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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > General
The book analyses a broad range of relevant aspects as the outer
space and cyber space domain do not only present analogies but are
also strongly interrelated. This may occur on various levels by
technologies but also in regard to juridical approaches, each
nevertheless keeping its particularities. Since modern societies
rely increasingly on space applications that depend on cyber space,
it is important to investigate how cyberspace and outer space are
connected by their common challenges. Furthermore, this book
discusses not only questions around their jurisdictions, but also
whether the private space industry can escape jurisdiction by
dematerializing the space resource commercial processes and assets
thanks to cyber technology. In addition, space and cyberspace
policies are analysed especially in view of cyber threats to space
communications. Even the question of an extra-terrestrial
citizenship in outer space and cyberspace may raise new views.
Finally, the interdependence between space and cyberspace also has
an important role to play in the context of increasing
militarization and emerging weaponization of outer space.
Therefore, this book invites questioning the similarities and
interrelations between Outer Space and Cyber Space in the same way
as it intends to strengthen them.
This book, written by leading experts of the field, gives an
excellent up-to-date overview of modern neutrino physics and is
useful for scientists and graduate students alike. The book starts
with a history of neutrinos and then develops from the fundamentals
to the direct determination of masses and lifetimes. The role of
neutrinos in fundamental astrophysical problems is discussed in
detail.
Markus Aschwanden introduces the concept of self-organized
criticality (SOC) and shows that due to its universality and
ubiquity it is a law of nature for which he derives the theoretical
framework and specific physical models in this book. He begins by
providing an overview of the many diverse phenomena in nature which
may be attributed to SOC behaviour.
The author then introduces the classic lattice-based SOC models
that may be explored using numerical computer simulations. These
simulations require an in-depth knowledge of a wide range of
mathematical techniques which the author introduces and describes
in subsequent chapters. These include the statistics of random
processes, time series analysis, time scale distributions, and
waiting time distributions. Such mathematical techniques are needed
to model and understand the power-law-like occurrence frequency
distributions of SOC phenomena. Finally, the author discusses
fractal geometry and scaling laws before looking at a range of
physical SOC models which may be applicable in various aspects of
astrophysics. Problems, solutions and a glossary will enhance the
pedagogical usefulness of the book.
SOC has been receiving growing attention in the astrophysical
and solar physics community. This book will be welcomed by students
and researchers studying complex critical phenomena.
Among the most influential, world-renowned scientists during the
early decades of the twentieth century was the Dutch astronomer
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922). Kapteyn's influence resulted
from and contributed to the golden age of Dutch science. In the
words of the brilliant English astrophysicist, Arthur S. Eddington:
Holland has given many scientific leaders to the world: it is
doubtful whether any other nation in proportion to its size can
show so fine a record. J.C. Kapteyn was among the most
distinguished of its sons -- a truly great astronomer'. The present
text is an English translation of Kapteyn's 1928 (Dutch) biography
by his daughter Henrietta Hertzsprung-Kapteyn. While the original
biography suffers from -- but in many ways is also enriched by --
the emotional excesses of a loving daughter writing of her famous
father, this new translation provides an annotated assessment of
Kapteyn as family man, scientist and world leader. This new volume
also opens up to a much wider reading public many of the enormously
rich contributions, not only of Kapteyn the man but also of the
Dutch, to the emergence of astronomy as a major intellectual force
in the world. Perhaps equally important, the translated biography
reproduces many biographical and technical details from Kapteyn's
correspondence with numerous other scientists and scholars. Access
to the Kapteyn biography becomes an archival treasure for future
studies dealing with Kapteyn himself, as well as with the history
of both modern and Dutch astronomy and with the rise of
international astronomy.
The reconfiguration and relinquishing of one's conviction in a
world system long held to be finite required for many in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a compromise in one's beliefs
and the biblical authority on which he or she had relied - and this
did not come without serious and complex challenges. Advances in
astronomy, such as the theories of Copernicus, the development of
the telescope, and Galileo's discoveries and descriptions of the
moon sparked intense debate in Early Modern literary discourse. The
essays in this collection demonstrate that this discourse not only
stimulated international discussion about lunar voyages and
otherworldly habitation, but it also developed a political context
in which these new discoveries and theories could correspond
metaphorically to New World exploration and colonization, to
socio-political unrest, and even to kingship and regicide.
The last major conference on infrared astronomy was the IAU
Symposium No. 96 in June 1980. Since then, the discipline has
continued to mature and to contribute to all branches of
astrophysics. One particular area of growth has been in
spectroscopic capabilities at all infrared wavelengths. The purpose
of the Symposium in Toledo was to review the scientific questions
to be addressed via infrared spectroscopy and to provide, in the
proceedings, a useful summary of the field. The sensitivity of
infrared spectroscopic observations is still generally limited by
detector characteristics or by thermal background radiation.
