For some time to come, this book should be the main source for research in prominences. It surveys the results of the past years, including the "Hvar Reference Atmosphere", which was developed by a panel as a model for quiescent prominences. The reader will find papers on the formation of and physical conditions in prominences, on magnetic fields, on mass motion and energy flow, and on the prominence-corona interface.

Humans have long thought that planetary systems similar to our own should exist around stars other than the Sun, yet the search for planets outside our Solar System has had a dismal history of discoveries that could not be confirmed. However, this all changed in 1995, after which astonishing progress can be seen in this field; we now know of more than 200 extrasolar planets. These findings mark crucial milestones in the search for extraterrestrial life - arguably one of the most intriguing endeavors of modern science. These proceedings from the 2005 Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium on Extrasolar Planets explore one of the hottest topics in astronomy. Discussions include the Kepler mission, observational constraints on dust disk lifetimes and the implications for planet formation, and gravitational instabilities in protoplanetary disks. With review papers written by world experts in their fields, this is an important resource on extrasolar planets.

The Local Group of galaxies consists of the Milky Way and all of its neighbours. The proximity of these galaxies allows for detailed studies of the processes that have led to their formation, structures, and evolution. In particular, studies of the Local Group can test predictions of structure formation that are based on dark energy and cold dark matter. This book presents a collection of review papers, written by world experts, on some of the most important aspects of Local Group Astrophysics. It is an invaluable resource for both professional researchers and graduate students in this fascinating area of research.

Supernovae are gigantic stellar explosions. The effects of these rare events pervade astronomy, creating and spreading the chemical elements, triggering the formation of new stars, creating black holes and pulsars. Originally published in 1978 and first published by Cambridge as this revised edition in 1985, is the story of supernovae. It captures the flavour of ancient astronomy and lays out the accidents, coincidences, false leads and flashes of inspiration that followed as astronomers grasped the implications behind the rare appearance of supernovae. Two supernovae, seen in 1572 and 1604, made scientists aware that the stars changed and could be studied like everything else. Eventually, modern astronomers came to link supernovae with black holes, pulsars, and even with the creation of the chemical elements. The whole entertaining story is told clearly, in non-technical language, showing the triumph of human imagination as we discovered our place in the universe.

ESO's new and exciting telescope, the VLT in Chile, will certainly bring a host of new results in optical astronomy for the years to come. This workshop surveys a large variety of possible observations and the needed instrumentation. It is an exciting overview of front research in astronomy rarely published before. The book covers the whole gamut of optical-IR astronomy from the solar system, search for planets in nearby stars, physics of galactic stars and clusters, galactic structure, structure of nearby galaxies, AGN and quasars, clusters of galaxies, to large structure and cosmology. Furthermore it summarizes the two panel discussions.

The ESO jIAC Workshop on Quasar Hosts was held in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, from 24 to 27 September 1996 in the Conference Centre of the Ca- bildo Insular de Tenerife. The four days of the meeting were filled with fasci- nating new results and interesting discussions, and ranged from the centre of our own galaxy to some of the most distant objects known in the universe. Quasar Host studies are going through an exciting time, and are benefiting from new facilities, including the refurbished HST and the Keck, and from novel techniques, including adaptive optics and deconvolution methods. We also saw the first of hopefully many results from the ISO satellite. These re- sults were presented during the many sessions and discussed in the gardens over coffee, and on the bus during our tour of the Canaries Observatories. We would very much like to thank the secretaries of ESO and lAC, Christina Stoffer, Pamela Bristow, Monica Murphy, Judith de Araoz, and Beatriz Mederos, who we depended on for their expertise and efficiency. Our colleagues on the scientific organising committee, Phil Crane, Bob Fosbury, Marie-Helene Ulrich, Peter Shaver and Jose Rodriguez-Espinosa, deserve considerable thanks for their contributions to the programme. We must also thank the local organising committee, Fernando Cabrera- Guerra, Monica Murphy, Ismael Perez-Fournon, Ana Perez-Garcia, Luis Ramirez-Castro, and Montserrat Villar-Martin, for all their efforts in making sure things ran smoothly on the day.

An exploration of the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology known as astroparticle physics. Extreme electromagnetic conditions present in puslars and other stars allow for investigations of the role of quantum processes in the dynamics of astrophysical objects and in the early Universe. Based in part on the authors' own work, this book systematically describes several methods of calculation of the effects of strong electromagnetic fields in quantum processes using analytical solutions of the Dirac equation and Feynmann diagrams at both the loop and tree levels. The consideration is emphasized at the two limiting cases: the case of a very strong magnetic field, and the case of a crossed field. The presentation will appeal to graduate students of theoretical physics with prior understanding of Quantum Field Theory (QFT) and the Standard Model of Electroweak Interactions, as well as specialists in QFT wishing to know more about the problems of quantum phenomena in external electomagnetic fields.

