Résumé
One of the most recent and exciting branches of astronomy, helioseismology-like its terrestrial counterpart-studies why the surface of the sun vibrates like a bell. Over the past three decades astronomers have gained spectacular insights into the structure and composition of the sun's interior, transforming the way we understand stellar matter. In Sunquakes, Jack B. Zirker tells the story of this new science and explains the physics behind these illuminating vibrations.
Zirker recounts the discovery of solar oscillations in the early 1960s and international efforts throughout the rest of the decade to explain this phenomenon. By the mid-1970s, scientists working independently in France, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. had developed a new theoretical model of the sun that postulated the existence of trapped sound and gravity waves as the cause for the roiling of the sun's surface. Using solar oscillation data, scientists derived for the first time the thermal and dynamic properties of the solar interior and revealed its complicated rotation patterns; even such astronomical mysteries as the deficit of solar neutrinos were solved.
Describing the competition and cooperation between astronomers, particle physicists, and other theorists to the technological innovations that makes solar observation more and more precise, Sunquakes provides professionals and nonscientists alike with an absorbing and accessible guide to the field of helioseismology. The book concludes with an account of recent efforts to probe the interiors of stars far beyond our own solar system.
"These pages bring to life the work of helioseismologists during the last century. Zirker makes understanding the many esoteric physical laws and concepts involved in this field intuitive for the lay reader."
Edward Rhodes, University of Southern California
"Jack Zirker uses his deep understanding of solar astronomy to explain how scientists have done something long thought impossible-to see deep inside the Sun. Though it is hidden below hundreds of thousands of miles of opaque gas, the solar core has recently revealed its secrets through studies of changing ripples on the Sun's surface and through study of a tiny fraction of mysterious particles generated as part of making the Sun shine. Zirker carefully and clearly explains these exciting topics to the general reader."
Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College
"A great read! Zirker has done a masterful job in conveying the science and telling the exciting story behind the discovery that we can 'see' beneath the opaque surface of the Sun. Having made fundamental contributions to the field himself, he is very well placed to synthesize the science and the essential, human side of the story right up to the present. His very accessible style will lead the reader to understand what a generation ago was unimaginable-daily CT scans of this prototype of all stars and the source of our life and environment."
John Leibacher, National Optical Astronomy Observatory
L'auteur - Jack B. Zirker
Sommaire
- The Discovery
- Confusion and Clarification
- A Closer Look at Solar Oscillations
- The Scramble for Observations, 1975-1985
- Wheels within Wheels: The Sun's Internal Rotation
- Banishing the Night
- Neutrinos from the Sun
- Pictures in Sound
- Rotation, Convection, and How the Twain Shall Meet
- The Solar Dynamo
- Ad Astra per Aspera- "To the Stars through Endeavor"
- Some Late News
- Epilogue: What's Next
Caractéristiques techniques
| PAPIER | |
| Éditeur(s) | Johns Hopkins |
| Auteur(s) | Jack B. Zirker |
| Parution | 07/01/2004 |
| Nb. de pages | 265 |
| Format | 16 x 23,5 |
| Couverture | Relié |
| Poids | 585g |
| Intérieur | Noir et Blanc |
| EAN13 | 9780801874192 |
| ISBN13 | 978-0-8018-7419-2 |
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