Night Vision

by Rowan-Robinson, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781107024762
• ISBN10: 1107024765
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-30
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Drawing on exciting discoveries of the last forty years, Night Vision explores how infrared astronomy, an essential tool for modern astrophysics and cosmology, helps astronomers reveal our universe's most fascinating phenomena - from the birth of stars in dense clouds of gas, to black holes and distant colliding galaxies, and the traffic of interstellar dust from the formation of our Solar System. While surveying the progress in infrared observation, astronomer Michael Rowan-Robinson introduces readers to the pioneering scientists and engineers who painstakingly developed infrared astronomy over the past two hundred years. Accessible and well-illustrated, this comprehensive volume is written for the interested science reader, amateur astronomer, or university student, while researchers in astronomy and the history of science will find Rowan-Robinson's detailed notes and references a valuable resource.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

William Herschel opens up the invisible universe

1800-1950: slow progress - the moon, planets, bright stars, and the discovery of interstellar dust

Dying stars shrouded in dust and stars being born: the emergence of infrared astronomy in the 60s and 70s

Birth of far infrared and submillimetre astronomy: clouds of dust and molecules in our Galaxy

The cosmic microwave background, echo of the Big Bang

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the opening up of extragalactic infrared astronomy: starbursts and active galactic nuclei

The Cosmic Background Explorer and the ripples, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Explorer, and dark energy

Giant ground-based infrared and submillimetre telescopes

The Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope: the star-formation history of the universe and infrared galaxy populations

Our dusty Solar System, debris disks and the search for exoplanets

The future: pioneering space missions and giant ground-based telescopes

Notes

Credits for illustrations

Further reading

Bibliography

Glossary

Index of names

Index

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