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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > General
First published in 1911 as the second edition of a 1900 original, this book provides a basic introduction to astronomy written by the former Astronomer Royal of Ireland. The text is illustrated with photographs, diagrams and drawings of astronomical phenomena, including certain comets and the constellations visible from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of education and the teaching of astronomy.
Even while professionally engaged in banking, Sir John William Lubbock (1803-65) applied his formidable mind to scientific questions. Several of his early writings on astronomy - his particular sphere of interest - are gathered together in this reissue, notably On the Determination of the Distance of a Comet from the Earth, and the Elements of its Orbit (1832), On the Theory of the Moon and on the Perturbations of the Planets (1833), and An Elementary Treatise on the Computation of Eclipses and Occultations (1835). Lubbock received a Royal Society medal for tidal research in 1834, and herein is his Elementary Treatise on the Tides (1839). Also included is Lubbock's On the Heat of Vapours and on Astronomical Refractions (1840), in which he relates celestial observations to Gay-Lussac's gas expansion law. The collection closes with On the Discovery of the Planet Neptune (1861), Lubbock's lecture discussing how John Couch Adams first predicted the planet's existence.
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.
First published in 1857, this work comprises assorted noteworthy writings by the mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792 1871), reflecting his diverse scientific and literary interests. It includes a piece on terrestrial magnetism, a review of William Whewell's writings on the history and philosophy of science, and several addresses to the Royal Astronomical Society. Of particular interest is Herschel's commentary on Adolphe Quetelet's work on probability, which advocated applying statistics and probability calculus to social and political questions. Herschel's article not only influenced the growth of social science in Britain, but also played an important role in James Clerk Maxwell's development of a statistical treatment of heat phenomena. Also included in this collection are Herschel's translations of poems by Schiller (accompanied by the original German) as well as examples of his own verse. In an intriguing appendix, Herschel outlines a method for compiling vocabularies of indigenous peoples."
This volume shows how collective magnetic excitations determine most of the magnetic properties of itinerant electron magnets. Previous theories were mainly restricted to the Curie-Weiss law temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibilities. Based on the spin amplitude conservation idea including the zero-point fluctuation amplitude, this book shows that the entire temperature and magnetic field dependence of magnetization curves, even in the ground state, is determined by the effect of spin fluctuations. It also shows that the theoretical consequences are largely in agreement with many experimental observations. The readers will therefore gain a new comprehensive perspective of their unified understanding of itinerant electron magnetism.
In this PhD thesis, which was nominated for publication in this series by the Astronomical Institute at Charles University, Prague, the author investigates the orbital evolution of an initially thin stellar disc around a supermassive black hole, considering various perturbative sources of gravity. His findings, obtained by both direct numerical N-body modelling and using standard perturbation methods, offer a viable theoretical explanation for the observed configuration of young stars in the Galactic Centre. This marks a significant contribution to a topic of great interest in contemporary astrophysics. The author also shows in his thesis that a secular instability (m = 1 mode) may occur in the embedding spherical cluster of old stars. This increases the richness of possible evolution scenarios of the embedding cluster and may lead to effective feeding of supermassive black holes through tidal disruption of stars on extremely eccentric orbits.
With the onset of massive cosmological data collection through media such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), galaxy classification has been accomplished for the most part with the help of citizen science communities like Galaxy Zoo. Seeking the wisdom of the crowd for such Big Data processing has proved extremely beneficial. However, an analysis of one of the Galaxy Zoo morphological classification data sets has shown that a significant majority of all classified galaxies are labelled as “Uncertain”. This book reports on how to use data mining, more specifically clustering, to identify galaxies that the public has shown some degree of uncertainty for as to whether they belong to one morphology type or another. The book shows the importance of transitions between different data mining techniques in an insightful workflow. It demonstrates that Clustering enables to identify discriminating features in the analysed data sets, adopting a novel feature selection algorithms called Incremental Feature Selection (IFS). The book shows the use of state-of-the-art classification techniques, Random Forests and Support Vector Machines to validate the acquired results. It is concluded that a vast majority of these galaxies are, in fact, of spiral morphology with a small subset potentially consisting of stars, elliptical galaxies or galaxies of other morphological variants.
The book provides the most recent advances of Celestial Mechanics, as provided by high-level scientists working in this field. It covers theoretical investigations as well as applications to concrete problems. Outstanding review papers are included in the book and they introduce the reader to leading subjects, like the variational approaches to find periodic orbits and the space debris polluting the circumterrestrial space.
