Archives of the universe
Subtitle: a treasury of astronomy's historic works of discovery
By: edited and with introductions by Marcia Bartusiak
Contributors: Bartusiak, Marcia, 1950-
Edition: 1st ed
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 695
Subjects: Astronomy -- History
Description: "This book is an unparalleled history of astronomy told through 100 primary documents - form the Maya's first recorded efforts to predict the cycles of Venus to the 1998 paper that posited an accelerating universe. This is essential reading for professional astronomers, science history buffs, and backyard stargazers alike."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [643]-656) and index
Table of contents: title: PT. 1. THE ANCIENT SKY. Mayan Venus tables; title: Proof that the Earth is a sphere; title: Celestial surveying; title: Measuring the Earth's circumference; title: Precession of the equinoxes; title: Ptolemy's Almagest; title: PT. 2. REVOLUTIONS. Copernicus and the sun-centered universe; title: Tycho Brahe and the changing heavens; title: Johannes Kepler and planetary motion; title: Galileo initiates the telescopic era; title: Newton's universal law of gravity; title: Halley's Comet; title: Binary stars; title: PT. 3. TAKING MEASURE. The speed of light; title: The solar system's origin; title: Discovery of Uranus; title: Stars moving and changing; title: The first asteroid; title: Distance to a star; title: Discovery of Neptune; title: The shape of the Milky Way; title: Spiraling nebulae; title: PT. 4. TOUCHING THE HEAVENS. Spectral lines; title: Deciphering the solar spectrum; title: Gaseous nebulae; title: Doppler shifts and spectroscopic binaries; title: Classification of the stars; title: Giant stars and dwarf stars; title: Hydrogen: the prime element; title: Stellar mass, luminosity, and stability; title: Sunspot cycle, sun/Earth connection, and helium; title: Origins of meteors and shooting stars; title: Cosmic rays; title: Discovery of Pluto; title: PT. 5. EINSTEINIAN COSMOS. Special relativity and E=mc[2]; title: General relativity and the solar eclipse test; title: Relativistic models of the universe; title: Big bang versus steady state; title: White dwarf stars; title: Beyond the white dwarf; title: Supernovae and neutron stars; title: Black holes; title: Source of stellar power; title: Creating elements in the big bang; title: Cosmic microwave background predicted; title: Creating elements in the stars; title: A star's life cycle; title: PT. 6. THE MILKY WAY AND BEYOND. Cepheids: the cosmic standard candles; title: Sun's place in the Milky Way; title: Dark nebulae and interstellar matter; title: Discovery of other galaxies; title: Expansion of the universe; title: Stellar populations and resizing the universe; title: Mapping the Milky Way's spiral arms; title: Source and composition of comets; title: PT. 7. NEW EYES, NEW UNIVERSE. Radio astronomy; title: Interstellar hydrogen; title: Molecules in space; title: Van Allen radiation belts; title: Geology of Mars; title: Extrasolar x-ray sources; title: Quasars; title: Evidence for the big bang; title: Pulsars; title: The infrared sky and the galactic center; title: Neutrino astronomy; title: Gammay-ray bursts; title: Binary pulsar and gravity waves; title: PT. 8. ACCELERATING OUTWARD. Dark matter; title: Gravitational lensing; title: Inflation; title: The bubbly universe; title: Galaxy evolution and the Hubble Deep Field; title: Extrasolar planets; title: The accelerating universe