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Inside the stars
Title
Inside the stars / Hugh Van Horn.
ISBN
9780750357944
9780750357937
9780750357920
9780750357951
Publication
Bristol [England] (Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK) : IOP Publishing, [2023]
Physical Description
1 online resource : illustrations (some color).
Local Notes
Access is available to the Yale community.
Notes
"Version: 20230801"--Title page verso.
Access and use
Access restricted by licensing agreement.
Biographical / Historical Note
Hugh Van Horn received a Ph.D. from Cornell University and was a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester for almost three decades; he is now a professor emeritus of that University. He also served as the Director of the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the National Science Foundation. Van Horn is now an emeritus member of the American Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. During his academic career, he published more than 100 technical papers in astrophysics and physics, and he has edited or written several books in these subjects.
Summary
This broad interest text describes how our current understanding of the interiors of the stars came about, beginning in 1870. It starts by discussing the development of our knowledge of the inside of the Sun, and continues on to compare the Sun's and other stars' properties and then discusses how stars form, evolve, and die. The book describes the properties of a variety of stars with special characteristics, and it ends with a discussion of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang. Aiming to show how interesting scientific investigations can encourage young men and women to pursue STEM careers, this book also underscores the role women have played in the development of our understanding.
Variant and related titles
AAS-IOP astronomy.
Other formats
Also available in print.
Print version:
Format
Books / Online
Language
English
Added to Catalog
October 18, 2023
Series
[IOP release $release]
AAS-IOP astronomy. [2023 collection],
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Audience
Older teenagers and adults of all ages, both women and men, who have an interest in astronomy.
Contents
part I. Understanding the inside of the Sun. 1. A glimpse of the solar interior
2. The sun as a star
3. The role of radiation inside stars
4. The nature of star stuff
5. Discovering the source of solar energy
6. Properties of the matter inside stars
6.1. The equation of state
6.2. Opacity calculations
6.3. Thermonuclear reaction rates
part II. A closer look at the solar interior
7. How our understanding of the present sun developed
8. Ghost particles from the center of the sun
9. The sounds of sunlight
9.1. Distribution of sound speed in the sun
9.2. The depth of the solar convection zone
9.3. The density distribution in the sun
9.4. Distribution of angular velocity in the sun and the solar dynamo
part III. From the sun to the stars
10. Properties of main sequence stars
10.1. The lower main sequence
10.2. The upper main sequence
10.3. H-burning lifetimes
11. Where do stars come from?
12. Failed stars : brown dwarfs
part IV. Why and how stars evolve and die
13. What happens when a low-mass star exhausts its nuclear fuel?
13.1. From H core burning to H shell burning
13.2. Up the red giant branch
13.3. Ignition of He burning in low-mass stars
13.4. He core burning : the horizontal branch
13.5. Stellar mass loss
13.6. Comparing theory with observations
13.7. Beyond the horizontal branch
14. How an intermediate-mass star becomes a white dwarf
14.1. From the ZAMS to the AGB
14.2. The thermally pulsing AGB
14.3. Mass loss, neutrino emission, and the central stars of planetary nebulae
15. White dwarfs : fading embers of burnt-out stars
15.1. The spectra of white-dwarf stars
15.2. Determining the physical properties of white dwarfs
15.3. Pulsating white dwarfs and asteroseismology
15.4. Magnetic white dwarfs
15.5. The white dwarf luminosity function, core crystallization, and cosmochronology
16. The evolution of high-mass stars and supernovae
16.1. Collapse of the iron core
16.2. Supernova 1987A
16.3. Other types of supernovae
16.4. How does a Type I supernova explode?
17. Astrophysical alchemy : origins of the chemical elements
17.1. Big bang nucleosynthesis
17.2. The synthesis of the elements in stars
18. Neutron stars
18.1. Inside a neutron star
18.2. Superfluid neutrons and superconducting protons
18.3. Neutron star binaries
19. Stellar-mass black holes and gravitational waves
part V. Stars with special characteristics
20. Pulsating stars
20.1. Varieties of stellar oscillation modes
20.2. The menagerie of pulsating stars
21. Cataclysmic variables
21.1. Classical novae
21.2. Dwarf novae
21.3. Magnetic CVs
21.4. AM CVn stars
22. The first stars
22.1. Formation of the first stars
22.2. Unique properties of the first stars
22.3. Evolution of the first stars
22.4. Deaths of the first stars
22.5. Supermassive Pop III stars : seeds of the SMBHs in the centers of galaxies
22.6. The first stars in the early universe
Appendix A. Forms of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Appendix B. Some physical properties of the sun
Appendix C. Zero-age main sequence stars
Appendix D. Electron degeneracy
Appendix E. Properties of some brown dwarf stars
Appendix F. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)
Appendix G. Zero-age main sequence models for the first stars.
Subjects
Also listed under
Institute of Physics (Great Britain), publisher.
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