Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Physics - Astrophysics

This book considers the history of modern astronomy and astrophysics in Japan by comparing with the development of astrophysics in western countries. Astrophysics essentially arose in three separate fields: astronomical spectroscopy, stellar structure, and survey of celestial objects.

This book introduces readers to the state of astronomy back to the Tokugawa era (18th – 19th centuries), when the chief task of astronomers was limited to the calendar making. With the so-called Meiji revolution (1868), the situation drastically changed. The Meiji Government promoted the modernization...

How planets form is one of the long-standing questions in astrophysics. In particular, formation scenarios of planetesimals which are kilometer-sized bodies and a precursor of planets are still unclear and under debate although some promising mechanisms have been proposed.

This book highlight disk instabilities that have the potential to explain the origin of planetesimals. Using linear analyses and numerical simulations, it addresses how a disk evolves through the development of instabilities, and also presents a new instability driven by dust coagulation. As a result, the...

Cosmic rays are an essential part of the universe. Their origin is related to many important astrophysical processes, such as star formation, stellar evolution, supernova explosions and the state of interstellar matter in the Galaxy. Cosmic Ray Physics reviews our present knowledge of cosmic rays, describing how they are born in a wide range of cosmic processes, how they are accelerated and how they interact with matter, magnetic fields and radiation during their journey across the Galaxy. The book also describes the detection of cosmic rays, and the processes which take place, both at the...

Seen from “inside the IAU,” this book tells the in-depth story of a major crisis in which China “divorced” from the International Astronomical Union in 1960  as a protest against the admission of Taiwan. This happened to all the scientific unions at the same time, and to the Olympic Games, which, unexpectedly, would serve as a laboratory for the “reconciliation” which took place following the re-opening of China to the world 20 years later.

The so-called “China conflict” is the most important crisis in the post-WWII history of the IAU. Yet, many details about...