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Encyclopedia Of Stars Aimed At Anyone Who Enjoys Astronomy
Champaign IL (SPX) Dec 13, 2006 An astronomy expert looking for in-depth research about stars can consult the same new reference book that an undergraduate freshman with a limited knowledge of astronomy might use. "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stars," by James B. Kaler, a professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, covers topics from ancient to modern times. According to Kaler, this 324-page, hardcover book - his 14th - is for anyone who enjoys astronomy. Undergraduates, graduates and professionals all can benefit from using it, he said. Although not written in an encyclopedia-style, alphabetical format, the book does contain a myriad of information about stars that Kaler has been gathering throughout his entire career, and particularly during the past four years of researching for the book. Cambridge University Press already had published other high-end encyclopedias on astronomy, including an encyclopedia of the sun and one about meteorites. Kaler met with a Cambridge editor and volunteered to take on the task of writing an encyclopedia about stars. The new book contains detailed discussions on topics such as stars, constellations, magnitudes, locations, motion, double stars, star clusters and stellar evolution. The book contains more than 230 images, including color photographs, graphs, tables and sidebars. The photographs were gathered from observatories and private photographers around the world. In addition to using research tools and the Web, Kaler also discussed the topics with his colleagues - from the U. of I. and elsewhere - in the process of compiling information. Each of the 14 chapters covers a different topic and stands alone. The book contains forward and backward referencing to connect information from different chapters. Kaler considers each chapter as important and interesting as the next. "The one I was doing at the moment was always my favorite," Kaler said. The book, completed this year, is now in bookstores and also may be found in libraries. "It struck me that putting everything together would make a great resource," Kaler said. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It
No Matter Their Size Black Holes 'Feed' In The Same Way
Southhampton UK (SPX) Dec 11, 2006Research by UK astronomers, published December 7 in Nature, the study reveals that the processes at work in black holes of all sizes are the same and that supermassive black holes are simply scaled up versions of small Galactic black holes. For many years astronomers have been trying to understand the similarities between stellar-mass sized Galactic black hole systems and the supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN). |
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