Blue stragglers are celestial misfits. They stand out from the crowd, and they require special explanation. Remarkably, for so the observations indicate, they have aged differently to similar mass 'normal' stars. First recognized as being altogether different in the early 1950s, blue stragglers have occupied the thoughts of astronomers ever since. This book looks into the mystery of blue straggler origins, and offers its readers an insight in to how astronomers measure and determine the pr...

This important and timely book assembles expert scientists from both sides of the debate to discuss Earth-based and space-based climate intervention technologies including the scale, deployment, risk management, and moral philosophy behind these technologies.The role that geoengineering might play, within the context of global warming amelioration, has long been contentious. For all this, geoengineering is about getting down and dirty with respect to the issue of c...

It may at first seem that the world of subatomic physics is far removed from our every day lives. Isn’t it all just a waste of time and taxpayers' money? Hopefully, all who read this book will come to a different conclusion. Collider physics is all about our origins, and this aspect alone makes it worthy of our very best attention. The experiments conducted within the vast collider chambers are at the forefront of humanity’s quest to unweave the great tapestry that is the universe. Everyth...

This book explores the mechanics of star formation, the process by which matter pulls together and creates new structures. Written for science enthusiasts, the author presents an accessible explanation of how stars are born from the interstellar medium and giant molecular clouds. Stars produce the chemicals that lead to life, and it is they that have enabled the conditions for planets to form and life to emerge.Although the Big Bang provided the spark of initiation, the primordial ...

This book provides a detailed biographical account of the industrious late nineteenth-century astronomer William Frederick Denning who, in later life, rose to be a celebrated public figure and a highly respected amateur astronomer. The book also examines Denning’s many contributions to the astronomy of his time.As an indomitable promotor of amateur astronomy, Denning was closely involved in the formation of the short-lived, but historically pivotal, Observational Astronomy Society ...

This book is concerned with two tightly knit topics — those of mathematics and astronomy. Its focus is primarily concerned with planetary astronomy, and specifically the history of accounting for the spacing of planetary orbits. The story begins with the ancient Greek philosophers and continues to the modern era and the new data being gleaned from the study of exoplanetary systems. Throughout the text, the manner in which mathematical theory has been used to decipher, and impose order upon...

Hurtling through the atmosphere, in a blaze of light and reverberating percussions, the arrival of a meteorite on Earth is a magical, rare, and precious sight. These characteristics have accordingly ensured a long, yet often controversial history. For all this, meteorites are cosmic messengers. They tell us about the entire history of the solar system, their story carrying us from the very earliest moments, when solid material first began to form in the solar nebula. Indeed, meteorites pla...

TERRAFORMING MARSThis book provides a thorough scientific review of how Mars might eventually be colonized, industrialized, and transformed into a world better suited to human habitation.The idea of terraforming Mars has, in recent times, become a topic of intense scientific interest and great public debate. Stimulated in part by the contemporary imperative to begin geoengineering Earth, as a means to combat global climate change, the terra...

The word ‘‘terraforming’’ conjures up many exotic images and p- hapsevenwildemotions,butatitscoreitencapsulatestheideathat worldscanbechangedbydirecthumanaction.Theultimateaimof terraforming is to alter a hostile planetary environment into one that is Earth-like, and eventually upon the surface of the new and vibrant world that you or I could walk freely about and explore. It is not entirely clear that this high goal of terraforming can ever be achieved, however, and consequently throughou...

This textbook introduces the reader to the basic concepts and equations that describe stellar structure. Various approximation techniques are used to solve equations, and an intuitive rather than rigorous approach is employed to interpret the properties of the stars. The book provides step-by-step instructions, helpful exercises and relevant historical lessons to familiarize students with key concepts and mathematical theories.Based upon a series of one-semester (12 weeks) elective...

As our closest stellar companion and composed of two Sun-like stars and a third small dwarf star, Alpha Centauri is an ideal testing ground of astrophysical models and has played a central role in the history and development of modern astronomy—from the first guesses at stellar distances to understanding how our own star, the Sun, might have evolved. It is also the host of the nearest known exoplanet, an ultra-hot, Earth-like planet recently discovered.Just 4.4 light years away Alp...

Comets have not only blazed across the celestial vault throughout human history, they have embellished the night sky since the Earth itself formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Comets were among the first-born solid bodies in the solar system, and their frozen nuclei tell of the primordial chemistry and chaos that ultimately resulted in the formation of the planets, the evolution of life and us. For all this, however, comets have long been celestial oddities: they baffled our distant ancesto...