Description
Book SynopsisEric Chaisson received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard, where he spent 10 years on the faculty; after holding various professorships at Johns Hopkins and Tufts, Eric is back at Harvard teaching and doing research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He has written 12 books and received a number of literary awards along the way.
Steve McMillan received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard and is a professor of physics at Drexel University. He has published more than 100 articles and scientific papers.
Table of Contents
-
I. ASTRONOMY AND THE UNIVERSE
- 1. Charting the Heavens: The Foundations of Astronomy
- 2. The Copernican Revolution: The Birth of Modern Science
- 3. Radiation: Information from the Cosmos
- 4. Spectroscopy: The Inner Workings of Atoms
- 5. Telescopes: The Tools of Astronomy
-
II. OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM
- 6. The Solar System: Comparative Planetology and Formation Models
- 7. Earth: Our Home in Space
- 8. The Moon and Mercury: Scorched and Battered Worlds
- 9. Venus: Earth’s Sister Planet
- 10. Mars: A Near Miss for Life?
- 11. Jupiter: Giant of the Solar System
- 12. Saturn: Spectacular Rings and Mysterious Moons
- 13. Uranus and Neptune: The Outer Worlds of the Solar System
- 14. Solar System Debris: Keys to Our Origin
- 15. Exoplanets: Planetary Systems Beyond Our Own.
-
III. STARS AND STELLAR EVOLUTION
- 16. The Sun: Our Parent Star
- 17. The Stars: Giants, Dwarfs, and the Main Sequence
- 18. The Interstellar Medium: Gas and Dust among the Stars
- 19. Star Formation: A Traumatic Birth
- 20. Stellar Evolution: The Life and Death of a Star
- 21. Stellar Explosions: Novae, Supernovae, and the Formation of the Elements
- 22. Neutron Stars and Black Holes: Strange States of Matter
-
IV. GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY
- 23. The Milky Way Galaxy: A Spiral in Space
- 24. Galaxies: Building Blocks of the Universe
- 25. Galaxies and Dark Matter: The Large-Scale Structure of the Cosmos
- 26. Cosmology: The Big Bang and the Fate of the Universe
- 27. The Early Universe: Toward the Beginning of Time
- 28. Life in the Universe: Are We Alone?
