Contains the latest developments and technologies from astronomical observatories and telescope facilities on the ground and in space Accompanied by a companion website with examples, tutorials, Python scripts and resources Authored by an observational astronomer with over thirty years of observing and teaching experience

Ever since 1911, the Solvay Conferences have shaped modern physics. The format is quite different from other conferences as the emphasis is placed on discussion. The 26th edition held in October 2014 in Brussels and chaired by Roger Blandford continued this tradition and addressed some of the most pressing open questions in the fields of astrophysics and cosmology, gathering many of the leading figures working on a wide variety of profound problems.The proceedings contain the 'rapporteur talks' giving a broad overview with unique insights by distinguished renowned scientists. These lectures cover the five sessions: 'Neutron Stars', 'Black Holes', 'Cosmic Dawn', 'Dark Matter' and 'Cosmic Microwave Background'.In the Solvay tradition, the proceedings also include the prepared comments to the rapporteur talks. The discussions among the participants - expert, yet lively and sometimes contentious - have been edited to retain to retain their flavor and are reproduced in full. The reader is taken on a breathtaking ride through 42 years of extraordinary discovery since astrophysics was last on the Solvay program and 57 years since cosmology was last discussed.

* Most up-to-date overview of planetary science, generously illustrated * Accessible prose with a unique perspective by professional astronomers active in planetary science research with extensive teaching experience and expertise in history of astronomy and classical astronomy * Detailed appendices that supplement the text including past, current, and future space missions

* Most up-to-date overview of planetary science, generously illustrated * Accessible prose with a unique perspective by professional astronomers active in planetary science research with extensive teaching experience and expertise in history of astronomy and classical astronomy * Detailed appendices that supplement the text including past, current, and future space missions

The previous Saas-Fee Advanced Course dedicated to the interstellar medium took place in 1972. The tremendous scientific advances that have occurred in this field since then, in particular owing to the availabihty of receivers working at completely unexplored wavelength bands, fuUy justified a new set of lectures. As a consequence, the members of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and As tronomy voted that "The Galactic Interstellar Medium" should be the subject of the 1991 course. The 21st Saas Fee Advanced Course took place in Les Diablerets from 18 to 23 March 1991, gathering together about 80 participants from all over the world, but mostly from Europe. According to a rule that has proved to lead to success, but also to chal lenge the lecturers' energy, the format of a Saas-Fee Advanced Course consists traditionally of 28 lectures of 45 minutes which take place in the morning and late afternoon, leaving ample time for discussions, self-study, hiking or skiing. Despite the inordinate work load imposed, this year's lecturers felt that the subject was sufficiently dense to increase the lecture time by 1/3! This proved judicious and left more time for questions and discussions during the lectures.

'Everything you wanted to know about physics but were afraid to ask' Priyamvada Natarajan, author of Mapping the Heavens __________________________ When leading theoretical physicist Professor Michael Dine was asked where you could find an accessible book that would teach you about the Big Bang, Dark Matter, the Higgs boson and the cutting edge of physics now, he had nothing he could recommend. So he wrote it himself. In This Way to the Universe, Dine takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of modern physics - from Newtonian mechanics to quantum, from particle to nuclear physics - delving into the wonders of our universe at its largest, smallest, and within our daily lives. If you are looking for the one book to help you understand physics, written in language anyone can follow, this is it. __________________________ 'An extraordinary journey into what we know, what we hope to know, and what we don't know, about the universe and the laws that govern it' Leonard Susskind, author of The Theoretical Minimum series 'This book is a rare event . . . presented by someone who is a true master' Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here 'Dine's enthusiastic storytelling makes the read worth it for those who want to finally wrap their mind around string theory or the Higgs boson' Tess Joosse, Scientific American

Dynamical systems theory is especially well-suited for determining the possible asymptotic states (at both early and late times) of cosmological models, particularly when the governing equations are a finite system of autonomous ordinary differential equations. In this book we discuss cosmological models as dynamical systems, with particular emphasis on applications in the early Universe. We point out the important role of self-similar models. We review the asymptotic properties of spatially homogeneous perfect fluid models in general relativity. We then discuss results concerning scalar field models with an exponential potential (both with and without barotropic matter). Finally, we discuss the dynamical properties of cosmological models derived from the string effective action. This book is a valuable source for all graduate students and professional astronomers who are interested in modern developments in cosmology.

