This collection of fifty-one fascinating and engaging activities opens up the gateway to outer space for stargazers young and old. Emphasizing group and family interaction, authors Philip Harrington and Edward Pascuzzi provide innovative activities that will help children identify, understand, and appreciate the objects in the Milky Way and galaxies beyond. With this book, you will become familiar with the constellations, planets, and phases of the moon. You will learn how sundials and telescopes work and even how to build your own. You'll also discover what causes shooting starts, auroras, nebulae, and other galactic phenomena. Charts of lunar-eclipse and meteor-shower dates will help you plan your viewing schedules. Clear, helpful diagrams, star charts, and photographs will guide you through the world of astronomy and make this book a delight to use. (8 1/2 x 11, 224 pages, b&w photos, illustrations, diagrams, charts)

This book covers all aspects of opacity and equations of state for gases, plasmas, and dust. The discussion emphasizes the continuous transformation of the equilibrium compositions of these phases as a function of temperature and density.

This book makes use of the LISP programming language to provide readers with the necessary background to understand and use fuzzy logic to solve simple to medium-complexity real-world problems. It introduces the basics of LISP required to use a Fuzzy LISP programming toolbox, which was specifically implemented by the author to "teach" the theory behind fuzzy logic and at the same time equip readers to use their newly-acquired knowledge to build fuzzy models of increasing complexity. The book fills an important gap in the literature, providing readers with a practice-oriented reference guide to fuzzy logic that offers more complexity than popular books yet is more accessible than other mathematical treatises on the topic. As such, students in first-year university courses with a basic tertiary mathematical background and no previous experience with programming should be able to easily follow the content. The book is intended for students and professionals in the fields of computer science and engineering, as well as disciplines including astronomy, biology, medicine and earth sciences. Software developers may also benefit from this book, which is intended as both an introductory textbook and self-study reference guide to fuzzy logic and its applications. The complete set of functions that make up the Fuzzy LISP programming toolbox can be downloaded from a companion book's website.

Chapter 1 briefly describes the main properties of space plasmas and primary CR. Chapter 2 considers the problem of CR propagation in space plasmas described by the kinetic equation and different types of diffusion approximations. Chapter 3 is devoted to CR non-linear effects in space plasmas caused by CR pressure and CR kinetic stream instabilities with the generation of Alfven turbulence. In Chapter 4 different processes of CR acceleration in space plasmas are considered. The book ends with a list providing more than 1,300 full references, a discussion on future developments and unsolved problems, as well as Object and Author indexes.

Extraterrestrial Altruism examines a basic assumption of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): that extraterrestrials will be transmitting messages to us for our benefit. This question of whether extraterrestrials will be altruistic has become increasingly important in recent years as SETI scientists have begun contemplating transmissions from Earth to make contact. Technological civilizations that transmit signals for the benefit of others, but with no immediate gain for themselves, certainly seem to be altruistic. But does this make biological sense? Should we expect altruism to evolve throughout the cosmos, or is this only wishful thinking? Is it dangerous to send messages to other worlds, as Stephen Hawking has suggested, or might humankind benefit from an exchange with intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy? Would extraterrestrial societies be based on different ethical principles, or would we see commonalities with Earthly notions of morality? Extraterrestrial Altruism explores these and related questions about the motivations of civilizations beyond Earth, providing new insights that are critical for SETI. Chapters are authored by leading scholars from diverse disciplines-anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, cosmology, engineering, history of science, law, philosophy, psychology, public policy, and sociology. The book is carefully edited by Douglas Vakoch, Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute and professor of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The Foreword is by Frank Drake. This interdisciplinary book will benefit everybody trying to understand whether evolution and ethics are unique to Earth, or whether they are built into the fabric of the universe.

In the last hundred years, modern physics and cosmology have shown that there exist regions of the universe forever beyond our reach, hidden by truly ultimate horizons. Such regions exist in those remote parts of the universe where, from our point of view, space expands faster than the speed of light. They are found in black holes, where the gravity is strong enough to retain even light within its field of attraction. And in the realm of the very small, quarks must remain forever confined to their world of extreme density and can never be removed from it. The aim of this book is to describe these ultimate horizons, how they were discovered, how they shape our view of the world, and what clues we have about a world beyond them.

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

The exploration of the first billion years of the history of the Universe represents one of the great challenges of contemporary astrophysics. During this time, the first structures start to form the first stars, galaxies, and possibly also soon the first quasars. At the same time, light comes to the dark, neutral Universe. This book contains the worked out lectures given at the 36th Saas-Fee Advanced Course "First Light in the Universe" by three eminent scientists in the field.

