This volume, marking the 20th Anniversary of the International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics, provides a wide-ranging overview of modern astrophysics - from the infra-red to X-rays and y-rays, from neutrinos to galactic cosmic rays, and from shock wave acceleration to cosmology. The separate topics contain both background information and results in the field. The book also features high energy neutrinos (including the new generation of experiments coming on line), results from X-ray astronomy and from the infra-red, particle acceleration in astrophysical plasmas, results on the composition of cosmic rays (spanning six decades in energy), and cosmology.
This volume, marking the 20th Anniversary of the International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics, provides a wide-ranging overview of modern astrophysics — from the infra-red to X-rays and γ-rays, from neutrinos to galactic cosmic rays, and from shock wave acceleration to cosmology. The separate topics contain both background information and the newest results in the field, making the discussion suitable for the nonexpert and the expert alike. Featured are high energy neutrinos (including the new generation of experiments coming on line), new results from X-ray astronomy and from the infra-red, particle acceleration in astrophysical plasmas, new results on the composition of cosmic rays (spanning six decades in energy), and cosmology.
Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.
This concise textbook, designed specifically for a one-semester course in astrophysics, introduces astrophysical concepts to undergraduate science and engineering students with a background in college-level, calculus-based physics. The text is organized into five parts covering: stellar properties; stellar structure and evolution; the interstellar medium and star/planet formation; the Milky Way and other galaxies; and cosmology. Structured around short easily digestible chapters, instructors have flexibility to adjust their course's emphasis as it suits them. Exposition drawn from the author's decade of teaching his course guides students toward a basic but quantitative understanding, with 'quick questions' to spur practice in basic computations, together with more challenging multi-part exercises at the end of each chapter. Advanced concepts like the quantum nature of energy and radiation are developed as needed. The text's approach and level bridge the wide gap between introductory astronomy texts for non-science majors and advanced undergraduate texts for astrophysics majors.
"To celebrate NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and its 25 years of accomplishments, let The Hubble Cosmos fill your mind with big ideas, brilliant imagery, and a new understanding of the universe in which we live. Relive key moments in the monumental Hubble story, from launch through major new instrumentation to the promise of discoveries to come. With more than 150 photographs including Hubble All-Stars -- the most famous of all the noteworthy images -- The Hubble Cosmos shows how this telescope is revolutionizing our understanding of the universe." --
New York Times Bestseller A luminous companion to the phenomenal bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world’s largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by revealing his correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 101 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto. His succinct, opinionated, passionate, and often funny responses reflect his popularity and standing as a leading educator. Tyson’s 2017 bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry offered more than one million readers an insightful and accessible understanding of the universe. Tyson’s most candid and heartfelt writing yet, Letters from an Astrophysicist introduces us to a newly personal dimension of Tyson’s quest to explore our place in the cosmos.
Cosmology and astroparticle physics have seen an avalanche of discoveries in the past decade (IceCube - high energy neutrinos, LIGO - gravitational waves, Fermi- gamma-ray telescope, Xenon-1T - dark matter detection, PLANCK- cosmic microwave radiation, EHT picture of black hole, SDSS -galaxy surveys), all of which require a multidisciplinary background for analyzing the phenomena. The arena for testing particle physics models is in the multimessenger astronomical observations and at the same time cosmology now requires a particle physics basis for explaining many phenomena. This book discusses the theoretical tools of particle physics and general relativity which are essential for understanding and correlating diverse astronomical observations.
In July 2009, many experts in the mathematical modelling of biological sciences gathered in Les Houches for a 4-week summer school on the mechanics and physics of biological systems. The goal of the school was to present to students and researchers an integrated view of new trends and challenges in physical and mathematical aspects of biomechanics. While the scope for such a topic is very wide, we focused on problems where solid and fluid mechanics play a central role. The school covered both the general mathematical theory of mechanical biology in the context of continuum mechanics but also the specific modelling of particular systems in the biology of the cell, plants, microbes, and in physiology. These lecture notes are organised (as was the school) around five different main topics all connected by the common theme of continuum modelling for biological systems: Bio-fluidics, Bio-gels, Bio-mechanics, Bio-membranes, and Morphogenesis. These notes are not meant as a journal review of the topic but rather as a gentle tutorial introduction to the readers who want to understand the basic problematic in modelling biological systems from a mechanics perspective.
How can the interior of the Sun, white dwarfs and other stars be studied by stellar seismology? What can Doppler imaging tell us about high-degree pulsations? What impact are CCD and infrared observations having on extending the Cepheid and RR Lyrae distance scale? And how are other classes of pulsators providing independent checks of the distance scale? These and many other critical questions are answered in this timely review of the dramatic advances made in pulsating star research in the last decade. This survey collects together more than thirty comprehensive reviews and over one hundred summaries of research papers from the 139th IAU Colloquium, held in Victoria, British Columbia. Together these cover all aspects of recent developments in the field of variable star research and preview some of the exciting advances anticipated for the next decade. This volume provides an essential review for graduate students and researchers.
