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This book contains a set of articles based on a session of the
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science held in San Francisco in February, 1974. The reason for the
meeting arose from the need to communicate to the largest possible
scientific community the dramatic advances which have been made in
recent years in the understanding of collapsed objects: neutron
stars and black holes. Thanks to an unprecedented resonance between
X-ray, y-ray, radio and optical astronomy and important new
theoretical developments in relativistic astro physics, a new deep
understanding has been acquired of the physical processes oc
curring in the late stages of evolution of stars. This knowledge
may be one of the greatest conquests of man's understanding of
nature in this century. This book aims to give an essential and
up-to-date view in this field. The analysis of the physics and
astrophysics of neutron stars and black holes is here attacked from
both theoretical and experimental points of view. In the
experimental field we range from the reviews and catalogues of
galactic X-ray sources (R. Gursky and E. Schreier) and pulsars (E.
Groth) to the observations of the optical counter part of X-ray
sources (P. Boynton) to finally the recently discovered gamma-ray
bursts (I. Strong) and pulse astronomy R. B. Partridge)."
This book contains a set of articles based on a session of the
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science held in San Francisco in February, 1974. The reason for the
meeting arose from the need to communicate to the largest possible
scientific community the dramatic advances which have been made in
recent years in the understanding of collapsed objects: neutron
stars and black holes. Thanks to an unprecedented resonance between
X-ray, y-ray, radio and optical astronomy and important new
theoretical developments in relativistic astro physics, a new deep
understanding has been acquired of the physical processes oc
curring in the late stages of evolution of stars. This knowledge
may be one of the greatest conquests of man's understanding of
nature in this century. This book aims to give an essential and
up-to-date view in this field. The analysis of the physics and
astrophysics of neutron stars and black holes is here attacked from
both theoretical and experimental points of view. In the
experimental field we range from the reviews and catalogues of
galactic X-ray sources (R. Gursky and E. Schreier) and pulsars (E.
Groth) to the observations of the optical counter part of X-ray
sources (P. Boynton) to finally the recently discovered gamma-ray
bursts (I. Strong) and pulse astronomy R. B. Partridge)."
It was about fourteen years ago that some of us became intrigued
with the idea of searching the sky for X-ray and gamma-ray sources
other than the Sun, the only celestial emitter of high-energy
photons known at that time. It was, of course, clear that an effort
in this direction would not have been successful unless there
occurred, somewhere in space, processes capable of producing
high-energy photons much more efficiently than the processes
responsible for the radiative emission of the Sun or of ordinary
stars. The possible existence of such processes became the subject
of much study and discussion. As an important part of this
activity, I wish to recall a one-day conference on X-ray astronomy
held at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1960. The
theoretical predictions did not provide much encouragement. While
several 'unusual' celestial objects were pin-pointed as possible,
or even likely, sources of X-rays, it did not look as if any of
them would be strong enough to be observable with instru mentation
not too far beyond the state of the art. Fortunately, we did not
allow our selves to be dissuaded. As far as I am personally
concerned, I must admit that my main motivation for pressing
forward was a deep-seated faith in the boundless re sourcefulness
of nature, which so often leaves the most daring imagination of man
far behind."
It was about fourteen years ago that some of us became intrigued
with the idea of searching the sky for X-ray and gamma-ray sources
other than the Sun, the only celestial emitter of high-energy
photons known at that time. It was, of course, clear that an effort
in this direction would not have been successful unless there
occurred, somewhere in space, processes capable of producing
high-energy photons much more efficiently than the processes
responsible for the radiative emission of the Sun or of ordinary
stars. The possible existence of such processes became the subject
of much study and discussion. As an important part of this
activity, I wish to recall a one-day conference on X-ray astronomy
held at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1960. The
theoretical predictions did not provide much encouragement. While
several 'unusual' celestial objects were pin-pointed as possible,
or even likely, sources of X-rays, it did not look as if any of
them would be strong enough to be observable with instru mentation
not too far beyond the state of the art. Fortunately, we did not
allow our selves to be dissuaded. As far as I am personally
concerned, I must admit that my main motivation for pressing
forward was a deep-seated faith in the boundless re sourcefulness
of nature, which so often leaves the most daring imagination of man
far behind."
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