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Dust and Chemistry in Astronomy (The Graduate Series in Astronomy)
Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
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ASIN: 0750302712 |
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Dust is widespread in the galaxy. To astronomers studying stars it may be just an irritating fog, but it is becoming widely recognized that cosmic dust plays an active role in astrochemistry. Without dust, the galaxy would have evolved differently, and planetary systems like ours would not have occurred. To explore and consolidate this active area of research, Dust and Chemistry in Astronomy covers the role of dust in the formation of molecules in the interstellar medium, with the exception of dust in the solar system. Each chapter provides thorough coverage of our understanding of interstellar dust, particularly its interaction with interstellar gas. Aimed at postgraduate researchers, the book also serves as a thorough review of this significant area of astrophysics for practicing astronomers and graduate students.
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The Chemically Controlled Cosmos: Astronomical Molecules from the Big Bang to Exploding Stars
T. W. Hartquist , and
D. A. Williams
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521419832 |
Book Description
Simple chemistry governs a host of the exotic objects that populate our cosmos. For example, molecules in the early Universe acted as natural temperature regulators, keeping the primordial gas cool and, in turn, allowing galaxies and stars to form. What are the tools of the trade for the cosmic chemist and what can they teach us about the Universe we live in? These are the questions answered in this engaging and informative guide--the first book for nonspecialists on molecular astrophysics. In clear, nontechnical terms, and without formal mathematics, Hartquist and Williams show how to study and understand the behavior of molecules in a host of astronomical situations. Readers will learn about the secretive formation of stars deep within interstellar clouds; the origin of our own solar system; the cataclysmic deaths of many massive stars that explode as supernovae; and the hearts of active galactic nuclei, the most powerful objects in the universe. This book provides an accessible introduction to a wealth of astrophysics, and an understanding of how cosmic chemistry allows the investigation of many of the most exciting questions concerning astronomy today.
Book Description
Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System, 2nd Edition, is a comprehensive survey of the planetary physics and physical chemistry of our own solar system. It covers current research in these areas and the planetary sciences that have benefited from both earth-based and spacecraft-based experimentation.
These experiments form the basis of this encyclopedic reference, which skillfully fuses synthesis and explanation. Detailed chapters review each of the major planetary bodies as well as asteroids, comets, and other small orbitals. Astronomers, physicists, and planetary scientists can use this state-of-the-art book for both research and teaching.
This Second Edition features extensive new material, including expanded treatment of new meteorite classes, spacecraft findings from Mars Pathfinder through Mars Odyssey 2001, recent reflections on brown dwarfs, and descriptions of planned NASA, ESA, and Japanese planetary missions.
* New edition features expanded treatment of new meteorite classes, the latest spacecraft findings from Mars, information about 100+ new discoveries of planets and stars, planned lunar and planetary missions, more end-of-chapter exercises, and more
* Includes extensive new material and is amply illustrated throughout
* Reviews each major planetary body, asteroids, comets, and other small orbitals
Customer Reviews:
A Little Bit Of Everything.......2005-08-28
I teach a class in Planetary Atmospheres at the local state university (Arkansas). There is no dedicated text on planetary atmospheres for the non-expert, but you can take parts of this book and do pretty well. And that's the general theme of this book: it has at least a little bit of coverage on almost every aspect of the solar system. I think you could easily do the same thing for a class in planetary geology or solar system evolution or orbital dynamics or even a little biology. Nothing is explored in tremendous detail, but almost every sub-topic of the solar system receives good coverage. Geology is probablly the most-addressed topic.
The book is a great read to just learn about the solar system and how it got here, but you'll need a strong background in chemistry and physics to really understand it. It was one of my favorite books even before I was selected to teach this course.
Lewis' writing is folksy at time, and that's a good thing. Sometimes he's even funny. He gives some thorough overviews of the history of figuring out the various aspects of our solar system, such as the long history of figuring out the composition of the atmospheres of Venus and Mars. It's definitely not a dry book.
The one downside is probably not the author's fault: the photographs are very poorly reproduced. This is probably a publisher thing, but pictures that I know to be beautiful are reduced to grainy, low-res grayscale. Also, be careful which one you order: there is a first edition, a revised first edition and a second edition. You want the latter, although they are not vastly different from one another. The second edition has some color plates grouped together, and this helps.
