Understanding the universe : the impact of space astronomy
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Bibliographic Information
Understanding the universe : the impact of space astronomy
D. Reidel Pub. Co. , Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, c1983
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Note
"Based on talks given at the UN/IAU International Seminar on the Occasion of UNISPACE 82, Hofburg, Vienna, Austria, 12 August 1982"
English and French
Includes bibliographies and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
There is hardly any field of human endeavour which is more fundamental than the study of our surroundings. We have always wanted to learn what was behind our horizon, beyond the next mountain, on the other side of the ocean, on the next planet, at the end of the Universe. We have come a long way since our early ancestors gazed upon the sky in amazement. Giant optical and radio telescopes now allow us to "see" the early epochs of the Universe, revealing phenomena beyond our comprehension. Spacecrafts with on-board astronomical instrumentation circle the Earth and fly to the limits of the Solar System, providing invaluable new information about nearby and distant objects. Many people have the intuitive feeling that it is "easier and better" to study the Universe from above the Earth's atmosphere. However, this is only partially true in as much as electromagnetic radiation of certain wavelengths (e.g. X-rays) does not penetrate the atmosphere and can only be studied from balloons and space crafts • The advent of space-borne astronomy has not made ground-based observations obsolete - on the contrary, it is only thanks to the combination of the two that we have now a vastly more comprehensive picture of the Universe than just a few decades ago.
Table of Contents
I The Atmosphere of the Sun and the Stars (L’Atmosphère du Soleil et des Etoiles).- II Solar-Terrestrial Influence.- III The Size, Shape and Temperature of the Stars.- IV X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Astronomy.- V Space Science and Cosmology.- VI Concluding Remarks.- About UNISPACE-82.- About the International Astronomical Union.- The Chairman and the Speakers.- Astronomical and Physical Constants.
by "Nielsen BookData"