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Astrophysics: A Very Short Introduction

James Binney

March 2016

ISBN: 9780198752851

176 pages
Paperback
174x111mm

In Stock

Very Short Introductions

Price: £8.99

Astrophysics is said to have been born when Isaac Newton saw an apple drop in his orchard and had the electrifying insight that the Moon falls just like that apple. James Binney shows how the application of physical laws derived on Earth allows us to understand objects that exist on the far side of the Universe.

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Description

Astrophysics is said to have been born when Isaac Newton saw an apple drop in his orchard and had the electrifying insight that the Moon falls just like that apple. James Binney shows how the application of physical laws derived on Earth allows us to understand objects that exist on the far side of the Universe.

  • Provides an authoritative introduction to astrophysics, demonstrating how the laws of physics we can observe here on Earth apply to our entire universe
  • Introduces the physics of phenomena such as supernovae, accretion discs and jets, and planetary systems
  • Provides a succinct account of the application of special and general relativity to astrophysics
  • Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

James Binney, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, Head of the Sub-Department of Theoretical Physics and Professorial Fellow at Merton College.

James Binney, FRS, is a highly distinguished astrophysicist at Oxford University. He is head of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, and has been awarded the Maxwell Medal and the Dirac Medal of the Institute of Physics. A specialist in galactic dynamics, he is the author of three widely used graduate textbooks, including The Physics of Quantum Mechanics (OUP, 2013), co-authored with David Skinner.

Table of Contents

    Preface
    Big ideas
    Gas between the stars
    Stars
    Accretion
    Planetary Systems
    Relativistic astrophysics
    Galaxies
    The big picture
    Further reading
    Index

Reviews

"an enjoyably easy read, and a long way from being a stodgy textbook - I mean, what textbook would tell you the Galaxy contains 'zillions of dark-matter particles'?" - Andrew May, Popular Science

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