The cosmic perspective

The enhanced pedagogy, streamlined presentation, and integrated media of The Cosmic Perspective, Third Edition makes it easier than ever for students to successfully navigate their way through introductory astronomy. Renowned for its up-to-date and expert coverage, this student-friendly text focuses on central ideas and unifying themes to provide a cosmic context. The text's superior media package has been further enhanced to provide lecturers with superior in-class presentation tools and the ability to use and assign media activities out of class. In particular, The Astronomy Place Website's highly acclaimed tutorials are now fully assignable with a built-in grading system, and a new lecture launcher CD-ROM puts a comprehensive library of in-class presentation applets, animations, and images in the palm of lecturers' hands.

The Third Edition also features expanded coverage on seasons, the solar system, chronological history, and astrobiology. A reorganized table of contents makes the text even more cohesive and easy to use.

Features

• Big picture approach presents each topic within a cosmic context, creating a framework for understanding by first exploring the underlying themes and then fleshing them out in more detail.
• Exceptional art program features carefully developed, clear, and imaginative illustrations to help students understand difficult concepts. Comprehensive star charts are included at the end of the book.
• Focus on the universality of physics and the importance of science helps students see how the phenomena they observe in their own lives are connected to the processes that govern the cosmos.
• Evolving vision of galaxies and dark matter concentrates on our emerging understanding of galaxy evolution - explaining starbursts, quasars, and intergalactic clouds within context - and how this parallels stellar evolution.
• An introductory, planet-by-planet approach gives students an overarching picture of the solar system first, and a comparative approach then emphasizes similarities between planets and explores their connecting processes. This combined approach gives students a deeper understanding of our solar system, our world, and prospects for life elsewhere in the universe.
• End-of-chapter problems include a wide variety of problem types - from group discussion topics through "sensible statements" and more quantitative exercises - to accommodate different learning needs.

Contents

• Developing perspective
  • Our Place in the Universe
  • Discovering the Universe for Yourself
  • The Science of Astronomy
  • Celestial Timekeeping and Navigation

• Key concepts for astronomy
  • A Universe of Matter and Energy
  • Universal Motion
  • Light: The Cosmic Messenger
  • Telescopes: Portals of Discovery

• Learning from other worlds
  • Our Solar System: An Introduction and Overview
  • Formation of the Solar System
  • Planetary Geology: Earth and the Other Terrestrial Worlds
  • Planetary Atmospheres: Earth and the Other Terrestrial Worlds
  • Jovian Planet Systems
  • Remnants of Rock and Ice: Asteroids, Comets, and Pluto
  • Planet Earth and Its Lessons on Life in the Universe

• A deeper look at nature
  • Space and Time
  • Spacetime and Gravity
  • Building Blocks of the Universe

• Stellar alchemy
  • Our Star
  • Stars
  • Star Stuff
  • The Bizarre Stellar Graveyard

• Galaxies and beyond
  • Our Galaxy
  • Galaxies: From Here to the Horizon
  • Galaxy Evolution
  • Dark Matter and the Fate of the Universe
  • The Beginning of Time
  • Life in the Universe

• Appendices