From one of our foremost thinkers and public intellectuals, a radical new view of the nature of time and the cosmos What is time?This deceptively simple question is the single most important problem facing science as we probe more deeply into the fundamentals of the universe. All of the mysteries physicists and cosmologists face--from the Big Bang to the future of the universe, from the puzzles of quantum physics to the unification of forces and particles--come down to the nature of time.The fact that time is real may seem obvious. You experience it passing every day when you watch clocks tick, bread toast, and children grow. But most physicists, from Newton to Einstein to today's quantum theorists, have seen things differently. The scientific case for time being an illusion is formidable. That is why the consequences of adopting the view that time is real are revolutionary.Lee Smolin, author of the controversial bestseller The Trouble with Physics, argues that a limited notion of time is holding physics back. It's time for a major revolution in scientific thought. The reality of time could be the key to the next big breakthrough in theoretical physics.What if the laws of physics themselves were not timeless? What if they could evolve? Time Reborn offers a radical new approach to cosmology that embraces the reality of time and opens up a whole new universe of possibilities. There are few ideas that, like our notion of time, shape our thinking about literally everything, with huge implications for physics and beyond--from climate change to the economic crisis. Smolin explains in lively and lucid prose how the true nature of time impacts our world.

This manuscript, Mortal Grounding, has a simple thought in mind. To bring together our modern cosmological knowledge with our understanding of what is consciousness. It is something of a task to unite these two styles of comprehension about our existence, as much as it is to join quantum physics with general and special relativity. The idea is that both want to reach the source, the source of what is cosmological and what is consciousness. It seems simple enough. Cosmology studies the creation, searching for the creator of it all, whatever that may be. Consciousness seems to look more at what is the creator in order to understand creation. They are parallel and reversed, but both seek to understand, re-link, comprehend or unite with the Mystery. This Universe's Given Moment of reaching, of conscious mortal becoming, grounded on Earth, for the brief moment, life to death, yet in and as a rare something more, the rarest star stuff circling back as consciousness that is able to grasp its origin, without a direction transposed as time's beginning. This would be one idea of mortal grounding. Some of the subjects taken up in this endeavor of unification are Pure Gravity, Spacetime Fluid, the Superclustering of Universes, Wave Cosmology, Non-Local Independent Consciousness, the question, is this Logical or Mystical. The text also leans heavily on Tantra's explanations, examining the myriad layers of consciousness and their psychological weight, the intriguing erotic energy, the hidden secrets that are rarely discussed and the nature of freedom according to the belief system of Tantra.

This textbook begins with a description of the Earth's plasma environment, followed by the derivation of single particle motions in electromagnetic fields, with applications to the Earth's magnetosphere. Also discussed are the origin and effects of collisions and conductivities, formation of the ionosphere, magnetospheric convection and dynamics, and solar wind-magnetosphere coupling.The second half of the book presents a more theoretical foundation of plasma physics, starting with kinetic theory. Introducing moments of distribution function permits the derivation of the fluid equations, followed by an analysis of fluid boundaries, with the Earth's magnetopause and bow shock as examples, and finally, fluid and kinetic theory are applied to derive the relevant wave modes in a plasma.This revised edition seamlessly integrates new sections on magnetopause reconstruction, as well as instability theory and thermal fluctuations based on new developments in space physics. Applications such as the important problems of collisionless reconnection and collisionless shocks are covered, and some problems have also been included at the end of each chapter.

This book describes some of the frontier problems of cosmology: our almost total ignorance of what the Universe is made up of, the mystery of its origin and its end. The book starts with a description of the historical events that led to the construction of the Big Bang model together with the stages that transformed the Universe from a very hot place to a very cold one, full with the structures that we observe today. These structures (stars, galaxies, etc.) constitute only 5% of the contents of the Universe. Concerning the remaining 95%, dubbed dark matter and dark energy, we know very little, and we have only indirect evidence of their existence. The text describes the story and the protagonists who showed the need for the existence of this 'missing matter', the observations, and puzzles they had to solve to understand that dark matter was not ordinary matter. The book describes the hunt for dark matter, carried out with instruments operating in space, on the Earth's surface, and in laboratories built in the bowels of the Earth. It also describes dark energy, which manifests itself in the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and appeared only a few billions of years ago. The book discusses why dark energy must exist and what its existence implies, especially for the future and the end of our Universe.

This textbook begins with a description of the Earth's plasma environment, followed by the derivation of single particle motions in electromagnetic fields, with applications to the Earth's magnetosphere. Also discussed are the origin and effects of collisions and conductivities, formation of the ionosphere, magnetospheric convection and dynamics, and solar wind-magnetosphere coupling.The second half of the book presents a more theoretical foundation of plasma physics, starting with kinetic theory. Introducing moments of distribution function permits the derivation of the fluid equations, followed by an analysis of fluid boundaries, with the Earth's magnetopause and bow shock as examples, and finally, fluid and kinetic theory are applied to derive the relevant wave modes in a plasma.This revised edition seamlessly integrates new sections on magnetopause reconstruction, as well as instability theory and thermal fluctuations based on new developments in space physics. Applications such as the important problems of collisionless reconnection and collisionless shocks are covered, and some problems have also been included at the end of each chapter.

