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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > General
This biography gives an insider view of 20th century German science in the making. The discovery by Max von Laue in 1912 of interference effects demonstrated the wave-like nature of X-rays and the atomic lattice structure of crystals. This major advance for research on solids earned him the Nobel Prize two years later, the ultimate acclaim as an exceptional theoretician. As an early supporter of Einstein's relativity theory, he published fundamental papers on light scattering as well as on matter waves and superconductivity. Laue may be counted among the few persons of influence in Germany who - as Einstein put it - managed to "stay morally upright" under Nazism. It is thus surprising that this is the first extensive biography of this famous scientist. Jost Lemmerich could hardly have been better equipped to describe German physics and physicists in the 1920s. His copiously illustrated historical account is based as much on scientific material as on private correspondence, creating a fascinating and convincingly detailed portrait.
The scientific meetings of the !AU are the !AU Symposia, !AU Colloquia, Regional Meetings in Astronomy held under the auspices of the !AU, the Commission Meetings, which may be Joint Meetings of Commissions, and !AU Joint Discussions. This variety means that almost any demand for a meeting can be provided for by the !AU structure, pro vided it is international in character, whatever may be the preferences of the proposers. The !AU General Assemblies include Co~ssion Meetings and Joint Discussions arranged by Commissions, together with the Invited Discourses, and it is these meetings that feature in this volume. The administrative work of the General Assembly is reported in the Transactions of the !AU and the Proceedings of the !AU Symposia, held in the host country or neighbouring countries during the year of a General Assembly, appear in the !AU Symposium Volume series. !AU Collo quium volumes are published separately. The Invited Discourses are a popular feature of the !AU General Assemblies and each of the three discourses presented at the XVIIth General Assembly in Montreal in 1979 appear in this volume. 1979 was the Centenary Year of the birth of Albert Einstein and the occasion was marked, for the !AU, by a discourse of great distinction from Professor S. Chandrasekhar of the University of Chicago, whose contri butions to astrophysics themselves cover fully a half-century. The Invited Discourse by G. Herzberg of the National Research Council of Canada, a Nobel Prizewinner, was equally notable as an !AU occasion.
Seen from "inside the IAU," this book tells the in-depth story of a major crisis in which China "divorced" from the International Astronomical Union in 1960 as a protest against the admission of Taiwan. This happened to all the scientific unions at the same time, and to the Olympic Games, which, unexpectedly, would serve as a laboratory for the "reconciliation" which took place following the re-opening of China to the world 20 years later. The so-called "China conflict" is the most important crisis in the post-WWII history of the IAU. Yet, many details about this conflict and its links to broader geopolitical events have long remained unsettled, obscure, or altogether absent. In particular, the book describes for the first time the "separation" period, which covered the Cultural Revolution, and in which the IAU made desperate official efforts to reach out to China, while some groups of Western and Chinese astronomers managed to keep contact at times. On the occasion of the IAU Centenary celebrations in 2019, the book revisits this painful succession of events using unpublished documents from the IAU Archives and the International Council of Scientific Unions. The book also contains supplementary typescripts of selected handwritten correspondences and the full translation of key original Chinese documents unknown to readers outside China. What emerges is a complex and fascinating story of human relations and science diplomacy under the shadow of the Cold War. Readers will learn how the 20-year "China conflict" as lived by astronomers and scientists is important not only for the history of the IAU, but also for the history of contemporary China. "This book is full of so many original documents of the IAU office, very reliable and good to open to the public readers." Shuhua Ye, Shanghai Observatory (IAU Vice-President, 1988-1994) This book is a companion book to "Astronomers as Diplomats," published at the same time in the same series.
There has been very considerable progress in research into low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets during the past few years, particularly since the fist edtion of this book was published in 2000. In this new edtion the authors present a comprehensive review of both the astrophysical nature of individual red dwarf and brown dwarf stars and their collective statistical properties as an important Galactic stellar population. Chapters dealing with the observational properies of low-mass dwarfs, the stellar mass function and extrasolar planets have been completely revised. Other chapters have been significantly revised and updated as appropriate, including important new material on observational techniques, stellar acivity, the Galactic halo and field star surveys. The authors detail the many discoveries of new brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets made since publication of the first edition of the book and provide a state-of-the-art review of our current knowledge of very low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets, including both the latest observational results and theoretical work.
