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Listed alphabetically by title. Pat
Dasch Earth
is the only planet known to have liquid water, and water ice has
been present over parts of the Earth for much of its history. Scientists
have only recently come to understand how widespread the presence
of ice is in our solar system. Deposits of water ice may exist in
unexpected places, such as in the polar craters of Mercury, the
closest planet to the Sun. Other ices, such as methane ice and nitrogen
ice, abound in our solar system; these ices play an important role
in the geological and atmospheric characteristics of the bodies
in it. Icy Worlds of the Solar System focuses on the occurrence
and significance of water ice, and ices formed by other materials.
The findings discussed are the result of three decades of spacecraft
exploration of the planets, complemented by ground and space-based
observations. It considers implications of the reservoirs of water
ice for the presence of life elsewhere in our solar system, and
for habitability by human explorers who may venture to these distant
worlds in the future. Yannick
Mellier and Georges Meylan, Eds. The
proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium no.
225, held in July 2004 at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland. The meeting focused on the applications
of gravitational lensing to cosmological physics, and this book
summarizes the most recent theoretical and observational developments.
Chapters are written by leading scientists in the field, and cover
testing gravitation theory with gravitational lensing; weak gravitational
shear and gravitational magnification of galaxies; anisotropy of
the cosmological microwave background as a probe of the dark matter
power spectrum and the growth rate of perturbations in the universe,
and its implications for investigating the properties of dark energy.
The properties of dark halos from galaxy to super-cluster of galaxies
scales are presented using mass reconstruction techniques. Charles
Cockell Every
225 million years the Earth, and all the life on it, completes one
revolution around the Milky Way Galaxy. During this remarkable journey,
life is influenced by calamitous changes. Comets
and asteroids strike the surface of the Earth, stars explode, enormous
volcanoes erupt, and more recently, humans litter the planet with
waste. Many animals and plants became extinct during the voyage,
but humble microbes, simple creatures made of a single cell, survive
this journey. This book takes a tour of the microbial world, from
the coldest and deepest places on Earth to the hottest and highest,
and witnesses some of the most catastrophic events that life can
face. Impossible Extinction tells this remarkable story by explaining how microbes
have survived on Earth for over three billion years. Charles Cockell
is currently a microbiologist with the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence Institute (SETI) and based at the British Survey in
Cambridge, UK. His research focuses on astrobiology, life in the
extremes and the human exploration of Mars. Andrew
Parker The
Cambrian Explosion is universally referred to as biology's "Big
Bang." About 550 million years ago, there was literally an
explosion of life forms, as all the major animal groups suddenly
and dramatically appeared. Why did it happen this way? Why didn't
these creatures continue the slow, plodding pace of evolution, appearing
only very gradually in the fossil record? Here Oxford zoologist
Andrew Parker reveals his theory of this great flourishing of life.
Parker's "Light Switch Theory" holds that it was the development
of vision in primitive animals that caused the explosion. Precambrian
creatures were unable to see, making it impossible to find friend
or foe. With the evolution of the eye, the size, shape, color, and
behavior of animals was suddenly revealed for the first time. Once
the lights were "turned on," all animals had to either
adapt or die, and in a geological instant, the world became a very
different place. A controversial idea, the Light Switch Theory draws
on evidence not just from biology but also from geology, physics,
chemistry, history, and art. Karl
F. Kuhn & Theo Koupelis In
Quest of the Universe, 4/e is a comprehensive introduction to
astronomy designed for non-science majors. The book uses the development
of astronomical theories, both historical and current, to show how
science works. The authors take a "planets first" approach,
engaging students with an exploration of our own solar system before
moving on to the stars and then to distant galaxies. Additional
resources on http://www.jbpub.com/starlinks/4e/ Nik
Szymanek This
Astronomy Now (www.astronomynow.com)
special publication features the photography of British astro-imager
Nik Szymanek (recipient of the 2004 ASP Amateur Achievement Award)
and covers a range of photographic methods from basic to advanced.
Beautiful pictures of the night sky can be obtained with a simple
camera and tripod before tackling more difficult projects, such
as guided astrophotography through the telescope and CCD imaging.