If the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe is just around the corner, what would be the consequences for religion? Would it represent another major conflict between science and religion, even leading to the death of faith? Some would suggest that the discovery of any suggestion of extraterrestrial life would have a greater impact than even the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. It is now over 50 years since the first modern scientific papers were published on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Yet the religious implications of this search and possible discovery have never been systematically addressed in the scientific or theological arena. SETI is now entering its most important era of scientific development. New observation techniques are leading to the discovery of extra-solar planets daily, and the Kepler mission has already collected over 1000 planetary candidates. This deluge of data is transforming the scientific and popular view of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Earth-like planets outside of our solar system can now be identified and searched for signs of life. Now is a crucial time to assess the scientific and theological questions behind this search. This book sets out the scientific arguments undergirding SETI, with particular attention to the uncertainties in arguments and the strength of the data already assembled. It assesses not only the discovery of planets but other areas such as the Fermi paradox, the origin and evolution of intelligent life, and current SETI strategies. In all of this it reflects on how these questions are shaped by history and pop culture and their relationship with religion, especially Christian theology. It is argued that theologians need to take seriously SETI and to examine some central doctrines such as creation, incarnation, revelation, and salvation in the light of the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Founded as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820, this illustrious organisation received its royal charter in 1831. It has counted some of the world's greatest astronomers among its members, most notably its first president, Sir William Herschel, whose family archive forms part of its extensive library. Now based in Burlington House in Piccadilly, it continues to publish journals, award medals and prizes, and support education and outreach work. Following the society's centenary, this survey of its history appeared in 1923 and comprises contributions from leading astronomers of the early twentieth century. The extracts from primary sources include the diary entry of Sir John Herschel, son of William, recording the dinner at which the society's formation was discussed. The work also provides insights into how the society was able to take advantage of imperial expansion to collect observations and data from around the world, fuelling the Victorian pursuit of scientific knowledge.
From its beginnings in Babylonian and Egyptian theories, through its flowering into revolutionary ideas such as heliocentricity, astronomy proved a source of constant fascination for the philosophers of antiquity. In ancient Greece, the earliest written evidence of astronomical knowledge appeared in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. In the present work, first published in 1932, Sir Thomas Little Heath (1861-1940) collects some of the most notable essays and discussions of astronomical theory by Greek astronomers and mathematicians, presenting them in English translation for the modern reader. With chronological coverage, Heath's book features a thorough introduction, a doxography of what ancient authors said about the earliest theorists and longer excerpts exploring fundamental ideas. Among the pieces are extracts from Plato's Republic and Ptolemy's work on the impossibility of a moving Earth, alongside material from Aristotle, Euclid, Strabo, Plutarch and others.
French astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) called the study of the heavens 'the science which concerns us most'. He believed that learning 'what place we occupy in the infinite' could delight and instruct, and might even promote an end to war and strife. Flammarion dedicated the present work to Francois Arago (1786-1853), author of earlier work on popular astronomy. Since Arago's time, the capabilities of telescopes and other instruments had vastly improved, advancing understanding in areas such as the composition of stars. Flammarion sought to bring this new knowledge to the public in a charming yet 'scrupulously exact' style. His highly illustrated introduction to astronomy succeeded in reaching a wide readership, selling over 100,000 French copies before this English translation appeared in 1894. The 1881 French version and Flammarion's work on the origins of the Earth, Le Monde avant la creation de l'homme (1886), are also reissued in this series.
New observations of the period between the cosmic recombination and the end of reionization are posing intriguing questions about where the first generations of stars were formed, how the first galaxies were assembled, whether these galaxies have low redshift counterparts, and what role the early galaxies played in the reionization process. Combining the new observational data with theoretical models can shed new light on open issues regarding the star formation process, its role in the reionization of the Universe, and the metal enrichment in galaxies at those early epochs. This volume brings together leading experts in the field to discuss our current level of understanding and what may come in the near future as our observational as well as theoretical tools improve. The book confronts the theory of how the first stars, black holes, and galaxies formed with current and planned observations. This synthesis is very timely, just ahead of the establishment of major new facilities, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a next-generation, millimeter/sub-millimeter observatory in the Atacama desert (ALMA), and ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT). Together, they will revolutionize the study of the most distant objects in the Universe. This volume is aimed at beginning graduate students but can also serve as a reference work for active researchers in the field. Apart from presenting the fundamental concepts involved, it also provides an introduction to the methods and techniques used. The book will also be useful to anyone with an astrophysical background who needs an effective starting point for learning about the first stars and galaxies.
John Michell (1724-93) was a renowned English natural philosopher, astronomer and geologist. Originally published in 1918, this book presents a concise study of Michell's life and achievements, incorporating discussion of his contributions to geology, physics and astronomy. The text was written by Scottish geologist Archibald Geikie (1835-1924), following researches among the archives of the Royal Society and its dining club. This is a highly readable book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Michell and his scientific achievements.