I recommend this book enthusiastically for anyone with a technical background that wants to learn more about any aspect of the solar system.
A great book loaded with practical information........1998-07-29
Chapters: I. Introduction; II. Astronomical Perspective; III. General Description of the Solar System; IV. The Sun and the Solar Nebula; V. The Major Planets; VI. Pluto and the Icy Satellites of the Outer Planets; VII. Comets and Meteors; VIII. Meteorites and Asteroids; IX. The Airless Rocky Bodies: Io, Phobos, Deimos, the Moon, and Mercury; X. The Terrestrial Planets: Mars, Venus, and Earth; XI. Planets and Life about Other Stars; XII. Future Prospects; Appendices; Suggested Reading; Index
This book discusses the physics and chemistry of the Solar System in great detail. It assumes that the reader has completed one year of mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the university level. Appropriate physics and chemistry formulas and equations are sprinkled throughout the book. The focus is on practicality, not on rigorous derivation: Formulas are often introduced with a phrase like "It can be shown that...", though some key concepts are discussed in more math! ematical detail in the appendices. For the reader who wants more, the "Suggested Reading" section lists many more publications dealing with aspects of the subject matter of this book, ranging in intended readership between non-mathematical and professional scientific.
The text is informative and to the point. Inclusion of many results from recent space missions to various planets, asteroids, and comets is evident. The author includes many pictures (mostly in black and white) of (parts of) the planets and other discussed celestial bodies. Also included are a great number of plots and diagrams that illustrate points made in the text. Many provide specific information on characteristics of the materials being discussed. I particularly like these diagrams: A general discussion of, for instance, the different kinds of water ice is interesting in its own right, but the inclusion of a diagram where you can look up your own favorite combination of temperature and press! ure to find which kind of water ice exists under those cond! itions allows you to consider also many situations that are not explicitly treated in the text.
The book starts with a discussion that puts the Solar System in a wider astronomical context (involving galaxies and the universe at large), and ends (after extensive discussion of the members of the Solar System) with a discussion of the physics and chemistry of life and planets around other stars, and of the future prospects for answering remaining questions about our celestial neighbors. Some exercises are included at the end of each chapter.
The only negative point I found about this book is that it does not discuss the one topic I was looking for when I bought it: the physics of the shape of celestial bodies. For instance, why can Mars support much taller mountains that the Earth? How irregular can the shape be of a moon or asteroid, depending on its size? This certainly falls within the scope of the title. Nevertheless, the great wealth and practicality of the other i! nformation contained in this volume ensure that I do not at all regret buying it.
Book Description
We are made of stardust-and so is all life as we know it. Every chemical element on earth except hydrogen has been scattered across the universe in great stellar explosions and recycled into new stars, planets, and parts of us. In this engrossing book, John and Mary Gribbin explain how developments in astronomy from the 1920s to the present day have led to this startling realization and to a new understanding of the relationship between the universe and the Earth.
Customer Reviews:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.......2007-01-10
What is the nature of the relationship between the Universe and life? If this sort of a question piques your interest, then you should read John Gribbin's "Stardust."
The four chemical elements most important to life as we know it include: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. How did these elements - the prerequisites for complex, organic molecules - come into existence? The Big Bang produced mainly hydrogen and helium (in addition to a smattering of a few other light elements). But what about the heavy elements required for life? They are the products of stellar nucleosynthesis - a process that happens in the interiors of stars. The atoms lodged in your body now, the nitrogen that is part of your DNA double helix was once `cooked' inside stars and then scattered into cold clouds of interstellar dust. If that does not give you a sense of (cosmic!) wonder, then you have not paused to let the information sink in.
John Gribbin reviews the long, intellectual road that led to this startling discovery. Before one could say that we are made of stardust, scientists first had to answer many other questions, like what stars are made of. Besides being a good science book, "Stardust" is also a good book about the history of science, showing, for example, what a vital role the development of photography and spectroscopy played in 20th century astrophysics. One of the especially interesting historical lessons here concerns our understanding of what goes on in the Sun (and the other stars for that matter) to generate heat. Before arriving at the answer that stars generate energy by nuclear fusion, which converts hydrogen to helium, there were many failed hypotheses, such as the gravitational collapse hypothesis. This problem, of how the Sun generates the energy that it does, was for some time a point of contention between the geologists and evolutionary biologists on the one hand and the physicists on the other. The former camp required the Sun to have been in operation for a very long time, in order for evolution to have the sorts of immense temporal scales required for the emergence of complex life, while the physicists estimated that the Sun had to be much younger, in order for it not to have exhausted its energy reservoir. Remarkably, it was the application of quantum physics (the physics of extremely small particles) which eventually provided the science needed to explain how stars shine.