Modern digital cameras and computer techniques are powerful allies
in the battle against light pollution but here you will also find
breathtaking pictures using very basic equipment taken from magnificent
dark sites such as La Palma and Muana Kea, Hawaii. Included are
pictures taken by the author with the two-meter Faulkes Telescope
alongside many images taken by professional astronomers using the
UK's Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, to which the author had exclusive
access for image processing. Charles
Flowers "A
century of remarkable scientific discovery... "We
learned that the continents are forever slipping and sliding around
the globe, like clothing on a teenager, and the mountains are forever
rising, the oceans rising, the volcanoes stoking their furnaces
for the next blast. "Our
bodies are a fever of change as our minds perpetually rewire themselves
and our genes make uncountable decisions, renewing or growing or
misfiring to produce the runaway cancers that may kill us, initiating
the instability of mortal decay... "Within
tiny atomic universes, particles pop in and out of being, impossible
as that may be to conceive, while atoms collide and meld, buzzing
continually in their electrically charged states. "This,
then, was the truth behind many of the defining discoveries of the
twentieth century: existence is constant activity." Dramatic
and often humorous storytelling that illuminates science; science
writing that explores the artifices of human personality and the
humanity of artificial intelligence. Thaisa
Storchi-Bergmann, L.C. Ho & H. R. Schmitt, eds. How
massive are the largest and smallest nuclear black holes in galaxies?
Why are the masses of nuclear black holes proportional to those
of their host galaxy bulges? How is nuclear activity triggered?
What are the observational signatures of such processes? What are
the connections between the active nucleus, stars and interstellar
medium in galaxies? Answers to these questions are addressed in
this book, which presents a compilation of 191 works covering recent
observations from X-rays to radio wavelengths, as well as theoretical
modeling of accretion disks, stellar populations and galaxy and
black hole evolution. This volume presents the nuclear activity
as a phase in the life of a galaxy, which is intimately connected
to the evolution of its stars and interstellar medium, and brings
together recent developments in topics covering most aspects of
galaxy evolution. Chet
Raymo On
one level, An Intimate Look at the Night Sky is a unique
star guide: twenty-four beautiful star maps, created specifically
for this book, cycle through the seasons and across the heavens,
revealing what you can see with the naked eye throughout the year
on a clear night in the northern hemisphere. Raymo's commentaries
amplify the maps, offering intriguing details and tips on identifying
stars, planets, and constellations. On another level, Chet Raymo
challenges our imagination — to see what is unseeable in the universe,
to perceive distance and size and shape that is inconceivable, to
appreciate ever more fully our extraordinary place in the cosmos.
His elegant essays on the heavens blend science and history, mythology
and religion. John
C. Brandt, Robert D. Chapman Including
the abundance of information known prior to the return of Halley's
comet, as well as the new information discovered since then, the
science of comets is described here by order of its discovery. From
tail phenomena to coma morphology, to the most recent findings from
space missions, this comprehensive text provides complete and up-to-date
coverage of the subject. Jayant
Vishnu Narlikar The
third edition of this successful textbook is fully updated and includes
important recent developments in cosmology. It begins with an introduction
to cosmology and general relativity, and goes on to the mathematical
models of standard cosmology. The physical aspects of cosmology,
including primordial nucleosynthesis, the astroparticle physics
of inflation, and the current ideas on formation are discussed.
Alternative models of cosmology are reviewed, including the model
of Quasi-Steady State Cosmology, which has recently been proposed
as an alternative to Big Bang Cosmology. Mark
H. Jones & Robert J. A. Lambourne This
introductory textbook has been designed by a team of experts for
elementary university courses in astronomy and astrophysics. It
starts with a detailed discussion of the structure and history of
our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, and goes on to give a general introduction
to normal and active galaxies including models for their formation
and evolution. The second part of the book provides an overview
of the wide range of cosmological models and discusses the Big Bang
and the expansion of the Universe. Written in an accessible style
that avoids complex mathematics, and illustrated in color throughout,
this book is suitable for self-study and will appeal to amateur
astronomers as well as undergraduate students. It contains numerous
helpful learning features such as boxed summaries, student exercises
with full solutions, and a glossary of terms. The book is also supported
by a website hosting further teaching materials. Jamal
Islam A concise
introduction to the mathematical aspects of the origin, structure
and evolution of the universe. The book begins with a brief overview
of observational and theoretical cosmology, along with a short introduction
to general relativity. It then goes on to discuss Friedmann models,
the Hubble constant and deceleration parameter, singularities, the
early universe, inflation, quantum cosmology and the distant future
of the universe. This new edition contains a rigorous derivation
of the Robertson-Walker metric; discusses the limits to the parameter
space through various theoretical and observational constraints;
and presents a new inflationary solution for a sixth degree potential. D.