The scope of the book is to give an overview of the history of astroparticle physics, starting with the discovery of cosmic rays (Victor Hess, 1912) and its background (X-ray, radioactivity). The book focusses on the ways in which physics changes in the course of this history. The following changes run parallel, overlap, and/or interact: - Discovery of effects like X-rays, radioactivity, cosmic rays, new particles but also progress through non-discoveries (monopoles) etc. - The change of the description of nature in physics, as consequence of new theoretical questions at the beginning of the 20th century, giving rise to quantum physics, relativity, etc. - The change of experimental methods, cooperations, disciplinary divisions. With regard to the latter change, a main topic of the book is to make the specific multi-diciplinary features of astroparticle physics clear.
SCIAMACHY, the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHar tographY, is a passive sensor for exploring the Earth's atmosphere. It is part of the payload of the European Earth Observation mission ENVISAT, launched on 1 March 2002. SCIAMACHY observes absorption spectra of molecules from the UV (214 nm) to the short-wave infrared wavelength range (2386 nm) and derives the atmospheric composition - trace gases, aerosols, clouds - from these measurements. Having meanwhile successfully monitored and explored the Earth's atmosphere for more than 8 years, new and exciting insights into the Earth-atmosphere system are obtained. The provided global data sets do not only cover greenhouse gases and pollutants in the troposphere or the ozone chemistry in the stratosphere but even reach up to the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. They contribute significantly to atmospheric physics and chemistry as well as climate change research. SCIAMACHY is one of the major current Earth Observation undertakings of Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium, accomplished in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). Many scientific groups at various institutes in Europe and abroad were and are actively involved in the analysis of the data. This book is a comprehensive summary describing the entire SCIAMACHY mission - from the very first ideas to the current results. It illustrates how the measurements are performed, how the trace gas concentrations are derived from the measured spectra and how the unique data sets are used to improve our understanding of the changing Earth's atmosphere. The targeted readership is not only the existing and potentially new SCIAMACHY data users from undergraduate student level up to researchers new in the fields of atmospheric chemistry and remote sensing, but anyone who is keen to learn about SCIAMACHY's efforts to study the atmosphere and its responses to both, natural phenomena and anthropogenic effects.
Originally published in 1933, this book was written with the aim of presenting the life stories of William and Caroline Herschel in the setting of their family circle and the broader historical context. The text is composed, as far as possible, from their own words, using extracts from William Herschel's brief autobiographical notes and from Caroline's very full journals, as well as from letters. A variety of illustrative figures and an appendix section are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Herschels, astronomy and music.
Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive documen- tation ofthe literatme concerning all aspects of astronomy, astrophysics, and their border fields. lt is devoted to the recording, summarizing, and indexing of the relevant publications throughout the world. Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts is prepared by a special department of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union. Volume 40 records literatme published in 1985 and received before February 15, 1986. Some older documents which we received late and which arenot surveyed in earlier volumes are included too. We acknowledge with thanks contributions of our colleagues all over the world. We also express our gratitude to all organiza- tions, observatories, and publishers which provide us with complimentary copies of their publications. Starting with Volume 33, all the recording, correction, and data processing work was dorre by means of computers. The recording was dorre by om technical staff members Ms. Helga Ballmann, Ms. Mona El-Choura (t), Ms. Monika Kohl, Ms. Sylvia Matyssek. Ms. Karirr Burkhardt, Ms. Susanne Schlotelbmg, Mr. Mar- tin Schlotelburg, and Mr. Stefan Wagner supported om task by careful proof- reading. lt is a pleasure to thank them all for their encomagement.
With about 200,000 entries, StarBriefs Plus represents the most comprehensive and accurately validated collection of abbreviations, acronyms, contractions and symbols within astronomy, related space sciences and other related fields. As such, this invaluable reference source (and its companion volume, StarGuides Plus) should be on the reference shelf of every library, organization or individual with any interest in these areas. Besides astronomy and associated space sciences, related fields such as aeronautics, aeronomy, astronautics, atmospheric sciences, chemistry, communications, computer sciences, data processing, education, electronics, engineering, energetics, environment, geodesy, geophysics, information handling, management, mathematics, meteorology, optics, physics, remote sensing, and so on, are also covered when justified. Terms in common use and/or of general interest have also been included where appropriate.
Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive documen tation of the literature concerning all aspects of astronomy, astrophysics, and their border fields. It is devoted to the recording, summarizing, and indexing of the relevant publications throughout the world. Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts is prepared by a special department of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union. Volume 34 records literature published in 1983 and received before February 17, 1984. Some older documents which we received late and which are not surveyed in earlier volumes are included too. We acknowledge with thanks contributions of our colleagues all over the world. We also express our gratitude to all organiza tions, observatories, and publishers which provide us with complimentary copies of their publications. Starting with Volume 33, all the recording, correction, and data processing work was done by means of computers. The recording was done by our technical staff members Ms. Helga Ballmann, Ms. Mona El-Choura and Ms. Monika Kohl. Mr. Martin Schlotelburg and Mr. Ulrich Oberall supported our task by careful proofreading. It is a pleasure to thank them all for their encouragement. Heidelberg, March 1984 The Editors Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . Concordance Relation: ICSU-AB-AAA 3 Abbreviations 10 Periodicals, Proceedings, Books, Activities 001 Periodicals . . . . . . . . . . . 15 002 Bibliographical Publications, Documentation, Catalogues, Atlases 50 003 Books ...... . 58 004 History of Astronomy 67 005 Biography . . 71 006 Personal Notes 73 007 Obituaries . . .
Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts, which has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969, is de voted to the recording, summarizing and indexing of astronomical publications throughout the world. It is prepared under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (according to a resolution adopted at the 14th General Assembly in 1970). Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive documentation of literature in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Every effort will be made to ensure that the average time interval between the date of receipt of the original literature and publication of the abstracts will not exceed eight months. This time interval is near to that achieved by monthly abstracting journals, com pared to which our system of accumulating abstracts for about six months offers the advantage of greater convenience for the user. Volume 18 contains literature published in 1976 and received before March 1, 1977; some older liter ature which was received late and which is not recorded in earlier volumes is also included.
Supernovae are among the most energetic phenomena in the Universe and - lated to almost all aspects of modern astrophysics including starburst gal- ies, cosmic ray acceleration, neutron star and black hole formation, nuc- osynthesis and ISM chemical enrichment, energy input to the ISM, cosmic distance scale determination, dark energy related cosmological acceleration, gamma-ray bursts, extra-solar system neutrino burst detection, gravity wave generation, and many more. Additionally, the past 15 years have been p- ticularly productive with many new results and new understanding due in particular to the closest SN in 400 years in SN 1987A in the Large M- ellanic Cloud, and the unusually bright and close SN 1993J and SN 1994I in the nearby galaxies M81 and M51, respectively. In addition, the disc- ery of the ?-ray burst GRB 980425 and its related supernova SN 1998bw, and the con?rmation of GRB 030329/SN 2003dh, tied the study of SNe and GRBs inextricably together. With the many developments since the last - jor supernova meeting in La Serena, Chile in 1997, we felt that it was an appropriate time to bring together experts and students interested in the subject for a meeting where SN and GRB properties and interrelationships could be discussed. The tenth anniversary of SN 1993J provided such an - portunity and, appropriately, the meeting was held in Spain where SN 1993J was discovered on the early morning of 28 March 1993 by a Spanish amateur astronomer, Francisco Garc ?a.
Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts, which has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969, is devoted to the recording, summarizing and indexing of astronomical publications throughout the world. It is prepared under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (according to a resolution adopted at the 14th General Assembly in 1970). Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts aims to present a comprehensive documenta tion of literature in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Every effort will be made to ensure that the average time interval between the date of receipt of the original literature and publication of the abstracts will not exceed eight months. This time interval is near to that achieved by monthly abstracting journals, compared to which our system of accumu lating abstracts for about six months offers the advantage of greater convenience for the user. Volume 32 contains literature published in 1982 and received before February 11, 1983; some older literature which was received late and which is not recorded in earlier volumes is also included. We acknowledge with thanks contributions to this volume by Dr. J. Bou~a, Prague, who surveyed journals and publications in Czech and supplied us with abstracts in English.
The reviews presented in this volume cover a huge range of cluster of galaxies topics. Readers will find the book essential reading on subjects such as the physics of the ICM gas, the internal cluster dynamics, and the detection of clusters using different observational techniques. The expert chapter authors also cover the huge advances being made in analytical or numerical modeling of clusters, weak and strong lensing effects, and the large scale structure as traced by clusters.
When I wasa child, growing up in South America,I often went camping in the wild and hence had direct access to the wondrous Southern sky; the Southern Cross was all mine at the time. Little did I know then that the study of the sky would take such a huge importance in my life, and that in the end astronomy and astrophysics would in many ways become my country and my religion. I have lived in several di?erent countries, and when asked my nationality, I am always very tempted to reply: astronomer. I started as a theorist, and my only dream in my youth was to spend nights thinking and calculating, with paper and pencil, and to have the impression by dawn that I had understood something new. So at the time astronomy was seen or dreamt by me as a solitary endeavour, with periodic encounters with my wise adviser and professors; it is this model that I adopted when doing my PhD work. My generation has lived through many revolutions of all kinds. Those in astronomy, I believe, remain particularly remarkable, and I am a true product of them. Now, I elect to live and work in large organizations, and to share my endeavours with many people. And I relish the series of Andr e Heck on Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, which help us recover our memories, reconstitute our own story, and read with glee about our neighbouring or far-away colleagues. |
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