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With Astronomy Today, Eighth Edition, trusted authors Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan communicate their excitement about astronomy, delivering current and thorough science with insightful pedagogy. The text emphasizes critical thinking and visualization, and it focuses on the process of scientific discovery, teaching students how we know what we know. The Eighth Edition has been thoroughly updated with the latest astronomical discoveries and theories, improved pedagogical features, and new multimedia content in MasteringAstronomy®.
Astronomy Today is available with an interactive Pearson eText and MasteringAstronomy a market-leading online tutorial and homework system, which has been updated with new content that helps students learn and review more effectively outside of class.
Alternate Versions
- Astronomy Today, Volume 1: The Solar System, Eighth Edition Focuses primarily on planetary coverage for a 1-term course. Includes Chapters 1 16, 28.
- Astronomy Today, Volume 2: Stars and Galaxies, Eighth Edition Focuses primarily on stars and stellar evolution for a 1-term course. Includes Chapters 1 5 and 16 28.
List of contents
I. ASTRONOMY AND THE UNIVERSE
1. Charting the Heavens: The Foundations of Astronomy
2. The Copernican Revolution: The Birth of Modern Science
3. Radiation: Information from the Cosmos
4. Spectroscopy: The Inner Workings of Atoms
5. Telescopes: The Tools of Astronomy
II. OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM
6. The Solar System: Comparative Planetology and Formation Models7. Earth: Our Home in Space
8. The Moon and Mercury: Scorched and Battered Worlds
9. Venus: Earth's Sister Planet
10. Mars: A Near Miss for Life?
11. Jupiter: Giant of the Solar System
12. Saturn: Spectacular Rings and Mysterious Moons
13. Uranus and Neptune: The Outer Worlds of the Solar System
14. Solar System Debris: Keys to Our Origin
15. Exoplanets: Planetary Systems Beyond Our Own.
III. STARS AND STELLAR EVOLUTION
16. The Sun: Our Parent Star
17. The Stars: Giants, Dwarfs, and the Main Sequence
18. The Interstellar Medium: Gas and Dust among the Stars
19. Star Formation: A Traumatic Birth
20. Stellar Evolution: The Life and Death of a Star
21. Stellar Explosions: Novae, Supernovae, and the Formation of the Elements
22. Neutron Stars and Black Holes: Strange States of Matter
IV. GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY
23. The Milky Way Galaxy: A Spiral in Space
24. Galaxies: Building Blocks of the Universe
25. Galaxies and Dark Matter: The Large-Scale Structure of the Cosmos
26. Cosmology: The Big Bang and the Fate of the Universe
27. The Early Universe: Toward the Beginning of Time
28. Life in the Universe: Are We Alone?
About the author
Eric Chaisson received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard, where he spent 10 years on the faculty; after holding various professorships at Johns Hopkins and Tufts, Eric is back at Harvard teaching and doing research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He has written 12 books and received a number of literary awards along the way. Steve McMillan received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard and is a professor of physics at Drexel University. He has published more than 100 articles and scientific papers.
