The Viennese Jesuit court astronomer Maximilian Hell was a key figure in the eighteenth-century circulation of knowledge. He was already famous by the time of his celebrated 1769 expedition for the observation of the transit of Venus in northern Scandinavia. However, the 1773 suppression of his order forced Hell to develop ingenious strategies of accommodation to changing international and domestic circumstances. Through a study of his career in local, regional, imperial, and global contexts, this book sheds new light on the complex relationship between the Enlightenment, Catholicism, administrative and academic reform in the Habsburg monarchy, and the practices and ends of cultivating science in the Republic of Letters around the end of the first era of the Society of Jesus.

This textbook provides an introduction to gravitational lensing, which has become an invaluable tool in modern astrophysics, with applications that range from finding planets orbiting distant stars to understanding how dark matter and dark energy conspired to form the cosmic structures we see today. Principles of Gravitational Lensing begins with Einstein's prediction that gravity bends light, and shows how that fundamental idea has spawned a rich field of study over the past century. The gravitational deflection of light was first detected by Eddington during a solar eclipse in May 1919, launching Einstein and his theory of relativity into public view. Yet the possibility of using the phenomenon to unlock mysteries of the Universe seemed remote, given the technology of the day. Theoretical work was carried out sporadically over the next six decades, but only with the discovery of the system Q0957+561 in 1979 was gravitational lensing transformed from a curiosity of general relativity into a practical observational tool. This book describes how the three subfields known as strong lensing, weak lensing, and microlensing have grown independently but become increasingly intertwined. Drawing on their research experience, Congdon and Keeton begin with the basic physics of light bending, then present the mathematical foundations of gravitational lensing, building up to current research topics in a clear and systematic way. Relevant background material from physics and mathematics is included, making the book self-contained. The derivations and explanations are supplemented by exercises designed to help students master the theoretical concepts as well as the methods that drive current research. An extensive bibliography guides those wishing to delve more deeply into particular areas of interest. Principles of Gravitational Lensing is ideal for advanced students and seasoned researchers looking to penetrate this thriving subject and even contribute research of their own.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, paradoxes such as the missing mass, dark energy, baryon to photon ratio and cosmic zero-point energy are examined in detail. The Heisenberg-Lemaitre's units, based on the total enormous but finite mass of the Universe, are introduced and rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equations for an open Universe with cosmological constant are obtained. Energy conservation after the Big Bang is consistently required.This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not too technical content in order to serve a wide audience. In the second edition, the content is updated and new sections are added.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, paradoxes such as the missing mass, dark energy, baryon to photon ratio and cosmic zero-point energy are examined in detail. The Heisenberg-Lemaitre's units, based on the total enormous but finite mass of the Universe, are introduced and rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equations for an open Universe with cosmological constant are obtained. Energy conservation after the Big Bang is consistently required.This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not too technical content in order to serve a wide audience. In the second edition, the content is updated and new sections are added.

Stoicheiosis Astronomike ('Elements of Astronomy') is a late Byzantine comprehensive introduction to Astronomy. It was written by an outstanding figure in Byzantine culture and politics, who served also as prime minister. This volume makes available for the first time a large part of its astronomical contents, offering the original text with an English translation, accompanied by an introduction and analysis.This book describes the celestial spheres, the rotation of the planets, and especially the apparent trajectory of the sun with its uniform and anomalous rotations, which are used to determine the length of the year. Metochites proposed a new starting date for the calendar (6th of October 1283) specifying the position of the sun on that date. The work revived the interest in studies of Ptolemaic astronomy as attested by numerous annotations in the margins of the manuscripts.Besides its astronomical content there are statements on the epistemological method and other issues elucidating the spirit of that age. It will be of interest as an introduction to Byzantine astronomy for historians of science and philosophy, for astronomers, and those interested in the development of calendars.

