demonstrating the solutions in full are provided online, along with written solutions and other additional resources.

Get the straight, scientific story on things like astrology, ghosts, spontaneous human combustion, psychic surgery, and ESP. You hear about these fantastic happenings every day on television and in the supermarket tabloids. Is any of this true or are they making it all up? While many people tune in just for laughs, plenty of readers believe their outrageous claims - often because they simply don't have a clear notion of what science really is. So how do you figure out what constitutes real science and what is nonsense? "Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction" carefully deconstructs five examples of pseudoscience - UFOs, out-of-body experiences, astrology, creationism, and ESP - and gives easy recipes to test other dubious notions so that you can tell what lies in the realm of real science and what more properly deserves the tag of pseudoscience. This second edition of "Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction" will include a brand new chapter on alternative medicine, up-to-date links for reliable skeptical websites, organizations and meetings, and a fully updated additional reading section.

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite was launched on 5 February 2002. Its objective is to study the energy release and particle acceleration in solar flares through observations of X-rays and gamma rays. Two novel technologies are combined to obtain both spectra and images over a broad energy range. For the spectroscopy, cooled hyperpure germanium detectors are used to cover the energy range from 3 keV to 17 MeV with unprecedented keV-class resolution. Since focusing optics are not possible for making images with such high energy photons, tungsten and molybdenum absorbing grids are used to modulate the X-rays and gamma-rays coming from the Sun as the spacecraft rotates. This allows the spatial Fourier components of the source to be determined so that images can be made in spectral ranges where astronomical images have never been produced before. These new instrumental techniques require equally innovative software to reconstruct X-ray and gamma-ray spectra and images from the observations.

Ample solar activity, abundant observations, and an open data policy have attracted many researchers. Astronomers face in the RHESSI mission an exciting new scientific potential. It has unusually broad possibilities for improving our understanding of the enigmatic solar flare phenomenon that is becoming increasingly important as society depends more and more on space-based technologies.
In this volume, the functioning of RHESSI is explained, the data analysis techniques including spectroscopy and image reconstruction are introduced, and the experiences of the first few months of operation are summarized. First scientific results are presented thatprovide the essential base for more extended studies using RHESSI data and complementary observations by instruments on other spacecraft and at ground-based solar observatories.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains X-ray and EUV movies showing the dynamics of several solar flares. It also contains color versions of the graphics in the printed papers and additional material.

Scientists and students will find here the latest discoveries in solar flare research, as well as inspiration for future work. The papers will serve as references for the many new discoveries to come from the continuing RHESSI observations.

This is a concise introduction to modern astrophysics for physicists, with a focus on galaxy dynamics and the discovery of dark matter halos in galaxies. Part I summarizes important discoveries in observational astronomy and astrophysics, in a manner accessible to those who are new to the topic. Building on this foundation, Part II describes the study of dark matter and provides more detail on galactic dynamics. Important physical concepts that form the basis of key astrophysical phenomena are explained, avoiding unnecessary technicalities and complex derivations. The approach is semi-empirical and emphasizes the importance of key measurements and observations in formulating fundamental theoretical questions and developing their solutions. Students are encouraged to develop a deep understanding of major discoveries and contemporary research topics, beyond the simple application of practical models and formulae, as a bridge to more advanced study in astrophysics.

Written by an international leader in the field, this is a coherent and accessible account of the concepts that are now vital for understanding cutting-edge work on supermassive black holes. These include accretion disc misalignment, disc breaking and tearing, chaotic accretion, the merging of binary supermassive holes, the demographics of supermassive black holes, and the defining effects of feedback on their host galaxies. The treatment is largely analytic and gives in-depth discussions of the underlying physics, including gas dynamics, ideal and non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics, force-free electrodynamics, accretion disc physics, and the properties of the Kerr metric. It stresses aspects where conventional assumptions may be inappropriate and encourages the reader to think critically about current models. This volume will be useful for graduate or Masters courses in astrophysics, and as a handbook for active researchers in the field. eBook formats include colour figures while print formats are greyscale only.

This book contains the proceedings of the first large IAU Symposium dedicated to the bulges of spiral galaxies. Detailed attention is paid to the bulge of the Milky Way, one of the major building blocks of this system. Topics include the definition of the bulge in our Galaxy and its relation to the so-called spheroid. Discussions are presented regarding the stars contained in this bulge, their astrophysical properties, their motions and the metallicity variations which appear to be present. The possible existence of a bar in the bulge and its origin and future are also examined. The same topics are discussed in less detail for the bulges of other galaxies.

