Our Place In The UniverseOur Place in the Universe tells the story of our world, formation of the first galaxies and stars formed from great clouds containing the primordial elements made in the first few minutes; birth of stars, their lives and deaths in fiery supernova explosions; formation of the solar system, its planets and many moons; life on Earth, its needs and vicissitudes on land and in the seas; finally exoplanets, planets that surround distant stars. Interspersed in the text are short pieces on some of those who revealed these wonders to us.It is written in a very authoritative and readable form and contains more than 100 color prints of the marvelous galaxies, and nebula that have been taken from space-based and land-based telescopes carried by NASA missions, the European Space Agency, the European Southern Laboratory in Chile and many other sources. |
Contents
Chapter 1 A Day without Yesterday | 1 |
Chapter 2 Formation of Galaxies | 37 |
Chapter 3 Birth and Life of Stars | 53 |
Death and Trans guration of Stars | 67 |
Chapter 5 Nebulae | 94 |
Chapter 6 Spacetime Relativity and Superdense Matter | 107 |
Chapter 7 Origins | 126 |
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Common terms and phrases
4.5 billion accelerating astronomer atoms baryon black hole bright called carbon Chandrasekhar cloud collapse core cosmic cosmological constant Crab Nebula craters Credit dark matter dense density detected discovered discovery distance distant galaxies Doppler shift dust Earth Einstein Einstein’s theory electrons equation existence exoplanets expansion Figure Fritz Zwicky Galileo gases giant heat heavier elements helium Herschel Hubble hydrogen and helium interior iron Jupiter Jupiter’s Kepler kilometers known Laplace light light-years magnetic field Mars massive stars mathematics measured miles Milky moons motion NASA Neptune neutrinos neutron star Newton’s nuclear nuclei nucleons object observations Observatory orbit particles photons planet planetary nebula planetesimals produced pulsar quarks radiation radio redshift region Relativity rotating Saturn Schwarzschild seen solar masses solar system space spacetime speed Sun’s mass supernova explosion surface telescope temperature theory of gravity universe Uranus velocity Venus visible wavelength white dwarf Zwicky