The Galactic Centre represents a unique and extreme environment in the Galaxy. It hosts the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, its most concentrated dense gas reservoir and its most extreme star-formation environment. The Galactic Centre is therefore our nearest analogue to both an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and a starburst system. IAU Symposium 322 explores the revolution in our understanding of the Galactic Centre, driven by novel instrumentation including NuSTAR, ALMA, EHT and, in the near future, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). A number of anomalous, non-thermal signals have recently been discovered emanating from the Inner Galaxy. This volume addresses the question: are these signatures of dark matter or other new physics, or symptoms of the region's unusual astrophysics? Graduate students and researchers at the interface between astrophysics and particle physics have much to learn from studying this unique region.

Illustrated with breathtaking images of the Solar System and of the Universe around it, this book explores how the discoveries within the Solar System and of exoplanets far beyond it come together to help us understand the habitability of Earth, and how these findings guide the search for exoplanets that could support life. The author highlights how, within two decades of the discovery of the first planets outside the Solar System in the 1990s, scientists concluded that planets are so common that most stars are orbited by them. The lives of exoplanets and their stars, as of our Solar System and its Sun, are inextricably interwoven. Stars are the seeds around which planets form, and they provide light and warmth for as long as they shine. At the end of their lives, stars expel massive amounts of newly forged elements into deep space, and that ejected material is incorporated into subsequent generations of planets. How do we learn about these distant worlds? What does the exploration of other planets tell us about Earth? Can we find out what the distant future may have in store for us? What do we know about exoworlds and starbirth, and where do migrating hot Jupiters, polluted white dwarfs, and free-roaming nomad planets fit in? And what does all that have to do with the habitability of Earth, the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life, and the operation of the globe-spanning network of the sciences?

This book is an introduction to gravitational waves and related astrophysics. It provides a bridge across the range of astronomy, physics and cosmology that comes into play when trying to understand the gravitational-wave sky. Starting with Einstein's theory of gravity, chapters develop the key ideas step by step, leading up to the technology that finally caught these faint whispers from the distant universe. The second part of the book makes a direct connection with current research, introducing the relevant language and making the involved concepts less mysterious. The book is intended to work as a platform, low enough that anyone with an elementary understanding of gravitational waves can scramble onto it, but at the same time high enough to connect readers with active research - and the many exciting discoveries that are happening right now. The first part of the book introduces the key ideas, following a general overview chapter and including a brief reminder of Einstein's theory. This part can be taught as a self-contained one semester course. The second part of the book is written to work as a collection of "set pieces" with core material that can be adapted to specific lectures and additional material that provide context and depth. A range of readers may find this book useful, including graduate students, astronomers looking for basic understanding of the gravitational-wave window to the universe, researchers analysing data from gravitational-wave detectors, and nuclear and particle physicists.

Astronomers believe that a supernova is a massive explosion signaling the death of a star, causing a cosmic recycling of the chemical elements and leaving behind a pulsar, black hole, or nothing at all. In an engaging story of the life cycles of stars, Laurence Marschall tells how early astronomers identified supernovae, and how later scientists came to their current understanding, piecing together observations and historical accounts to form a theory, which was tested by intensive study of SN 1987A, the brightest supernova since 1006. He has revised and updated "The Supernova Story" to include all the latest developments concerning SN 1987A, which astronomers still watch for possible aftershocks, as well as SN 1993J, the spectacular new event in the cosmic laboratory.

Every atom of our bodies has been part of a star. In this lively and compact introduction, astrophysicist Andrew King reveals how the laws of physics force stars to evolve, driving them through successive stages of maturity before their inevitable and sometimes spectacular deaths, to end as remnants such as black holes. The book shows how we know what stars are made of, how gravity forces stars like the Sun to shine by transmuting hydrogen into helium in their centers, and why this stage is so long-lived and stable. Eventually the star ends its life in one of just three ways, and much of its enriched chemical content is blasted into space in its death throes. Every dead star is far smaller and denser than when it began, and we see how astronomers can detect these stellar corpses as pulsars and black holes and other exotic objects. King also shows how astronomers now use stars to measure properties of the Universe, such as its expansion. Finally, the book asks how it is that stars form in the first place, and how they re-form out of the debris left by stars already dead. These birth events must also be what made planets, not only in our solar system, but around a large fraction of all stars.

