Many of the things right around us are amazing, but the things that are miles or even light-years away are on another level. Learning about space and the universe should be exciting, which is exactly why this innovative volume teaches important curriculum-based ideas in a stimulating way. Told in a fun, comic-style format, this book features fun lessons, like how to find the North Star, and many other cool astronomy facts that readers and science lovers of all ages will love.
An ideal introduction to astronomy and astro navigation. 178 letter size pages packed with full colour illustrations, detailed diagrams and clear explanations. This book focuses on those aspects of astronomy that are essential for a complete understanding of astro navigation - a must for sailors, navigators, nautical colleges and navigation tutors. Teachers and students of many other subjects including geography and mathematics will also find this book interesting, entertaining and very informative. The only book of its kind! The final book of the 'Astro Navigation Demystified' trilogy, Author's preface: Astronomy is a vast and complex subject and when I was taught astro navigation, I often wished my tutor would 'cut to the chase' and focus on only those aspects of astronomy that were relevant. When I taught navigation myself, I searched high and low for an astronomy book that would allow me to pick out just those topics that I needed to teach my students but I was never able to find one. For many years, I meant to write such a book myself to help other astro navigation tutors and students and now, at last, I have found time to do so.
One of the most recent and exciting branches of astronomy, helioseismology—like its terrestrial counterpart—studies why the surface of the sun vibrates like a bell. Over the past three decades astronomers have gained spectacular insights into the structure and composition of the sun's interior, transforming the way we understand stellar matter. In Sunquakes, Jack B. Zirker tells the story of this new science and explains the physics behind these illuminating vibrations. Zirker recounts the discovery of solar oscillations in the early 1960s and international efforts throughout the rest of the decade to explain this phenomenon. By the mid-1970s, scientists working independently in France, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. had developed a new theoretical model of the sun that postulated the existence of trapped sound and gravity waves as the cause for the roiling of the sun's surface. Using solar oscillation data, scientists derived for the first time the thermal and dynamic properties of the solar interior and revealed its complicated rotation patterns; even such astronomical mysteries as the deficit of solar neutrinos were solved. Describing the competition and cooperation between astronomers, particle physicists, and other theorists to the technological innovations that makes solar observation more and more precise, Sunquakes provides professionals and nonscientists alike with an absorbing and accessible guide to the field of helioseismology. The book concludes with an account of recent efforts to probe the interiors of stars far beyond our own solar system.
A quantitative introduction to the Solar System and planetary systems science for advanced undergraduate students, this engaging new textbook explains the wide variety of physical, chemical and geological processes that govern the motions and properties of planets. The authors provide an overview of our current knowledge and discuss some of the unanswered questions at the forefront of research in planetary science and astrobiology today. They combine knowledge of the Solar System and the properties of extrasolar planets with astrophysical observations of ongoing star and planet formation, offering a comprehensive model for understanding the origin of planetary systems. The book concludes with an introduction to the fundamental properties of living organisms and the relationship that life has to its host planet. With more than 200 exercises to help students learn how to apply the concepts covered, this textbook is ideal for a one-semester or two-quarter course for undergraduate students.
A contest to find a better way to create clean drinking water turns into a mystery when one of the scientists goes missing. Luckily, Jack and his genius siblings are on the case in Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World, first in the New York Times bestselling series from Bill Nye and Gregory Mone—featuring illustrations by Nick Iluzada. Jack and his foster siblings, Ava and Matt, are not your typical kids—they’re geniuses. Well, Ava and Matt are. Ava speaks multiple languages and builds robots for fun, and Matt is an expert astronomer and math whiz. As for Jack, it’s hard to stand out when surrounded by geniuses all the time. Things get more complicated when the trio starts working for Dr. Hank Witherspoon, one of the world’s leading scientists. They travel to Antarctica with Hank for a prestigious award ceremony—but they quickly find that not all is as it seems: A scientist has gone missing. It’s up to Jack, Ava, and Matt to find her . . . and discover who’s behind it all. In the Jack and the Geniuses series, readers join Jack, Ava, and Matt on adventures around the world to tackle some of science’s biggest challenges, including new ways to create clean drinking water, to generate clean and renewable energy, and to extend information access to the entire planet. Each book in the series includes cool facts about the real-life science found in the story and a fun DIY project. Jack and the Geniuses series: Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World (#1) Jack and the Geniuses: In the Deep Blue Sea (#2) Jack and the Geniuses: Lost in the Jungle (#3)
A treasury of 125 archival articles covers more than a century of scientific breakthroughs, setbacks and mysteries and includes pieces by Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, includes Malcolm W. Browne on antimatter, James Glanz on string theory and George Johnson on quantum physics.
" ... Concise explanations and descriptions - easily read and readily understood - of what we know of the chain of events and processes that connect the Sun to the Earth, with special emphasis on space weather and Sun-Climate."--Dear Reader.
One of the most ambitious works of paranormal investigation of our time, here is an unprecedented compendium of pre-twentieth-century UFO accounts, written with rigor and color by two of today's leading investigators of unexplained phenomena. In the past century, individuals, newspapers, and military agencies have recorded thousands of UFO incidents, giving rise to much speculation about flying saucers, visitors from other planets, and alien abductions. Yet the extraterrestrial phenomenon did not begin in the present era. Far from it. The authors of Wonders in the Sky reveal a thread of vividly rendered-and sometimes strikingly similar- reports of mysterious aerial phenomena from antiquity through the modern age. These accounts often share definite physical features- such as the heat felt and described by witnesses-that have not changed much over the centuries. Indeed, such similarities between ancient and modern sightings are the rule rather than the exception. In Wonders in the Sky, respected researchers Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck examine more than 500 selected reports of sightings from biblical-age antiquity through the year 1879-the point at which the Industrial Revolution deeply changed the nature of human society, and the skies began to open to airplanes, dirigibles, rockets, and other opportunities for misinterpretation represented by military prototypes. Using vivid and engaging case studies, and more than seventy-five illustrations, they reveal that unidentified flying objects have had a major impact not only on popular culture but on our history, on our religion, and on the models of the world humanity has formed from deepest antiquity. Sure to become a classic among UFO enthusiasts and other followers of unexplained phenomena, Wonders in the Sky is the most ambitious, broad-reaching, and intelligent analysis ever written on premodern aerial mysteries.
