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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > General
This unique volume captures the content of the XXXth International
Workshop on High Energy Physics. The scope of this volume is much
wider than just high-energy physics; it actually concerns and
includes materials from all the most fundamental areas of modern
physics research: high-energy physics proper, gravitation and
cosmology. Presentations embrace both theory and experiment.
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.
This book includes 58 selected articles that highlight the major
contributions of Professor Radha Charan Gupta-a doyen of history of
mathematics-written on a variety of important topics pertaining to
mathematics and astronomy in India. It is divided into ten parts.
Part I presents three articles offering an overview of Professor
Gupta's oeuvre. The four articles in Part II convey the importance
of studies in the history of mathematics. Parts III-VII
constituting 33 articles, feature a number of articles on a variety
of topics, such as geometry, trigonometry, algebra, combinatorics
and spherical trigonometry, which not only reveal the breadth and
depth of Professor Gupta's work, but also highlight his deep
commitment to the promotion of studies in the history of
mathematics. The ten articles of part VIII, present interesting
bibliographical sketches of a few veteran historians of mathematics
and astronomy in India. Part IX examines the dissemination of
mathematical knowledge across different civilisations. The last
part presents an up-to-date bibliography of Gupta's work. It also
includes a tribute to him in Sanskrit composed in eight verses.
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.
Introduction.- Boarding School and University.- Astronomy Around
1875.- Astronomer and Professor.- Almost Half a Million Stars.-
Laboratory and Statistical Astronomy.- Star Streams.- In the mean
time in Groningen.- Mount Wilson.- Statistics and other matters.-
First Attempt: the Kapetyn Universe.- Coda.
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.
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. -- .
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.
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.
Analytical solutions to the orbital motion of celestial objects
have been nowadays mostly replaced by numerical solutions, but they
are still irreplaceable whenever speed is to be preferred to
accuracy, or to simplify a dynamical model. In this book, the most
common orbital perturbations problems are discussed according to
the Lie transforms method, which is the de facto standard in
analytical orbital motion calculations.
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.
A sweeping history of the Greeks, from the Bronze Age to today.
More than two thousand years ago, the Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, laid the foundation for much of modern science, the arts, politics, and law. But the influence of the Greeks did not end with the rise and fall of this classical civilization. As historian Roderick Beaton illustrates, over three millennia Greek speakers produced a series of civilizations that were rooted in southeastern Europe but again and again ranged widely across the globe.
In The Greeks, Beaton traces this history from the Bronze Age Mycenaeans who built powerful fortresses at home and strong trade routes abroad, to the dramatic Eurasian conquests of Alexander the Great, to the pious Byzantines who sought to export Christianity worldwide, to today’s Greek diaspora, which flourishes on five continents. The product of decades of research, this is the story of the Greeks and their global impact told as never before.
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.
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