Guide to the Sun

The sun has been an object of fascination and scientific interest to humans since the time of the ancient Greeks. With minimum technical language, this book gives an account of what we now know about the sun's interior, its surface and atmosphere, its role in our solar system, and its relation to other stars. The ways that solar power is being converted to useful forms of energy are also explained. The book is aimed at anyone interested in learning about the latest developments in solar studies, from those at high-school level to the nonspecialist professional.

Professor Kenneth Phillips is Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, and specialises in solar physics and X-ray and ultraviolet spectroscopy. He is co-author of Ultraviolet and X-ray Spectroscopy of the Solar Atmosphere (2008) and has authored over 300 research papers. In 2010, he was awarded the Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences and in 2009, the Gold Medal of the University of Wroclaw, Poland, for collaborative projects with the solar group there. From 2002 to 2005, he held a National Research Council Senior Research Associateship at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and he worked for twenty-five years in the Space Science Department of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire. He has held honorary or visiting professorships at Queen's University, Belfast and University College London.