J. Raine and E. G. Thomas This
volume is a thorough introduction to modern ideas on cosmology and
on the physical basis of the general theory of relativity. The various
theories and ideas in 'big bang' cosmology are discussed in detail,
providing an insight into current problems. The book is written
at an intermediate level, beyond that of the many elementary books
on cosmology, and provides an introduction to the more advanced
works and research literature. Contents:1
Reconstructing Time. 2 Expansion. 3 Matter. 4 Radiation. 5 Relativity.
6 Models. 7 Hot Big Bang. 8 Inflation. 9 Structure. 10 Epilogue. Neil
McBride, et al., Eds. Compiled
by a team of experts, this textbook has been designed for elementary
university courses in planetary science. It starts with a tour of
the Solar System and an overview of its formation that reviews in
detail the terrestrial planets, giant planets and minor bodies.
It concludes with a discussion of the origin of the Solar System.
The text contains numerous useful learning features such as boxed
summaries, student exercises with full solutions, and a glossary
of terms. It is also supported by a website hosting further teaching
materials. Simon
F. Green & Mark H. Jones, eds. Compiled
by a team of experts, this textbook has been designed for elementary
university courses in astronomy and astrophysics. Beginning with
a discussion of our nearest star, the Sun, the volume then considers
how astronomers study the basic physical properties and life-cycles
of more distant stars. Exotic objects such as black holes are also
introduced. The text contains numerous useful learning features
such as boxed summaries, student exercises with full solutions,
and a glossary of terms. Supported by a website hosting further
teaching materials and written in an accessible style that avoids
complex mathematics. Isaac
Asimov, with revisions and updating by Richard Hantula Isaac
Asimov's 21st Century Library of the Universe draws upon the
legendary writer's wit, clarity of style, enthusiasm, and enormous
command of facts about space to give youngsters the most current
information about the wonders of the universe. In twelve volumes
Asimov takes young astronomers on a tour of the Solar System—proceeding
step by step from the Sun at the center of it all to the distant
outer orbit of Pluto. In between he covers all the interior planets,
including our own Moon and the asteroid belt between Earth and Mars. Now
available: Earth,
Venus
and Jupiter.
Janet
Jeppson Asimov As
one of the most gifted and prolific writers of the twentieth century,
Isaac Asimov became legendary for his inexhaustible creativity,
wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, and talent for explaining complex
subjects in clear, concise prose. While regaling his readers with
an incredible opus of almost five hundred entertaining and illuminating
science fiction and nonfiction books, he also found time to write
a three-volume autobiography. Now these volumes have been condensed
into one by Asimov’s wife, Janet, who also shares excerpts
from letters he wrote to her. Together these writings provide an
intimate portrait of a creative genius whose love of learning and
playing with ideas is evident on every page. Although
Janet Jeppson Asimov concludes this work with a shocking revelation
about her husband’s death, the volume is clearly intended as
a celebration — as the title suggests — of a wonderful,
creative life. As a poignant coda to this work, Janet has appended
one short story that was
Isaac’s favorite, and his 400th essay on this thoughts about
science. Isaac
Asimov's 21st Century Library of the Universe—The Solar System
With revisions and updating by Richard Hantula The
Sun The
Moon Mars
James
R. Voelkel This
latest volume in the Oxford Portraits in Science is the story of
a young man who falls into his profession through a sense of duty
- yet sets the scientific community into a frenzy. Voelkel reveals
how Kepler, after years of studying theology, would go on to make
fundamental astronomical discoveries in spite of religious upheaval
and persecution, scholarly rivalry and intrigue, war, family tragedies
and a witchcraft trial. Sidebars explain Copernicus’s Mode
of Retrograde Motion, The Platonic Solids, Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg
Observatory, and Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion. Jack
B. Zirker Jack
Zirker takes us on an imaginary voyage from the center of the sun
to its surface, showing how sunlight is made and finally following
the sun's energy to the far reaches of the solar system. Along the
way, he introduces the basic processes at work in our nearest star
and the exciting answers solar scientists are finding to problems
that have long perplexed astronomers. Journey
from the Center of the Sun describes how theory and practice
are coming together to provide a new understanding of this old star.