This book describes the origins and evolution of the chemical elements we and the cosmos are made of. The story starts with the discovery of the common elements on Earth and their subsequent discovery in space. How do we learn the composition of the distant stars? How did progress in quantum theory, nuclear physics, spectroscopy, stellar structure and evolution, together with observations of stars, converge to provide an incredibly detailed picture of the universe? How does research in the micro-world explain the macro-world? How does progress in one affect the other, or lack of knowledge in one inhibit progress in the other? In short, Shaviv describes how we discovered the various pieces of the jigsaw that form our present picture of the universe; and how we sometimes put these in the wrong place before finding in the right one. En route we meet some fascinating personalities and learn about heated controversies. Shaviv shows how science lurched from one dogma to the next, time and again shattering much of what had been considered solid knowledge, until eventually a stable understanding arose. Beginning with generally accepted science, the book ends in today's terra incognita of nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology. A monumental work that will fascinate scientists, philosophers, historians and lay readers alike.

The 2005 meeting in Taormina, Italy was attended by 127 professionals who develop and use the highest quality detectors for wavelengths from x-ray to sub-mm, with emphasis on optical and infrared detectors. The meeting consisted of overview talks, technical presentations, poster sessions and roundtable discussions. These proceedings capture the technical content and the spirit of the 2005 workshop. The 87 papers cover a wide range of detector technologies including CCDs, CMOS, APDs, and sub-mm detectors. There are papers on observatory status and plans, special applications, detector testing and characterization, and electronics. A special feature of these proceedings is the inclusion of pedagogical overview papers, which were written by teams of leading experts from different institutions. These proceedings are appropriate for a range of expertise levels, from undergraduates to professionals working in the field. The information presented in this book will serve as a valuable reference for many years to come. This workshop was organized by the Scientific Workshop Factory, Inc. and the INAF- Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania.

This book presents the basics and advanced topics of research of gamma ray physics. It describes measuring of Fermi surfaces with gamma resonance spectroscopy and the theory of angular distributions of resonantly scattered gamma rays. The dependence of excited-nuclei average lifetime on the shape of the exciting-radiation spectrum and electron binding energies in the spectra of scattered gamma rays is described. Resonant excitation by gamma rays of nuclear isomeric states with long lifetime leads to the emission and absorption lines. In the book, a new gamma spectroscopic method, gravitational gamma spectrometry, is developed. It has a resolution hundred million times higher than the usual Moessbauer spectrometer. Another important topic of this book is resonant scattering of annihilation quanta by nuclei with excited states in connection with positron annihilation. The application of the methods described is to explain the phenomenon of Coulomb fragmentation of gamma-source molecules and resonant scattering of annihilation quanta to study the shape of Fermi surfaces of metals.

The years 2012/2013 mark the 50th anniversary of the theoretical prediction that Brown Dwarfs, i.e. degenerate objects which are just not massive enough to sustain stable hydrogen fusion, exist. Some 20 years after their discovery, how Brown Dwarfs form is still one of the main open questions in the theory of star formation. In this volume, the pioneers of Brown Dwarf research review the history of the theoretical prediction and the subsequent discovery of Brown Dwarfs. After an introduction, written by Viki Joergens, reviewing Shiv Kumar's theoretical prediction of the existence of brown dwarfs, Takenori Nakano reviews his and Hayashi's calculation of the Hydrogen Burning Minimum Mass. Both predictions happened in the early 1960s. Jill Tarter then writes on the introduction of the term 'Brown Dwarf', before Ben Oppenheimer, Rafael Rebolo and Gibor Basri describe their first discovery of Brown Dwarfs in the 1990s. Lastly, Michael Cushing and Isabelle Baraffe describe the development of the field to the current state of the art. While the book is mainly aimed at the Brown Dwarf research community, the description of the pioneering period in a scientific field will attract general readers interested in astronomy as well.

The high-redshift galaxies became a distinct research ?eld during the ?nal decade of the20thcentury. AtthattimetheLyman-breaktechniquemadeitpossibletoidentify signi?cant samples of such objects, and the new generation of 8 to 10-m telescopes resulted in ?rst good spectroscopic data. Today the high-redshift galaxies have developed into one of the important topics of astrophysics, accounting for about 5-10% of the publications in the major scienti?c journals devoted to astronomy. Because high-redshift galaxies is a rapidly developing ?eld and since new results are published constantly, writing a book on this topic is challenging. On the other hand, in view of the large amount of individual results now in the literature, and in view of the still growing interest in this topic, it appears worthwhile to summarize and evaluate the available data and to provide an introduction for those who wish to enter this ?eld, or who, for various reasons, might be interested in its results. The end of the ?rst decade of the 21st century appears to be a good point in time to attempt such a summary. The current generation of ground-based 8 to 10-m - optical telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the most important large radio telescopes have by now been in operation since about one or two decades. Although these instruments will continue to produce important scienti?c results for some time to come, many of the initial programs exploiting their unique new possibilities have been completed.

