This collection of papers presents a rather complete review of current knowledge of hot spots in some strong extragalactic radio sources. An overview of known results along with new data on radio observations and optical observations is given in the first and second parts of the book. Recent computational techniques which allow modelling and simulations of hot spots and jet behaviour are presented in the third part. The fourth part discusses particle acceleration and shock front phenomena. The articles will help the reader to appreciate the role hot spots play as laboratories for studying the interaction of jets with the surrounding medium and for testing our understanding of the overall source dynamics. The book is a valuable complement to the existing literature and an excellent introduction to this fairly new field of research.

Understanding the formation and evolution of early galaxies is one of the most challenging problems in modern astronomy. In this volume leading specialists describe observations of high and intermediate redshift galaxies as well as the deep survey activities. Further topics include cosmology, and modelling and computer simulations of galaxy formation. Thus the reader will find here a fairly complete picture of the state of the art in this active field of astrophysics research.

The existence of jets emanating from the central sources of radio galaxies and quasars was perhaps the most important discovery for our understanding of the nature of active galactic nuclei. These proceedings present reviews and research papers on extragalactic radio sources. The book begins witha discussion of the phenomenology and models of radio sources. The main partis devoted to detailed studies of jets by VLBI, to the information obtained about the structure of the central source as deduced from variability studies, to production, confinement and velocity of jets as well as to numerical simulations of the jet phenomenon. Reviews of the two best studied jets - those in the radio galaxy M87 and the quasar 3C273 - illustrate our current observational picture of extragalactic radio jets in all accessible wavelength ranges. A section on the influence of the environment on radio galaxies concludes the book. This topical volume addresses researchers and graduate students in astrophysics.

This book gives both a comprehensive and detailed account of the current theoretical and observational investigations of the radio galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster. A number of introductory chapters provide a general overview, which makes the book accessible also to non-specialists in the field.
The remaining chapters are devoted to a detailed treatment of special topics covering all relevant aspects of the galactic structure and jet.