Solar System in Minutes

Author: Giles Sparrow
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 163506113X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
The Solar System in Minutes explains the history and features of all the major celestial bodies, including the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, the planets' main moons, the asteroids, comets, dwarf planets, and the Kuiper belt, as well as the birth, evolution, and science of the solar system and the story--and future--of its exploration. With 200 of the very latest space images and explanatory diagrams that bring these concepts to life, Solar System in Minutes is the easiest way to understand our cosmic neighborhood.

Physics in Minutes

Author: Giles Sparrow
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 1623653401
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 562

Book Description
Physics in Minutes covers everything you need to know about physics, condensed into 200 key topics. Each idea is explained in clear, accessible language, building from the basics, such as mechanics, waves, and particles, to more complex topics, including neutrinos, string theory, and dark matter. Following the latest scientific research proving that the brain best absorbs information visually, each description is accompanied by an illustration to aid quick comprehension and easy recollection. This convenient and compact reference book is ideal for anyone interested in how our world works. Chapters include: Newton's Laws of Motion, Schrodinger's cat, Magnetism, Superconductivity, Fission and fusion, Higgs Boson, Entropy, Dark matter.

The Space Book

Author: Jim Bell
Publisher: Union Square & Company
ISBN: 9781454929390
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Presents a series of 250 significant events in the history of astronomy and space exploration, from the original formation of the galaxies, to the space mission to the planet Mars, to speculation about the end of the universe.

Astronomy in Minutes

Author: Giles Sparrow
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1848667248
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 684

Book Description
What happens when a star dies? How many asteroids are in our solar system? Can galaxies collide? What is dark energy? Astronomy in Minutes answers all these questions and more as it condenses 200 key concepts into easily digestible essays. From Trojan asteroids to stellar black holes, and from superclusters to cosmic microwave background, this book will take you on an essential tour around the universe. Beginning with the specks and constellations that we see in the night sky, and then zooming in on the objects and 'matter' beyond the naked eye, Astronomy in Minutes draws on established theories and recent research. Each essay is accompanied by an image or a clear diagram to help unravel complex ideas. Beginning with the constellations and finishing with the latest cosmological theories, this is the perfect reference guide to this fascinating subject. Contents include: The celestial sphere, Piscis Austrinus, the Earth-Moon system, Io and Ganymede, Kuiper Belt Objects, Measuring stellar properties, Nuclear fusion, Red and orange dwarfs, Open star clusters, Planetary nebulae, Supernova remnants, Cosmic expansion, Quasars and blazars, Nature of spacetime, Nucleosynthesis and the Anthropic Principle.

Space, Time, Infinity

Author: James S. Trefil
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Traces the history of astronomy, looks at what we have learned about the Sun, Moon, stars and planets, and identifies key questions which face astronomers of the future.

After the First Three Minutes

Author: T. Padmanabhan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521629720
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
The evolution of our Universe and the formation of stars and galaxies are mysteries that have long puzzled scientists. Recent years have brought new scientific understanding of these profound and fundamental issues. In lively prose, Professor Padmanabhan paints a picture of contemporary cosmology for the general reader. Unlike other popular books on cosmology, After the First Three Minutes does not gloss over details, or shy away from explaining the underlying concepts. Instead, with a lucid and informal style, the author introduces all the relevant background and then carefully pieces together an engaging story of the evolution of our Universe. Padmanabhan leaves the reader with a state-of-the-art picture of scientists' current understanding in cosmology and a keen taste of the excitement of this fast-moving science. Throughout, no mathematics is used and all technical jargon is clearly introduced and reinforced in a handy glossary at the end of the book. For general readers who want to come to grips with what we really do and don't know about our Universe, this book provides an exciting and uncompromising read. Thanu Padmanabhan is a Professor at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India. He is the recipient of numerous awards and author of three books, Structure Formation in the Universe (Cambridge, 1994), Cosmology and Astrophysics Through Problems (Cambridge, 1996), and, together with J.V. Narlikar, Gravity, Gauge Theories and Quantum Cosmology. He is also the author of more than one hundred popular science articles, a comic strip serial and several regular columns on astronomy, recreational mathematics, and the history of science.