At this moment, solar physicists are collecting the best observations
ever obtained about the sun's interior and dynamic atmosphere, while
a new breed of theorists is interpreting these data using computer
simulations. Zirker reports on cutting-edge advances and looks at
the tough questions solar physicists are beginning to crack. How
can we account for the solar wind that causes the sun to lose mass
at an astonishing rate? Where have all the neutrinos gone? How does
the sun generate magnetic sunspots, and why does it have a sunspot
cycle? What causes a solar flare to explode? How does the sun affect
the
earth's climate? What is a sunquake? George
G. Szpiro Sir
Walter Raleigh simply wanted to know the best and most efficient
way to pack cannonballs in the hold of his ship. In 1611, German
astronomer Johannes Kepler responded with the obvious answer: by
piling them up the same way that grocers stack oranges or melons.
For the next four centuries, Kepler's conjecture became the figurative
loose cannon in the mathematical world as some of the greatest intellects
in history set out to prove his theory — from Danish astronomer
Tycho Brahe to math greats Sir Isaac Newton and Carl Friedrich Gauss,
from modern titans David Hilbert and Buckminster Fuller to Thomas
Hales of the University of Michigan, who in 1998 submitted what
seems to be the definitive proof. Kepler's Conjecture provides a mesmerizing account of this 400-year quest
for an answer that would satisfy even the most skeptical mathematical
minds. Rhonda
Martens Johannes
Kepler changed the face of astronomy by abandoning principles that
had been in place for two millennia, made important discoveries
in optics and mathematics, and was an uncommonly good philosopher.
Generally, however, Kepler's philosophical ideas have been dismissed
as irrelevant and even detrimental to his legacy of scientific accomplishment.
Here, Rhonda Martens offers the first extended study of Kepler’s
philosophical views and shows how those views helped him construct
and justify the new astronomy. By tracing the evolution of Kepler's
thought in his astronomical, metaphysical, and epistemological works,
Martens explores the complex interplay between changes in his philosophical
views and the status of his astronomical discoveries. Jane
Drake & Ann Love, illustrated by Heather Collins In
The Kids Book of the Night Sky, boys and girls will discover
all the secrets the night sky holds. They can play games like "Night
Sky I Spy," keep an astronomer's log, read about night sky
myths and legends from different cultures around the world,
and learn about the zodiac, he northern lights and eclipses. Star
maps are included for each season—so kids will know what to
look for, when and where. Then as the sun goes down and the sky
goes dark, they'll be ready for the night sky's all-star show! Available
at the ASP's online store, the AstroShop. Bryan
Bunch From
the Introduction: "The intent of this field guide is to aid
the reader in identifying numbers in their native habitats. Just
as an experienced birder can tell which birds are hidden in the
trees by hearing their songs, or recognize a species from a silhouette
or a flash of color through the leaves, the experienced number-watcher
learns to find the hidden secrets of numbers, to classify a number
instantly, and to use number relationships to enhance the enjoyment
of mathematics as well as to solve problems...All numbers are interesting." Alexei
Sossinsky Ornaments
and icons, symbols of complexity or evil, aesthetically appealing
and endlessly useful in everyday ways, knots are also the object
of mathematical theory, used to unravel ideas about the topological
nature of space. In recent years knot theory has been brought to
bear on the study of equations describing weather systems, mathematical
models used in physics, and even, with the realization that DNA
sometimes is knotted, molecular biology. This
book, written by a mathematician known for his own work on knot
theory, is a clear, concise, and engaging introduction to this complicated
subject. A guide to the basic ideas and applications of knot theory,
Knots takes us from Lord Kelvin's early -- and mistaken --
idea of using the knot to model the atom, almost a century and a
half ago, to the central problem confronting knot theorists today:
distinguishing among various knots, classifying them, and finding
a straightforward and general way of determining whether two knots
--treated as mathematical objects -- are equal. Michael
Christopher Carroll Nestled
near the Hamptons, the fashionable summer playground of America's
rich and famous, and in the shadow of New York City, lies an unimposing
840-acre island unidentified on most maps. On the few on which it
can be found, Plum Island is marked red or yellow, and stamped U.S.