However in recent years improvements in detector technology
together with developments in spectroscopic instrumentation have
made possible both quite detailed spectroscopy of the brighter
members of many classes of galactic sources and also begun to open
up some infrared spectroscopy of extragalactic sources. The
potential of the field in the next decade or two is clear. The lRAS
mission has completed one of the pre-requisites, namely an all-sky
photometric survey. Major space missions utilising cryogenic
infrared telescopes have been approved in Europe (ISO) and seem
likely in the USA (SIRTF); plans for space submillimeter telescopes
are firming up. On the ground large telescopes optimized for
infrared observations are now in operation at high altitude sites
and specialized submillimeter facilities are under construction.
The particular advantages of planned, very large telescopes for
infrared observations are widely accepted.
High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy has become a powerful tool for
astrophysics since the launch of Chandra and XMM-Newton, ten years
ago. The grating spectrometers on both instruments still continue
to provide excellent data, while imaging calorimeters are being
prepared for future missions like Astro-H and IXO. The synergy with
other wavelength bands like the UV has been boosted by the addition
of COS to HST. X-ray spectroscopy offers unique diagnostics to
study almost any object in the Universe. This book contains review
papers on highlights and the state-of-the-art of X-ray spectroscopy
for a broad range of objects and on the prospects for future
studies.
Although recent works on Galileo's trial have reached new
heights of erudition, documentation, and sophistication, they often
exhibit inflated complexities, neglect 400 years of historiography,
or make little effort to learn from Galileo. This book strives to
avoid such lacunae by judiciously comparing and contrasting the two
Galileo affairs, that is, the original controversy over the earth's
motion ending with his condemnation by the Inquisition in 1633, and
the subsequent controversy over the rightness of that condemnation
continuing to our day. The book argues that the Copernican
Revolution required that the hypothesis of the earth's motion be
not only constructively supported with new reasons and evidence,
but also critically defended from numerous old and new objections.
This defense in turn required not only the destructive refutation,
but also the appreciative understanding of those objections in all
their strength. A major Galilean accomplishment was to elaborate
such a reasoned, critical, and fair-minded defense of
Copernicanism. Galileo's trial can be interpreted as a series of
ecclesiastic attempts to stop him from so defending Copernicus. And
an essential thread of the subsequent controversy has been the
emergence of many arguments claiming that his condemnation was
right, as well as defenses of Galileo from such criticisms. The
book's particular yet overarching thesis is that today the proper
defense of Galileo can and should have the reasoned, critical, and
fair-minded character which his own defense of Copernicus had.
This is a revealing account of the family life and achievements of
the Third Earl of Rosse, a hereditary peer and resident landlord at
Birr Castle, County Offaly, in nineteenth-century Ireland, before,
during and after the devastating famine of the 1840s. He was a
remarkable engineer, who built enormous telescopes in the cloudy
middle of Ireland. The book gives details, in an attractive
non-technical style which requires no previous scientific
knowledge, of his engineering initiatives and the astronomical
results, but also reveals much more about the man and his
contributions - locally in the town and county around Birr, in
political and other functions in an Ireland administered by the
Protestant Ascendancy, in the development and activities of the
Royal Society, of which he was President from 1848-54, and the
British Association for the Advancement of Science. The Countess of
Rosse, who receives full acknowledgement in the book, was a woman
of many talents, among which was her pioneering work in
photography, and the book includes reproductions of her artistic
exposures, and many other attractive illustrations. -- .
Reflecting the results of twenty years; experience in the field of
multipurpose flights, this monograph includes the complex routes of
the trajectories of a number of bodies (e.g., space vehicles,
comets) in the solar system. A general methodological approach to
the research of flight schemes and the choice of optimal
performances is developed. Additionally, a number of interconnected
methods and algorithms used at sequential stages of such
development are introduced, which allow the selection of a rational
multipurpose route for a space vehicle, the design of multipurpose
orbits, the determination of optimal space vehicle design, and
ballistic performances for carrying out the routes chosen. Other
topics include the practical results obtained from using these
methods, navigation problems, near-to-planet orbits, and an
overview of proven and new flight schemes.