Quantum Physics in Minutes

Author: Gemma Lavender
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 168144173X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
Quantum physics is the most fundamental -- but also the most baffling -- branch of science. Allowing for dead-and-alive cats, teleportation, antimatter, and parallel universes, as well as underpinning all of our digital technology, it's as important as it is mind-bending. This clear and compact book demystifies the strange and beautiful quantum world, and hence the nature of reality itself. Contents include: Schrodinger's cat, inside the atom, the particle zoo, the Higgs boson, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, God playing dice, relativity, the Big Bang, dark energy and matter, black holes, the fate of the Universe, the Theory of Everything, quantum gravity, string theory, the multiverse, instant communication, quantum computing and cryptography, superconductivity, quantum biology, quantum consciousness, and much more. Written as a series of mini essays with 200 simple diagrams to help understanding, there can be no easier guide to this notoriously confusing subject. At last it's possible for non-specialists to understand quantum theory and its central role in the birth of the universe and the very existence of life.

30-Second Astronomy

Author: Francois Fressin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785783593
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
How hot is Venus? Can you distinguish between a pulsar and a quasar? Is there a universe or a multiverse? Where do we fit into the infinitely grand scheme of things? How do we map the Cosmic Microwave Background? Most tantalizing of all: Is there anyone out there?The answers to these and many other far-out questions lie in your hands. Everyone's gazing at the heavens, but a voyage through the star-studded contents of this book will blow your mind. Astronomy encapsulates the terrifying hugeness of the cosmos into bite-size particles that mere earthlings can understand: 50 incredible discoveries brought down to Earth using no more than two pages, 300 words, and a picture. This one small volume takes you on a cosmic tour, shedding light on the most awesome of objects and places, explaining some very big ideas, concepts, and discoveries, and presenting the scientists and observers who have done so much to crack Life, the Universe, and Everything. Welcome aboard.

Hubble

Author: David H. Devorkin
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426208944
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
In the spirit of National Geographic’s top-selling Orbit, this large-format, full-color volume stands alone in revealing more than 200 of the most spectacular images from the Hubble Space Telescope during its lifetime, to the very eve of the 2008 final shuttle mission to the telescope. Written by two of the world’s foremost authorities on space history, Hubble: Imaging Space and Time illuminates the solar system’s workings, the expansion of the universe, the birth and death of stars, the formation of planetary nebulae, the dynamics of galaxies, and the mysterious force known as "dark energy." The potential impact of this book cannot be overstressed: The 2008 servicing mission to install new high-powered scientific instruments is especially high profile because the cancellation of the previous mission, in 2004, caused widespread controversy. The authors reveal the inside story of Hubble’s beginnings, its controversial early days, the drama of its first servicing missions, and the creation of the dynamic images that reach into the deepest regions of visible space, close to the time when the universe began. A wealth of astonishing images leads us to the very edge of known space, setting the stage for the new James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2013. Find the stunning panoramic of Carina Nebula, detailing star birth as never before; a jet from a black hole in one galaxy striking a neighboring galaxy; a jewel-like collection of galaxies from the early years of the universe; and a giant galaxy cannibalizing a smaller galaxy. Timed for the 2008 shuttle launch and coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first telescope, Hubble: Imaging Space and Time accompanies a high-profile exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum and will be featured on the popular NASM website.

First Light

Author: Emma Chapman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472962907
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe's history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualising an actual black hole. There's a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe. This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe's history, known to astrophysicists as the 'Epoch of Reionisation', represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to comets, to moons, and to life itself. Incorporating the very latest research into this branch of astrophysics, this book sheds light on this time of darkness, telling the story of these first stars, hundreds of times the size of the Sun and a million times brighter, lonely giants that lived fast and died young in powerful explosions that seeded the Universe with the heavy elements that we are made of. Emma Chapman tells us how these stars formed, why they were so unusual, and what they can teach us about the Universe today. She also offers a first-hand look at the immense telescopes about to come on line to peer into the past, searching for the echoes and footprints of these stars, to take this period in the Universe's history from the realm of theoretical physics towards the wonder of observational astronomy.