government—restricted or dangerous animal diseases. Lab
257 details the checkered history of Plum Island, positing that
the seemingly bucolic island on the edge of the largest population
center in the United States may be a ticking biological time bomb. George
H. Rieke The
Spitzer Space Observatory, originally known as the Space Infrared
Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is the last of the four "Great
Observatories", which also include the Hubble Space Telescope,
the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
Developed over twenty years and dubbed the "Infrared Hubble",
Spitzer was launched in the summer of 2003 and has since contributed
significantly to our understanding of the universe. George Rieke
played a key role in Spitzer and now relates the story of how that
observatory was built and launched into space. Telling the story
of this single mission within the context of NASA space science
over two turbulent decades, he describes how, after a tortuous political
trail to approval, Spitzer was started at the peak of NASA's experiment
with streamlining and downsizing its mission development process,
termed "faster better cheaper." Rieke examines in detail
the premises behind "faster better cheaper," their strengths
and weaknesses, and their ultimate impact within the context of
NASA's continuing search for the best way to build future missions.
As the only book devoted to the Spitzer mission, The Last of
the Great Observatories is a story at the nexus of politics
and science, shedding new light on both spheres as it contemplates
the future of mankind's exploration of the universe. Bill
Carter and Merri Sue Carter For
more than a century European astronomers grappled with the mystery
surrounding a suspected variation in latitude that affected their
careful observations. Where the best minds in Europe had failed,
in1891, Seth Chandler, an actuary for a Boston insurance company
with no formal education in astronomy, built an inexpensive instrument
that solved the problem. Another American, Simon Newcomb, working
at the U.S. Naval Observatory and using existing mathematical equations,
validated Chandler’s discovery. The "Chandler Wobble,"
had profound significance to astronomers of the day and played an
important role later in space exploration and the eventual development
of the Global Positioning System. Private correspondence, documents,
and photographs provided by Chandler’s granddaughter give
a glimpse of life within the family and of Chandler’s relationships
with the scientific community. Robert
Zimmerman In
this definitive account of man's quest to shoot for the moon...and
beyond, space historian Zimmerman details the adventure, exploration,
research and discovery of the world's first space cowboys and reminds
us why courageous astronauts continue taking these daring flights.
All against a background of the great global Cold War gamesmanship
between Russian and American political leaders that drove us to
the stars. Dava
Sobel Two
years ago, Dava Sobel introduced Suor Maria Celeste, the eldest
daughter of Galileo Galilei’s three illegitimate children,
in Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith,
and Love. In Letters to Father, all 124 existing letters
she wrote to her father are reproduced in their original Italian
alongside Sobel’s English translation. Introduced and annotated
by Sobel, the letters provide a portrait of deep love between a
father and his daughter and a fascinating insight into Galileo himself.
They also touch on the events of the dramatic period through which
she lived during which a pope came to power who battled the Protestant
Reformation; the Thirty Years’ War embroiled all of Europe;
the bubonic plague erupted across Italy; and a new philosophy of
science, promulgated most forcefully by Galileo himself, threatened
to overturn the order of the universe. David
Wade The
study of families of surface patterns was known in ancient China
as Li and is the sister science to Fen Shui. In this unique book
are sand and wave patterns, big cat markings, bark and leaf designs,
soap and marbling swirls, crystalline and rock forms, tree branching
types, and many other examples of nature's dynamic, sometimes enigmatic
designs. Peter
D. Ward & Don Brownlee Imagine
our planet far into the future, Carl Sagan's "pale blue dot"
reduced to a reddish-brown husk, a mere shell of its former self.
