This book was written for my daughter, Julia; her love and comfort have helped sustain me. It is a pleasure to watch Julia noticing details of every thing around her. Children and other curious people perceive worlds that are invisible to most of us. Here we describe some of these natural unseen worlds, from the hid den heart of the Sun to our transparent air. They have been discovered and explored through the space-age extension of our senses. A mere half-century ago astronomers were able to view the cosmos only in visible light. Modern technology has now widened the range of our perception to include the invisible realms of subatomic particles, magnetic fields, radio waves, ultraviolet radiation and X-rays. They are broadening and sharpening our vision of the Sun, and providing a more complete description of the Earth's environment. Thus, a marvelous new cosmos is now unfolding and opening up, as new instruments give us the eyes to see the invisible and hands to touch what cannot be felt.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
From the reviews
"... this eloquent book ... gives us some most beautiful imagery and accompanying scientific dialogue (...) There are few such elementary books on science available which can simultaneously teach and inspire."
Irish Astronomical Journal, 1998
"An excellent guide to present-day studies of the Sun and our star's impact on Earth's space environment ... colorful (and useful) images and a thoughtful organization ... A great read, written with enthusiasm and knowledge."
SKY & TELESCOPE
"A gem of a book ... This is a book to buy, not to borrow, because you will want to return to it. If you want to learn about the Sun and don't want a textbook on astrophysics, this is the book for you."
Simon Mitton, J. BRITISH ASTRO. SOC.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Illustrationen
57
77 s/w Abbildungen, 57 farbige Abbildungen
XVI, 282 p. 134 illus., 57 illus. in color.
Dateigröße
ISBN-13
978-3-642-57852-6 (9783642578526)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-642-57852-6
Schweitzer Klassifikation
1 Good Day, Sunshine.- 1.1 The Rising Sun.- 1.2 Fire of Life.- 1.3 Sunlight.- 1.4 Daytime Star.- 1.5 Cosmic Laboratory.- 1.6 Ingredients of the Sun.- 1.7 Children of the Stars.- 1.8 Describing the Radiation.- 1.9 Invisible Fires.- 2 Energizing the Sun.- 2.1 Awesome Power, Enormous Times.- 2.2 The Sun's Central Pressure Cooker.- 2.3 Nuclear Fusion, Anti-Matter and Hydrogen Burning.- 2.4 Diluting the Radiation.- 3 Ghostlike Neutrinos.- 3.1 The Elusive Neutrino.- 3.2 Neutrinos from the Sun.- 3.3 Detecting Almost Nothing.- 3.4 Solving the Solar Neutrino Problem.- 4 Taking the Pulse of the Sun.- 4.1 Trapped Sounds.- 4.2 Ode to the Sun.- 4.3 Looking Inside the Sun.- 4.4 Breaking the Symmetry.- 4.5 Back to the Future.- 5 A Magnetic Star.- 5.1 Islands of Intense Magnetism.- 5.2 Bipolar Sunspots, Magnetic Loops and Active Regions.- 5.3 Cycles of Magnetic Activity.- 5.4 Internal Dynamo.- 6 An Unseen World of Perpetual Change.- 6.1 The Sun's Visible Edge Is an Illusion.- 6.2 The Million-Degree Corona.- 6.3 Closed Coronal Loops and Open Coronal Holes.- 6.4 The Dynamic Ever-Changing Corona.- 6.5 The Eternal Solar Wind.- 6.6 Ulysses.- 6.7 The Distant Frontier.- 7 The Violent Sun.- 7.1 Energetic Solar Activity.- 7.2 Solar Flares.- 7.3 Flare Radiation from Energetic Electrons.- 7.4 Energizing Solar Flares.- 7.5 Erupting Prominences.- 7.6 Coronal Mass Ejections.- 7.7 A Composite Model for Energetic Solar Activity.- 8 Energizing Space.- 8.1 The Ingredients of Space.- 8.2 Probing the Solar Wind.- 8.3 Earth's Magnetic Cocoon.- 8.4 Penetrating Earth's Magnetic Defense.- 8.5 Storing Invisible Particles Within Earth's Magnetosphere.- 8.6 Active Experiments in Space.- 8.7 Northern and Southern Lights.- 8.8 Geomagnetic Storms.- 8.9 Astronauts and Satellites in Danger.- 8.10Contemporary Solar-Terrestrial Research.- 9 Transforming the Earth's Life-Sustaining Atmosphere.- 9.1 Fragile Planet Earth - The View from Space.- 9.2 The Life-Saving Greenhouse Effect.- 9.3 The Earth's Changing Atmosphere.- 9.4 Our Sun-Layered Atmosphere.- 9.5 The Inconstant Sun.- 9.6 Solar Ultraviolet and Terrestrial Ozone.- 9.7 The Vanishing Ozone.- 9.8 Healing the Planet.- 10 Fire and Ice.- 10.1 Clear Skies and Stormy Weather.- 10.2 Turning on the Heat.- 10.3 Solar Radiation and Global Warming.- 10.4 Consequences of Overheating the Earth.- 10.5 Life in the Fast Lane.- 10.6 Over the Long Haul.- Quotation References.- Further Reading.- Author Index.
