The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium

Description

The fifth edition of The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium provides you with the fundamentals of astronomical knowledge that have been built up over decades, with an expanded discussion of the incredible advances that are now taking place in this fast-paced field, such as New Horizons' flyby of Pluto, exoplanets, 'dark matter', and the direct detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Written in a clear and easily understandable style, this textbook has been thoroughly revised to include updated data and figures, new images from recent space missions and telescopes, the latest discoveries on supernovae, and new observations of the region around the four-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. A rich array of teaching and learning resources is available at http://thecosmos5.com. The website is regularly updated to include the latest discoveries and photographs in the field.

Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, teaches the astronomy survey course. He is also Director of the Hopkins Observatory there. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard and was then at Caltech, where he has also had recent sabbatical leaves. He has observed 69 solar eclipses. He also studies occultations of stars by Pluto and other objects in the outer Solar System. Pasachoff is Chair of the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union and was Chair of the American Astronomical Society's Historical Astronomy Division. He is also co-editor of Teaching and Learning Astronomy (Cambridge, 2005) and Innovation in Astronomy Education (Cambridge, 2008). He received the American Astronomical Society's Education Prize (2003); the Janssen Prize from the Societe Astronomique de France (2012), and the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, American Association of Physics Teachers (2017). In 2019, he was awarded the Klumpke-Roberts Award for his outstanding contribution to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. Asteroid (5100) Pasachoff is named after him. Alex Filippenko is a Professor of Astronomy, and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1979) and his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology (1984). His primary areas of research are exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, active galaxies, black holes, and observational cosmology. Filippenko was the only person to have been a member of both teams that revealed the Nobel-worthy accelerating expansion of the Universe. He is one of the world's most highly cited astronomers and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2009). Filippenko has won many prestigious teaching awards, including the Carnegie/CASE National Professor of the Year among doctoral institutions (2006). He has appeared frequently on science newscasts and television documentaries, especially The Universe series. He received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization (2004).

'The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, 5th edition, is simply the best-written, introductory astronomy textbook on the market. The instructor will use all of this book. It is comprehensive but brief enough that students' can be reasonably expected to read the entire text in the course of a semester.' Thomas Hockey, University of Northern Iowa 'This book has been the cornerstone of my introductory astronomy teaching at Northwestern since 2004. The text is expertly written in an easy-to-understand manner with many helpful diagrams and beautiful images throughout. This latest edition is a real tour de force with thoroughly updated discussions of cutting-edge research topics ranging from exoplanets to gravitational waves.' David M. Meyer, Northwestern University, Illinois 'The authors strike a right balance between qualitative and quantitative aspects of astronomy which is required for students interested to learn the subject for the first time. This book contains material that is useful for both beginner and advanced students of astronomy.' Chinmoy Bhattacharjee, Rutgers University, New Jersey 'By leading with fundamental physics - light, energy and matter - Pasachoff and Filippenko efficiently set the stage for their modern and thorough coverage of astrophysical concepts and discoveries all the way to present issues in cosmology.' Brian R. Hill, Saint Mary's College of California '... it should appeal as well to those who enjoy popular-astronomy books ... Apart from the usual one-page table of contents just listing the chapters, an 11-page ... detailed table of contents makes it easy to find what one is looking for ... very highly recommended.' Phillip Helbig, The Observatory 'In the updated fifth edition of The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, Professors Jay M. Pasachoff and Alex Filippenko give general readers and serious students a comprehensive overview of astronomical research, written in clear and accessible language accompanied with gorgeous high resolution photos and plentiful, well-placed graphs and charts ... Pasachoff and Filippenko provide readers a clear demonstration of how to employ the scientific method, and the critical value of developing an understanding of the process and methods of scientific reasoning, as well as the value of studying astronomy the 'grandest laboratory of all'.' Miriam R. Aczel, Contemporary Physics