Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction

by Linda S. Sparke , John S. Gallagher, III

• ISBN13: 9780521597401
• ISBN10: 0521597404
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Galaxies are the places where gas turns into luminous stars, powered by nuclear reactions that also produce most of the chemical elements. But the gas and stars are only the tip of an iceberg: a galaxy consists mostly of dark matter, which we know only by the pull of its gravity. The ages, chemical composition and motions of the stars we see today, and the shapes that they make up, tell us about each galaxy's past life. This book presents the astrophysics of galaxies since their beginnings in the early Universe. This second Edition is extensively illustrated with the most recent observational data. It includes new sections on galaxy clusters, gamma ray bursts and supermassive black holes. Chapters on the large-scale structure and early galaxies have been thoroughly revised to take into account recent discoveries such as dark energy.

Author Biography

Linda Sparke is a professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society John Gallagher is the W. W. Morgan Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(50)
The stars	2	(22)
Our Milky Way	24	(8)
Other galaxies	32	(8)
Galaxies in the expanding Universe	40	(4)
The pregalactic era: a brief history of matter	44	(7)
Mapping our Milky Way	51	(44)
The solar neighborhood	51	(8)
The stars in the Galaxy	59	(19)
Galactic rotation	78	(17)
The orbits of the stars	95	(37)
Motion under gravity	96	(11)
Why the Galaxy isn't bumpy: two-body relaxation	107	(9)
Orbits of disk stars: epicycles	116	(6)
The collisionless Boltzmann equation	122	(10)
Our backyard: the Local Group	132	(40)
Satellites of the Milky Way	137	(13)
Spirals of the Local Group	150	(4)
How did the Local Group galaxies form?	154	(10)
Dwarf galaxies in the Local Group	164	(5)
Past and future of the Local Group	169	(3)
Spiral and SO galaxies	172	(59)
The distribution of starlight	173	(14)
Observing the gas	187	(7)
Gas motions and the masses of disk galaxies	194	(11)
Interlude: the sequence of disk galaxies	203	(2)
Spiral arms and galactic bars	205	(12)
Bulges and centers of disk galaxies	217	(4)
Groups: the homes of disk galaxies	221	(10)
Elliptical galaxies	231	(50)
Photometry	232	(13)
Motions of the stars	245	(12)
Stellar populations and gas	257	(7)
Dark matter and black holes	264	(3)
Galaxy clusters: the domain of elliptical galaxies	267	(14)
Large-scale distribution of galaxies	281	(32)
Observations of large-scale structure	282	(10)
Expansion of a homogeneous Universe	292	(6)
Growth of structure: peculiar motions	298	(7)
Growth of structure: clusters, walls, and voids	305	(8)
Active galactic nuclei and the early history of galaxies	313	(48)
Active galactic nuclei	314	(23)
Quasar absorption lines	337	(8)
The first galaxies	345	(16)
Appendix	361	(12)
A. Units and conversions	361	(3)
B. Bibliography	364	(2)
C. Hints for problems	366	(7)
Index	373