Challenging traditional accounts of the origins of astrophysics, this book presents the first scholarly biography of nineteenth-century English amateur astronomer William Huggins (1824-1910). A pioneer in adapting the spectroscope to new astronomical purposes, William Huggins rose to scientific prominence in London and transformed professional astronomy to become a principal founder of the new science of astrophysics. The author re-examines his life and career, exploring unpublished notebooks, correspondence and research projects to expose the boldness of this scientific entrepreneur. While Sir William Huggins is the main focus of the book, the involvement of Lady Margaret Lindsay Huggins (1848-1915) in her husband's research is examined, where it may have been previously overlooked or obscured. Written in an engaging style, this book has broad appeal and will be valuable to scientists, students and anyone interested in the history of astronomy.

This book provides the only critical edition and English translation of Mahmud al-Jaghmini's al-Mulakhkhas fi al-hay'a al-basita, the most widely circulated Arabic treatise on Ptolemaic astronomy ever written. Composed in the early 13th century, this introductory textbook played a crucial role in the teaching, dissemination, and institutional instruction of Islamic astronomy well into the 19th century (and beyond). Establishing the base text is a fundamental prerequisite for gaining insights into what was considered an elementary astronomical textbook in Islam and also for understanding the extensive commentary tradition that built upon it. Within this volume, the Mulakhkhas is situated within the broader context of the genre of literature termed 'ilm al-hay'a, which has become the subject of intensive research over the past 25 years. In so doing, it provides a survey of summary accounts of theoretical astronomy of Jaghmini's predecessors, both Ancient and Islamic, which could have served as potential sources for the Mulakhkhas. Jaghmini's dates (which until now remained unsettled) are established, and it is definitively shown that he composed not only the Mulakhkhas but also other scientific treatises, including the popular medical treatise al-Qanunca, during a period that has been deemed one of scientific decline and stagnation in Islamic lands. The book will be of particular interest to scholars engaged in the study of Islamic theoretical astronomy, but is accessible to a general readership interested in learning what constituted an introduction to Ptolemaic astronomy in Islamic lands.

This textbook presents ultraviolet and X-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy, cosmic ray astronomy, neutrino astronomy, and gravitational wave astronomy as distinct research areas, focusing on the astrophysics targets and the requirements with respect to instrumentation and observation methods. The purpose of the book is to bridge the gap between the reference books and the specialized literature. For each type of astronomy, the discussion proceeds from the orders of magnitude for observable quantities. The physical principles of photon and particle detectors are then addressed, and the specific telescopes and combinations of detectors, presented. Finally the instruments and their limits are discussed with a view to assisting readers in the planning and execution of observations. Astronomical observations with high-energy photons and particles represent the newest additions to multimessenger astronomy and this book will be of value to all with an interest in the field.

A sweeping exploration of the development and far-reaching applications of harmonic analysis such as signal processing, digital music, Fourier optics, radio astronomy, crystallography, medical imaging, spectroscopy, and more. Featuring a wealth of illustrations, examples, and material not found in other harmonic analysis books, this unique monograph skillfully blends together historical narrative with scientific exposition to create a comprehensive yet accessible work. While only an understanding of calculus is required to appreciate it, there are more technical sections that will charm even specialists in harmonic analysis. From undergraduates to professional scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, there is something for everyone here. The second edition of The Evolution of Applied Harmonic Analysis contains a new chapter on atmospheric physics and climate change, making it more relevant for today's audience. Praise for the first edition: "...can be thoroughly recommended to any reader who is curious about the physical world and the intellectual underpinnings that have lead to our expanding understanding of our physical environment and to our halting steps to control it. Everyone who uses instruments that are based on harmonic analysis will benefit from the clear verbal descriptions that are supplied." - R.N. Bracewell, Stanford University "The book under review is a unique and splendid telling of the triumphs of the fast Fourier transform. I can recommend it unconditionally... Elena Prestini... has taken one major mathematical idea, that of Fourier analysis, and chased down and described a half dozen varied areas in which Fourier analysis and the FFT are now in place. Her book is much to be applauded." - Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics "This is not simply a book about mathematics, or even the history of mathematics; it is a story about how the discipline has been applied (to borrow Fourier's expression) to 'the public good and the explanation of natural phenomena.' ... This book constitutes a significant addition to the library of popular mathematical works, and a valuable resource for students of mathematics." - Mathematical Association of America Reviews

This monograph traces the development of our understanding of how and where energetic particles are accelerated in the heliosphere and how they may reach the Earth. Detailed data sets are presented which address these topics. The bulk of the observations are from spacecraft in or near the ecliptic plane. It is timely to present this subject now that Voyager-1 has entered the true interstellar medium. Since it seems unlikely that there will be a follow-on to the Voyager programme any time soon, the data we already have regarding the outer heliosphere are not going to be enhanced for at least 40 years.

