Solar System Astrophysics:
Background Science and the Inner Solar System, 2nd ed
by E. F. Milone and W.J.F. Wilson
Springer, 2014, Astronomy and Astrophysics Library

his book is badly mistitled. It's actually a college-level introduction to geological astronomy. There's very little physics here—just a few grainy color pictures of Mars, and some diagrams and descriptions of what the rocks (perovskite, ilmenite, pyroxene, etc.) are like on different planets. But it would be unfair to say this book is Brian Cox with math.

The authors start with rudimentary celestial mechanics, then move on to the Sun and the rocky planets. The math is very, very gentle—nothing more than basic calculus and an occasional Legendre polynomial—which should make it easy for students to follow.

And lots of rocks. If you're already an astrophysicist, you already know there are lots of rocks up there, and you won't get much out of this book. I bought this book hoping to learn something about the Sun before I observed the solar eclipse, but there was only a short chapter on the Sun.

It turns out that much of what we were taught about the planets in school was wrong. One side of Mercury does not continuously face the Sun. The Moon isn't a solid ball of rock—it has a molten core, unlike Earth, but like Venus and Mars, and thus has no magnetic field. Both the Moon and Mercury have water ice. Venus rotates clockwise on its axis, unlike the other inner planets, so the Sun rises in the west. (Or, equivalently, you could say that Venus is upside-down.)

The authors casually mention that after the Earth and Moon become tidally locked, as will happen in a few billion years, the Moon will start to lose angular momentum. Instead of flying away, as astronomers used to think, someday it will smash into the Earth.

What the average person cares about, of course, is the rocks that might come smashing through their living room this week and make them miss the latest episode of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. With this book in hand, they can calculate that a 1-kg asteroid smashing into the Earth will release the equivalent of 630 kg of TNT. If the asteroid were to break up, the small pieces would be ablated by the atmosphere, lessening the overall impact. Somebody should take this book and pound all science fiction movie screenwriters over the head with it—literally, if necessary—until they get that message.

The companion volume is Solar System Astrophysics: Planetary Atmospheres and the Outer Solar System (reviewed here).

oct 26, 2014

Fundamental Astronomy
Karttunen, Kröger, Oja, Poutanen and Donner, eds.
Springer, 5th ed, 2007

lthough the authors' names may sound like the names of Santa's reindeer, this is a serious college-level textbook on astronomy written by professional Finnish astronomers. It contains lots of equations and some astrophysics, many grayscale illustrations, and 34 color plates. Each chapter has solved example problems and exercises which are accompanied by answers in the back. An understanding of calculus and linear algebra is recommended. The book contains a few factual errors, like saying the Green Bank radiotelescope is in Virginia instead of W.Va., but the authors' command of English is generally excellent, even to the point of attempting an occasional witticism.

Fundamental Astronomy derives the principal equations of celestial mechanics and provides a quantitative understanding of orbits, tides, and the sources, effects, scattering, and spectra of solar and stellar radiation. The authors also take great pains to keep the subject interesting by including interesting facts. For example, they say the Earth and moon will someday rotate synchronously: some parts of the globe will never see the moon again, and others will see it fixed in the sky, just as the Earth is fixed in the moon's sky. Saturn's heat and high winds, according to the authors, are produced by potential energy released as helium atoms sink into the planet's core. Some giant stars are twelve thousand times less dense than Earth's atmosphere, while others are a billion times more dense. Some cosmic rays are so energetic that a single particle could lift a copy of the fourth edition of Fundamental Astronomy by one centimeter. This is stuff you gotta know to live.

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology: An Introduction
Peter Schneider
Springer, 2006

nother outstanding undergraduate-level astronomy textbook is Schneider's Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology. This one is distinguished by beautiful color images and even color graphs throughout the text, as well as exceptionally clear writing. Schneider's professional interest is gravitational lensing, and this topic is covered better than in most other textbooks. Students will love this book. Even professional scientists, though they may find it rather light reading, will appreciate the effort and thought that went into it. The only problem is an occasional PCism sneaking into the text. For this we can blame the translator.

Handbook of Infrared Astronomy
Cambridge Observing Handbooks for Research Astronomers 1
by I. S. Glass
Cambridge University Press, 1999

nfrared radiation brings a powerful new perspective to astronomy. It allows us to see through dust, observe dimmer and colder objects, and identify organic molecules in space. This little 185-page paperback gives a satisfactory introduction to the physics of infrared emission, and good descriptions of infrared optics, the transmission of infrared radiation through the atmosphere, and the absorption and scattering by dust and gas in space, with lots of equations, spectra, and graphs, all of which are clear and easy to follow. Although too short to be a real "handbook," this book is a great source of references to more complete material including, most significantly, NASA's IRAS data and other surveys that were done before this book was written in 1998. Perhaps the most interesting section is on the instrumentation, which uses cryogenically cooled detectors and exotic techniques. But this section is also the most out of date. The order of presentation is also problematic. For example, tables of J,H,K,L and N band intensities are presented well before these terms are defined. Even so, it's a good introduction to what is probably the hottest topic in astronomy.

A new trend in publishing seems to be to make paperback versions of ten- or twenty-year-old textbooks and try to sell them as "new" books. This is especially true in books on infrared technology. Readers who doesn't notice the old publication date find themselves reading about slide rules and obsolete technology. This book appears to be an exception, but Hey!--be careful out there.

See also Electromagnetic radiation books
See also Interstellar astrophysics books
See also Plasma physics & astrophysics books