It seems like the stuff of science fiction novels, but it is really
of science today. We are at a unique moment in our history—Earth's
midlife—a point at which science has given us the capability to
examine the birth of our planet as well as the forces that will
bring about its eventual death. Peter
D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a paleontologist and an astronomer
respectively, combine the discoveries of astronomers, Earth scientists,
and those in other specific disciplines. Astronomers are well-poised
to study the ends of other worlds, while paleontologists can tell
us about "worlds" that have already ended on our planet,
such as the death of dinosaurs and other signposts in the rock and
fossil record. Ward
and Brownlee present a comprehensive portrait of Earth's ultimate
fate, allowing us to understand and appreciate how our planet sustains
itself, and offer a glimpse at our place in the cosmic order. As
they depict the process of planetary evolution, they peer deep into
the future destiny of Earth, showing us that we are living near
or shortly after Earth's biological peak. Eventually, the process
of planetary evolution will reverse itself; life as we know it will
subside until only the simplest forms remain. In time they, too,
will disappear. The oceans will evaporate, the atmosphere will degrade,
and as the sun slowly expands, Earth will eventually meet a fiery
end. At
the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is crucial to understand
Earth's tumultuous history and probable future. Combining groundbreaking
research with lucid, eloquent writing, this landmark book offers
fresh and realistic insight into the true nature of our world and
how we should best steward our planet for the long-term benefit
of our species. William
Tobin In
1851 a young French physicist erected a giant pendulum in the heart
of Paris and showed astonished spectators that the Earth was turning
beneath their feet. Pendulum mania swept the learned and everyday
worlds and Léon
Foucault's name became synonymous with his famous pendulum. His
contributions to science went well beyond the pendulum, however:
most notably to the gyroscope, to decisive laboratory measurements
of the speed of light, and to the invention of the telescope in
its modern form. The blend of pure and applied in Foucault's work
and the ordeals he suffered make him an intriguing case study as
one of the last amateur scientists at a time when science was becoming
institutionalized. Ralph
Lorenz and Jaqueline Mitton Lifting
Titan's Veil is a revealing account of the second largest moon
in the solar system. This world in orbit around Saturn is like a
giant frozen laboratory that may help scientists understand the
first chemical steps towards the origin of life. The authors describe
our current knowledge of Titan, from its discovery in 1655, up to
the present day. Ralph Lorenz includes in the book some of his personal
experiences in preparing for the Cassini mission, which will reach Saturn in 2004 and release the Huygens
probe into Titan's atmosphere in 2005. Brian
Clegg Einstein
said nothing could travel faster than the speed of light. But what
if we could control the speed of light? In Light Years
and Time Travel, physicist and author Clegg offers an accessible
exploration of this astonishing topic. The book reveals today’s
scientists’ searches to find ways that would allow us to increase
the speed of light–and, they say, send messages back in time.
There is also the development of "slow glass," a special
glass that is capable of considerably slowing the speed of light.
The
narrative presents both an historical account of the many scientific
discoveries associated with light alongside a discussion of the
latest research using light. From the spiritual interpretations
of the Ancient Egyptians to the first scientific grapplings with
light and its use by Renaissance artists, these are the stories
of individuals through time who were obsessed by light and their
attempts at defining, describing, and controlling this remarkable
force: Bacon, Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Einstein, and Feynman. Steven
J. Dick & James E. Strick The
Living Universe is a comprehensive study of the formation of
the new scientific discipline of exobiology and its transformation
into astrobiology. The authors—Steven J. Dick is the Chief Historian
at NASA and associate editor of the International Journal of Astrobiology
and James E. Strick an assistant professor in the Program in Science,
Technology, and Society at Franklin and Marshall College—explain
how research on the origin of life became wedded to the search for
life on other planets and for extraterrestrial intelligence. Many
scientific breakthroughs of the last forty years were either directly
supported or indirectly spun off from NASA's exobiology program,
including cell symbiosis, the discovery of the Archaea, and the
theories of Nuclear Winter and the asteroid extinction of the dinosaurs. Exobiology
and astrobiology have generated public fascination, enormous public
relations benefits for NASA, and—the flip side of the coin—some
of the most heated political wrangling ever seen in government science
funding. Dick and Strick provide a riveting overview of the search
for life throughout the universe, with all of the Earthly complexities
of a science-in-the-making and the imperfect humans called scientists.