This textbook presents the established sciences of optical, infrared, and radio astronomy as distinct research areas, focusing on the science targets and the constraints that they place on instrumentation in the different domains. It aims to bridge the gap between specialized books and practical texts, presenting the state of the art in different techniques. For each type of astronomy, the discussion proceeds from the orders of magnitude for observable quantities that drive the building of instrumentation and the development of advanced techniques. The specific telescopes and detectors are then presented, together with the techniques used to measure fluxes and spectra. Finally, the instruments and their limits are discussed to assist readers in choice of setup, planning and execution of observations, and data reduction. The volume also includes worked examples and problem sets to improve student understanding; tables and figures in chapters su mmarize the state of the art of instrumentation and techniques.

Stars are the fundamental observable constituents of the Universe. They are the first objects we see in the night sky, they dominate the light produced in our own and other galaxies, and nucleosynthesis in stars produces all the elements heavier than helium. A knowledge of stars and their evolution is vital to understand other astrophysical objects from accreting black holes and galaxies to the Universe itself.The structure of a star can be described mathematically by differential equations derived from the principles of hydrodynamics, electromagnetic theory, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics. The basic equations of a spherical star are derived in detail at an accessible level. The topics discussed include modes of energy transport, the equation of state, the physics of the opacity sources and the nuclear reactions. Attention is also given to the virial theorem, polytropic gas spheres and homology principles and the procedure for numerical solution of the equations is outlined. This book tracks the evolution of stars from their main-sequence evolution through the exhaustion of various nuclear fuels to the end points of evolution and also introduces the topic of interacting binary stars. The aim is to take the reader from the essential underlying physical principles to the doors to current research on stellar interiors.

This thesis presents studies of the starless core populations of three nearby molecular clouds made as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Gould Belt Survey. These studies combine observations made using the SCUBA-2 submillimetre camera with data from several other instruments, including the Herschel Space Observatory, to identify and characterise starless cores in the Ophiuchus, Taurus and Cepheus molecular clouds. The temperatures, masses and stability against collapse of the starless cores are measured, the latter through detailed virial analysis, including a determination of the external pressure on the cores. The book illustrates core stability on the "virial plane", in which core stability is plotted against core confinement mode, showing that starless cores are typically confined by external pressure rather than self-gravity. It also presents an analytical model of the evolution of starless cores in the "virial plane", demonstrating that a pressure-confined starless core may evolve due to virial stability rather than gravitational collapse, which means that a core can only be definitively considered to be prestellar if it is gravitationally bound.

This book offers an essential compendium of astronomical high-resolution techniques. Recent years have seen considerable developments in such techniques, which are critical to advances in many areas of astronomy. As reflected in the book, these techniques can be divided into direct methods, interferometry, and reconstruction methods, and can be applied to a huge variety of astrophysical systems, ranging from planets, single stars and binaries to active galactic nuclei, providing angular resolution in the micro- to tens of milliarcsecond scales. Written by experts in their fields, the chapters cover adaptive optics, aperture masking imaging, spectra disentangling, interferometry, lucky imaging, Roche tomography, imaging with interferometry, interferometry of AGN, AGN reverberation mapping, Doppler- and magnetic imaging of stellar surfaces, Doppler tomography, eclipse mapping, Stokes imaging, and stellar tomography. This book is intended to enable a next generation of astronomers to apply high-resolution techniques. It informs readers on how to achieve the best angular resolution in the visible and near-infrared regimes from diffraction-limited to micro-arcsecond scales.