IX LIST OF PRINCIPAL SPEAKERS XI LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 1. REGULARIZATION E. STIEFEL / A Linear Theory of the Perturbed Two-Body Problem (Regul- ization) 3 J. WALDVOGEL / Collision Singularities in Gravitational Problems 21 D. C. HEGGIE / Regularization Using a Time-Transformation Only 34 J. BAUMGAR TE / Stabilization of the Differential Equations of Keplerian Motion 38 F. NAHON / The Particular Solutions of Levi-Civita 45 O. GODAR T / Example ofIntegration of Strongly Oscillating Systems 53 w. BLACK / The Application of Recurrence Relations to Special Perturbation Methods 61 D. G. BETTIS / Numerical Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations (Abstract) 71 II. THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM V. SZEBEHELY / Recent Advances in the Problem of Three Bodies 75 R. F. ARENSTORF / Periodic Elliptic Motion in the Problem of Three Bodies (Abstract) 107 G. KATSIARIS and c. L. GOUDAS / On a Conjecture by Poincare 109 G. KATSIARIS / The Three-Dimensional Elliptic Problem 118 P. G. KAZANTZIS / Second and Third Order Variations of the Three Dimensional Restricted Problem 135 c. G. ZAGOURAS / Planar Periodic Orbits Using Second and Third Variations 146 E. RABE / Elliptic Restricted Problem: Fourth-Order Stability Analysis of the Triangular Points 156 P. GUILLAUME / A Linear Description of the Second Species Solutions 161 III. THE N-BODY PROBLEM AND STELLAR DYNAMICS G. CONTOPOULOS / Problems of Stellar Dynamics 177 w. T. KYNER / Invariant Manifolds in Celestial Mechanics 192 s. J.
This book contains papers from a conference held to celebrate the 70th birthday of one of the world's foremost astronomical historians, Professor F. Richard Stephenson, the latest recipient of the American Astronomical Society's highest award for research in astronomical history, the LeRoy Doggett Prize. Reflecting Professor Stephenson's extensive research portfolio, this book brings together under one cover papers on four different areas of scholarship: applied historical astronomy (which Stephenson founded); Islamic astronomy; Oriental astronomy and amateur astronomy. These papers are penned by astronomers from Canada, China, England, France, Georgia, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Portugal, Thailand and the USA. Its diverse coverage represents a wide cross-section of the history of astronomy community. Under discussion are ways in which recent research using historical data has provided new insights into auroral and solar activity, supernovae and changes in the rotation rate of the Earth. It also presents readers with results of recent research on leading historical figures in Islamic and Oriental astronomy, and aspects of eighteenth and nineteenth century Australian, British, German and Portuguese amateur astronomy, including the fascinating 'amateur-turned-professional syndrome'.
This book presents what are possibly the greatest advances in astronomy and physics for years. It quantifies the force responsible for the expansion of the universe and describes its source. It identifies the greatest destructive mechanism in the universe. The enigmas behind the Hubble constant were resolved and this led to all the discoveries. The mysteries behind dark matter and dark energy are solved. The cause of all solar energy, including gravitational and radiant energy is identified. Surprisingly hydrogen fusion is found to be responsible for the sun's remarkable prolonged stability, but it is an impossible source of surplus energy. The most unexpected finding was that time has an unusual property, one that is responsible for much of the behaviour of the universe. Also uncovered was an inverse relationship between time and mass. Another finding was the greatest catastrophe to befall the earth with after effects that we still feel today, such as shifting plate tectonics, tsunamis and earthquakes, and why the Pacific Ocean is so deep. That catastrophe led to Snowball Earth. But it also eventually caused the oxygenation of earth's atmosphere and the emergence of life. Also found were why Jupiter is so hot compared with its surroundings and what drives its equatorial storms. Another discovery was the mechanism responsible for Saturn's marvellous ring system. Also identified within that ring system was the physics behind the most spectacular sight in the solar system. But there are many other discoveries, such as that the theory of the Big Bang must be wrong, the quantification of gravitational energy and so on. This book should do to Astronomy what Darwin's book The Origin of Species did to biology.