This book provides a thorough introduction to and exploration of
deep sky astrophotography for the digital photographer. With over
280 images, graphs, and tables, this introductory book uses a
progressive and practical style to teach readers how to image the
night sky using existing, affordable equipment. The book opens with
a brief astronomy primer, followed by chapters that build
progressively to explain the challenges, offer solutions, and
provide invaluable information on equipment choice through image
capture, calibration, and processing in affordable software. The
book's focus ranges from how to image sweeping vistas and star
trails using only a camera body, lens and tripod, to more advanced
methods suitable for imaging galaxies, clusters, nebulae, and
stars. Other features of the book include: Real-world assignments
showing how and when to use certain tools and how to overcome
challenges and setbacks Practical construction projects Evaluations
of the most recent developments in affordable hardware and software
Exploration on how sensor performance and light pollution relate to
image quality and exposure planning Ground-breaking practical
chapters on lucky imaging and choosing and using the latest CMOS
cameras Written in an accessible, easy to follow format, this
comprehensive guide equips readers with all the necessary skills to
progress from photographer to astrophotographer.
After three decades of intense research in X-ray and gamma-ray
astronomy, the time was ripe to summarize basic knowledge on X-ray
and gamma-ray spectroscopy for interested students and researchers
ready to become involved in new high-energy missions. This volume
exposes both the scientific basics and modern methods of
high-energy spectroscopic astrophysics. The emphasis is on physical
principles and observing methods rather than a discussion of
particular classes of high-energy objects, but many examples and
new results are included in the three chapters as well.
The year 2011 marked the 80th anniversary of Georges Lemaitre's
primeval atom model of the universe, forerunner of the modern day
Big Bang theory. Prompted by this momentous anniversary the Royal
Astronomical Society decided to publish a volume of essays on the
life, work and faith of this great cosmologist, who was also a
Roman Catholic priest. The papers presented in this book examine in
detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological
issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory from its
beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaitre through to the modern
day. This book offers the best account in English of Lemaitre's
life and work. It will be appreciated by professionals and graduate
students interested in the history of cosmology.
In 2008, the European FP6 JETSET project ended. JETSET, for Jet,
Simulations, Experiments, and Theory, was a joint research network
of European expert teams on protostellar jets. The present
proceedings are a collection of contributions presenting new
results obtained by those groups since the end of the JETSET
program. This is also the occasion to celebrate Kanaris Tsinganos'
important contributions to this network and for his enlightening
insight in the subject that inspired us all. Some of the former
JETSET students are now in the academic world and the subject has
never been so alive. So we present here a collection of results of
what has been done in the field of protostellar jets in the past
ten years from the theoretical, numerical, observational and
experimental point of view. We also present new challenges in the
field of protostellar jets and what we should expect from the
development of new instruments and new numerical codes in the near
future. We also gather results on the impact of the study of
protostellar jets on other jet studies in particular on
relativistic jets. As a matter of fact, it is time for a new
network.
This book analyses the magnificent imperial necropolises of ancient
China from the perspective of Archaeoastronomy, a science which
takes into account the landscape in which ancient monuments are
placed, focusing especially but not exclusively on the celestial
aspects. The power of the Chinese emperors was based on the
so-called Mandate of Heaven: the rulers were believed to act as
intermediaries between the sky gods and the Earth, and
consequently, the architecture of their tombs, starting from the
world-famous mausoleum of the first emperor, was closely linked to
the celestial cycles and to the cosmos. This relationship, however,
also had to take into account various other factors and doctrines,
first the Zhao-Mu doctrine in the Han period and later the various
forms of Feng Shui. As a result, over the centuries, diverse sacred
landscapes were constructed. Among the sites analysed in the book
are the "pyramids" of Xi'an from the Han dynasty, the mountain
tombs of the Tang dynasty, and the Ming and Qing imperial tombs.
The book explains how considerations such as astronomical
orientation and topographical orientation according to the
principles of Feng Shui played a fundamental role at these sites.
This textbook presents the basics of philosophy that are necessary
for the student and researcher in science in order to better
understand scientific work. The approach is not historical but
formative: tools for semantical analysis, ontology of science,
epistemology, and scientific ethics are presented in a formal and
direct way. The book has two parts: one with the general theory and
a second part with application to some problems such as the
interpretation of quantum mechanics, the nature of mathematics, and
the ontology of spacetime. The book addresses questions such as
"What is meaning?", "What is truth?", "What are truth criteria in
science?", "What is a theory?", "What is a model?" "What is a
datum?", "What is information?", "What does it mean to understand
something?", "What is space?", "What is time?", "How are these
concepts articulated in science?" "What are values?" "What are the
limits of science?", and many more. The philosophical views
presented are "scientific" in the sense that they are informed by
current science, they are relevant for scientific research, and the
method adopted uses the hypothetical-deductive approach that is
characteristic of science. The results and conclusions, as any
scientific conclusion, are open to revision in the light of future
advances. Hence, this philosophical approach opposes to dogmatic
philosophy. Supported by end-of-chapter summaries and a list of
special symbols used, the material will be of interest for students
and researchers in both science and philosophy. The second part
will appeal to physicists and mathematicians.
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