Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Space Science - Astronomy

In Searching for Water in the Solar System, Therese Encrenaz takes the reader on a journey through the Universe in search of water. She begins by introducing the most well-known of molecule H₂O, its physical and chemical characteristics and its cosmic Formation and abundance. She examines the methods by which the presence of water is detected, both within the solar system and beyond. One by one she visits a diversity of locations in the cosmos, from the nearest planets to the furthest galaxies, where water has been discovered. In the formation of the solar...

Praxis Log of Manned Spaceflight 1961-2006 will open with a section entitled: Quest for Space, which will provide an explanation of the methods employed to get in and out of orbit and brief overviews of the different international space programmes. It will be a complete chronological log of all attempted orbital manned spaceflights, including the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s that only achieved an altitude of c. 50 miles and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There will be an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief...

The First Men on the Moon offers a lively definitive account of the Apollo 11 mission based on the in-flight transcripts post-flight debriefing, with illustrative contextual pictures, especially featuring recent scans of the original Hasselblad film and including conversations among the crew in the spacecraft that were not transmitted. The introductory chapters review the motivation to land on the Moon by the end of the 1960s, the development of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft as the means of doing so, the selection of potential landing sites, the precursor...

Miner and Wessen have teamed together again, along with noted planetary ring scientist, Dr Jeffrey Cuzzi, to produce the most comprehensive and up-to date book on the topic of planetary rings systems yet written. The book is written in a style and at a language level easily accessible to the interested non-expert. The authors cover the scientific significance of ring studies, the history of their discovery and characterization, the observations of Pioneer 10 at Jupiter, Pioneer 11 and Voyager 1 at Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 at all four giant planets of the solar system, and Galileo at...

The aim of State of the Universe 2007 (and subsequent volumes issued annually) is to provide an annual astronomy review suitable for the popular science level reader to be published every year in September in a format that will be suitable for an appeal to the Christmas market. The book will cover all major astronomical news on topics beyond the Solar System and place them in the context of the longer term goals that astronomers and astrophysicists around the world are aiming for. The target is to capture the excitement and vibrancy of modern astronomical research. The book will present a...

Many readers will doubtless be astonished to learn that animals were being fired aloft in U.S. and Soviet research rockets in the late 1940s. In fact most people not only believe that the Russian space dog Laika was the first canine to be launched into space, but also that the high-profile, precursory Mercury flights of chimps Ham and Enos were the only primate flights conducted by the United States. In fact, both countries had sent literally dozens of animals aloft for many years prior to these events and continued to do so for many years after. Other latter-day space nations, such as...

This is the first non-technical book on spectroscopy written specifically for practical amateur astronomers. It includes all the science necessary for a qualitative understanding of stellar spectra, but avoids a mathematical treatment which would alienate many of its intended readers. Any amateur astronomer who carries out observational spectroscopy and who wants a non-technical account of the physical processes which determine the intensity and profile morphology of lines in stellar spectra will find this is the only book written specially for them. It is an ideal companion to existing...

The book is written mainly to advanced graduate and post-graduate students following courses in Perturbation Theory and Celestial Mechanics. It is also intended to serve as a guide in research work and is written in a very explicit way: all perturbation theories are given with details allowing its immediate application to real problems. In addition, they are followed by examples showing all steps of their application.

Many scientific papers and popular articles have been written on the topic of space tourism, describing everything from expected market sizes to the rules of 3-dimensional microgravity football. But what would it actually feel like to be a tourist in space, to be hurled into orbit on top of a controlled explosion, to float around in a spacecraft, and to be able to look down on your hometown from above the atmosphere?

Space tourism is not science fiction anymore, Michel van Pelt tells us, but merely a logical step in the evolution of space flight. Space is about to be opened up to...

In this provocative book, radio astronomer and author Gerrit L. Verschuur describes the phenomena of scientific curiosity and discovery by following the exciting story of interstellar matter. The discovery of "stuff between the stars" was the result of decades of work by hundreds of astronomers, and the evolving recognition of its existence has profoundly changed the way we view the Universe. Verschuur begins with E.E. Barnard, who puzzled for a quarter century over the interpretation of photographs of dark patches between the stars. Verschuur then traces the tortuous path to acceptance of...

This review gathers astronomers, geologists, biologists, and chemists around a common question: how did life emerge on Earth? The ultimate goal is to probe an even more demanding question: is life universal? This not-so linear account highlights problems, gaps, and controversies. Discussion covers the formation of the solar system; the building of a habitable planet; prebiotic chemistry, biochemistry, and the emergence of life; the early Earth environment, and much more.

It is well known, that the Sun as central star of our solar system gravitationally controls the orbits of planets and minor bodies. Much less known is the domain of plasma fields and charged particles, however, in which the Sun with a radius of less than 0.7 Million km governs the heliosphere out to about 15 Billion km, a distance about 20 000 times larger in radius or nearly 10¹³ times bigger in volume. What forces activates the Sun to maintain this power? Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and their descendants are the troops serving the Sun during high solar activity periods.

Russia s accomplishments in planetary space exploration were not achieved easily. Formerly, the USSR experienced frustration in trying to tame unreliable Molniya and Proton upper stages and in tracking spacecraft over long distances. This book will assess the scientific haul of data from the Venus and Mars missions and look at the engineering approaches. The USSR developed several generations of planetary probes: from MV and Zond to the Phobos type. The engineering techniques used and the science packages are examined, as well as the nature of the difficulties encountered which ruined...

This is without doubt the largest and most comprehensive atlas of the universe ever created for amateur astronomers. It is the first major observing guide for amateurs since Burnham s Celestial Handbook. With finder charts of large-scale and unprecedented detail, in both normal and mirror-image views (for users of the ubiquitous Meade and Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope ranges), and an extensive list of 14,000 objects, it will provide a detailed observing guide for almost any practical amateur astronomer, up to the most advanced.

Spanning some 3,000 pages, this is a project...

A Close Look at Europa . . .

And How Big Science Gets Done . . .

The second-outward of Jupiter's four major moons, Europa is covered with ice, as confirmed in views from modern telescopes and the thousands of images returned by NASA's Voyager and Galileo missions. But these higher-resolution views also showed that the ice is anything but smooth. In fact, Europa's surface is covered with vast criss-crossing systems of mountain-sized ridges, jumbled regions of seemingly chaotic terrain, and patches that suggest upwellings of new surface materials from below....