Recent advances suggest that the concept of information might hold the key to unravelling the mystery of life's nature and origin. Fresh insights from a broad and authoritative range of articulate and respected experts focus on the transition from matter to life, and hence reconcile the deep conceptual schism between the way we describe physical and biological systems. A unique cross-disciplinary perspective, drawing on expertise from philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, and cognitive and social sciences, provides a new way to look at the deepest questions of our existence. This book addresses the role of information in life, and how it can make a difference to what we know about the world. Students, researchers, and all those interested in what life is and how it began will gain insights into the nature of life and its origins that touch on nearly every domain of science.

This book provides a compilation of in-depth articles and reviews on key topics within gravitation, cosmology and related issues. It is a celebratory volume dedicated to Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan ("Paddy"), the renowned relativist and cosmologist from IUCAA, India, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The authors, many of them leaders of their fields, are all colleagues, collaborators and former students of Paddy, who have worked with him over a research career spanning more than four decades. Paddy is a scientist of diverse interests, who attaches great importance to teaching. With this in mind, the aim of this compilation is to provide an accessible pedagogic introduction to, and overview of, various important topics in cosmology, gravitation and astrophysics. As such it will be an invaluable resource for scientists, graduate students and also advanced undergraduates seeking to broaden their horizons.

This fascinating portrait of an amateur astronomy movement tells the story of how Charles Olivier recruited a hard-working cadre of citizen scientists to rehabilitate the study of meteors. By 1936, Olivier and members of his American Meteor Society had succeeded in disproving an erroneous idea about meteor showers. Using careful observations, they restored the public's trust in predictions about periodic showers and renewed respect for meteor astronomy among professional astronomers in the United States. Charles Olivier and his society of observers who were passionate about watching for meteors in the night sky left a major impact on the field. In addition to describing Olivier's career and describing his struggles with competitive colleagues in a hostile scientific climate, the author provides biographies of some of the scores of women and men of all ages who aided Olivier in making shower observations, from the Leonids and Perseids and others. Half of these amateur volunteers were from 13 to 25 years of age. Their work allowed Olivier and the AMS to contradict the fallacious belief in stationary and long-enduring meteor showers, bringing the theory of their origin into alignment with celestial mechanics. Thanks to Olivier and his collaborators, the study of meteors took a great leap forward in the twentieth century to earn a place as a worthy topic of study among professional astronomers.

This book comprises a fascinating collection of contributions on the Merz telescopes in Italy that collectively offer the first survey on historical large refracting telescopes in the country, drawing on original documents and photographs. It opens with a general introduction on the importance of Merz telescopes in the history of astronomy and analyses of the local and international contexts in which the telescopes were made. After examination of an example of the interaction between the maker and the astronomer in the construction and maintenance of these refractors, the history of the Merz telescopes at the main Italian observatories in the nineteenth century is described in detail. Expert testimony is also provided on how these telescopes were successfully used until the second half of the twentieth century for research purposes, thus proving their excellent optical qualities.

In his PhD dissertation Martin Bo Nielsen performs observational studies of rotation in stars like the Sun. The interior rotation in stars is thought to be one of the driving mechanisms of stellar magnetic activity, but until now this mechanism was unconstrained by observational data. NASA's Kepler space mission provides high-precision observations of Sun-like stars which allow rotation to be inferred using two independent methods: asteroseismology measures the rotation of the stellar interior, while the brightness variability caused by features on the stellar surface trace the rotation of its outermost layers. By combining these two techniques Martin Bo Nielsen was able to place upper limits on the variation of rotation with depth in five Sun-like stars. These results suggest that the interior of other Sun-like stars also rotate in much the same way as our own Sun.

This thesis develops new and powerful methods for identifying planetary signals in the presence of "noise" generated by stellar activity, and explores the physical origin of stellar intrinsic variability, using unique observations of the Sun seen as a star. In particular, it establishes that the intrinsic stellar radial-velocity variations mainly arise from suppression of photospheric convection by magnetic fields. With the advent of powerful telescopes and instruments we are now on the verge of discovering real Earth twins in orbit around other stars. The intrinsic variability of the host stars themselves, however, currently remains the main obstacle to determining the masses of such small planets. The methods developed here combine Gaussian-process regression for modeling the correlated signals arising from evolving active regions on a rotating star, and Bayesian model selection methods for distinguishing genuine planetary signals from false positives produced by stellar magnetic activity. The findings of this thesis represent a significant step towards determining the masses of potentially habitable planets orbiting Sun-like stars.

