Top
| Part I: EXPLORING THE SKY | |
| 1. The Scale of the Cosmos | |
| 2. The Sky | |
| The Stars | |
| The Sky and Its Motion | |
| The Sky Around Us | |
| The Cycles of the Sun | |
| The Motion of the Planets | |
| The Cycle of the Seasons | |
| Astronomical Influences on Earth's Climate | |
| 3. The Cycles of the Moon | |
| The Changeable Moon | |
| The Phases of the Moon | |
| The Tides | |
| Lunar Eclipses | |
| Solar Eclipses | |
| Predicting Eclipses | |
| 4. The Origin of Modern Astronomy | |
| The Roots of Astronomy | |
| The Copernican Revolution | |
| The Ancient Universe | |
| The Puzzle of Planetary Motion | |
| Modern Astronomy | |
| 5. Newton, Einstein, and Gravity | |
| Galileo and Newton | |
| Orbital Motion | |
| Orbiting Earth | |
| Einstein and Relativity | |
| 6. Light and Telescopes | |
| Radiation: Information from Space | |
| Optical Telescopes | |
| Modern Astronomical Telescopes | |
| Special Instruments | |
| Radio Telescopes | |
| Space Astronomy | |
| Part II: THE STARS | |
| 7. Starlight and Atoms | |
| Starlight | |
| Atoms 129. Interaction of Light and Matter | |
| Atomic Spectra | |
| Stellar Spectra | |
| 8. The Sun - Our Star | |
| The Solar Atmosphere | |
| Data File One The Sun | |
| Solar Activity | |
| Magnetic Solar Phenomena | |
| Nuclear Fusion in the Sun | |
| 9. The Family of Stars | |
| Measuring the Distances to Stars | |
| Intrinsic Brightness | |
| The Diameters of Stars | |
| The Masses of Stars | |
| A Census of the Stars | |
| The Family of Stars | |
| 10. The Interstellar Medium | |
| Visible-Wavelength Observations | |
| Three Kinds of Nebulae | |
| Long- and Short-Wavelength Observations | |
| A Model of the Interstellar Medium | |
| 11. The Formation of Stars | |
| Making Stars from the Interstellar Medium | |
| Observational Evidence of Star Formation | |
| The Source of Stellar Energy | |
| Stellar Structure | |
| The Orion Nebula | |
| Star Formation in the Orion Nebula | |
| 12. Stellar Evolution | |
| Main-Sequence Stars | |
| Post–Main-Sequence Evolution | |
| Evidence of Evolution: Star Clusters | |
| Star Cluster H-R Diagrams | |
| Evidence of Evolution: Variable Stars | |
| 13. The Deaths of Stars | |
| Lower-Main-Sequence Stars | |
| The Formation of Planetary Nebulae | |
| The Evolution of Binary Stars | |
| The Deaths of Massive Stars | |
| 14. Neutron Stars and Black Holes | |
| Neutron Stars | |
| The Lighthouse Model of a Pulsar | |
| Black Holes | |
| Compact Objects with Disks and Jets | |
| Part III: THE UNIVERSE | |
| 15. The Milky Way Galaxy | |
| The Nature of the Milky Way Galaxy | |
| The Origin of the Milky Way | |
| Spiral Arms | |
| The Nucleus | |
| Sagittarius A* | |
| 16. Galaxies | |
| The Family of Galaxies | |
| Measuring the Properties of Galaxies | |
| Galaxy Classification | |
| The Lives of the Galaxies | |
| 17. Galaxies with Active Nuclei | |
| Active Galaxies | |
| Cosmic Jets and Radio Lobes | |
| Quasars | |
| 18. Cosmology | |
| The Structure of the Universe | |
| The Nature of Space-Time | |
| The Big Bang | |
| Refining the Big Bang: Theory and Observation | |
| Part V: LIFE | |
| 19. Life on Other Worlds | |
| The Nature of Life | |
| DNA: The Code of Life | |
| The Origin of Life | |
| Communication with Distant Civilizations | |
| Afterword | |
| Appendix A: Units and Astronomical Data | |
| Appendix B: Observing the Sky | |
| Glossary | |
| Answers to Even-Numbered Problems | |
| Credits | |
| Index |