The small bodies in planetary systems are indicative of the material evo- tion, the dynamical evolution, and the presence of planets in a system. Recent astronomicalresearch,spaceresearch,laboratoryresearch,andnumericals- ulationsbroughtawealthofnewandexciting?ndingsonextra-solarplanetary systems and on asteroids, comets, meteoroids, dust, and trans-Neptunian - jects in the solar system. Progress in astronomical instrumentation led to the discovery and investigation of small bodies in the outer solar system and to observations of cosmic dust in debris disks of extra-solar planetary systems. Space research allowed for close studies of some of the small solar system bodies from spacecraft. This lecture series is intended as an introduction to the latest research results and to the key issues of future research. The ch- ters are mainly based on lectures given during a recent research school and on research activities within the 21st Century COE Program "Origin and Evolution of Planetary Systems" at Kobe University, Japan. In Chap. 1, Taku Takeuchi discusses the evolution of gas and dust from protoplanetary disks to planetary disks. Using a simple model, he studies v- cous evolution and photoevaporation as possible mechanisms of gas dispersal. He further considers how the dust grows into planetesimals. Motion of dust particles induced by gas drag is described, and then using a simple analytic model, the dust growth timescale is discussed.

Working physicists, and especially astrophysicists, value a good `back-of-the-envelope' calculation, meaning a short, elegant computation or argument that starts from general principles and leads to an interesting result. This book guides students on how to understand astrophysics using general principles and concise calculations - endeavouring to be elegant where possible and using short computer programs where necessary. The material proceeds in approximate historical order. The book begins with the Enlightenment-era insight that the orbits of the planets is easy, but the orbit of the Moon is a real headache, and continues to deterministic chaos. This is followed by a chapter on spacetime and black holes. Four chapters reveal how microphysics, especially quantum mechanics, allow us to understand how stars work. The last two chapters are about cosmology, bringing us to 21st-century developments on the microwave background and gravitational waves.

Discusses the wide range of chemistry in astronomical environments with an emphasis on the description of molecular processes that critically influence the nature and evolution of astronomical objects and the identification of specific observations that directly address significant astronomical questions. The subject areas of the symposium included atomic and molecular processes at low and high temperatures and photon interactions, the chemical structure of molecular clouds in the Milky Way and in external galaxies, the chemistry of outflows and their interactions with the interstellar medium, the chemical connections between the interstellar medium, and the solar system and pregalactic chemistry.

Astrophysics is the physics of the stars, and more widely the physics of the Universe. It enables us to understand the structure and evolution of planetary systems, stars, galaxies, interstellar gas, and the cosmos as a whole. In this Very Short Introduction, the leading astrophysicist James Binney shows how the field of astrophysics has expanded rapidly in the past century, with vast quantities of data gathered by telescopes exploiting all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, combined with the rapid advance of computing power, which has allowed increasingly effective mathematical modelling. He illustrates how the application of fundamental principles of physics - the consideration of energy and mass, and momentum - and the two pillars of relativity and quantum mechanics, has provided insights into phenomena ranging from rapidly spinning millisecond pulsars to the collision of giant spiral galaxies. This is a clear, rigorous introduction to astrophysics for those keen to cut their teeth on a conceptual treatment involving some mathematics. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable

Studying the complex physical systems of stellar jets necessitates the incorporation of nonlinear effects which occur on a wide variety of length and timescales. One of the primary methods used to study the physics of jets is numerical simulations that apply high performance computing techniques. Such techniques are also required for analysing the huge modern astrophysical datasets.

This book examines those computing techniques. It is a collection of the lectures from the fifth and final school of the JETSET network, "Jets From Young Stars V: High Performance Computing in Astrophysics." It begins with an introduction to parallel programming techniques, with an emphasis on Message Passing Interface (MPI), before it goes on to review grid technology techniques and offer a practical introduction to Virtual Observatory. The second half of the book, then, is devoted to applications of high performance computing techniques, including 3D radiation transfer, to jet and star formation processes.

Aimed at graduate students in astrophysics, this book presents state-of-the-art methods, thereby offering interesting new insights to researchers in the field.