White dwarfs are the most numerous members of the stellar graveyard. More than ninety percent of all stars will end their lives as white dwarfs. Research on these objects is fascinating in its own right, requiring developments in atomic data and the study of properties of matter under extreme conditions. However, these studies also have enormous impact on other areas of astrophysics, including: cosmology, the composition of extrasolar planets and fundamental physics. The proceedings of IAU Symposium 357 bring together experts from different branches of science working on white dwarfs, but also astronomers with expertise in a wide range of relevant disciplines. The resulting papers are organized around several key themes: SN Ia progenitors, debris from extrasolar planetary systems, fundamental physics, precision studies of white dwarf structure and stellar physics and Galactic evolution. They provide a framework for guiding the direction of white dwarf research for the next decade.

**** The perfect Christmas gift for astrology lovers **** Nobody's future is written in the stars, but we can use the stars to help write our future. For thousands of years people have looked to the night sky for the answers to life's problems. Today's practice is a far cry from newspaper horoscopes and fortune-telling, but instead uses the ancient wisdom of astrology to help us better understand our choices and ourselves. It's not about prescriptive descriptions of personality and fate, but about putting the individual at the centre of decision making. In The Signs, Carolyne Faulkner describes with warmth and humour the qualities associated with each star sign - the good and the bad - and explains how you can use your birth chart (a map of the night sky at the time you were born) to make smarter choices, avoid triggers to stress and forge stronger relationships. This is a clear and simple guide to using the stars to take control of every aspect of your life.

Galaxies are the building blocks of the Universe: standing like islands in space, each is made up of many hundreds of millions of stars in which the chemical elements are made, around which planets form, and where on at least one of those planets intelligent life has emerged. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of several hundred million other galaxies that we can now observe through our telescopes. Yet it was only in the 1920s that we realised that there is more to the Universe than the Milky Way, and that there were in fact other 'islands' out there. In many ways, modern astronomy began with this discovery, and the story of galaxies is therefore the story of modern astronomy. Since then, many exciting discoveries have been made about our own galaxy and about those beyond: how a supermassive black hole lurks at the centre of every galaxy, for example, how enormous forces are released when galaxies collide, how distant galaxies provide a window on the early Universe, and what the formation of young galaxies can tell us about the mysteries of Cold Dark Matter. In this Very Short Introduction, renowned science writer John Gribbin describes the extraordinary things that astronomers are learning about galaxies, and explains how this can shed light on the origins and structure of the Universe. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Stars are mostly found in binary and multiple systems, with at least 50% of all solar-like stars having companions; this fraction approaches 100% for the most massive stars. A large proportion of these systems interact and alter the structure and evolution of their components, leading to exotic objects such as Algol variables, blue stragglers and other chemically peculiar stars, but also to phenomena such as non-spherical planetary nebulae, supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. While it is understood that binaries play a critical role in the Initial Mass Function, the interactions among binary systems significantly affect the dynamical evolution of stellar clusters and galaxies. This interdisciplinary volume presents results from state-of-the-art models and observations aimed at studying the impact of binaries on stellar evolution in resolved and unresolved populations. Serving as a bridge between observational and theoretical astronomy, it is a comprehensive review for researchers and advanced students of astrophysics.

This book is a simple, non-technical introduction to cosmology, explaining what it is and what cosmologists do. Peter Coles discusses the history of the subject, the development of the Big Bang theory, and more speculative modern issues like quantum cosmology, superstrings, and dark matter.