A concise introduction to the greatest questions of modern cosmology. What came before the big bang? How will the universe evolve into the future? Will there be a big crunch? Questions like these have no definitive answers, but there are many contending theories. In A Little Book about the Big Bang, physicist and writer Tony Rothman guides expert and uninitiated readers alike through the most compelling mysteries surrounding the nature and origin of the universe. Cosmologists are busy these days, actively researching dark energy, dark matter, and quantum gravity, all at the foundation of our understanding of space, time, and the laws governing the universe. Enlisting thoughtful analogies and a step-by-step approach, Rothman breaks down what is known and what isn't and details the pioneering experimental techniques scientists are bringing to bear on riddles of nature at once utterly basic and stunningly complex. In Rothman's telling, modern cosmology proves to be an intricate web of theoretical predictions confirmed by exquisitely precise observations, all of which make the theory of the big bang one of the most solid edifices ever constructed in the history of science. At the same time, Rothman is careful to distinguish established physics from speculation, and in doing so highlights current controversies and avenues of future exploration. The idea of the big bang is now almost a century old, yet with each new year comes a fresh enigma. That is scientific progress in a nutshell: every groundbreaking discovery, every creative explanation, provokes new and more fundamental questions. Rothman takes stock of what we have learned and encourages readers to ponder the mysteries to come.

This book is written from the viewpoint of a deep connection between cosmology and particle physics. It presents the results and ideas on both the homogeneous and isotropic Universe at the hot stage of its evolution and in later stages. The main chapters describe in a systematic and pedagogical way established facts and concepts on the early and the present Universe. The comprehensive treatment, hence, serves as a modern introduction to this rapidly developing field of science. To help in reading the chapters without having to constantly consult other texts, essential materials from General Relativity and the theory of elementary particles are collected in the appendices. Various hypotheses dealing with unsolved problems of cosmology, and often alternative to each other, are discussed at a more advanced level. These concern dark matter, dark energy, matter-antimatter asymmetry, etc.

Did the Universe have a beginning? Will it have an end? Or has it always been the same, never changing? This is the subject of cosmology; the study of the Universe, and this book provides a perfect introduction to the subject for anyone that is interested in the wonders of our Universe This book provides an accessible overview of the Standard Model of Cosmology, which is explained in six Cosmological Clues, including evidence for the Big Bang and dark matter and dark energy - the keystones of modern cosmology. It takes readers through some of the most exciting questions in cosmology, such as what evidence do we have that the Universe started from the Big Bang? Has dark matter been observed? Will we ever know what dark energy is? Are the multiverses real? And could the Universe be a hologram? This book is an ideal guide for anyone interested in finding out more about our Universe. It will be of interest to those studying cosmology for the first time, including readers without a scientific background, who have an interest in looking up at the stars and wondering where they all came from! Key features: Contains the latest evidence for the Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy and explores exciting scientific ideas, such as inflation and multiverses Provides a clear explanation of the main theories of how the Universe evolved based on key observations - the Cosmological Clues Gives the reader a concise introduction to the scientific process, using cosmology as the example, and explores why it has been so successful in creating the technologies we have today

Did the Universe have a beginning? Will it have an end? Or has it always been the same, never changing? This is the subject of cosmology; the study of the Universe, and this book provides a perfect introduction to the subject for anyone that is interested in the wonders of our Universe This book provides an accessible overview of the Standard Model of Cosmology, which is explained in six Cosmological Clues, including evidence for the Big Bang and dark matter and dark energy - the keystones of modern cosmology. It takes readers through some of the most exciting questions in cosmology, such as what evidence do we have that the Universe started from the Big Bang? Has dark matter been observed? Will we ever know what dark energy is? Are the multiverses real? And could the Universe be a hologram? This book is an ideal guide for anyone interested in finding out more about our Universe. It will be of interest to those studying cosmology for the first time, including readers without a scientific background, who have an interest in looking up at the stars and wondering where they all came from! Key features: Contains the latest evidence for the Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy and explores exciting scientific ideas, such as inflation and multiverses Provides a clear explanation of the main theories of how the Universe evolved based on key observations - the Cosmological Clues Gives the reader a concise introduction to the scientific process, using cosmology as the example, and explores why it has been so successful in creating the technologies we have today

This new book is a thorough but short review of the history and present status of ideas in cosmology. It is aimed at a broad audience, but will contain a few equations where needed to make the argument exact. The coverage of cosmological ideas will focus mainly on the period from the early 1900s when Einstein formulated relativity and when his colleague Sir Arthur Eddington was creating relativistic models of the universe. It ends with the completion of the Large Hadron Collider in late 2008, having surveyed modern ideas of particle physics and astrophysics. To organize the large body of information involved, the book uses the life of Eddington and the weaving together of ideas in cosmology as themes. This should provide a clear and entertaining account presented in a historical context that leads up to the present day.

