| Description |
xiv, 682 pages : color illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Series |
Saunders golden sunburst series |
|
Saunders golden sunburst series.
|
| Contents |
(Cont.) Comets and interplanetary dust -- Meteorites and the origin of the solar system -- Surveying the heavens -- Analyzing starlight -- Double stars: weighing and measuring them -- The stars: a celestial census -- Between the stars: gas and dust in space -- The sun: an ordinary star -- The sun: a nuclear powerhouse -- The birth of stars -- Star clusters: tests of stellar evolution -- Evolution and death of old stars -- General relativity: curved spacetime and black holes -- The milky way galaxy -- Galaxies -- Structure and evolution of the universe -- The big bang |
|
Appendices: Power of ten notation -- Units -- Some useful constants -- Astronomical coordinate systems -- Elements of an orbit -- Some nuclear reactions of importance in astronomy -- Orbital data for the planets -- Physical data for the planets -- Satellites of the planets -- Total solar eclipses from 1972 through 2030 -- The nearest stars -- The twenty brightest stars -- Variable stars -- The local group of galaxies -- The Messier catalogue of nebulae and star clusters -- The chemical elements -- The constellations |
|
Early astronomy: myth and science -- Copernicus and the heliocentric hypothesis -- Gravitation: action at a distance -- Gravitation in the planetary system -- The celestial clockwork -- The moon and planets in the sky -- Light: messenger from space -- Special relativity: a conflict brought to light -- Optical astronomy -- New windows on the universe -- The planetary system -- Earth as a planet -- Cratered worlds: moon and Mercury -- Mars: the planet most like earth -- Venus: the hottest planet -- The outer planets -- Satellites and rings -- Asteroids and impacts |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [623]-628) and index |
| Subject |
Astronomy.
|
| Author |
Morrison, David, 1940-
|
|
Wolff, Sidney C.
|
| LC no. |
90052896 |
| ISBN |
0030345847 |
|
