Overview

With Stuart Clark's lucid text and nearly 500 cutting-edge images, Galazy investigates every aspect of the Milky Way - from its place in the Universe to its large-scale anatomy, from its history to its future. We approach the Milky Way from the very edge of the Universe, threading our way through massive conglomerations of galaxies gathered like grains of dust on a veil of cobwebs. Out here we can survey the thriving diversity of galaxy types and galactic life.Homing in on our destination, we skirt fleets of satellite galaxies, orbiting our Galaxy like the Moon orbits the Earth, before plunging through the Milky Way's spiral arms on a course that will ultimately lead us to its dark heart - a gravitational maelstrom of white dwarfs, neutron stars and hypergiants, all in the thrall of a supermassive black hole. As we tour the Galaxy, the rhythms of stellar life unfold before our eyes: we pass through dark clouds of dust and gas incubating clusters of embryonic stars, we discover spectacular emission nebulae blazing in the fierce radiation of stellar newborns, we watch dying stars bloom and fade as planetary nebulae, or tear themselves apart as supernovae and we survey the planets and moons of our Solar System.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stuart Clark
Publisher:   Quercus Publishing
Imprint:   Quercus Publishing
ISBN:  

9781847247414

ISBN 10:   1847247415
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   05 February 2009
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The Cosmic Landscape: Our Place in the Cosmos: The Cosmos at 13 billion light years; The Cosmos at 5 billion light years; The Cosmos at 1 billion light years; The Cosmos at 200 million light years; The Cosmos at 100 million light years - Galaxy classification - Spiral galaxies - Barred spiral galaxies - Lenticular galaxies - Elliptical galaxies - Irregular galaxies; The Cosmos at 5 million light years; The Cosmos at 500,000 light years. The Milky Way: Anatomy of a Galaxy: The Milky Way, a bird's eye view; The Milky Way, in profile; Spiral arms; Dust clouds; The galactic core; The dark heart of the galaxy; The Milky Way and dark matter. Stars: Star Life: The stellar life cycle. Birth: Dark clouds and emission nebulae. Maturity: Young stars; Open clusters; Globular clusters; Stellar mergers; Stellar classification. Old Age and Death: Planetary nebulae; White dwarfs; Supergiant stars; Supernovae; Stellar corpses. Rebirth. Solar Systems: Planets: Building a solar system. Our Solar System: Sun - Solar activity. Rocky Worlds: Mercury; Venus - Geology of Venus - Venusian weather; Earth - A restless planet - Wind and weather - Life on Earth; Moon - Near side - Far side - Human lunar exploration; Mars - Martian moons - Martian volcanoes - Valles Marineris - Martian weather - Icy plains and polar caps - Water on Mars; The Asteroid belt. Gas Giants: Jupiter - The Jovian atmosphere - The moons of Jupiter; Saturn - Rings - The moons of Saturn; Uranus - The moons of Uranus; Neptune - The moons of Neptune. Outer Limits: The Kuiper belt; The Oort cloud. What next? Glossary. Index. Credits.

Reviews

'Thanks to the sheer size of this coffee table book, you get to see the Hubble images in amazing detail' BBC Focus magazine.

Author Information

Author Website:   http://www.stuartclark.com/

Dr Stuart Clark is the author of the critically acclaimed The Sun Kings. A former editor of the United Kingdom's best-selling astronomy magazine, Astronomy Now. He currently writes for the European Space Agency and is a regular contributor to such magazines as New Scientist and BBC Focus. Dr Clark's previous books also include Deep Space (Quercus 2007), Journey to the Stars and Universe in Focus: The Story of the Hubble Telescope.

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Author Website:   http://www.stuartclark.com/

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