Astronomy : From The Earth To The Universe - With Cd - 6th edition

by Jay Pasachoff

Astronomy : From The Earth To The Universe - With Cd (ISBN10: 0534421970; ISBN13: 9780534421977)

ISBN13: 978-0534421977
ISBN10: 0534421970

Summary: Astronomy : From the Earth to the Universe describes the current state of astronomy, both the fundamentals of astronomical knowledge that have been built up over decades and the exciting advances that are now taking place. The writing style is friendly and carefully detailed. It serves as a valuable reference for both beginners and astronomy enthusiasts. This book is organized as a number of stories. Individual chapters often tell what used to be known, how space and ...show more other modern observations have transformed our understanding, and then what is scheduled for the future. This is done with each planet. Consequently, an instructor can easily add photos (available as slides, overheads, CD-ROMs, and on the World Wide Web) and movies and keep a student's interest for a whole lecture on each planet, if desired. Students learn about astronomy through concrete examples, rather than merely being given overarching concepts without enough underpinning.

Benefits:

Individual chapters on each planet provide a wealth of information on the latest discoveries, as well as comparative information and interesting historical details.
NEW! A wide variety of new images from the Hubble Space Telescope and from many new Earthbound telescopes are now included.
NEW! New chapter on Extrasolar Planets (Chapter 18) includes recent discoveries of planets orbiting other stars.
NEW! New additions to selected chapters, including wide-field telescopes, Mars Global Surveyor and future Mars missions, Cassini mission and current observations of Neptune.
NEW! Expanded Photo Galleries and Astronomer's Notebook features.
NEW! Improved and expanded integration of the text with the Internet
NEW! Can be bundled with the new RedShift College Edition CD-ROM and workbook.
Chapter-by-chapter sections expand on the use of misconceptions and present correct ideas in parallel. This allows instructors to assist students in learning the correct material and overrule any misconceptions students may harbor.
Internet exercises and links to other relevant sites are available through the text's own Web site.
Exercises using the RedShift College Edition CD-ROM can be found in each chapter. This CD-ROM includes illustrated essays that cover some of the material in this book and provides an additional interesting perspective.
Individual chapters have been dedicated to covering unique and newly acquired astronomical information. These chapters include contemporary research discoveries, such as Extrasolar Planets, Neptune, Pluto, supernovae, pulsars/neutron stars, black holes, and quasars.
The Astronomer's Notebook feature offers students an insider's view on observations and telescope use.
NEW! The text now features extensive material about the cosmic distance scale, the large-scale mapping of space, and the ripples in the cosmic background radiation, including the final results from the Hubble Space Telescope's Key Project on the Hubble Constant. Also featured are maps of galaxies and quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2dF project, and a discussion of the apparently accelerating expansion of the universe.
The Photo Galleries include artfully displayed images to help impress upon students the beauty and wonder of the universe. More than 1000 photos and illustrations bring astronomy to life on every page.
What's In a Name? boxes explore the mythology and history of astronomical nomenclature.
Biography boxes provide background and historical context for astronomy's most noted contributors.
In Review boxes summarize and reinforce key topics discussed in the text.
A Deeper Discussion boxes are optional and provide further discussion and insight to selected topics in the text.
Each section of the text is numbered to allow professors to include or omit parts of chapters.
End-of-chapter questions cover a range of material; some questions are straightforward and can be answered by merely reading the text, while others require more independent thought.