High-contrast astronomical imaging has progressed significantly in the past decade. Many of these techniques have been laboratory demonstrated to perform at contrast levels adequate for the detection of Solar System-like planets and dust around nearby stars. None of them, however, have been demonstrated in space. The state of the art in high-contrast imaging systems that have been built for space-based observation, the environment best suited for spectroscopic study of exo-Earths, is the nulling interferometer that was flown on the Planetary Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment (PICTURE). The PICTURE nulling interferometer, built from multiple optical elements, relies on the incorporation of additional dispersive components in order to deliver the broadband performance preferred for faint object imaging. These elements add to the cost, complexity, and misalignment risk of the instrument. The Monolithic Achromatic Nulling Interference Coronagraph (MANIC) Brian Hicks describe in this thesis the first optic of its kind. He has taken the multiple optical element concept described in earlier works from theory to a flyable monolithic optic. Brian has advanced the state of the art in nulling interferometers by improving optical stability and robustness. Following application of the fabrication method described in this work, the design of MANIC also allows for broader band performance at higher contrast than that achieved with the PICTURE nulling interferometer.

The aim of this book is to present highly accurate and extensive theoretical Atomic data and to give a survey of selected calculational methods for atomic physics, used to obtain these data. The book presents the results of calculations of cross sections and probabilities of a broad variety of atomic processes with participation of photons and electrons, namely on photoabsorption, electron scattering and accompanying effects. Included are data for photoabsorption and electron scattering cross-sections and probabilities of vacancy decay formed for a large number of atoms and ions. Attention is also given to photoionization and vacancy decay in endohedrals and to positron-atom scattering. The book is richly illustrated. The methods used are one-electron Hartree-Fock and the technique of Feynman diagrams that permits to include many-electron correlations. This is done in the frames of the Random Phase approximation with exchange and the many-body perturbation theory. Newly obtained and previously collected atomic data are presented. The atomic data are useful for investigating the electronic structure and physical processes in solids and liquids, molecules and clusters, astronomical objects, solar and planet atmospheres and atomic nucleus. Deep understanding of chemical reactions and processes is reached by deep and accurate knowledge of atomic structure and processes with participation of atoms. This book is useful for theorists performing research in different domains of contemporary physics, chemistry and biology, technologists working on production of new materials and for experimentalists performing research in the field of photon and electron interaction with atoms, molecules, solid bodies and liquids.

The zeta Aurigae stars are the rare but illustrious sub-group of binary stars that undergo the dramatic phenomenon of "chromospheric eclipse". This book provides detailed descriptions of the ten known systems, illustrates them richly with examples of new spectra, and places them in the context of stellar structure and evolution. Comprised of a large cool giant plus a small hot dwarf, these key eclipsing binaries reveal fascinating changes in their spectra very close to total eclipse, when the hot star shines through differing heights of the "chromosphere", or outer atmosphere, of the giant star. The phenomenon provides astrophysics with the means of analyzing the outer atmosphere of a giant star and how that material is shed into space. The physics of these critical events can be explained qualitatively, but it is more challenging to extract hard facts from the observations, and tough to model the chromosphere in any detail. The book offers current thinking on mechanisms for heating a star's chromosphere and on how a star loses mass, and relates this science synergistically to studies of other stars and binaries, and to the increasing relevance of contributions from new techniques in interferometry and asteroseismology. It also includes a detailed discussion of the enigmatic star epsilon Aurigae, which had recently undergone one of its very infrequent and very baffling eclipses. Though not a zeta Aurigae system, epsilon Aurigae is a true "Giant" among eclipsing stars. The 7 chapters of this book, written by a group of experts, have been carefully edited to form a coherent volume that offers a thorough overview of the subject to both professional and student.

In recent years there have been great advances in the fields of laboratory and astronomical spectroscopy. These have been equally matched by large-scale computations using state-of-the-art theoretical methods. The accurate atomic opacities that are available today play a great role in the field of biomedical research using nanotechnology.

The proceedings of the "International Conference on Recent Advances in Spectroscopy: Theoretical, Experimental and Astrophysical Perspectives" contain both invited and contributory papers, which give the most recent results by the peers in the areas of theoretical and experimental atomic physics as well as observational astrophysics.

With just 400 pages, this title provides readers with the results of recent research from some of the world's leading historians of astronomy on aspects of Arabic, Australian, Chinese, Japanese, and North and South American astronomy and astrophysics. Of particular note are the sections on Arabic astronomy, Asian applied astronomy and the history of Australian radio astronomy, and the chapter on Peruvian astronomy. This title is of particular appeal to those with research interests in applied historical astronomy; archaeoastronomy; calendars, manuscripts, and star charts; historical instruments and observatories, and the history of radio astronomy.