The"4thCologne-Bonn-ZermattSymposium: TheDenseInterstellarMedium in Galaxies" took place in Zermatt, Switzerland, from September 22nd to 26th, 2003. This symposium continued the series of conferences on the dense interstellar medium which has been organized every 5 years since 1988 by the I. Physikalisches Institut der Unversit] at ] zuKoln. ] Re?ecting the by now well established and fruitful collaboration between the MPI ffur ] ] Radioastronomie, the Radioastronomisches Institut der Universit] at ] Bonn and the I. Physikal- ches Institut der Universit] at ] zu Koln ] in the context of the Sonderforschun- bereich 494 "The Evolution of Interstellar Matter: THz-Spectroscopy in the Laboratory and in Space," the symposium is now organized jointly by these three institutes. The conference covered a wide range of topics: starting at the largest scales and earliest times in the history of the Universe, it focussed next on galaxy evolution and their structure and dynamics. New and very exciting results on the black hole in the center of the Milky Way and the violent ISM in its immediate vicinity were presented. It continued on the cosmic cycle of star formation and evolution, and reached down to the microphysical p- cesses determining the physical and chemical conditions of the interstellar matter as the important agent for this cosmic cycle."

Astrobiology is one of the hottest areas of current research, reflecting not only impressive advances in the understanding of the origin of life but also the discovery of over 100 extrasolar planets in recent years. This volume is based on a meeting held in 2002 at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which aimed to lay the astrophysical groundwork for locating habitable places in the Universe. Written by leading scientists in the field, it covers a range of topics relevant to the search for life in the Universe, including: cosmology and its implications for the emergence of life, the habitable zone in the Milky Way Galaxy, the formation of stars and planets, the study of interstellar and interplanetary matter, searches for extrasolar planets, the synthesis of organic material in space, and spectroscopic signatures that could be used to detect life. This is an invaluable resource for both professional researchers and graduate students.

Chondrules in primitive meteorites have excited and challenged scientists since they were first described nearly 200 years ago. Chondrules were made by some pervasive process in the early solar system that formed melted silicate droplets. This 1996 text was the first comprehensive review of chondrules and their origins since a consensus developed that they were made in the disk of gas and solids that formed the Sun and planets 4.5 billion years ago. Fifty scientists from assorted disciplines have collaborated to review how chondrules could have formed in the protoplanetary disk. When and where in the disk did they form? What were they made from and how fast were they heated and cooled? What provided the energy to melt chondrules - nebular shock waves, lightning discharges, protostellar jets? Following an exciting international conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the latest answers to these questions are presented in thirty-four articles.

The stars that form a halo around our Galaxy are intriguing; they have abundances of elements that suggest they are old. The properties of these 'hot stars' and similar stars in other galaxies challenge the well-established theory of stellar evolution in many ways. Studying the collective properties of these stars provides important input to many areas of astrophysics - including the formation of our Galaxy, stellar evolution and the stellar populations of other galaxies. The study of hot stars in the halo of our Galaxy is undergoing an exciting renaissance owing to important new observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and ASTRO1 and to techniques recently developed for ground-based observations. Advances in computers have also recently led to a far more detailed and complete theoretical understanding of stellar evolution. This volume, first published in 1994, draws together the proceedings of a conference held in Union College, New York, which gathered experts in the field in question.

The standard cosmological picture of our Universe emerging from a 'big bang' leaves open many fundamental questions which string theory, a unified theory of all forces of nature, should be able to answer. This 2007 text was the first dedicated to string cosmology, and contains a pedagogical introduction to the basic notions of the subject. It describes the possible scenarios suggested by string theory for the primordial evolution of our Universe. It discusses the main phenomenological consequences of these scenarios, stresses their differences from each other, and compares them to the more conventional models of inflation. The book summarises over 15 years of research in this field and introduces advances. It is self-contained, so it can be read by astrophysicists with no knowledge of string theory, and high-energy physicists with little understanding of cosmology. Detailed and explicit derivations of all the results presented provide a deeper appreciation of the subject.

