Several Epoch of Reionization (EoR) experiments, for example, LOFAR, MWA and PAPER, are currently under way and producing results. These very deep observations not only set constraints on when and where the first sources formed in the early Universe and began (re)ionizing the predominantly neutral all-pervasive intergalactic medium, but they also provide high-quality data for cutting edge auxiliary foreground science. Obviously studying the physical origin of the foreground emission, whether Galactic or extragalactic, is a very exciting field in its own right and is of fundamental importance for perfecting the foreground removal techniques in the cosmological experiments. These proceedings of IAU S333 address both topics through giving the clearest and widest possible view on the EoR; presenting the state-of-the-art foreground science; and discussing challenges of upcoming and planned radio facilities such as HERA and SKA.

The moon landing of 1969 stands as an iconic moment for both the United States and humankind. The familiar story focuses on the journey of the brave astronauts, who brought home Moon rocks and startling photographs. But Apollo's full account includes the earthbound engineers, mounds of their crumpled paper, and smoldering metal shards of exploded engines. How exactly did the nation, step by difficult step, take men to the Moon and back? In The Apollo Chronicles, fifty years after the moon landing, author Brandon R. Brown, himself the son of an Apollo engineer, revisits the men and women who toiled behind the lights. He relays the defining twentieth-century project from its roots, bringing the engineers' work and personalities to bright life on the page. Set against the backdrop of a turbulent American decade, the narrative whisks audiences through tense deadlines and technical miracles, from President John F. Kennedy's 1961 challenge to NASA's 1969 lunar triumph, as engineers confronted wave after wave of previously unthinkable challenges. Brown immerses readers in key physical hurdles-from building the world's most powerful rockets to keeping humans alive in the hostile void of space-using language free of acronyms and technical jargon. The book also pulls back from the detailed tasks and asks larger questions. What did we learn about the Moon? And what can this uniquely innovative project teach us today?

Providing an up-to-date overview of research in the field of high-mass X-ray binaries, this volume consists of the contributions made at IAU Symposium 346. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it includes reviews on massive star winds and HMXB donors, Be Stars in the X-ray binary context, dynamical versus isolated formation channels of gravitational-wave sources, HMXBs as progenitors of double compact objects, HMXBs in the Early Universe and their impact in cosmology and gravitational wave astrophysics, as well as the summary review 'High Mass X-ray Binaries: Beacons in a Stormy Universe'. This Symposium provides a bridge between the relatively mature field of massive binary astrophysics and the newly emerging field of gravitational wave astronomy, indicating the future development of this growing branch of astrophysics. It is essential reading for graduate students and researchers who are looking to gain a general overview of current research activity on X-ray binaries.

This self-contained introduction to compact star physics explains important concepts from areas such as general relativity, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and nuclear physics. Containing many tested exercises, and written by an international expert in the research field, the book provides important insights on the basic concepts of compact stars, discusses white dwarfs, neutron stars, quark stars and exotic compact stars. Included are sections on astrophysical observations of compact stars, and present and future terrestrial experiments related to compact stars physics, as the study of exotic nuclei and relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Major developments in the field such as the discovery of massive neutron stars, and a discussion of the recent gravitational wave measurement of a neutron star merger are also presented. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers working on the physics of compact stars, general relativity and nuclear physics.

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth."

This book addresses the latest advances in dark energy research, including addressing the problem with regard to both the origin of dark energy and the origin of dark matter; vacuum energy as the origin of accelerating expansion and issues which arise from such a hypothesis; born reciprocity and cosmic accelerations; cosmic acceleration for harmonic gravitational connections; showing time as a function of the cosmological comoving distance, using the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker model, the dark energy problem using a theory with a minimal length on the order of Plancks length; and a discussion on the kinematic aspects of the accelerated universe expansion process.