Interstellar dust grains catalyse chemical reactions, absorb, scatter, polarise and re-radiate starlight and constitute the building blocks for the formation of planets. Understanding this interstellar component is therefore of primary importance in many areas of astronomy & astrophysics. For example, observers need to understand how dust effects light passing through molecular clouds. Astrophysicists wish to comprehend how dust enables the collapse of clouds or how it determines the spectral behaviour of protostars, star forming regions or whole galaxies. This book gives a thorough theoretical description of the fundamental physics of interstellar dust: its composition, morphology, size distribution, dynamics, optical and thermal properties, alignment, polarisation, scattering, radiation and spectral features.
This encyclopedic book provides the basic physics towards understanding the solid matter in interstellar space. It includes all the necessary physics, including solid state physics, radiative transport, optical properties, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. It then uses all of this basic physics in the specific case of dust grains in the interstellar medium.
Interstellar dust clouds catalyze simple chemical reactions, absorbs, scatters, polarizes and re-radiates starlight and forms the building blocks for planet and stellar formation. Understanding this interstellar medium is then of primary importance in many areas of astronomy & astrophysics. For example observers need to understand how it effects light passing through dust and molecular clouds, astrophysicists need to comprehend the formation and structure of dust clouds and how it collapses to form stars and planets.
Written in an accessible and descriptive manner, this will be essential supplementary reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking courses on the interstellar medium and active researchers in need of a single source of well illustrated and detailed information.

This book is a comprehensive survey of the current state of knowledge about the dynamics and gravitational properties of cosmic strings treated in the idealized classical approximation as line singularities described by the Nambu-Goto action. The author's purpose is to provide a standard reference to all work that has been published since the mid-1970s and to link this work together in a single conceptual framework and a single notational formalism. A working knowledge of basic general relativity is assumed. The book will be essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students in mathematics, theoretical physics, and astronomy interested in cosmic strings.

This book is about the mathematical theory of light propagation in media on general-relativistic spacetimes. The first part discusses the transition from Maxwell's equations to ray optics. The second part establishes a general mathematical framework for treating ray optics as a theory in its own right, making extensive use of the Hamiltonian formalism. This part also includes a detailed discussion of variational principles (i.e., various versions of Fermat's principle) for light rays in general-relativistic media. Some applications, e.g. to gravitational lensing, are worked out. The reader is assumed to have some basic knowledge of general relativity and some familiarity with differential geometry. Some of the results are published here for the first time, e.g. a general-relativistic version of Fermat's principle for light rays in a medium that has to satisfy some regularity condition only.

Olbers' paradox states that given the Universe is unbounded, governed by the standard laws of physics, and populated by light sources, the night sky should be ablaze with light. Obviously this is not so. However, the paradox does not lie in nature but in our understanding of physics. A Universe with a finite age, such as follows from big-bang theory, necessarily has galaxies of finite age. This means we can only see some of the galaxies in the Universe, which is the main reason why the night sky is dark. Just how dark can be calculated using the astrophysics of galaxies and stars and the dynamics of relativistic cosmology.
We know from the dynamics of individual galaxies and clusters of galaxies that the majority of matter that exerts gravitational forces is not detectable by conventional telescopes. This dark matter could have many forms, and candidates include various types of elementary particles as well as vacuum fluctuations, black holes, and others. Most of these candidates are unstable to decay and produce photons. So dark matter does not only affect the dynamics of the Universe, but the intensity of intergalactic radiation as well. Conversely, we can use observations of background radiation to constrain the nature and density of dark matter.
By comparing observational data with cosmological theory based on general relativity and particle physics, Dark Sky, Dark Matter reviews our present understanding of the universe and the astrophysics of the night sky and dark matter.

This textbook introduces the topic of special relativity, with a particular emphasis upon light-matter interaction and the production of light in plasma. The physics of special relativity is intuitively developed and related to the radiative processes of light. The book reviews the underlying theory of special relativity, before extending the discussion to applications frequently encountered by postgraduates and researchers in astrophysics, high power laser interactions and the users of specialized light sources, such as synchrotrons and free electron lasers. A highly pedagogical approach is adopted throughout, and numerous exercises are included within each chapter to reinforce the presentation of key concepts and applications of the material.

'A gripping exploration of one of the most fundamental, but also perplexing aspects of existence.' PROF. LEWIS DARTNELL, author of Origins 'Such an enjoyable read...full of delightful nuggets that you will want to impress your friends and family with.' PROF. JIM AL-KHALILI, NYT bestselling author of The World According to Physics 'This is a lovely, fascinating book. It blends history, geology, chemistry, philosophy and, of course, physics in a way that's delightful to read.' - ABIGAIL BEALL, author of The Art of Urban Astronomy -------- Discover the secrets of one of the biggest puzzles in our history - Time. As a subject, it has perplexed and fascinated generations of scientists, historians and more, and continues to spark the most intriguing questions being asked in science today. Can time be stopped? Is time travel possible? Does time even exist...? In these ten bite-sized essays, Colin Stuart delves into these big questions and uncovers the most awe-inspiring and revealing things we should all know about time. Perfect for readers of Carlo Rovelli and anyone fascinated by space and the universe, this is a must-read for those short on time, but not curiosity.