High-energy astrophysics covers cosmic phenomena that occur under the most extreme physical conditions. It explores the most violent events in the Universe: the explosion of stars, matter falling into black holes, and gamma-ray bursts - the most luminous explosions since the Big Bang. Driven by a wealth of observations, there has been a large leap forward in our understanding of these phenomena. Exploring modern topics of high-energy astrophysics, such as supernovae, neutron stars, compact binary systems, gamma-ray bursts, and active galactic nuclei, this 2007 textbook is ideal for undergraduate students in high-energy astrophysics. It is a self-contained, relevant overview of this exciting field of research. Assuming a familiarity with basic physics, it introduces all other concepts, such as gas dynamics or radiation processes, in an instructive way. An extended appendix gives an overview of some of the most important high-energy astrophysics instruments, and each chapter ends with exercises.

What is unorthodox in this book? Much has happened in the last few years, especially in terms of the somewhat surpris ing rate at which the theories presented herein have been gaining increasing acceptance and support even by the most skeptical professionals. Nevertheless, the purpose of this up-dated Preface is not to tell the biographical and acceptance story behind this book, but to bring together some non-physical and non technical conclusions for those readers who find the physico-mathematical sections of this book too difficult to follow. A secondary purpose is to present here some newer conclu sions, especially in general philosophy and in aesthetics. Yet, the main physico philosophical conclusions presented in this book are not to be summarized here. For that purpose one must tum to the text itself. * * * The theories presented here have been developed in total isolation. They were never presented in "professional conferences," as most current writers do. Whether or not that was important remains to be seen. Hence, all I can state to critics and enthusiastic follow ers alike is the fact that I do not belong to any 'formal discipline', 'pressure group', or 'pro fessional organization'."

"Stellar Physics" is a an outstanding book in the growing body of literature on star formation and evolution. Not only does the author, a leading expert in the field, very thoroughly present the current state of knowledge on stellar physics, but he handles with equal care the many problems that this field of research still faces. A bibliography with well over 1000 entries makes this book an unparalleled reference source.
"Stellar Evolution and Stability" is the second of two volumes and can be read, as can the first volume "Fundamental Concepts and Stellar Equilibrium," as a largely independent work. It traces in great detail the evolution of protostars towards the main sequence and beyond this to the last stage of stellar evolution, with the corresponding vast range from white dwarfs to supernovae explosions, gamma-ray bursts and black hole formation. The book concludes with special chapters on the dynamical, thermal and pulsing stability of stars.

This second edition is carefully updated in the areas of pre-supernova models, magnetorotational supernovae, and the theory of accretion disks around black holes. Additional sections have been added on strange quark stars, jet formation and collimation, radiation-driven winds in strong gravitational fields and gamma-ray bursts.

Understanding the formation of objects at all scales in the universe, from galaxy clusters to stars and planets, is a major problem in modern astrophysics, and one of the most exciting challenges of twenty-first century astronomy. Even though they are characterized by different scales, the formation of planets, stars and galaxies share many common physical processes and are rooted in the same underlying domains of physics. This unique reference for graduate students and researchers in astrophysics was the first to cover structure formation on various scales in one volume. This book gathers together extensive reviews written by world experts in physics and astrophysics working in planet, star and galaxy formation, and related subjects. It addresses current issues in these fields and describes the recent observational status and theoretical and numerical methods aimed at understanding these problems.

'Fractal geometry addressesitselfto questions that many people have been asking themselves. It con cerns an aspect of Nature that almost everybody had been conscious of, but could not address in a formal fashion. ' 'Fractal geometry seems to be the proper language to describe the complezity of many very compli cated shapes around us. ' (Mandelbrot, 1990a) 'I believe that fractals respond to a profound un easiness in man. ' (Mandelbrot, 1990b) The catchword fractal, ever since it was coined by Mandelbrot (1975) to refer to a class of abstract mathematical objects that were already known at the turn ofthe 19th century, has found an unprecedented resonance both inside and outside the scientific community. Fractal concepts, far more than the concepts of catastrophe theory introduced a few years earlier, are currently being applied not only in the physical sciences, but also in biology and medicine (Goldberger and West 1987). In the mid-eighties, Kadanoff (1986) asked the question: 'Why all the fuss about /ractals' '. He offered a twofold answer: in the first place, it is 'because of the practical, technological importance of fractal objects'. Indeed he emphasised the relevance of these structures for materials scientists and oil drilling engineers, in search of structures with novel properties, or models for the flow of oil through the soil. His second answer was: 'Because of the intellectual interest of fractals '."

The auroral emissions in the upper atmosphere of the polar regions of the Earth are evidence of the capture of energetic particles from the Sun, streaming by the Earth as the solar wind. These auroral emissions, then, are a window to outer space, and can provide us with valuable information about electrodynamic coupling processes between the solar wind and the Earth's ionosphere and upper atmosphere. Studying the physics of these phenomena extends our understanding of our plasma universe.