This book describes detection techniques used to search for and analyze gravitational waves (GW). It covers the whole domain of GW science, starting from the theory and ending with the experimental techniques (both present and future) used to detect them.The theoretical sections of the book address the theory of general relativity and of GW, followed by the theory of GW detection. The various sources of GW are described as well as the methods used to analyse them and to extract their physical parameters. It includes an analysis of the consequences of GW observations in terms of astrophysics as well as a description of the different detectors that exist and that are planned for the future.With the recent announcement of GW detection and the first results from LISA Pathfinder, this book will allow non-specialists to understand the present status of the field and the future of gravitational wave science.

This book on astronomical measurement takes a fresh approach to teaching the subject. After discussing some general principles, it follows the chain of measurement through atmosphere, imaging, detection, spectroscopy, timing, and hypothesis testing. The various wavelength regimes are covered in each section, emphasising what is the same, and what is different. The author concentrates on the physics of detection and the principles of measurement, aiming to make this logically coherent.
The book is based on a short self contained lecture course for advanced undergraduate students developed and taught by the author over several years.

Cooking Cosmos is an exciting book that traces the history of men's endeavor to understand the Universe, and answers the eternal questions: 'Who made this World?' 'Where did it come from?' 'How and why did it begin?' Thousands of years of continual interaction with nature has brought mankind to the present stage when we have some inkling about the working of nature. We now know that the Earth, our habitat, is only one of the planets orbiting the Sun. The Sun itself is a star among billions of stars in the Universe. We know that our solar system came into existence some 4.5 billion years ago and it is but only a tiny component of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Our Universe contains some 100 billion of galaxies. We know that the Universe itself came into existence with the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago and even now galaxies are receding from each other with ever increasing speed.This book takes you through the intellectual journey of mankind, unraveling the mysteries of the Cosmos. Starting from Aristotle's Earth-centered Universe, it will take you step by step to the Copernican Sun-centered Universe, to Hubble's expanding Universe, to the Big Bang, to the currently accepted accelerating Universe. In the process, the book explores the origin of space-time, black hole, black hole radiation, dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, string theory, all in terms comprehensible to general audiences.

Cooking Cosmos is an exciting book that traces the history of men's endeavor to understand the Universe, and answers the eternal questions: 'Who made this World?' 'Where did it come from?' 'How and why did it begin?' Thousands of years of continual interaction with nature has brought mankind to the present stage when we have some inkling about the working of nature. We now know that the Earth, our habitat, is only one of the planets orbiting the Sun. The Sun itself is a star among billions of stars in the Universe. We know that our solar system came into existence some 4.5 billion years ago and it is but only a tiny component of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Our Universe contains some 100 billion of galaxies. We know that the Universe itself came into existence with the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago and even now galaxies are receding from each other with ever increasing speed.This book takes you through the intellectual journey of mankind, unraveling the mysteries of the Cosmos. Starting from Aristotle's Earth-centered Universe, it will take you step by step to the Copernican Sun-centered Universe, to Hubble's expanding Universe, to the Big Bang, to the currently accepted accelerating Universe. In the process, the book explores the origin of space-time, black hole, black hole radiation, dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, string theory, all in terms comprehensible to general audiences.

Advances in Machine Learning and Data Mining for Astronomy documents numerous successful collaborations among computer scientists, statisticians, and astronomers who illustrate the application of state-of-the-art machine learning and data mining techniques in astronomy. Due to the massive amount and complexity of data in most scientific disciplines, the material discussed in this text transcends traditional boundaries between various areas in the sciences and computer science. The book's introductory part provides context to issues in the astronomical sciences that are also important to health, social, and physical sciences, particularly probabilistic and statistical aspects of classification and cluster analysis. The next part describes a number of astrophysics case studies that leverage a range of machine learning and data mining technologies. In the last part, developers of algorithms and practitioners of machine learning and data mining show how these tools and techniques are used in astronomical applications. With contributions from leading astronomers and computer scientists, this book is a practical guide to many of the most important developments in machine learning, data mining, and statistics. It explores how these advances can solve current and future problems in astronomy and looks at how they could lead to the creation of entirely new algorithms within the data mining community.