Space debris and asteroid impacts pose a very real, very near-term threat to Earth. In order to help study and mitigate these risks, the Stardust program was formed in 2013. This training and research network was devoted to developing and mastering techniques such as removal, deflection, exploitation, and tracking. This book is a collection of many of the topics addressed at the Final Stardust Conference, describing the latest in asteroid monitoring and how engineering efforts can help us reduce space debris. It is a selection of studies bringing together specialists from universities, research institutions, and industry, tasked with the mission of pushing the boundaries of space research with innovative ideas and visionary concepts. Topics covered by the Symposium: Orbital and Attitude Dynamics Modeling Long Term Orbit and Attitude Evolution Particle Cloud Modeling and Simulation Collision and Impact Modelling and Simulation, Re-entry Modeling and Simulation Asteroid Origins and Characterization Orbit and Attitude Determination Impact Prediction and Risk Analysis, Mission Analysis-Proximity Operations, Active Removal/Deflection Control Under Uncertainty, Active Removal/Deflection Technologies, and Asteroid Manipulation

This book is about black holes, one of the most intriguing objects of modern theoretical physics and astrophysics. For many years, black holes have been considered as interesting solutions of the Theory of General Relativity with a number of amusing mathematical properties. Now after the discovery of astrophysical black holes, the Einstein gravity has become an important tool for their study. This self-contained textbook combines physical, mathematical, and astrophysical aspects of black hole theory. Pedagogically presented, it contains 'standard' material on black holes as well as relatively new subjects such as the role of hidden symmetries in black hole physics, and black holes in spacetimes with large extra dimensions. The book will appeal to students and young scientists interested in the theory of black holes.

A "Publishers Weekly" Best Science Book of the Season

An Amazon Best Book of the Month

A Book to Watch Out For in December, "The New Yorker"'s Page-Turner Blog

A "Los Angeles Times" Gift Guide Selection

One of the Best Physics Books of 2013, Cocktail Party Physics Blog, "Scientific American
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Detective thriller meets astrophysics in this adventure into neutrinos and the scientists who pursue them
The incredibly small bits of matter we call neutrinos may hold the secret to why antimatter is so rare, how mighty stars explode as supernovae, what the universe was like just seconds after the big bang, and even the inner workings of our own planet.
For more than eighty years, adventurous minds from around the world have been chasing these ghostly particles, "trillions "of which pass through our bodies every second. Extremely elusive and difficult to pin down, neutrinos are not unlike the brilliant and eccentric scientists who doggedly pursue them.
In "Neutrino Hunters," the renowned astrophysicist and award-winning writer Ray Jayawardhana takes us on a thrilling journey into the shadowy world of neutrinos and the colorful lives of those who seek them. Demystifying particle science along the way, Jayawardhana tells a detective story with cosmic implications--interweaving tales of the sharp-witted theorist Wolfgang Pauli; the troubled genius Ettore Majorana; the harbinger of the atomic age Enrico Fermi; the notorious Cold War defector Bruno Pontecorvo; and the dynamic dream team of Marie and Pierre Curie. Then there are the scientists of today who have caught the neutrino bug, and whose experimental investigations stretch from a working nickel mine in Ontario to a long tunnel through a mountain in central Italy, from a nuclear waste site in New Mexico to a bay on the South China Sea, and from Olympic-size pools deep underground to a gigantic cube of Antarctic ice--called, naturally, IceCube.
As Jayawardhana recounts a captivating saga of scientific discovery and celebrates a glorious human quest, he reveals why the next decade of neutrino hunting will redefine how we think about physics, cosmology, and our lives on Earth.

We've all asked ourselves the question. It's impossible to look up at the stars and NOT think about it: Are we alone in the universe? Books, movies and television shows proliferate that attempt to answer this question and explore it. In OUT THERE Space.com senior writer Dr. Michael Wall treats that question as merely the beginning, touching off a wild ride of exploration into the final frontier. He considers, for instance, the myriad of questions that would arise once we do discover life beyond Earth (an eventuality which, top NASA officials told Wall, is only drawing closer). What would the first aliens we meet look like? Would they be little green men or mere microbes? Would they be found on a planet in our own solar system or orbiting a star far, far away? Would they intend to harm us, and if so, how might they do it? And might they already have visited? OUT THERE is arranged in a simple question-and-answer format. The answers are delivered in Dr. Wall's informal but informative style, which mixes in a healthy dose of humor and pop culture to make big ideas easier to swallow. Dr. Wall covers questions far beyond alien life, venturing into astronomy, physics, and the practical realities of what long-term life might be like for we mere humans in outer space, such as the idea of lunar colonies, and even economic implications. Readers won't just be hearing from Dr. Wall. As a longtime science journalist--whose work at Space.com is syndicated in outlets from Scientific American to Fox News--he has assembled an impressive array of contacts to provide expert commentary. From a former NASA chief scientist to leading science educators like Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye to would-be space traveler Elon Musk, Dr. Wall shares the insights of some of the leading lights in space exploration today, and shows how the next space age might be brighter than ever.