This is the eleventh volume in the series Light Scattering Reviews, devoted to current knowledge of light scattering problems and both experimental and theoretical research techniques related to their solution. The focus of this volume is to describe modern advances in radiative transfer and light scattering optics. This book brings together the most recent studies on light radiative transfer in the terrestrial atmosphere, while also reviewing environmental polarimetry. The book is divided into nine chapters: * the first four chapters review recent advances in modern radiative transfer theory and provide detailed descriptions of radiative transfer codes (e.g., DISORT and CRTM). Approximate solutions of integro-differential radiative transfer equations for turbid media with different shapes (spheres, cylinders, planeparallel layers) are detailed; * chapters 5 to 8 focus on studies of light scattering by single particles and radially inhomogeneous media; * the final chapter discusses the environmental polarimetry of man-made objects.

This thesis describes the physics and computational aspects of an end-to-end simulator to predict the performance of a Space-based Far Infrared Interferometer. The present thesis also includes, the science capabilities and instrumental state-of-the art. The latter is the ambitious next step which the Far-Infrared Astrophysical community needs to take to improve in anyway on the results of the most recent and current space telescopes in this wavelength region. This thesis outlines the requirements involved in such a mission and describes the most promising technique to capture most of the astrophysical information by combining spectroscopy to spatial interferometer. The simulation of such a system is extremely complex requiring multiple Fourier transforms each of which is subject to instrument non-idealities and appropriate optimization techniques. As a conclusion, the thesis provides an example of the basic performance achievable with such an instrument when targeting a young star formation region.

This book's interdisciplinary scope aims at bridging various communities: 1) cosmochemists, who study meteoritic samples from our own solar system, 2) (sub-) millimetre astronomers, who measure the distribution of dust and gas of star-forming regions and planet-forming discs, 3) disc modellers, who describe the complex photo-chemical structure of parametric discs to fit these to observation, 4) computational astrophysicists, who attempt to decipher the dynamical structure of magnetised gaseous discs, and the effects the resulting internal structure has on the aerodynamic re-distribution of embedded solids, 5) theoreticians in planet formation theory, who aim to piece it all together eventually arriving at a coherent holistic picture of the architectures of planetary systems discovered by 6) the exoplanet observers, who provide us with unprecedented samples of exoplanet worlds. Combining these diverse fields the book sheds light onto the riddles that research on planet formation is currently confronted with, and paves the way for a comprehensive understanding of the formation, evolution, and dynamics of young solar systems. The chapters 'Chondrules - Ubiquitous Chondritic Solids Tracking the Evolution of the Solar Protoplanetary Disk', 'Dust Coagulation with Porosity Evolution' and 'The Emerging Paradigm of Pebble Accretion' are published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

These are the proceedings of a meeting in honour of Massimo Capaccioli at the occasion of his 70th birthday. The conference aimed at summarizing the results from the main current and past digital sky survey projects and at discussing how these can be used to inspire ongoing projects and better plan the future ones. Over the last decades, digital sky surveys performed with dedicated telescopes and finely-tuned wide-field cameras, have revolutionized astronomy. They have become the main tool to investigate the nearby and far away universe, thus providing new insights in the understanding of the galaxy structure and assembly across time, the dark components of the universe, as well as the history of our own galaxy. They have also opened the time domain leading to a new understanding of the transient phenomena in the universe. By providing public access to top quality data, digital surveys have also changed the everyday practice of astronomers who have become less dependent on direct access to large observing facilities. The full scientific exploitation of these surveys has also triggered significant advances in both space and ground based technology and in the field of multi-object spectroscopy. The various sections of this book are devoted to different relevant aspects of astrophysics in the era of digital sky surveys and include both review and shorter, more focused contributions.

This is a reference source for professional and student astrologers alike. The book has been published annually since 1821. It gives the longitudes of all the planets for each day and their latitudes and declinations for every other day, and includes tables of houses for London, Liverpool and New York. The book also contains complete lunar and planetary aspectarians together with all the neccessary data for casting horoscopes for all places in the world, both north and south of the Equator.