This book characterizes the kinematic and chemical structures of disk-forming regions around low-mass protostellar sources and their interplay based on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations. It describes the chemical evolution of molecules formed in an interstellar gas using the ALMA observations of 5 Sun-like protostars at a spatial resolution of a few tens au scale, which unveils the physical mechanism of star and planetary formation. The book reviews the author's successful works, focusing on two key findings: (i) A drastic change in the chemical composition of the gas around the centrifugal barrier of the infalling-rotating envelopes, and (ii) the chemical composition in the disk-forming regions, which varies from source to source depending on the chemical characteristics of the parent molecular cloud. These findings are based on the fine characterization of physical structures based on careful kinematic analyses. An additional attraction is the inclusion of the skillful reviews of ALMA observatory and its observation and physical models to describe the observed gas structure.

This book tells the story of how, over the past century, dedicated observers and pioneering scientists achieved our current understanding of the universe. It was in antiquity that humankind first attempted to explain the universe often with the help of myths and legends. This book, however, focuses on the time when cosmology finally became a true science. As the reader will learn, this was a slow process, extending over a large part of the 20th century and involving many astronomers, cosmologists and theoretical physicists. The book explains how empirical astronomical data (e.g., Leavitt, Slipher and Hubble) were reconciled with Einstein's general relativity; a challenge which finally led Friedmann, De Sitter and Lemaitre, and eventually Einstein himself, to a consistent understanding of the observational results. The reader will realize the extraordinary implications of these achievements and how deeply they changed our vision of the cosmos: From being small, static, immutable and eternal, it became vast and dynamical - originating from (almost) nothing, and yet now, nearly 14 billion years later, undergoing accelerated expansion. But, as always happens, as well as precious knowledge, new mysteries have also been created where previously absolute certainty had reigned.

Julian Schwinger in Retrospect: Recollections of Julian Schwinger (M. Hamermesh). Nonequilibrium Problems in Quantum Field Theory and Schwinger's Closed Time Path Formalism (F. Cooper). Directions in Particle Physics and Cosmology: Second Phase of the General Theory of Relativity (B.N. Kursunoglu). Exact Solutions for Confinement of Electric Charge via Condensation of a Spectrum of Magnetic Charges (B.N. Kursunoglu). Current Status of Gravity Wave Detection: The Search for Gravitation Waves (B.C. Barish). Reducing Thermal Noise in Interferometric Detectors of Gravitational Waves (P.R. Saulson). Neutrinos and Muons: Neutrino Reactions in Nuclei in the Large and in the Small (S.L. Mintz, M. Pourkaviani). Physics Interest in u+u Colliders (V. Barge). Strings and Superstrings: Spin Field Vertices and Gauge Symmetry (L. Dolan). Identification as Black Holes of All Massive Superstring States (P.H. Frampton). Progress in Some New and Old Ideas: Reflection Matrices and Polymers at a Surface (M. Batchelor, C.M. Yung). Spin Physics at High Energy: Polarized Proton Beams at Fermilab (R.A. Phelps). 14 additional articles. Index.

The aim of this book is to teach undergraduate college or university students, and adults interested in astronomy and astrophysics, the basic mathematics and physics concepts needed to understand the evolution of the universe, and based on this to teach the astrophysical theories behind evolution from the very early times to the present. The book does not require extensive knowledge of mathematics, like calculus, and includes material that explains concepts such as velocity, acceleration, and force. Based on this, fascinating topics such as Dark Matter, measuring Dark Energy via supernovae velocities, and the creation of mass via the Higgs mechanism are explained. All college students with an interest in science, especially astronomy, without extensive mathematical backgrounds, should be able to use and learn from this book. Adults interested in topics like Dark Energy, the Higgs boson, and detection of Gravitational Waves, which are in the news, can make use of this book as well.