This book is the fruit of the first ever interdisciplinary international scientific conference on Matthew's story of the Star of Bethlehem and the Magi, held in 2014 at the University of Groningen, and attended by world-leading specialists in all relevant fields: modern astronomy, the ancient near-eastern and Greco-Roman worlds, the history of science, and religion. The scholarly discussions and the exchange of the interdisciplinary views proved to be immensely fruitful and resulted in the present book. Its twenty chapters describe the various aspects of The Star: the history of its interpretation, ancient near-eastern astronomy and astrology and the Magi, astrology in the Greco-Roman and the Jewish worlds, and the early Christian world - at a generally accessible level. An epilogue summarizes the fact-fiction balance of the most famous star which has ever shone. Cover illustration: (c) Michael Farrell

In this book, the authors present current research in galactic study including its evolution, morphology and dynamics. Topics included in this compilation include the nature of motion in quiet and active galaxies with a satellite companion; empirical age-metallicity relation and empirical metallicity distribution of long-lived stars of different populations; radio quiet AGN properties vs. spin paradigm; and turbulent formation of protogalaxies at the end of the plasma epoch.

Trained as a musician, amateur scientist William Herschel found international fame after discovering the planet Uranus in 1781. Though he is still best known for this finding, his partnership with his sister Caroline yielded other groundbreaking work that affects how we see the world today. The Herschels made comprehensive surveys of the night sky, carefully categorizing every visible object in the void. Caroline wrote an influential catalogue of nebulae, and William discovered infrared radiation. Veteran science writer Michael D. Lemonick guides readers through the depths of the solar system and into his subjects private lives: William developed bizarre theories about inhabitants of the sun; he procured an unheard-of salary for Caroline from King George III even as he hassled over the funding for an enormous, forty-foot telescope; and the siblings feuded over William s marriage but eventually reconciled."

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

This Carg ese school of Particle physics is meant to bridge the narr- ing gap between astrophysical observations and particle physics. The lectures supply the students with a theoretical background which covers severalaspectsofthecosmologicalscenario: matter-antimatterasym- try, the nature of dark matter, the acceleration of the expansion and the cosmological constant and the geometry of the universe as well as m- ernviewsonparticlephysicsincludingsupersymmetry, extradimensions scenarii and neutrino oscillations. ix Preface TheinvestigationofnuclearabundancesbyAlpher, Bethe, andGamow (1948) was the ?rst intrusion of subatomic physics into cosmology. In contrast with their assumption, most nuclear species are now known to be produced in stars, but their bold step led to predictions which have largely been proven to be right: -a crude estimate of the densities during primordial nucleosynthesis -the presence of a residual 3K radiation today. the issues they addressed are still relevant. The origin of matter is not fully understood, and the CMB has grown into a powerful tool to inv- tigate the early eras of the universe. The progress of cosmological observations has now led to a 'standard' slow-roll in?ation model, which accounts quantitatively for many - served features of the universe. As the lectures will show, it still leaves large unchartered areas, and the underlying particle physics aspects are yettobeelucidated.

The optics of small particles are useful in the interpretation of observational phenomena related to extinction, scattering and emission of radiation by dust grains in space. This review presents three components of dust modelling: Optical constants; Light scattering theories and models. The author aims to show how the general laws of the optics of dust particleswork and to highlight the information about cosmic dust. Part II will be dedicated to the consideration of scattered radiation, dust absorption and emission, radiation pressure and dust properties.

This little wok is designed to instruct the mind as yet unacquainted with the phenomena of eclipses, and to counteract the prejudice which affirms without examination that these phenomena are in no way connected with mundane events. In dealing with this subject, the author shall have occasion to speak of eclipses of the Sun and Moon not only in their physical causative relations, but also in their symbolic and prognostic relations. Contents: natural causes of an eclipse; eclipses of the sun and moon; historical eclipses; calculate an eclipse of the sun and moon; eclipse signs and indications; the decanates; transits over eclipse points; individuals and eclipses.

A reconstruction of the Chinese sky of two thousand years ago, based on analysis of the first star catalogue in China and other sources. Presented in six well-sized star maps for 100 BC, it is especially important for the history of astronomy. The Han sky, with five times more constellations than Ptolemy knew, reflects diverse human activities. The way in which constellations were grouped discloses a systematic cosmology, uniting universe and the state.
The work of the three Han schools is comparable to Ptolemy's "Almagest. With three detailed Appendices on the constellations of the three schools, well illustrated to demonstrate the relation between sky and human society, this book is valuable not only for astronomy historians and sinologists, but in general for scholars interested in the ancient cultures of Asia.

Physics of Neutron Stars