The book is filled with many other stories, showing how our scientific knowledge of the Universe progressed in starts and stops. The B2FH paper (named after the scientists involved: Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler and Hoyle), entitled `Synthesis of the Elements in Stars' was a watershed event in explaining the exact process by which the heavy elements are generated inside stars.
These heavy elements (from carbon to iron) are ultimately expelled in several different ways: (a) through the gradual stripping of Red Giant star's layers, or if the stars are massive, (b) through novae and supernovae explosions. Supernovae explosions also provide the energy needed to synthesize elements heavier than iron. The scattering of fine dusty particles (stardust) provides the site where chemical interactions can occur as well as the seeds for a complex interstellar chemistry. Spectroscopic studies have more recently revealed the existence of organic, polyatomic molecules as part of the interstellar chemistry -- our Galaxy is seeded with the ingredients for life.
The appendix offers a short review of theoretical physicist Lee Smolin's principle of cosmological natural selection (an alternative to versions of the Anthropic principle). Many of the ideas presented here (at the cutting edge of cosmology) are extremely abstract and speculative and present many difficulties in terms of being subjected to experimental testing. However, they make for highly fascinating reading.
One of the themes in John Gribbin's book concerns the co-dependency between science and technology and the intimate connections between the two. Improvements in one ultimately lead to improvements in the other, and so on, in a circle. Technology continues to make gains. Some of the latest developments in cosmology are mind-bogglingly strange and there are indications that more big findings will emerge in the not-so-distant future. We may be in for another radical paradigm shift relatively soon, that will once again change our view of the relationship between the Universe and us, and our place in it.
brilliant mind.......2003-07-16
highly enlightening/illuminating ideas straight from the mind of the stars!
awesome.
best book of all time.......2003-03-21
this book will tell you your place in the universe. every human being on the planet should be required to read this book. i have read every word in this book and i highlighted alot of text. i will re-read this book throughout my life.
also, read 'river out of eden' by richard dawkins for information on human evolution.
"We are all starstuff".......2002-02-01
Carl Sagan was fond of the observation that "we are all starstuff"-that the atoms and molecules in our bodies were forged in the big bang and in the heart of exploding supernovae.
Gribbin fills in the background on that observation, describing how the simpler elements are formed during the big bang and how more complex elements are formed inside stars, particularly when they explode. It is a two-fold history, both of how astronomers and astrophysicists (a remarkably recent discipline) discovered how these were formed and of the universe itself and how it developed.
The only complaint I can come up with is that Gribbin gives Sagan too little credit, never quoting him with the statement above, even though it's truer and more characteristic than the "billions and billions" phrase the impressionists like to use. It's ironic that part of Gribbin's subtitle is the title of one of Sagan's most notable books.
Other than that, this is a gripping and easy-to-read relating of some of the fundamental concepts in modern astronomy. Highly recommended.
The magic of the stars.......2001-09-14
Stardust is a magic bok about the cosmic connec tions between the atoms in our bodies and the stars themselves. I rate this John Gribbin's best ever book, and much clearer than Marcus Chown's Magic Furnace. If you only read one science book this year, it has to be this one!
Book Description
The distribution of elements in the cosmos, a result of the many processes in the Universe's history, provides a means for studying the Big Bang, the density of baryonic matter, nucleosynthesis, and the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies. This textbook, by a pioneer in the field, forms a lucid, comprehensive introduction to the interdisciplinary subject of galactic chemical evolution. The author carefully explains a broad spectrum of exciting astrophysics, from thermonuclear reactions, abundance measurements in astronomical sources, cosmological element production, stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, to light element production by cosmic rays and the effects of galactic processes on the evolution of the elements. The reader is then equipped to develop an intuitive and analytical understanding of results from numerical models and real observations. Simple, elegant derivations for key results are provided throughout, together with problems and helpful solution hints. This long-awaited textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the broad subject of galactic chemical evolution for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and an invaluable overview for researchers.