Understanding the stars is the bedrock of modern astrophysics. Stars are the source of life. The chemical enrichment of our Milky Way and of the Universe withallelementsheavierthanlithiumoriginatesintheinteriorsofstars.Stars arethe tracersofthe dynamics ofthe Universe,gravitationallyimplying much more than meets the eye. Stars ionize the interstellar medium and re-ionized the early intergalactic medium. Understanding stellar structure and evolution is fundamental. While stellar structure and evolution are understood in general terms, we lack important physical ingredients, despite extensive research during recent decades.Classicalspectroscopy,photometry,astrometryandinterferometryof stars have traditionally been used as observational constraints to deduce the internal stellar physics. Unfortunately, these types of observations only allow the tuning of the basic common physics laws under stellar conditions with relatively poor precision. The situation is even more worrisome for unknown aspects of the physics and dynamics in stars. These are usually dealt with by using parameterised descriptions of, e.g., the treatments of convection, rotation,angularmomentumtransport,theequationofstate,atomicdi?usion andsettlingofelements,magneto-hydrodynamicalprocesses,andmore.There is a dearth of observational constraints on these processes, thus solar values areoftenassignedtothem.Yetitishardtoimaginethatonesetofparameters is appropriate for the vast range of stars.

By the end of the Twentieth century, formal schooling - once the privilege of male elites - had become accessible to women, the working class and some ethnic minorities. The essays in this volume explore the historical origins of this transformation, analyzing struggles Australia, Canada, China, Columbia, India, the United States, and South Africa.

This book presents previously unexamined connections between teaching practices and specific philosophical ideas, locating the prior beliefs and practical knowledge of early childhood practitioners in urban India within the broader social and historical religio-philosophical context.

The essays in this book look at way in which the fundaments of physics might need to be changed in order to make progress towards a unified theory. They are based on the prize-winning essays submitted to the FQXi essay competition “Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?�, which drew over 270 entries. As Nobel Laureate physicist Philip W. Anderson realized, the key to understanding nature’s reality is not anything “magical�, but the right attitude, “the focus on asking the right questions, the willingness to try (and to discard) unconventional answers, the sensitive ear for phoniness, self-deception, bombast, and conventional but unproven assumptions.� The authors of the eighteen prize-winning essays have, where necessary, adapted their essays for the present volume so as to (a) incorporate the community feedback generated in the online discussion of the essays, (b) add new material that has come to light since their completion and (c) to ensure accessibility to a broad audience of readers with a basic grounding in physics. The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality, but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

The detection of radial and non-radial solar-like oscillations in thousands of G-K giants with CoRoT and Kepler is paving the road for detailed studies of stellar populations in the Galaxy. The available average seismic constraints allow largely model-independent determination of stellar radii and masses, and can be used to determine the position and age of thousands of stars in different regions of the Milky Way, and of giants belonging to open clusters. Such a close connection between stellar evolution, Galactic evolution, and asteroseismology opens a new very promising gate in our understanding of stars and galaxies. This book represents a natural progression from the collection of review papers presented in the book 'Red Giants as Probes of the Structure and Evolution of the Milky Way', which appeared in the Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings series in 2012. This sequel volume contains review papers on spectroscopy, seismology of red giants, open questions in Galactic astrophysics, and discusses first results achieved by combining photometric/spectroscopic and seismic constraints on populations of stars observed by CoRoT and Kepler. The book also reports on discussions between expert researchers in Galactic evolution, specialists in stellar structure and asteroseismology, and key representatives of extensive ground-based spectroscopic surveys such as APOGEE and the ESO-GAIA Spectroscopic Survey, which would serve as a roadmap for future endeavours in this field of research.

Revolution and Pedagogy explores the tensions between and within the processes of revolutionary pedagogical change and continuity. Contributors examine conventional topics such as school policies and curricula, as well as more non-traditional pedagogies such as public celebrations of holidays, participation in international exchange programs, and the incarceration of political activists.

This prize-winning thesis deals with the observation and modeling of the spectral evolution of blazars. Based on single-dish light curves, a model of shock-shock interaction is tested and confirmed using multi-frequency high resolution Very Long Baseline Observations. He presents state-of-the art numerical relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and the corresponding non-thermal emission is calculated (eRHD simulations). The author further presents new analysis techniques for VLBI observations that can be applied to numerous sources and provide reliable results including an error estimate using Monte Carlo simulations. He also develops an analytical shock model that can be applied quickly to other single dish observations. He shows how novel techniques of extraction of physical parameters from observations can be applied to other astrophysical sources and provide a link to a better understanding of the physical mechanism operating in blazar jets.