Near-infrared astronomy has become one of the most rapidly developing branches in modern astrophysics. Innovative observing techniques, near-infrared detectors with quantum efficiencies in excess of 90%, highly specialised instruments as well as advanced data reduction techniques have allowed major breakthroughs in various areas like exoplanets, star-forming regions, the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center, and the high-redshift Universe. In this book, the reader will be introduced to the basic concepts of how to prepare near-infrared observations with maximized scientific return. Equal weight is given to all aspects of the data reduction for both - imaging and spectroscopy. Information is also provided on the state of the art instrumentation available and planned, on detector technology or the physics of the atmosphere, all of which influence the preparation and execution of observations and data reduction techniques. The beginner but also the expert will find a lot of information in compact form which is otherwise widely dispersed across the internet or other sources.
It is good to mark the new Millennium by looking back as well as forward. Whatever Shines Should Be Observed looks to the nineteenth century to celebrate the achievements of five distinguished women, four of whom were born in Ireland while the fifth married into an Irish family, who made pioneering contributions to photography, microscopy, astronomy and astrophysics. The women featured came from either aristocratic or professional families. Thus, at first sight, they had many material advantages among their peers. In the ranks of the aristocracy there was often a great passion for learning, and the mansions in which these families lived contained libraries, technical equipment (microscopes and telescopes) and collections from the world of nature. More modest professional households of the time were rich in books, while activities such as observing the stars, collecting plants etc. typically formed an integral part of the children's education. To balance this it was the prevailing philosophy that boys could learn, in addition to basic subjects, mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry and classical languages, while girls were channelled into 'polite' subjects like music and needlework. This arrangement allowed boys to progress to University should they so wish, where a range of interesting career choices (including science and engineering) was open to them. Girls, on the other hand, usually received their education at home, often under the tutelage of a governess who would not herself had had any serious contact with scientific or technical subjects. In particular, progress to University was not during most of the nineteenth century an option for women, and access toscientific libraries and institutions was also prohibited. Although those women with aristocratic and professional backgrounds were in a materially privileged position and had an opportunity to 'see' through the activities of their male friends and relatives how professional scientific life was lived, to progress from their places in society to the professions required very special determination. Firstly, they had to individually acquire scientific and technical knowledge, as well as necessary laboratory methodology, without the advantage of formal training. Then, it was necessary to carve out a niche in a particular field, despite the special difficulties attending the publication of scientific books or articles by a woman. There was no easy road to science, or even any well worn track. To achieve recognition was a pioneering activity without discernible ground rules. With the hindsight of history, we recognise that the heroic efforts which the women featured in this volume made to overcome the social constraints that held them back from learning about, and participating in, scientific and technical subjects, had a consequence on a much broader canvas. In addition to what they each achieved professionally they contributed within society to a gradual erosion of those barriers raised against the participation of women in academic life, thereby assisting in allowing University places and professional opportunities to gradually become generally available. It is a privilege to salute and thank the wonderful women of the nineteenth century herein described for what they have contributed to the women of today. William Herschel's famous motto quicquid nitet notandum (whatever shinesshould be observed) applies in a particular way to the luminous quality of their individual lives, and those of us who presently observe their shining, as well as those who now wait in the wings of the coming centuries to emerge upon the scene, can each see a little further by their light.
The publication of this volume coincides with the 55th anni versary of the discovery of the neutron and Landau's suggestion at the time that one could make stars out of the new particles. This year also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the detection of Sco X-I, the first known X-ray binary system, and follows by just twenty years Jocelyn Bell Burnell's discovery of that "little bit of scruff" o her chart record that led to the recognition of radio pulsars. As Q. Y. Qu, President of Nanjing University noted in his welcoming address, however, Chinese astronomers have been observing the consequences of neutron star formation for several millenia. It was appropriate, then, that this Symposium, the first Interna tional Astronomical Union meeting ever to be held in the Peoples Republic of China, be devoted to the topic of neutron stars. IAU Symposium Number 125, "The Origin and Evolution of Neutron Stars," was convened on the morning of May 26, 1986 at Nanj ing University, Nanjing, Peoples Republic of China. One hundred and thirty-nine participants from fifteen countries, including over eighty-five scientists who were visiting China for the first time, met each day for the following week to discuss where neutron stars come from, how they evolve, and where they go. The meeting was judged, by unanimous acclaim of the participants, to be a scienti fic, cultural, and culinary success."