Galaxies are the building blocks of the Universe: standing like islands in space, each is made up of many hundreds of millions of stars in which the chemical elements are made, around which planets form, and where on at least one of those planets intelligent life has emerged. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of several hundred million other galaxies that we can now observe through our telescopes. Yet it was only in the 1920s that we realised that there is more to the Universe than the Milky Way, and that there were in fact other 'islands' out there. In many ways, modern astronomy began with this discovery, and the story of galaxies is therefore the story of modern astronomy. Since then, many exciting discoveries have been made about our own galaxy and about those beyond: how a supermassive black hole lurks at the centre of every galaxy, for example, how enormous forces are released when galaxies collide, how distant galaxies provide a window on the early Universe, and what the formation of young galaxies can tell us about the mysteries of Cold Dark Matter. In this Very Short Introduction, renowned science writer John Gribbin describes the extraordinary things that astronomers are learning about galaxies, and explains how this can shed light on the origins and structure of the Universe. 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.

Acclaimed astrophysicist David Darling comes well-armed with both science and mysticism to provide a theory of consciousness and its final conclusion. His well -researched ideas on psychology, neuro-biology, quantum physics and a host of others meld with Zen mysticism to provide a step by step approach to what consciousness is, and what it is not. The urban myth of 'who we are' is peeled back to reveal a terrible-wonderful truth. We are a fragmented assortment of often biased memories held together by a selfish brain whose primary concern is its own immortality. So how does this amalgam of 'I' manage to create what is considered the highest life-form on earth? You start at conception, add some biology and evolutionary theory, and what emerges is an organism using its every meager power to construct its own unique reality. Or is it that unique? Are we truly disconnected from all those other 'unique realities' of the past, present and future? Darling launches into a frank discussion of consciousness. How each of our stories is pieced together from a constantly changing conglomerate of memories. It is these stories that make us who we are. If the memories are changed - we change. If they are erased then we are erased. Our consciousness lives and dies dependent on our memories. When the physical brain dies with the rest of the body what happens to 'us'? Do not look here for comforting ideas of lounging in heaven with friends and family. Darling also does not support utter annihilation. Darling instead shows where mysticism may provide some insight for science. A well-grounded theory emerges of what happens when you can no longer observe scientifically those moments beyond our last breath. Darling provides a compelling answer for what lies beyond the end as we know it. Darling has acquired a profound insight into the process of death and the many misconceptions we have about it. He systematically walks you through the scientific process of death as well as other scientific phenomenon and lets you see for yourself that there isn't a huge mystery behind it all. Darling doesn't give you the answer to "the great question," but points you in the correct direction with style. Darling uses logic to explain how quantum physics may be bound with personality, but never pretends that Zen can be explained rationally. This collection of thoughts is extremely well-organized and well-written. David Darling's book explains quantum mechanics in a way anyone can understand. He also presents an intelligent thesis on the nature of life after death. His answer may not be what we wish to hear, but it makes sense. Author Bio - David Darling is the author of more than 40 titles including narrative science titles: Megacatastrophes , We Are Not Alone, Gravity's Arc, Equations of Eternity, a New York Times Notable Book, and Deep Time. He is also the author of the bestseller-The Universal Book of Mathematics: From Abracadabra to Zeno's Paradoxes. Darling's other titles include The Universal Book of Astronomy, and The Complete Book of Spaceflight, as well as more than 30 children's books. His articles and reviews have appeared in Astronomy, Omni, Penthouse, New Scientist, the New York Times, and the Guardian, among others. David Darling was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England, on July 29, 1953, and grew up in the beautiful Peak District, close to Kinder Scout for those who know the area. He went to New Mills Grammar School and then on to Sheffield University, where he earned his B.Sc. in physics in 1974, and Manchester University, for my Ph.D. in astronomy in 1977. David Darling's interests, apart from his work and family, include singing, song-writing, and playing guitar, walking, and travel.

Most people just accept that our universe is ruled by gravity; an assumption that is wrong. Evidence instead shows that the force responsible for all of the objects and events we observe throughout the universe is the electric force that enables current flow and therefore magnetic fields to exist. If we consider that the electric force is fundamentally one thousand, billion, billion, billion, billion times more powerful than gravity and that the universe consists of 99.99% plasma; charged matter through which electric currents flow, then you have good reason to open your mind and read what this book has to say.

