| Description |
xvii, 695 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 643-656) and index. |
| Contents |
The Ancient Sky -- Mayan Venus Tables -- Proof That the Earth is a Sphere -- Celestial Surveying -- Measuring the Earth's Circumference -- Precession of the Equinoxes -- Ptolemy's Almagest. |
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Copernicus and the Sun-Centered Universe -- Tycho Brahe and the Changing Heavens -- Johannes Kepler and Planetary Motion -- Galileo Initiates the Telescopic Era -- Newton's Universal Law of Gravity -- Halley's Comet -- Binary Stars. |
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Taking Measure -- The Speed of Light -- The Solar System's Origin -- Discovery of Uranus -- Stars Moving and Changing -- The First Asteroid -- Distance to a Star -- Discovery of Neptune -- The Shape of the Milky Way -- Spiraling Nebulae. |
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Touching the Heavens -- Spectral Lines -- Deciphering the Solar Spectrum -- Gaseous Nebulae -- Doppler Shifts and Spectroscopic Binaries -- Classification of the Stars -- Giant Stars and Dwarf Stars -- Hydrogen: The Prim Element -- Stellar Mass, Luminosity, and Stability -- Sunspot Cycle, Sun/Earth Connection, and Helium -- Origin of Meteors and Shooting Stars -- Cosmic Rays -- Discovery of Pluto. |
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Einsteinian Cosmos -- Special Relativity and E=mc^2 -- General Relativity and the Solar Eclipse Test -- Relativistic Models of the Universe -- Big Bang Versus Steady State -- White Dwarf Stars -- Beyond the White Dwarf -- Supernovae adn Neutron Stars -- Black Holes -- Source of Stellar Power -- Creating Elements in the Big Bang -- Cosmic Microwave Background Predicted -- Creating Elements in the Stars -- A Star's Life Cycle. |
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The Milky Way and Beyond -- Cepheids: The Cosmic Standard Candles -- Sun's Place in the Milky Way -- Dark Nebulae and Interstellar Matter -- Discovery of Other Galaxies -- Expansion of the Universe -- Stellar Populations and Resizing the Universe -- Mapping the Milky Way's Spiral Arms -- Source and Composition of Comets. |
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New Eyes, New Universe -- Radio Astronomy -- Interstellar Hydrogen -- Molecules in Space -- Van Allen Radiation Belts -- Geology of Mars -- Extrasolar X-Ray Sources -- Quasars -- Evidence for the Big Bang Pulsars -- The Infrared Sky and the Galactic Center -- Neutrino Astronomy -- Gamma-Ray Bursts -- Binary Pulsar and Gravity Waves. |
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Accelerating Outward -- Dark Matter -- Gravitational Lensing -- Inflation -- The Bubbly Universe -- Galaxy Evolution and the Hubble Deep Field -- Extrasolar Planets -- The Accelerating Universe. |
| Summary |
"An unparalleled history of astronomy presented in the words of the scientists who made the discoveries. Here are the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, Hubble, and Einstein, as well as that of dozens of others who have significantly contributed to our picture of the universe. From Aristotle's proof that the Earth is round to the 1998 paper that posited an accelerating universe, this book contains 100 entries spanning the history of astronomy. Award-winning science writer Marcia Bartusiak provides enormously entertaining introductions, putting the material in context and explaining its place in the literature. Archives of the Universe is essential reading for professional astronomers, science history buffs, and backyard stargazers alike."--Amazon.com viewed Oct. 26, 2020. |
| Subject |
Astronomy -- History.
|
|
Astronomy. (OCoLC)fst00819673
|
| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
|
| Added Author |
Bartusiak, Marcia, 1950-
|
| ISBN |
0375713689 |
|
9780375713682 |
|