Astrobiology is a very broad interdisciplinary field covering the
origin, evolution, distribution, and destiny of life in the
universe, as well as the design and implementation of missions for
solar system exploration. A review covering its complete spectrum
has been missing at a level accessible even to the non-specialist.
The uses of time in astronomy - from pointing telescopes, coordinating and processing observations, predicting ephemerides, cultures, religious practices, history, businesses, determining Earth orientation, analyzing time-series data and in many other ways - represent a broad sample of how time is used throughout human society and in space. Time and its reciprocal, frequency, is the most accurately measurable quantity and often an important path to the frontiers of science. But the future of timekeeping is changing with the development of optical frequency standards and the resulting challenges of distributing time at ever higher precision, with the possibility of timescales based on pulsars, and with the inclusion of higher-order relativistic effects. The definition of the second will likely be changed before the end of this decade, and its realization will increase in accuracy; the definition of the day is no longer obvious. The variability of the Earth's rotation presents challenges of understanding and prediction. In this symposium speakers took a closer look at time in astronomy, other sciences, cultures, and business as a defining element of modern civilization. The symposium aimed to set the stage for future timekeeping standards, infrastructure, and engineering best practices for astronomers and the broader society. At the same time the program was cognizant of the rich history from Harrison's chronometer to today's atomic clocks and pulsar observations. The theoreticians and engineers of time were brought together with the educators and historians of science, enriching the understanding of time among both experts and the public.
The 1994 Cargese Summer Institute on Frontiers in Partide Physics was organized by the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (M. Levy), the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris (J. Iliopoulos), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (R. Gastmans), and the Uni- versite Catholique de Louvain (J. -M. Gerard), which, since 1975, have joined their efforts and worked in common. It was the eleventh Summer Institute on High Energy Physics organized jointly at Cargese by three of these universities. Severa! new frontiers in partide physics were thoroughly discussed at this school. the new euergy range in deep-iuelastic electron-proton scattering is beiug In particular, explored by HERA (DESY, Hamburg), and Professor A. De Roeck described the first results from the H1 and Zeus experiments, while Professors A. H. Mueller aud Z. Kuuszt discussed their relevance from the theoretical point of view. Also, the satellite exper- iments offer new possibilities for exploring the links between astrophysics, cosmology, and partide physics. A critica] a. nalysis of these experiments was performed by Pro- fessor B. Sadoulet, and Professor M. Spiro made the connection with the results from earth-based neutrino experiments. Finally, much attentiou was giveu to the latest re- sults from the TEVATRON (Fermilab, USA), showing further evidence for the loug awaited top quark. Professor A. Tollestrup gave a detailed presentation of these results aud discussed their importance for the Standard Model.
This is volume 4 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, a six-volume compendium of modern astronomical research, covering subjects of key interest to the main fields of contemporary astronomy. This volume on Stellar Structure and Evolution edited by Martin A. Barstow presents accessible review chapters on Stellar Structure, Stellar Atmospheres, The Sun as a Star, Asteroseismology, Star Formation, Young Stellar Objects and Protostellar Disks, Brown Dwarfs, Evolution of Solar and Intermediate- Mass Stars, The Evolution of High Mass Stars, Stellar Activity, White Dwarf Stars, Black Holes and Neutron Stars, Binaries and Multiple Stellar Systems, Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts, and Stellar Winds. All chapters of the handbook were written by practicing professionals. They include sufficient background material and references to the current literature to allow readers to learn enough about a specialty within astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology to get started on their own practical research projects. In the spirit of the series Stars and Stellar Systems published by Chicago University Press in the 1960s and 1970s, each chapter of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems can stand on its own as a fundamental review of its respective sub-discipline, and each volume can be used as a textbook or recommended reference work for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate courses. Advanced students and professional astronomers in their roles as both lecturers and researchers will welcome Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems as a comprehensive and pedagogical reference work on astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology.
