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As the dominant star in our sky, the Sun has been alternately worshipped as a god and viewed as a threat over the course of human history. Despite significant advances in astronomy, the Sun continues to surprise us, most notably in its production of so-called "space weather" that impacts technology here on Earth. This unique mixture of familiarity and mystery has made the Sun a main character in popular media over the past three centuries.
This book examines how popular media have adapted to our ever-changing understanding of the inner workings of the Sun. It provides a valuable way to observe the inherent problems of communicating science to a non-technical audience. Chapters cut through the widespread hype found on the Internet, and instead explore our ever-improving scientific exploration of the Sun, the persistent misconceptions surrounding it, the fate of the Sun (and its relation to the fate of the Earth) and why, despite comments to the contrary by Oscar Wilde, the average person should care about sunspots.
List of contents
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Our Star: Friend or Foe?
1.¿Sunlight and Spectroscopy: A First Look Inside the Sun
2.¿Earth-Sun-Moon Relationships: Tides and TSI
3.¿
Out, Damned Spot: Sunspots and the
deleteCorrelation/Causation Divide
4.¿Space Weather, Part 1: Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Aurora
5.¿Space Weather, Part 2: Storm Preparation
6.¿Death of the Sun, Part 1: The Incredible Shrinking Sun
7.¿Death of the Sun, Part 2: Red Giants and Red-Hot Earths
8.¿Things That Go Boom! Novae and Supernovae
9.¿Surviving the End of the Sun
Conclusion: Cosmophobia and Communication
Glossary of Scientific Terms
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Kristine Larsen is a professor of astronomy at Central Connecticut State University, where her teaching and research focus on the intersections between science and society. Her publications include numerous articles and book chapters on J.R.R. Tolkien's uses of astronomy in his writings.
