Astronomy Today: Stars and Galaxies, Vol. II (4th Edition) - Softcover

Chaisson, Eric; McMillan, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130935719 ISBN 13: 9780130935717

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 2002

Synopsis

Chaisson/McMillan's writing style and pedagogically driven art program are recognized as being scientifically accurate yet accessible to non-science majors. The integrated media program contains the market's only E-book. It provides readers with innovative and interactive tools to learn and test their understanding of astronomy concepts. Topics covered include Astronomy and the Universe, Our Planetay System, Stars and Stellar Evolution, Galaxies and Cosmology, and more. For one or two-semester introductory astronomy course.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Chaisson. Eric holds a doctorate in Astrophysics from Harvard University, where he spent ten years on the faculty of Arts and Sciences. For five years, Eric was a Senior Scientist and Director of Educational Programs at the Space Telescope Science Institute and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Johns Hopkins University. He then joined Tufts University, where he is now Professor of Physics, Professor of Education, and Director of the Wright Center for Innovative Science Education. He has, written nine books on astronomy, which have received such literary awards as he Phi Beta Kappa Prize, two American Institute of Physics Awards, and Harvard's Smith-Weld Prize for Literary Merit. He has published more than 100 scientific papers in professional journals, and has also received Harvard's Bok Prize for original contributions to astrophysics.

Steve McMillan. Steve holds a bachelor's and master's degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University and a doctorate in Astronomy from Harvard University. He held post-doctoral positions at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University, where he continued his research in theoretical astrophysics, star clusters, and numerical modeling. Steve is currently Distinguished Professor of Physics at Drexel University and a frequent visiting researcher at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Tokyo. He has published over 40 scientific papers in professional journals.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Astronomy continues to enjoy a golden age of exploration and discovery. Fueled by new technologies and novel theoretical insights, the study of the cosmos has never been more exciting. We are pleased to have the opportunity to present a representative sample of the known facts, evolving ideas, and frontier discoveries in astronomy today.

This book is written for students who have taken no previous college science courses and who will likely not major in physics or astronomy. The text is suitable for both one-semester and two-semester courses. We present a broad view of astronomy, straightforwardly descriptive and without complex mathematics. The absence of sophisticated mathematics, however, in no way prevents discussion of important concepts. Rather, we rely on qualitative reasoning as well as analogies with objects and phenomena familiar to the student to explain the complexities of the subject without oversimplification. We have tried to impart the enthusiasm that we feel about astronomy, and to awaken students to the marvelous universe around us.

In teaching astronomy to nonscientists, as in writing this book, we are not seeking to convert students to careers in astronomy or even science in general. Instead, we strive to reach the wider audience of students who are majoring in many other worthwhile fields. We want to encourage these students to become scientifically literate members of modern society—to appreciate new developments in the world of science, to understand what scientists do for a living and its importance, to make informed judgments regarding national initiatives in science and the public funding of scientific projects, and to vote intelligently in our democratic, increasingly technological world.

We are very gratified that the first three editions of this text have been so well received by many in the astronomy education community. In using those earlier texts, many of you—teachers and students alike—have sent us helpful feedback and constructive criticisms. From these, we have learned to better communicate both the fundamentals and the excitement of astronomy. Many improvements inspired by your comments have been incorporated into this new edition.

Organization and Approach

Our overall organization follows the popular and effective "Earth-out" progression. We have found that most students, especially those with little scientific background, are much more comfortable studying the (relatively familiar) solar system before tackling stars and galaxies. Thus, Earth is the first object we discuss in detail. With Earth and the Moon as our initial planetary models, we move through the solar system, drawing on comparative planetology to provide an understanding of the many varied worlds we encounter. We conclude our coverage of the solar system with a discussion of its formation, a line of investigation that leads directly into a study of our Sun.

With the Sun as our model star, we then broaden the scope of our discussion to include stars in general—their properties, their evolutionary histories, and their varied fates. This journey naturally leads us to coverage of the Milky Way Galaxy, which in turn serves as an introduction to our treatment of other galaxies. Finally, we reach the subject of cosmology and the large-scale structure and dynamics of the universe as a whole. Throughout, we strive to emphasize the dynamic nature of the cosmos—virtually every major topic, from planets to quasars, includes a discussion of how those objects formed and how they evolve.