This book deals with the rise of mathematics in physical sciences, beginning with Galileo and Newton and extending to the present day. The book is divided into two parts. The first part gives a brief history of how mathematics was introduced into physics-despite its "unreasonable effectiveness" as famously pointed out by a distinguished physicist-and the criticisms it received from earlier thinkers. The second part takes a more philosophical approach and is intended to shed some light on that mysterious effectiveness. For this purpose, the author reviews the debate between classical philosophers on the existence of innate ideas that allow us to understand the world and also the philosophically based arguments for and against the use of mathematics in physical sciences. In this context, Schopenhauer's conceptions of causality and matter are very pertinent, and their validity is revisited in light of modern physics. The final question addressed is whether the effectiveness of mathematics can be explained by its "existence" in an independent platonic realm, as Goedel believed. The book aims at readers interested in the history and philosophy of physics. It is accessible to those with only a very basic (not professional) knowledge of physics.
The aim of this volume of scientific essays is twofold. On the one hand, by remembering the scientific figure of Eduardo R. Caianiello, it aims at focusing on his outstanding contributions - from theoretical physics to cybernetics - which after so many years still represent occasion of innovative paths to be fruitfully followed. It must be stressed the contribution that his interdisciplinary methodology can still be of great help in affording and solving present day complex problems. On the other hand, it aims at pinpointing with the help of the scientists contributing to the volume - some crucial problems in present day research in the fields of interest of Eduardo Caianiello and which are still among the main lines of investigation of some of the Institutes founded by Eduardo (Istituto di Cibernetica del CNR, IIAS, etc).
The main purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the subject of solar activity and the connection with Earth's climate. It commences with a brief review of the historical progress on the understanding of the solar-terrestrial connection and moves on to an objective scrutiny of the various hypothesis. The text focuses on how knowledge about the solar cycle and Earth's climate is obtained. It includes discussion of observations, methods and the physics involved, with the necessary statistics and analysis also provided, including an examination of empirical relations between sunspots and the Earth's climate. The author reviews plausible physical mechanisms involved in any links between the solar cycle and the Earth's climate, emphasizing the use of established scientific methods for testing hypothesized relationships.
"Revolution and Pedagogy" explores the tensions between and within the processes of revolutionary pedagogical change and continuity. Focusing on those enacting pedagogical contexts, E. Thomas Ewing's collection provides an innovative and sophisticated exploration of complex directions and forces. These revolutions include the struggle for independence in the Philippines, the Russian revolution that led to communist Soviet Union, the Egyptian campaigns against British colonial authority, the development of Kurdish national identity in the context of Turkey's modernization, radical and reformist educational movements in Western Europe and the Americas, the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, and the contemporary debate over national and religious identity in India. "Revolution and Pedagogy" examines conventional topics such as school policies and curriculum content, as well as more non-traditional pedagogies such as public celebrations of holidays, participation in international exchange programs, and the incarceration of political activists. The geographically diverse contributors from a wide range of disciplinary approaches produce interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives on education and revolution.
Following on from Part 1, which was highly acclaimed by the space community, this peer-viewed book provides detailed insights into how space and popular culture intersect across a broad spectrum of areas, including cinema, music, art, arcade games, cartoons, comics, and advertisements. This is a pertinent topic since the use of space themes differs in different cultural contexts, and these themes can be used to explore various aspects of the human condition and provide a context for social commentary on politically sensitive issues. With the use of space imagery evolving over the past sixty years of the space age, this topic is ripe for in-depth exploration. Covering a wide array of relevant and timely topics, the book examines the intersections between space and popular culture, and offers accounts of space and its effect on culture, language, and storytelling from the southern regions of the world.
This book provides recommendations for thermal and structural modelling of spacecraft structures for predicting thermoelastic responses. It touches upon the related aspects of the finite element and thermal lumped parameter method. A mix of theoretical and practical examples supports the modelling guidelines. Starting from the system needs of instruments of spacecraft, the reader is supported with the development of the practical requirements for the joint development of the thermal and structural models. It provides points of attention and suggestions to check the quality of the models.The temperature mapping problem, typical for spacecraft thermoelastic analysis, is addressed. The principles of various temperature mapping methods are presented. The prescribed average temperature method, co-developed by the authors, is discussed in detail together with its spin-off to provide high quality conductors for thermal models. The book concludes with the discussion of the application of uncertainty assessment methods. The thermoelastic analysis chain is computationally expensive. Therefore, the 2k+1 point estimate method of Rosenblueth is presented as an alternative for the Monte Carlo Simuation method, bringing stochastic uncertainty analysis in reach for large thermoelastic problems.
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