Ground-based remote-sensing techniques, able to monitor continuously the variations in the signatures of aurorae, in combination with in-situ satellite and rocket measurements, promise to advance dramatically our understanding of the physical processes taking place at the interface of the atmospheres of the Earth and the Sun. Decoding their complexity brings us closer to reliable prediction of communication environments, especially at high latitudes. This understanding, in turn, will help us resolve problems of communication and navigation across polar regions.

Aurorae have been the object of wonder and scientific curiosity for centuries. Only recently, however, have we been able to detect, with sensitive instrumentation, noontime aurorae, and persistent aurorae deep within the polar cap. This book is the first to provide a morphological and theoretical framework for understanding these dayside and polar cap aurorae.

The book also communicates the excitement of discovery, as it details the nature of these newly revealed auroral displays. It is a fascinating voyage of exploration, one appropriate for students of nature, wherever and whoever they may be.

Transitions from the innermost shells of iron, especially the K- and L-shelllines, provide a powerful tool for probing the physical characteristics of hot plasmas in X-ray sources. Their strength and purity allow important conclusions to be drawn even with modest energy resolution. They should also help in studying the regions around black holes and neutron stars. In this book the state of the art and themost recent theoretical and experimental observations are presented. The book will be a valuable source for future satellite missions. It addresses both researchers and graduate students in astrophysics.

This is a fair overview of the basic problems in Solar Physics. The authors address not only the physics that is well understood but also discuss many open questions. The lecturers' involvement in the SOHO mission guarantees a modern and up-to-date analysis of observational data and makes this volume an extremely valuable source for further research.

At this time when astronomers are being surprised by the discovery of objects which emit a fabulously large amount of energy, that is the quasi-stellar radio sources and the quasi-stellar galaxies, and when by the means of space vehicles X rays, gamma rays and cosmic rays are being observed to come from the depths of interstellar space, one may ask why write a book about stars. Stars seem to be almost incidental when one looks at the universe in terms of exceedingly great energies. Nevertheless, stars exist. They are accessible to study and they have not yet revealed all their secrets. This is enough to arouse interest and to cause one to try to find answers to the questions which arise. The early type stars are particularly interesting because they are spendthrift stars pouring out their energy at a great rate. But their brilliance is also their undoing. They must evolve rather quickly, on an astrophysical scale. Thus by studying these stars we are studying a population in change. The implications from the local and from the cosmological viewpoint are important if one wishes to understand the details of stellar evolution and of galactic structure. Perhaps one of the simplest reasons for writing a book about the early type stars is to see if some of the conundrums pre sented by the spectra of these stars can be unravelled when all the available infor mation is brought together."

This volume provides an overview of our current understanding of the physics related to: coronal structures and coronal heating; large-scale coronal shock waves and coronal mass ejections; particle beams in the solar corona and in the interplanetary medium; and explosive energy-release phenomena and particle acceleration. The different articles give a well-balanced presentation of relevant observations based upon various techniques, models and theories, providing a global view of these phenomena and of the underlying physics. In-situ measurements of particles and waves with ULYSSES and WIND and spectral and imaging data from SOHO and YOHKOH provide an unprecedented richness of relevant data. For their better understanding, radio observations - also included in this book - play a key role.

This volume brings together theoretical ideas on the plasma physics of both hot and dense plasmas in the solar atmosphere and similar physics applied to the tenuous and cooler plasmas found in the heliosphere. It is complemented by recent observations. Helioseismology covers the solar interior and the neutrino problem. Solar and stellar activity cycles are addressed. The dynamics of magnetic flux tubes in the solar atmosphere and material flows through the chromosphere into the upper atmosphere are comprehensively reviewed. Energy release processes and the production of energetic particles are important to understanding events in the solar atmosphere and to the dynamics of the tenuous heliosphere. A glimpse of the future is offered by concluding chapters on new ground-based and space instrumentation.

This book contains the proceedings of a workshop held in Schloss Ringberg to assess developments in molecular cloud research over the last 25 years, and to discuss trends for future research in the field of molecular line astronomy. The topics include the morphology, formation, and lifetimes of molecular clouds, and their relation to star formation. Also, the chemical and isotopic content of these clouds is reviewed, and comparisons with molecular clouds in external galaxies are made. This rather complete survey of this important field of research addresses researchers in astronomy and students alike."

This is the first volume of a series on a regular up-to-date coverage of important developments in astronomy and astrophysics jointly published by ESO and Springer-Verlag. Here the reader finds a thorough review of the abundances of the elements up to Boron. Special emphasis is laid on primordial abundances of interest to cosmologists in particular, and on stellar production or destruction respectively. The articles written for researchers and graduate students cover theory and most recent data from telescope observations.