We continue to place much of the needed physics in the early chapters—an approach derived from years of experience teaching thousands of students. Additional physical principles are developed as needed later, both in the text narrative and in the boxed More Precisely features (described below). We feel strongly that this is the most economical and efficient means of presentation. However, we acknowledge that not all instructors feel the same way. Accordingly, we have made the treatment of physics, as well as the more quantitative discussions, as modular as possible, so that these topics can be deferred to later stages of an astronomy course if desired. In addition, we have included as much modern astronomy as possible in the introductory chapters. These chapters are likely to engage students only if they are made to realize how simple physical principles provide the keys to our understanding of a vast and otherwise incomprehensible universe.

New and Revised Material

The text has been extensively updated in content since the third edition. Most chapters have been significantly changed, and several have seen major reorganization. Among the many changes are:

• New boxes in Chapter 1 on astronomical timekeeping and distance measurement.
• Expanded discussion in Chapter 2 of Newton's discovery of the law of gravity.
• Updated material in Chapter 5 on adaptive optics, Subaru, Gemini, the VLT, and infrared and optical interferometry; new material on the Chandra mission; updates (and a conclusion) to the CGRO story.
• New material in Chapter 6 on measuring planetary properties; updates on the Galileo, Cassini, and Mars Global Surveyor missions.
• Expanded material in Chapter 6 on Clementine and Lunar Prospector, with updates on their important findings, including the possibility of ice at the lunar poles.
• Greatly expanded coverage in Chapter 10 of Mars Global Surveyor and the many scientific results that have come from it; the possibility of (past or present) liquid water on Mars; an update on the Martian Meteorite controversy.
• Updates in Chapter 11 on the Galileo/GEM mission, including the latest results on the possible existence of a liquid water ocean below Europa's icy surface; discussion of the magnetic fields of the Galilean moons.
• Coverage of the many new moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.
• Expanded coverage of Pluto and the Kuiper belt in Chapters 13-15.
• Updates in Chapter 14 on asteroid numbers and the properties of near-Earth objects; coverage of the NEAR mission and its exploration of Eros.
• Substantially updated coverage of solar system formation in Chapter 15, including disk instabilities, planetary migration, and their implications for extrasolar planetary systems.
• New section in Chapter 15 on extrasolar planets, with updated material on the latest observations.
• Incorporation of results from the Yohkoh, SOHO, and TRACE missions into Chapter 16.
• The latest experimental results in the search for the missing solar neutrinos (Chapter 16).
• Use of Hipparcos data in Chapter 17 and throughout the text; new H-R diagram based on Hipparcos measurements; discussion of future astrometry missions and their implications.
• Updated information in Chapter 17 on the numbers and mass distribution of stars in our Galaxy.
• Extensive revision of the material on stellar mass determination in Chapter 17.
• Expanded discussion in Chapter 18 of the Local Bubble.
• Updated information in Chapter 19 on brown dwarfs; new material on jets and outflows in star formation.
• New coverage in Chapter 20 of the end-states of stellar and binary evolution; discussion of blue stragglers; more examples of familiar stars in specific evolutionary stages.
• New section and latest results on gamma-ray bursts in Chapter 22; discussion of intermediate-mass and supermassive black holes.
• Latest results in Chapter 23 on Sgr A* and the Galaxy's central black hole.
• Expanded and substantially revised coverage in Chapter 24 of galaxy collisions, hierarchical merging, and galaxy evolution; updated discussion of the measurement of Hubble's constant.
• Streamlined discussion in Chapter 25 of active galaxies and quasars; revised discussion of active galaxy evolution.
• New material in Chapter 25 on quasar absorption lines and the Lyman-alpha forest; expanded discussion of gravitational lensing, including the construction of dark-matter maps from lensing of background galaxies.
• Extensive rewriting of Chapter 26 to include recent observations of cosmic acceleration and discussion of "dark energy;" revised discussions of the cosmological constant and the "age controversy"
• New material in Chapter 26 on HDF-S and the Chandra Deep Field.
• Consistent distances and times in Chapters 25-27, assuming a flat universe with dark matter and dark energy. Expanded discussion in Chapter 27 of inflation, dark energy, and structure formation; results from the Boomerang experiment suggesting a flat universe.
• Updated coverage of Europa, Mars, interstellar organic molecules, and extrasolar planets in Chapter 28.

The Illustration Program

Visualization plays an important role in both the teaching and the practice of astronomy, and we continue to place strong emphasis on this aspect of our book. We have tried to combine aesthetic beauty with scientific accuracy in the artist's conceptions that adorn the text, and we have sought to present the best and latest imagery of a wide range of cosmic objects. Each illustration has been carefully crafted to enhance student learning; each is pedagogically sound and tied tightly to the nearby discussion of important scientific facts and ideas. For this edition, the illustration program has been extensively revised and updated, resulting in more than 100 figures that show the latest imagery and the results learned from them.

