Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars (IAU S343)

Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars (IAU S343)
Author: Franz Kerschbaum
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2019-09-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781108471527

Stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB stars) play an important role due to their high luminosity and production of heavy elements and cosmic dust. They are prime laboratories for studying situations where different physical and chemical processes work simultaneously, on different time scales. IAU Symposium 343 builds a bridge between research on AGB stars themselves and their applications to the modelling of stellar populations and the chemical evolution of galaxies. Our understanding of these complex stars is given using insights into many aspects of physics and chemistry, while very high-angular resolution observations of AGB stars and their surroundings provide strong constraints on stellar theory and how they lose matter through strong stellar winds. This volume also highlights the difficulties in estimating the importance of AGB stars for various aspects of galaxies. Current developments and challenges of these complex objects are discussed for a broad, interdisciplinary audience of astronomers.

Cosmic Dawn

Cosmic Dawn
Author: George Rhee
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2013-08-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1461478138

This book takes the reader on an exploration of the structure and evolution of our universe. The basis for our knowledge is the Big Bang theory of the expanding universe. This book then tells the story of our search for the first stars and galaxies using current and planned telescopes. These telescopes are marvels of technology far removed from Galileo's first telescope but continuing astronomy in his ground breaking spirit. We show the reader how these first stars and galaxies shaped the universe we see today. This story is one of the great scientific adventures of all time.

Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars

Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
Author: Harm J. Habing
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 566
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1475738765

The underlying astrophysical mechanisms of the objects known as asymptotic giant branch stars - the structures that occur during the dramatic period prior to a star's death - is the main theme of this text. Over the past three decades, asymptotic giant branch stars have become a topic of their own, and the contributions to this volume all focus on these entities themselves, rather than their connections to other fields of astronomy. Among the many topics covered are new methods of high- quality infrared observation and the more detailed and realistic simulations made possible by increasingly fast computers. This collection should be useful to graduate students who work in the field, teachers who want to address the subject in their courses, and to astronomers from various backgrounds who are interested in the astrophysics of AGB stars.

The Cosmic Century

The Cosmic Century
Author: Malcolm S. Longair
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2006-06-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0521474361

Reviews the historical development of all the key areas of modern astrophysics.

Planetary Nebulae (IAU S323)

Planetary Nebulae (IAU S323)
Author: Xiaowei Liu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-09-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781107169913

Planetary nebulae, glowing shells of ionized gas, are the spectacular products of the evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars. For astrophysicists, they are important laboratories for the understanding of atomic, molecular, dust, and plasma processes in different cosmic environments; they enable the exploration of the fundamental physics of single and binary star evolution including nucleosynthesis, rotation, mass transfer and loss, and magnetic fields; and they help trace stellar populations, the kinematics, and chemistry of galaxies including our own galaxy, the Milky Way. This volume reviews the current status of this vibrant research field in the form of invited reviews, contributed talks, and posters presented at the IAU Symposium 323. It should be of interest to researchers and advanced students interested in this field and in related fields, including stellar physics, the interstellar medium, and Galactic and extragalactic astronomy.

Deep-Sky Companions: Southern Gems

Deep-Sky Companions: Southern Gems
Author: Stephen James O'Meara
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2013-04-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139851543

In Southern Gems, Stephen James O'Meara makes a detour beneath the southern skies, presenting a fresh list of 120 deep-sky objects for southern hemisphere stargazers to observe. Showcasing many exceptional objects catalogued by the pioneering observer James Dunlop, known as the 'Messier of the southern skies', all are visible through small- to moderate-sized telescopes or binoculars under dark skies. The list features some of the blackest dark nebulae, icy blue planetary nebulae and magnificent galaxies of all types. Each object is accompanied by beautiful photographs and sketches, original finder charts, visual histories and up-to-date astrophysical background information. Whether you live in the southern hemisphere or are just visiting, this new Deep-Sky Companion will make a perfect observing partner, whatever your background. There is no other southern sky guide like it on the market.

Evolutionary Processes in Binary and Multiple Stars

Evolutionary Processes in Binary and Multiple Stars
Author: Peter Eggleton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2006-07-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139456954

Binary systems of stars are as common as single stars. Stars evolve primarily by nuclear reactions in their interiors, but a star with a binary companion can also have its evolution influenced by the companion. Multiple star systems can exist stably for millions of years, but can ultimately become unstable as one star grows in radius until it engulfs another. This volume, first published in 2006, discusses the statistics of binary stars; the evolution of single stars; and several of the most important kinds of interaction between two (and even three or more) stars. Some of the interactions discussed are Roche-lobe overflow, tidal friction, gravitational radiation, magnetic activity driven by rapid rotation, stellar winds, magnetic braking and the influence of a distant third body on a close binary orbit. A series of mathematical appendices gives a concise but full account of the mathematics of these processes.

Stars and Stellar Processes

Stars and Stellar Processes
Author: M. W. Guidry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 573
Release: 2019-02-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1107197880

Presents the physics of stars in relation to modern topics such as neutrino oscillations, supernovae, black holes, and gravitational waves.

The Origin and Evolution of Galaxies

The Origin and Evolution of Galaxies
Author: J.T. Jones
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400979398

The Origin and Evolution of Galaxies is the outstanding problem of modern cosmology. Fortunately. we have a firm cosmological framework on which to base our theories (the hot big bang) and recently there has been substantial progress in providing observations which potentially can constrain these theories. The problem of galaxy formation is. as a consequence. one involving many diverse branches of physics and astrophysics. It has been the aim of the school. and this compendium of lectures and seminars. to bring together these diverse aspects at a level enabling research workers to understand what is going on in other corners of the subject and to see how progress in each area impinges on the others. We are grateful to the contributors to this volume for allowing us considerable editorial license with their articles. We have attempted to provide a representative sample of the talks that were given at the school besides the texts of the invited lecturers. It is regrettable that for reasons of space we have had to leave out a number of other contributions.