The aim of this book is to teach undergraduate college or university students, and adults interested in astronomy and astrophysics, the basic mathematics and physics concepts needed to understand the evolution of the universe, and based on this to teach the astrophysical theories behind evolution from the very early times to the present. The book does not require extensive knowledge of mathematics, like calculus, and includes material that explains concepts such as velocity, acceleration, and force. Based on this, fascinating topics such as Dark Matter, measuring Dark Energy via supernovae velocities, and the creation of mass via the Higgs mechanism are explained. All college students with an interest in science, especially astronomy, without extensive mathematical backgrounds, should be able to use and learn from this book. Adults interested in topics like Dark Energy, the Higgs boson, and detection of Gravitational Waves, which are in the news, can make use of this book as well.

A Platonic philosopher, Paracelsian chemist, Ovidian poet, and devoted family man, Tycho Brahe was the last Renaissance man and the first great organizer of modern science. This book provides the fullest portrait available of the research and cultural interests of the man who became the premier patron-practitioner of science in sixteenth-century Europe. Starting from Brahe's well reputed role of astronomer, author Christianson adds lesser known details of the man who was both a geodetic surveyor as well as a garden designer, and ultimately established a new role of scientist as administrator, active reformer, and natural philosopher. Coverage reveals how from his private island in Denmark, Brahe used patronage, printing, friendship, and marriage to incorporate men and women skilled in science, technology, and the fine arts into his program of cosmic reform. Through their teamwork, they achieved breakthroughs in astronomy, scientific method, and research organization that were essential to the birth of modern science. Also included are over 100 capsule biographies of Tycho's clients, coworkers, and friends, including Johannes Kepler, Willebrord Snel, Willem Blaeu, several bishops, and numerous technical specialists all of whom helped shape the culture of the Scientific Revolution. This pioneering exposition will appeal to science history buffs, especially those with an interest in the late Renaissance and will inspire anyone who has a passion for science and a penchant for the world of ideas. John Robert Christianson received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He was dubbed Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Harald II in 1995.

This textbook is suitable for a one-semester introduction to General Relativity for advanced undergraduates in physics and engineering. The book is concise so that the entire material can be covered in the one-semester time frame. Besides, the readers are introduced to the subject easily without the need for advanced mathematics. Though concise, the theory development is lucid and the readers are exposed to possible analytic calculations. Full solutions to some important problems are provided, and the experimental evidence is discussed in detail.Resources are provided to instructors who adopt this textbook for their courses. Adopting instructors can print and copy portions of these resources solely for their teaching needs. All instructional resources are furnished for informational use only, and are subject to change without notice.

This textbook is suitable for a one-semester introduction to General Relativity for advanced undergraduates in physics and engineering. The book is concise so that the entire material can be covered in the one-semester time frame. Besides, the readers are introduced to the subject easily without the need for advanced mathematics. Though concise, the theory development is lucid and the readers are exposed to possible analytic calculations. Full solutions to some important problems are provided, and the experimental evidence is discussed in detail.Resources are provided to instructors who adopt this textbook for their courses. Adopting instructors can print and copy portions of these resources solely for their teaching needs. All instructional resources are furnished for informational use only, and are subject to change without notice.

This book shows the state-of-the-art in Europe on a very new discipline, Space Weather. This discipline lies at the edge between science and industry. This book reflects such a position with theoretic papers and applicative papers as well. Each chapter starts with a short introduction, which shows the coherence of a given domain. Then, four to five contributions written by the best specialists in Europe give detailed hints of a hot topic in space weather.

A revealing look at the parallel mythologies behind the colonization of Earth and space-and a bold vision for a more equitable, responsible future both on and beyond our planet. As environmental, political, and public health crises multiply on Earth, we are also at the dawn of a new space race in which governments team up with celebrity billionaires to exploit the cosmos for human gain. The best-known of these pioneers are selling different visions of the future: while Elon Musk and SpaceX seek to establish a human presence on Mars, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin work toward moving millions of earthlings into rotating near-Earth habitats. Despite these distinctions, these two billionaires share a core utopian project: the salvation of humanity through the exploitation of space. In Astrotopia, philosopher of science and religion Mary-Jane Rubenstein pulls back the curtain on the not-so-new myths these space barons are peddling, like growth without limit, energy without guilt, and salvation in a brand-new world. As Rubenstein reveals, we have already seen the destructive effects of this frontier zealotry in the centuries-long history of European colonialism. Much like the imperial project on Earth, this renewed effort to conquer space is presented as a religious calling: in the face of a coming apocalypse, some very wealthy messiahs are offering an other-worldly escape to a chosen few. But Rubenstein does more than expose the values of capitalist technoscience as the product of bad mythologies. She offers a vision of exploring space without reproducing the atrocities of earthly colonialism, encouraging us to find and even make stories that put cosmic caretaking over profiteering.