Book Description
The dynamic field of astrochemistry brings together ideas of physics, astrophysics, biology and chemistry to the study of molecules between stars, around stars and on planets. Astrochemistry: from Astronomy to Astrobiology provides a clear and concise introduction to this rapidly evolving multidisciplinary subject. Starting with the Molecular Universe, the text covers the formation of the elements, simple models of stars and their classification. It then moves on to draw on the theme of the Origins of Life to study interstellar chemistry, meteorite and comet chemistry as well as the chemistry of planets. Prebiotic chemistry and astrobiology are explored by examining the extremes of the biosphere on Earth, seeing how this may be applied to life in other solar systems.
Astrochemsitry assumes a basic familiarity with principles of physical and organic chemistry but no prior knowledge of biology or astrophysics. This innovative text incorporates results from the latest research and ground and space missions, with key images enhanced by a colour plate section.
- includes latest research and results from ground and space missions
- colour plate section
- summary of concepts and calculations at the end of each chapter
- accompanying website www.wiley.co/go/shawastrochemistry
This book will be an ideal text for an undergraduate course in Astrochemistry and an essential tool for postgraduates entering the field.
Customer Reviews:
ambitious attempt.......2006-11-20
This book makes that ambitious attempt to cover a very large and diverse field. The author is clearly very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. There is a great deal of interest in this book, too. That said, there are numerous typos (e.g., a table showing the composition of the atmospheres of the inner planets has a blank column for oxygen; incorrect table citations in the text; tables and figures that do not entirely agree with the description of them in the text; errors in the formulas presented, etc). Further, the author covers some technical topics very briefly, making it hard to follow if you are using this text as your first introduction to the field. So, if you want to use this book as your introduction to the field, this book will have some interesting information for you, but may not be as helpful as more introductory books.
Book Description
This book is a graduate-level text covering the fundamental physics and chemistry required for a modern understanding of the interstellar medium. Radiation mechanisms are comprehensively presented, and extensive examples are drawn from observations in the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, mm/sub mm, and radio observations. This book goes beyond a phenomenological study of the interstellar medium to give a detailed quantitative treatment of the radiative and dynamical interactions between stars and the interstellar medium. With an emphasis on a physical understanding of these processes, the mathematical derivations are clean, elegant and easily understandable by anyone with an undergraduate background in physics.
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Venus Geology, Geochemistry, and Geophysics: Research from the USSR
A. T. Basilevsky , and
V. P. Volkov
Manufacturer: Univ of Arizona Pr
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ASIN: 0816512221 |
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- The best science book I have ever bought!
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An Introduction to Cosmochemistry
Charles R. Cowley
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis (Princeton Series in Astrophysics)
ASIN: 0521459206 |
Book Description
This upper-division textbook describes the composition and evolution of material objects in the universe. The survey begins with a discussion of terrestrial materials and ends with the composition of quasars and distant galaxies. There are two main themes: chemical processes responsible for the abundances we observe, and nuclear processes in which the chemical elements originate. The author presents a total pedagogic synthesis of the subject, building on the basic information in the first chapters to lead into a fuller explanation of the composition of the planets and stellar and primordial nucleosynthesis. The later chapters treat the analytical methods of stellar and nebular spectra, and move on to the composition of stars and galaxies. The book is fully referenced and includes problem sets for the student.
Customer Reviews:
The best science book I have ever bought!.......1999-08-17
I'll be brief. This is a book written by an astronomer who developed an interest in geology. It explains all about how astronomy, physics, chemistry and geology interact and why there should be interdisciplinary action on these subjects. If you are an astronomer with only a rudimentary understanding of geology and want to know how data from meteorites etc affect your work - it's superb. Likewise, if you are a chemist or a geologist and want to know about the relevence of your work in space studies - take a look. It's also remarkably cheap for a science book - so buy it now.
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Cosmochemistry: The Melting Pot of the Elements (Cambridge Contemporary Astrophysics)
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 052182768X |
Book Description
This book contains the lectures delivered at the XIII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, which reviewed current knowledge about the origin and evolution of the chemical elements in the Universe. Written by seven prestigious astrophysics researchers, it covers cosmological and stellar nucleosynthesis, abundance determinations in stars and ionized nebulae, chemical composition of nearby and distant galaxies, and models of chemical evolution of galaxies and intracluster medium.
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