The X-Ray Universe: The Quest for Cosmic Fire - From Black Holes to Intergalactic Space (Harvard Books on Astronomy) - Hardcover

Tucker, Wallace; Giacconi, Riccardo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674962850 ISBN 13: 9780674962859

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1985

Synopsis

Beyond the range of optical perception--and of ordinary imaginings--a new and violent universe lay undetected until the advent of space exploration. Supernovae, black holes, quasars and pulsars--these were the secrets of the highenergy world revealed when, for the first time, astronomers attached their instruments to rockets and lofted them beyond the earth's x-ray-absorbing atmosphere.

The X-Ray Universe is the story of these explorations and the fantastic new science they brought into being. It is a first-hand account: Riccardo Giacconi is one of the principal pioneers of the field, and Wallace Tucker is a theorist who worked closely with him at many critical periods.

The book carries the reader from the early days of the Naval Research Laboratory through the era of V-2 rocketry, Sputnik, and the birth of NASA, to the launching of the Einstein X-Ray Observatory. But this is by no means just a history. Behind the suspenseful, sometimes humorous details of human personality grappling with high technology lies a sophisticated exposition of current cosmology and astrophysics, from the rise and fall of the steady-state theory to the search for the missing mass of the universe.

About this title

About the Author:

Wallace Tucker is science spokesman for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center. He is coauthor with his wife of numerous books on astronomy.

Review:

A high energy hook on a high energy realm of astronomy! Tucker and Giacconi present us with the contemporary view of the x-ray universe and provide an insightful mixture of personalities and politics. The story told here is a heady one of breakthroughs and breakdowns, fascination and frustration. Basic physical insights, clearly and plainly told, lace the observational discoveries together--from black holes to quasars. The X-Ray Universe offers the best synthesis of a revolution in modern astronomy for the interested public. (Michael Zeilik University of New Mexico)

X-ray astronomy gets to the heart of the most energetic processes in the universe. Its history is told here with personal insights from leaders in its development. (Herbert Friedman National Research Council / National Academy of Sciences)

The vital story of x-ray astronomy and the transformations it has wrought in our universe is here recounted with unusual sensitivity and clarity by two scientists who know the field from the inside Out. (Timothy Ferris author of Galaxies)

It combines an enthralling account of the birth of x-ray astronomy with a lucid description of the latest breakthroughs in this rapidly developing field. (Joseph Silk University of California, Berkely)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0674962850
• ISBN 13: 9780674962859
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 201