The ICGAC-12 aimed to serve as a common platform around the Asia-Pacific region for the exchange and communication among all researchers in the fields of gravitation, astrophysics and cosmology. The scope covered in the conference includes dark matter, dark energy, experimental study of gravity, black holes, quantum Yang-Mills gravity, GR extension, variation of constants, fundamental physics space projects, relativistic astrophysics, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and gamma ray bursts.

These are the proceedings of an international meeting hosted by the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the dedication of the UKIRT, the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope.

The volume comprises 31 professional level papers. The first part of the book has 10 thorough reviews of the conception, design and build of the telescope, as well as accounts of some its key instruments such as IRCAM (the common-user infrared camera), CGS4 (the fourth Cooled Grating Spectrometer) and the Wide Field Camera. The second part of the book comprises 14 reviews of scientific achievements during its twenty years of visitor mode operations. The final part of the book is a series of 7 reviews of the results from the multiple surveys being done as part of UKIDSS (UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey).

The authors are all experts in their respective fields, for example instrument scientists, operations staff and leading astronomers.

'Entertaining and engrossing' Sean Carroll Press the snooze button on your alarm once too often and you soon remember the importance of good timekeeping. That need to tell the time connects you to over five thousand years of human history, from the first solstice markers at Newgrange to quartz crystal oscillating in your watch today. Science underpins time: measuring the movement of Sun, Earth and Moon, and unlocking the mysteries of quantum mechanics and relativity theory - the key to ultra-precise atomic clocks. Yet time is also socially decided: the Gregorian calendar we use today came out of fraught politics, while the ancient Maya used sophisticated astronomical observations to produce a calendar system unlike any other. In his quirky and accessible style, Chad Orzel reveals the wondrous physics that makes time something we can set, measure and know.

This book presents the result of an innovative challenge, to create a systematic literature overview driven by machine-generated content. Questions and related keywords were prepared for the machine to query, discover, collate and structure by Artificial Intelligence (AI) clustering. The AI-based approach seemed especially suitable to provide an innovative perspective as the topics are indeed both complex, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, for example, climate, planetary and evolution sciences. Springer Nature has published much on these topics in its journals over the years, so the challenge was for the machine to identify the most relevant content and present it in a structured way that the reader would find useful. The automatically generated literature summaries in this book are intended as a springboard to further discoverability. They are particularly useful to readers with limited time, looking to learn more about the subject quickly and especially if they are new to the topics. Springer Nature seeks to support anyone who needs a fast and effective start in their content discovery journey, from the undergraduate student exploring interdisciplinary content, to Master- or PhD-thesis developing research questions, to the practitioner seeking support materials, this book can serve as an inspiration, to name a few examples. It is important to us as a publisher to make the advances in technology easily accessible to our authors and find new ways of AI-based author services that allow human-machine interaction to generate readable, usable, collated, research content.

The single biggest and most difficult question that exists? From early religions through Greek Philosophy and Western Science, man has attempted to discover the meaning of the Universe and our place within it. In the last twenty year these debates have all been stood on their head by amazing discoveries, big bang theory and ideas about new sub-atomic layers. The nature of Time and Space are truly up for grabs. With a witty and accessible style Osborne leads us on a historical and informative adventure through the philosophies of the universe; including the importance of telescopes, mathematics and relativity theory and ending with contemporary mind-expanding concepts such as the reversibility of time and parallel universes.