Ya. B. Zeldovich was certainly one of the greatest physicists and cosmologists of the 20th century. This volume presents reminiscences of this exemplary academician, providing biographical and historical insights from colleagues who knew him best. Zeldovich's achievements are outlined, including those in relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, the theory of combustion, and the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb projects. It contains incisive commentary on Soviet science and the impact that Zeldovich had on future generations, not only in the former USSR but throughout the international physics community. Zeldovich: Reminiscences is ideal for students of astrophysics and the history of science.

Modern cosmology has changed significantly over the years, from the discovery to the precision measurement era. The data now available provide a wealth of information, mostly consistent with a model where dark matter and dark energy are in a rough proportion of 3:7. The time is right for a fresh new textbook which captures the state-of-the art in cosmology. Written by one of the world's leading cosmologists, this brand new, thoroughly class-tested textbook provides graduate and undergraduate students with coverage of the very latest developments and experimental results in the field. Prof. Nicola Vittorio shows what is meant by precision cosmology, from both theoretical and observational perspectives. This book is divided into three main parts: Part I provides a pedagogical, but rigorous, general relativity-based discussion of cosmological models, showing the evidence for dark energy, the constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis and the need for inflation Part II introduces density fluctuations and their statistical description, discussing different theoretical scenarios, such as CDM, as well as observations Part III introduces the general relativity approach to structure formation and discusses the physics behind the CMB temperature and polarization pattern of the microwave sky Carefully adapted from the course taught by Prof. Vittorio at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, this book will be an ideal companion for advanced students undertaking a course in cosmology. Features: Incorporates the latest experimental results, at a time of rapid change in this field, with balanced coverage of both theoretical and experimental perspectives Each chapter is accompanied by problems, with detailed solutions The basics of tensor calculus and GR are given in the appendices

Written by an award-winning cosmologist, this brand new textbook provides advanced undergraduate and graduate students with coverage of the very latest developments in the observational science of cosmology. The book is separated into three parts; part I covers particle physics and general relativity, part II explores an account of the known history of the universe, and part III studies inflation. Full treatment of the origin of structure, scalar fields, the cosmic microwave background and the early universe are provided. Problems are included in the book with solutions provided in a separate solutions manual. More advanced extension material is offered in the Appendix, ensuring the book is fully accessible to students with a wide variety of background experience. Features: Incorporates the latest experimental results, at a time of rapid change in the field Explores the origin of structure and the Cosmic Microwave Background Includes an extensive number of problems and a corresponding solutions manual

This volume tells of the quest for cosmology as seen by some of the finest cosmologists in the world. It starts with "Galaxy Formation from Start to Finish" and ends with "The First Supermassive Black Holes in the Universe," exploring in between the grand themes of galaxies, the early universe, expansion of the universe, dark matter and dark energy. This up-to-date collection of review articles offers a general introduction to cosmology and is intended for all probing into the profound questions on where we came from and where we are going.

'Why'? Why is the world, the Universe the way it is? Is space infinitely large? How small is small? What happens when one continues to divide matter into ever smaller pieces? Indeed, what is matter? Is there anything else besides what can be seen? Pursuing the questions employing the leading notions of physics, one soon finds that the tangible and visible world dissolves - rather unexpectedly - into invisible things and domains that are beyond direct perception. A remarkable feature of our Universe is that most of its constituents turn out to be invisible, and this fact is brought out with great force by this book.Exploring the Invisible Universe covers the gamut of topics in advanced modern physics and provides extensive and well substantiated answers to these questions and many more. Discussed in a non-technical, yet also non-trivial manner, are topics dominated by invisible things - such as Black Holes and Superstrings as well as Fields, Gravitation, the Standard Model, Cosmology, Relativity, the Origin of Elements, Stars and Planetary Evolution, and more. Just giving the answer, as so many books do, is really not telling anything at all. To truly answer the 'why' questions of nature, one needs to follow the chain of reasoning that scientists have used to come to the conclusions they have. This book does not shy away from difficult-to-explain topics by reducing them to one-line answers and power phrases suitable for a popular talk show. The explanations are rigorous and straight to the point. This book is rarely mathematical without being afraid, however, to use elementary mathematics when called for. In order to achieve this, a large number of detailed figures, specially developed for this book and found nowhere else, convey insights that otherwise might either be inaccessible or need lengthy and difficult-to-follow explanations.After Exploring the Invisible Universe, a reader will have a deeper insight into our current understanding of the foundations of Nature and be able to answer all the questions above and then some. To understand Nature and the cutting edge ideas of contemporary physics, this is the book to have.