The study of astrochemistry has become an important branch of modern astronomy and astrophysics. Molecules are key tools in exploring topics such as star and planet formation, the origin and evolution of interstellar dust grains, the structure of the interstellar medium in galaxies, and the origin of protogalaxies in the early Universe. This volume contains review papers alongside the latest results in the fast-growing discipline of astrochemistry, bringing together contributions from observers, modellers and laboratory astrochemists. It reports results from new observational facilities, such as the Herschel Space Observatory, ALMA, NOEMA, Rosetta and SOFIA, which are leading to new research areas such as the habitability of exoplanets, the origin of prebiotic chemistry and astrobiology. Interleaved with these observation results is the recent, ground-breaking work of physical chemists and numerical modellers, which provides the fundamental theoretical descriptions required to explain the molecular Universe.

The methods used in the detection and characterisation of exoplanets are presented through the study of transiting systems in this unique textbook for advanced undergraduates. From determining the atmospheric properties of transiting exoplanets to measuring the planetary orbit's alignment with the stellar spin, students will discover what these measurements imply for reinvigorated theories of planet formation and evolution. Worked examples and exercises with full solutions help students to assess their understanding of concepts and results. Key points and equations are highlighted to make them easily identifiable, and there are full colour illustrations throughout. Bridging the gap between introductory, non-mathematical texts and more advanced textbooks, this book is ideal for students with some background in mathematics, physics and astronomy. Accompanying resources to this textbook are available at: http://www.cambridge.org/features/astrophysics.

This book provides a unified treatment of the characteristics of telescopes of all types, both those whose performance is set by geometrical aberrations and the effect of the atmosphere, and those diffraction-limited telescopes designed for observations from above the atmosphere. The emphasis throughout is on basic principles, such as Fermat's principle, and their application to optical systems specifically designed to image distant celestial sources.
The book also contains thorough discussions of the principles underlying all spectroscopic instrumentation, with special emphasis on grating instruments used with telescopes. An introduction to adaptive optics provides the needed background for further inquiry into this rapidly developing area.

* Geometrical aberration theory based on Fermat's principle
* Diffraction theory and transfer function approach to near-perfect telescopes
* Thorough discussion of 2-mirror telescopes, including misalignments
* Basic principles of spectrometry; grating and echelle instruments
* Schmidt and other catadioptric telescopes
* Principles of adaptive optics
* Over 220 figures and nearly 90 summary tables

Radiative transfer is essential for obtaining information from the spectra of astrophysical objects. This volume provides an overview of the physical and mathematical background of radiative transfer, and its applications to stellar and planetary atmospheres. It covers the phenomenology and physics of early-type and late-type stars, as well as ultra-cool dwarf stars and extrasolar planets. Importantly, it provides a bridge between classical radiative transfer and stellar atmosphere modelling and novel approaches, from both theoretical and computational standpoints. With new fields of application and a dramatic improvement in both observational and computational facilities, it also discusses the future outlook for the field. Chapters are written by eminent researchers from across the astronomical disciplines where radiative transfer is employed. Using the most recent observations, this is a go-to resource for graduate students and researchers in astrophysics.

During World War II Alfred Zaehringer witnessed the awesome power of the Nazi's V-2 rocket as it levelled homes and businesses in London, then in 1945 he was once again on hand as V-1 and V-2 missiles were used against the Allied forces at Remagen, site of the famous bridge crossing over the Rhine into Germany. During these final engagements of World War II Zaehringer would also witness the first jet and rocket aircraft as they struggled to protect Germany in the last few months of the war. On returning to his home town of Detroit Zaehringer decided to form a society dedicated to the study of these new technologies. To that end he contacted the American Rocket Society and tried to find like-minded individuals in his local area. Ultimately Zaehringer was able to harness a membership for his new society that included some of the greatest talents of early rocketry.

On February 1, 2003, the unthinkable happened. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated 37 miles above Texas, seven brave astronauts were killed and America's space program, always an eyeblink from disaster, suffered its second catastrophic in-flight failure. Unlike the Challenger disaster 17 years earlier, Columbia's destruction left the nation one failure away from the potential abandonment of human space exploration. Media coverage in the immediate aftermath focused on the possible cause of the disaster, and on the nation's grief. But the full human story, and the shocking details of NASA's crucial mistakes, have never been told -- until now.