Their book is the first to include oral history interviews with
all of the primary participants from 1953 to the present. Mario
Livio & Thomas M. Brown The
Local Group of galaxies consists of the Milky Way and all of its
neighbors. The proximity of these galaxies allows for detailed studies
of the processes that have led to their formation, structures, and
evolution. In particular, studies of the Local Group can test predictions
of structure formation that are based on dark energy and cold dark
matter. This book presents a collection of review papers, written
by world experts, on some of the most important aspects of Local
Group Astrophysics. Contents:
1. History of the Local Group S. van den Bergh; 2. Primordial nucleosynthesis
G. Steigman; 3. Galactic structure R. F. G. Wyse; 4. The Large Magellanic
Cloud: structure and kinematics R. P. van der Marel; 5. The Local
Group as an astrophysical laboratory for massive star feedback M.
S. Oey; 6. Hot gas in the Local Group and low-redshift intergalactic
medium K. R. Sembach; 7. Stages of satellite accretion M. E. Putman;
8. The star formation history in the Andromeda halo T. M. Brown;
9. Bulge populations in the Local Group R. M. Rich; 10. The Local
Group as a laboratory for the chemical evolution of galaxies D.
R. Garnett; 11. Massive stars in the Local Group: Star formation
and stellar evolution P. Massey; 12. Massive young clusters in the
Local Group J. Maíz-Apellániz; 13. Magellanic Cloud
planetary nebulae as probes of stellar evolution and populations
L. Stanghellini; 14. The old globular clusters: or, life among the
ruins W. E. Harris; 15. Chemical evolution models of Local Group
galaxies M. Tosi. David
Grinspoon In
Lonely Planets, Grinspoon investigates the big questions:
How widespread are life and intelligence in the cosmos? Is life
on Earth an accident or in some sense the "purpose" of
this universe? And how can we, working from the Earth-centric definition
of "life," even begin to think about the varieties of
life-forms on other planets? Using the topic of extraterrestrial
life as a mirror with which to view human beliefs, evolution, history,
and aspirations, Grinspoon takes readers on a three-part journey. History
is an overview of our expanding awareness of other planets, from
the observations of seventeenth-century natural philosophers to
modern-day space exploration. It traces the history of our ideas
on alien life to the earliest days of astronomy, and shows how these
beliefs have changed with humanity's evolving self-image. Science
tells the story of cosmic evolution and the evolution of life on
Earth. Here, Grinspoon disputes the recent "Rare Earth hypothesis,"
which argues that Earth is unique for sprouting advanced life-forms,
maintaining instead that life is likely to be well adapted to a
wide variety of planets. He questions conventional assumptions of
what is required for a planet to come to life, scrutinizing current
ideas and evidence for life on Mars, Venus, and the moons of Jupiter,
and challenging readers to think about other life-forms that may
exist on other worlds. Belief
discusses the limits of our abilities to conceptualize or communicate
with intelligent aliens living on planets circling distant stars.
Grinspoon speculates on what intelligent life might become, eventually,
on Earth and elsewhere, and the implications, both scientific and
philosophical, of these far-future evolutionary possibilities. Paul
Clancy, et al. How
did life begin on Earth? Is it confined to our planet? Will humans
one day be able to travel long distances in space in search of other
life forms? Written by three experts in the space arena, Looking
for Life, Searching the Solar System aims to answer these and
other intriguing questions. Beginning with what we understand of
life on Earth, it describes the latest ideas about the chemical
basis of life as we know it, and how they are influencing strategies
to search for life elsewhere. It considers the ability of life,
from microbes to humans, to survive in space, on the surface of
other planets, and be transported from one planet to another. It
looks at the latest plans for missions to search for life in the
Solar System, and how these are being influenced by new technologies,
and current thinking about life on Earth. |
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