How did the Sun evolve, and what will it become? What is the origin of its light and heat? How does solar activity affect the atmospheric conditions that make life on Earth possible? These are the questions at the heart of solar physics, and at the core of this book. The Sun is the only star near enough to study in sufficient detail to provide rigorous tests of our theories and help us understand the more distant and exotic objects throughout the cosmos. Having observed the Sun using both ...

The fifth edition of The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium provides you with the fundamentals of astronomical knowledge that have been built up over decades, with an expanded discussion of the incredible advances that are now taking place in this fast-paced field, such as New Horizons' flyby of Pluto, exoplanets, 'dark matter', and the direct detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Written in a clear and easily understandabl...

Essential for life on earth and a major influence on our environment, the Sun is also the most fascinating object in the daytime sky. Every day we feel the effect of its coming and going – literally the difference between day and night. But figuring out what the Sun is, what it’s made of, why it glows so brightly, how old it is, how long it will last – all of these take thought and observation.Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff offer an engaging and informative account of what scienti...

Cutting-edge astrophysics that builds on Einstein's theories to find the unseen matter that fills the Universe.Dark energy. Dark matter. These strange and invisible substances don't just sound mysterious: their unexpected appearance in the cosmic census is upending long-held notions about the nature of the Universe. Astronomers have long known that the Universe is expanding, but everything they could see indicated that gravity should be slowing this spread. Instead, it appears that...

For millennia humanity has gazed in wonder at the night sky, tracked the motions of the planets and attempted to explain our place in the Universe. But only in our own time has the true scale, the astonishing variety and the remarkable strangeness of the cosmos come clearly into focus.The pace and sophistication of recent scientific discovery has been breathtaking, but breakthroughs are often difficult to understand and their impact is hard to fully appreciate. In 50 Ideas You Real...

Scientific American's daily Sixty-Second Science podcast was such an unexpected success, with millions of downloads, that a spin-off site was created around the concept of bite-sized science. This new series of books will tackle the biggest topics in science by breaking them up into quick and easy two- to four-page spreads. Topics in each book will take the light and accessible tone of the 60-Second Science podcasts and blog. INSTANT EGGHEAD PHYSICS will explore quantum physics, r...

This book explores the Micro-World of subatomic particles and forces, including the recently discovered Higgs boson. The pursuit of nature’s smallest parts is one of mankind’s oldest quests, beginning at least 26 centuries ago. But, just in our lifetimes it seems we’ve finally “hit bottom.” Each step deeper into the Micro-World has revealed surprises, and expanded our understanding of nature on all size scales. At the bottom, we see a remarkable unity — nature is the same everywh...

See the skies in a whole new light. Take a tour of the universe, from our local solar system to the far reaches of deepest space. Astronomy Made Simple offers a complete introduction to this science, from its birth in ancient times to the different types of super-powerful telescopes scientists use today. It also includes detailed instructions on how to map the stars and understand the coordinate system, as well as fun sidebars, ideas for projects for further learning, and ...

"This detective story is magnificently presented . . . [the] chronology of the quest to answer one of the most challenging questions in astronomy." — ChoiceAstronomers have determined that our universe is 13.7 billion years old. How exactly did they come to this precise conclusion? How Old Is the Universe? tells the incredible story of how astronomers solved one of the most compelling mysteries in science and, along the way, introduces readers to f...

This book continues our exploration of the most profound theory of science, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. We examine more carefully the properties of spacetime, the unity of space and time. We explore the major features of curvature, how to measure it, and how to reduce its complexity to finding distances between nearby points. We find a simple expression, 2M/r, which proves remarkably helpful as we explore the Schwarzchild metric, black holes, time d...

An unparalleled history of astronomy presented in the words of the scientists who made the discoveries. Here are the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, Hubble, and Einstein, as well as that of dozens of others who have significantly contributed to our picture of the universe.From Aristotle's proof that the Earth is round to the 1998 paper that posited an accelerating universe, this book contains 100 entries spanning the history of astronomy. Award-winning scie...

In this well-illustrated text, Kenneth R. Lang explains the life cycle of stars, from the dense molecular clouds that are stellar nurseries to the enigmatic nebulae some stars leave behind in their violent ends. Free of mathematical equations and technical jargon, Lang's lively and accessible text provides physical insights into how stars such as our Sun are born, what fuels them and keeps them bright, how they evolve and the processes by which they eventually die. The book demonstrates th...