Astronomy: A Physical Perspective

Description

This revised and updated comprehensive introduction to astronomical objects and phenomena applies basic physical principles to a variety of situations. Students learn how to relate everyday physics to the astronomical world with the help of useful equations, chapter summaries, worked examples and end-of-chapter problem sets. It will be suitable for undergraduate students taking a first course in astronomy, and assumes a basic knowledge of physics with calculus.

Reviews & endorsements

“This excellent book provides a very thorough and up-to-date introduction to astronomy and astrophysics… [T]his well-written, comprehensive work would be an excellent choice for an introductory course on modern astrophysics for astronomy and physics majors. Highly recommended.”
Choice

Author

Marc L. Kutner, University of Texas, Austin
Marc Kutner is a Visiting Scientist in the Astronomy Department of the University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Part I. Properties of Ordinary Stars:
2. Continuous radiation from stars
3. Spectral Lines in stars
4. Telescopes
5. Binary stars and stellar masses
6. The Sun: a typical star
Part II. Relativity:
7. Special relativity
8. General relativity
Part III. Stellar Evolution:
9. The main sequence
10. Stellar old age
11. The death of high mass stars
12. Evolution in close binaries
13. Clusters of stars
Part IV. The Milky Way:
14. Contents of the interstellar medium
15. Star formation
16. The Milky Way galaxy
Part V. The Universe at Large:
17. Normal galaxies
18. Clusters of galaxies
19. Active galaxies
20. Cosmology
21. The Big Bang
Part VI. The Solar System:
22. Overview of the solar system
23. The Earth and Moon
24. The inner planets
25. The outer planets
26. Minor bodies in the solar system
27. The origin of life
Appendices.