Based on dozens of exclusive interviews, never-before-published documents and recordings of key meetings obtained by the authors, "Comm Check" takes the reader inside the conference rooms and offices where NASA's best and brightest managed the nation's multi-billion-dollar shuttle program -- and where they failed to recognize the signs of an impending disaster. It is the story of a space program pushed to the brink of failure by relentless political pressure, shrinking budgets and flawed decision making. The independent investigation into the disaster uncovered why Columbia broke apart in the sky above Texas. "Comm Check" brings that story to life with the human drama behind the tragedy.

Michael Cabbage and William Harwood, two of America's most respected space journalists, are veterans of all but a handful of NASA's 113 shuttle missions. Tapping a network of sources and bringing a combined three decades of experience to bear, the authors provide a rare glimpse into NASA's inner circles, chronicling the agency's most devastating failure and the challenges that face NASA as it struggles to return America to space.

This book gives a survey of astrophysics at the advanced undergraduate level, providing a physics-centred analysis of a broad range of astronomical systems. It originates from a two-semester course sequence at Rutgers University that is meant to appeal not only to astrophysics students but also more broadly to physics and engineering students. The organisation is driven more by physics than by astronomy; in other words, topics are first developed in physics and then applied to astronomical systems that can be investigated, rather than the other way around. The first half of the book focuses on gravity. The theme in this part of the book, as well as throughout astrophysics, is using motion to investigate mass. The goal of Chapters 2-11 is to develop a progressively richer understanding of gravity as it applies to objects ranging from planets and moons to galaxies and the universe as a whole. The second half uses other aspects of physics to address one of the big questions. While "Why are we here?" lies beyond the realm of physics, a closely related question is within our reach: "How did we get here?" The goal of Chapters 12-20 is to understand the physics behind the remarkable story of how the Universe, Earth and life were formed. This book assumes familiarity with vector calculus and introductory physics (mechanics, electromagnetism, gas physics and atomic physics); however, all of the physics topics are reviewed as they come up (and vital aspects of vector calculus are reviewed in the Appendix).

When the Soviets experienced a series of setbacks in their space program the USSR switched emphasis in their manned space program away from the Moon towards the creation of orbital scientific research platforms, the Space Station. With the success of Apollo, the Soviets claimed they had never actually intended to fly to the Moon, and that the space station was always their long-term goal. However, recently disclosed Russian archives show that, contrary to official statements in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a planned Soviet program to send cosmonauts around the Moon and eventually to land on the surface. For the Americans, having lost their only competitor in the race for the Moon, the need for the Apollo program was questioned even before the first landing was achieved. With the near tragic flight of Apollo 13 in 1970 the pressure was on to cut the program and redirect efforts towards more Earth-focused objectives. At the height of success, the Apollo missions were reduced from 20 to 17, and plans for extending the flights to include lunar stays of 14 days to create a lunar base were scrapped. the Moon by either America or Russia. The final Soviet Luna probe flew in 1976 and the following year the network of scientific experiments left on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts were switched off. Whilst many plans were put forward to return to the Moon, only two probes, Clementine and Lunar Prospector have supplemented information from the Apollo era.

In 1963 Stephen Hawking was given two years to live. Defying all the odds, he died in March 2018 at age seventy-six as the most celebrated scientist in the world. This carefully researched and updated biography and tribute gives a rich picture of Hawking's remarkable life - his childhood, the heart-rending beginning of his struggle with motor neurone disease, his ever-increasing international fame, and his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe. From more recent years, Kitty Ferguson describes his inspiring leadership at the London Paralympic Games, the release of the film The Theory of Everything, his continuing work on black holes and the origin of the universe, the discovery of 'supertranslations', and the astounding 'Starshot' program. Here also are his intense concern for the future of the Earth and his use of his celebrity to fight for environmental and humanitarian causes, and, finally, a ground-breaking paper he was working on at the time of his death, in which he took issue with some of his own earlier theories. Throughout, Ferguson summarizes and explains the cutting-edge science in which Hawking was engaged and offers vivid first-hand descriptions of his funeral in Cambridge and the interment of his ashes in Westminster Abbey. This is an amazing and revealing tribute, assessing Hawking's legacy in and out of science.