This book grew out of the need to provide students with a solid introduction to modern fluid dynamics. It offers a broad grounding in the underlying principles and techniques used, with some emphasis on applications in astrophysics and planetary science. The book comprehensively covers recent developments, methods and techniques, including, for example, new ideas on transitions to turbulence (via transiently growing stable linear modes), new approaches to turbulence (which remains the enigma of fluid dynamics), and the use of asymptotic approximation methods, which can give analytical or semi-analytical results and complement fully numerical treatments. The authors also briefly discuss some important considerations to be taken into account when developing a numerical code for computer simulation of fluid flows. Although the text is populated throughout with examples and problems from the field of astrophysics and planetary science, the text is eminently suitable as a general introduction to fluid dynamics. It is assumed that the readers are mathematically equipped with a reasonable knowledge in analysis, including basics of ordinary and partial differential equations and a good command of vector calculus and linear algebra. Each chapter concludes with bibliographical notes in which the authors briefly discuss the chapter's essential literature and give recommendations for further, deeper reading. Included in each chapter are a number of problems, some of them relevant to astrophysics and planetary science. The book is written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, but will also prove a valuable source of reference for established researchers.

Now widely available in English for the first time, this is Carlo Rovelli's first book: the thrilling story of a little-known man who created one of the greatest intellectual revolutions Over two thousand years ago, one man changed the way we see the world. Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed in the heavens above and the Earth below. Then, on the Ionian coast, a Greek philosopher named Anaximander set in motion a revolution. He not only conceived that the Earth floats in space, but also that animals evolve, that storms and earthquakes are natural, not supernatural, that the world can be mapped and, above all, that progress is made by the endless search for knowledge. Carlo Rovelli's first book, now widely available in English, tells the origin story of scientific thinking: our rebellious ability to reimagine the world, again and again.

Die Erde gleicht einer Kugel; ihre Bahn folgt den Krummungen des Raumes und der Zeit. Diese beiden Erkenntnisse umrahmen zwei Jahrtausende Physik, und von ihr erzahlt das Buch. Da auch Physiker Menschen sind, entsteht eine Geschichte vom Glauben, Zweifeln und Irren, von Siegen und Niederlagen, vom Aufeinanderprallen der Weltanschauungen und von den Grenzen der Erkenntnis. Uns Sterblichen zum Trost ist es namlich selbst den Helden der Wissenschaft nicht vergoennt, auf geradem Weg ans Ziel zu kommen. In acht Kapiteln wird lebendig, was die Physiker von der Antike bis heute von Himmel und Erde, von der Kraft, vom Licht, von der Warme, vom Feld, von den Quanten, von Raum und Zeit, von den Sternen, kurz: vom Universum dachten und denken - und warum sie es dachten und denken.

This book addresses a variety of topics within the growing discipline of Archaeoastronomy, focusing especially on Archaeoastronomy in Sicily and the Mediterranean and Cultural Astronomy. A further priority is discussion of the astronomical and statistical methods used today to ascertain the degree of reliability of the chronological and cultural definition of sites and artifacts of archaeoastronomical interest. The contributions were all delivered at the XVth Congress of the Italian Society of Archaeoastronomy (SIA), held under the rubric "The Light, the Stones and the Sacred" - a theme inspired by the International Year of Light 2015, organized by UNESCO. The full meaning of many ancient monuments can only be understood by examining their relation to light, given the effects that light radiation produces in "interacting" with lithic structures. Moreover, in addition to manifestations of the sacred through the medium of light (hierophanies), there are many ties between temples, tombs, megalithic structures, and the architecture of almost all ages and cultures and our star, the Sun. Readers will find the book to be a source of fascinating insights based on synergies between the disciplines of archaeology and astronomy.

The series of texts composing this book is based on the lectures presented during the II Jose Plinio Baptista School of Cosmology, held in Pedra Azul (Espirito Santo, Brazil) between 9 and 14 March 2014. This II JBPCosmo has been entirely devoted to the problem of understanding theoretical and observational aspects of Cosmic Background Radiation (CMB).The CMB is one of the most important phenomena in Physics and a fundamental probe of our Universe when it was only 400,000 years old. It is an extraordinary laboratory where we can learn from particle physics to cosmology; its discovery in 1965 has been a landmark event in the history of physics.The observations of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation through the satellites COBE, WMAP and Planck provided a huge amount of data which are being analyzed in order to discover important informations regarding the composition of our universe and the process of structure formation.