Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs


Book Description

This volume provides a state-of-the-art review of our current knowledge of brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars. The hunt for and study of these elusive objects is currently one of the most dynamic areas of research in astronomy for two reasons. Brown dwarfs bridge the gap between stars and planets, and they may constitute an important part of the 'dark matter' of the Universe. This volume presents review articles from a team of international authorities who gathered at a conference in La Palma to assess the spectacular progress that has been made in this field in the last few years.




Formation and Evolution of Low Mass Stars


Book Description

This book represents the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Insti tute on Formation and Evolution of Low Mass Stars held from 21 September to 2 October 1987 at Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Holding the meeting in Portugal recognized both the historical aspects and the bright future of astronomy in Portugal. In the early sixteenth century, the Portugese played an important role in the critical diffusion of classical and medieval knowledge which formed so large a part of scientific activity at that time. Navigation and course setting, brought to a high level by Portugese explorers, relied on mathematics and astronomy to produce precise tables of solar positions. In contemporary Portu gal, astronomy is the focus of renewed interest and support at the universities. It is thus particularly appropriate that the NATO Advanced Study Institute was held on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the friendly surroundings of the Costa Verde.




Understanding Stellar Evolution


Book Description

'Understanding Stellar Evolution' is based on a series of graduate-level courses taught at the University of Washington since 2004, and is written for physics and astronomy students and for anyone with a physics background who is interested in stars. It describes the structure and evolution of stars, with emphasis on the basic physical principles and the interplay between the different processes inside stars such as nuclear reactions, energy transport, chemical mixing, pulsation, mass loss, and rotation. Based on these principles, the evolution of low- and high-mass stars is explained from their formation to their death. In addition to homework exercises for each chapter, the text contains a large number of questions that are meant to stimulate the understanding of the physical principles. An extensive set of accompanying lecture slides is available for teachers in both Keynote(R) and PowerPoint(R) formats.




New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics


Book Description

Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.




Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations


Book Description

Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations is a comprehensive presentation of the theory of stellar evolution and its application to the study of stellar populations in galaxies. Taking a unique approach to the subject, this self-contained text introduces first the theory of stellar evolution in a clear and accessible manner, with particular emphasis placed on explaining the evolution with time of observable stellar properties, such as luminosities and surface chemical abundances. This is followed by a detailed presentation and discussion of a broad range of related techniques, that are widely applied by researchers in the field to investigate the formation and evolution of galaxies. This book will be invaluable for undergraduates and graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics, and will also be of interest to researchers working in the field of Galactic, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. comprehensive presentation of stellar evolution theory introduces the concept of stellar population and describes "stellar population synthesis" methods to study ages and star formation histories of star clusters and galaxies presents stellar evolution as a tool for investigating the evolution of galaxies and of the universe in general




Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems


Book Description

This is volume 3 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, a six-volume compendium of modern astronomical research covering subjects of key interest to the main fields of contemporary astronomy. This volume on “Solar and Stellar Planetary Systems” edited by Linda French and Paul Kalas presents accessible review chapters From Disks to Planets, Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems, The Terrestrial Planets, Gas and Ice Giant Interiors, Atmospheres of Jovian Planets, Planetary Magnetospheres, Planetary Rings, An Overview of the Asteroids and Meteorites, Dusty Planetary Systems and Exoplanet Detection Methods. All chapters of the handbook were written by practicing professionals. They include sufficient background material and references to the current literature to allow readers to learn enough about a specialty within astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology to get started on their own practical research projects. In the spirit of the series Stars and Stellar Systems published by Chicago University Press in the 1960s and 1970s, each chapter of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems can stand on its own as a fundamental review of its respective sub-discipline, and each volume can be used as a textbook or recommended reference work for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate courses. Advanced students and professional astronomers in their roles as both lecturers and researchers will welcome Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems as a comprehensive and pedagogical reference work on astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology.




The Impact of Binary Stars on Stellar Evolution


Book Description

An advanced review of how binary stars affect stellar evolution, presenting results from state-of-the art models and recent observations.




Stellar Interiors


Book Description

That trees should have been cut down to provide paper for this book was an ecological afIront. From a book review. - Anthony Blond (in the Spectator, 1983) The first modern text on our subject, Structure and Evolution of the Stars, was published over thirty years ago. In it, Martin Schwarzschild described numerical experiments that successfully reproduced most of the observed properties of the majority of stars seen in the sky. He also set the standard for a lucid description of the physics of stellar interiors. Ten years later, in 1968, John P. Cox's tw~volume monograph Principles of Stellar Structure appeared, as did the more specialized text Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nuc1eosynthesis by Donald D. Clayton-and what a difference ten years had made. The field had matured into the basic form that it remains today. The past twenty-plus years have seen this branch of astrophysics flourish and develop into a fundamental pillar of modern astrophysics that addresses an enormous variety of phenomena. In view of this it might seem foolish to offer another text of finite length and expect it to cover any more than a fraction of what should be discussed to make it a thorough and self-contained reference. Well, it doesn't. Our specific aim is to introduce only the fundamentals of stellar astrophysics. You will find little reference here to black holes, millisecond pulsars, and other "sexy" objects.




New Light on Dark Stars


Book Description

Perhaps the most common question that a child asks when he or she sees the night sky from a dark site for the first time is: 'How many stars are there?' This happens to be a question which has exercised the intellectual skills of many astronomers over the course of most of the last century, including, for the last two decades, one of the authors of this text. Until recently, the most accurate answer was 'We are not certain, but there is a good chance that almost all of them are M dwarfs. ' Within the last three years, results from new sky-surveys - particularly the first deep surveys at near infrared wavelengths - have provided a breakthrough in this subject, solidifying our census of the lowest-mass stars and identifying large numbers of the hitherto almost mythical substellar-mass brown dwarfs. These extremely low-luminosity objects are the central subjects of this book, and the subtitle should be interpreted accordingly. The expression 'low-mass stars' carries a wide range of meanings in the astronomical literature, but is most frequently taken to refer to objects with masses comparable with that of the Sun - F and G dwarfs, and their red giant descendants. While this definition is eminently reasonable for the average extragalactic astronomer, our discussion centres on M dwarfs, with masses of no more than 60% that of the Sun, and extends to 'failed stars' - objects with insufficient mass to ignite central hydrogen fusion.




The First Stars


Book Description

The formation of the first stars (Pop III stars) and galaxies is one of the great outstanding challenges in modern astrophysics and cosmology. The first stars are likely key drivers for early cosmic evolution and will be at the center of attention over the next decade. The best available space and ground-based telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope probe the Universe to high redshifts and provide us with tantalizing hints; but they cannot yet directly detect the first generation of stars and the formation of the first galaxies. This is left as key science for future telecopes like the James Webb Space Telescope. This book is based in part on classroom tested lectures related to Pop III stars, but also draws from the author's review articles of the main physical principles involved. The book will thus combine pedagogical introductory chapters with more advanced ones to survey the cutting-edge advances from the frontier of research. It covers the theory of first star formation, the relation between first stars and dark matter, their impact on cosmology, their observational signatures, the transition to normal star formation as well as the assembly of the first galaxies. It will prepare students for interpreting observational findings and their cosmological implications.