Full Spectrum Coverage and Spectrum Icons
Increasingly, astronomers are exploiting the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum to gather information about the cosmos. Throughout this book, images taken at radio, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, or gamma-ray wavelengths are used to supplement visible-light images. As it is sometimes difficult (even for a professional) to tell at a glance which images are visible-light photographs and which are false-color images created with other wavelengths, each photo in the text is provided with an icon that identifies the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation used to capture the image and reinforces the connection between wavelength and radiation properties.

Compound Art
It is rare that a single image, be it a photograph or an artist's conception, can capture all aspects of a complex subject. Wherever possible, multiple-part figures are used in an attempt to convey the greatest amount of information in the most vivid way:

• Visible images are often presented along with their counterparts captured at other wavelengths.
• Interpretive line drawings are often superimposed on or juxtaposed with real astronomical photographs, helping students to really "see" what the photographs reveal.
• Breakouts—often multiple ones—are used to zoom in from wide-field shots to closeups so that detailed images can be understood in their larger context.

Explanatory Captions
Students often review a chapter by "looking at the pictures." For this reason, the captions in this book are often a bit longer and more detailed than those in other texts.

H-R Diagrams and the Cosmic Distance Ladder
All of the H-R diagrams, assembled and drawn by Lola Judith Chaisson, are presented in a uniform format, using real data wherever possible. The goal is to make it easy for students to compare theoretical and observational results presented across several different chapters. The cosmic distance ladder is a theme that spans the text, and we use an evolving set of standard figures to illustrate how distance measurement techniques fit into and ultimately drive our understanding of the cosmos.

Acetate Overlays
Two unique sets of transparent acetate overlays dramatically illustrate two key pedagogical elements of the book. The H-R diagram overlays demonstrate to students how astronomers organize information about the stars and track their evolutionary histories. The cosmic distance scale overlays summarize, in simplified form, the main methods used by astronomers to chart their way among increasing scales in the universe.

Other Pedagogical Features

As with many other parts of our textbook, instructors have helped guide us toward what is most helpful for effective student learning. With their assistance, we have revised both our in-chapter and end-of-chapter pedagogical apparatus to increase its utility to students.

Learning Goals. Studies indicate that beginning students often have trouble prioritizing textual material. For this reason, a few (typically five or six) well-defined Learning Goals are provided at the start of each chapter. These help students to structure their reading of the chapter and then test their mastery of key facts and concepts. The Learning Goals are numbered and cross-referenced to key sections in the body of each chapter. This in-text highlighting of the most important aspects of the chapter also helps students to review. They are organized and phrased in such a way as to make them objectively testable, affording students a means of gauging their own progress.

Concept Checks. New to this edition, we have 1 incorporated into each chapter a number of "Concept Checks"—key questions that require the reader to reconsider some of the material just presented or attempt to place it into a broader context. Answers to the Concept Check questions are provided at the end of the book.

Cross-Links. In astronomy, as in many scientific disciplines, almost every topic seems to have some bearing on almost every other. In particular, the connection between the specifically astronomical material and the physical principles set forth early in the text is crucial. Practically everything in Chapters 6-28 of this text rests on the foundation laid in the first five chapters. For example, it is important that students, when they encounter the discussion of high-redshift objects in Chapter 25, recall not only what they just learned about Hubble's law in Chapter 24 but also refresh their memories, if necessary, about the inversesquare law (Chapter 17), stellar spectra (Chapter 4), and the Doppler shift (Chapter 3). Similarly, the discussions of the mass of binary-star components (Chapter 17) and of galactic rotation (Chapter 23) both depend on the discussion of Kepler's and Newton's laws in Chapter 2. Throughout, the discussion of new astronomical objects relies heavily on comparison with topics introduced earlier.

It is essential to remind students of these links so they can recall the principles on which later discussions rest and, if necessary, review them. To reinforce these connections, "cross links" have been inserted throughout the text—symbols that mark key intellectual bridges between material in different chapters. The links are denoted by the infinity symbol and, together with a section reference (a hyperlink on the accompanying CD-ROM), signal to students that the topic under discussion is related in some significant way to ideas developed earlier, and direct them to material that they ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0130935719
• ISBN 13: 9780130935717
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 576