The Little Book of Stars tells the story of stellar science and what the stars mean to us from a variety of perspectives. Beginning with the "big picture;' the book moves through progressively more and more intimate views until we feel we can hold the stars in our hands, from which we can then throw them back to the sky to see our place among them. The book opens with a summary of the event that created our Universe, the Big Bang, and then goes on to describe the natures of the Big Bang's progeny, the stars-what they are, how they shine, and how they can live such immensely long lives. Approaching horne, it next examines the measures of the stars: where they are, how they are collected together from pairs to galaxies of billions, and how we learn of their individual properties. Yet closer, we look in depth at the Sun and at the physical differences among the stars, at the immense range of properties they possess. Finally, arriving at Earth, we see the signif icance of the stars to human life, how we have used them to tell our stories and to find where we are in both space and time. v From this base, the book looks more closely at stellar details, concentrating on temporal phenomena-on stellar change-and on the observational base that helps set the stage for the theory that links them all together.

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"…Everything a popular science book should be…it is a delight to read and is packed with accurate yet easy-to-digest scientific information." Physics World

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: The Little Book of Stars
Authors: James B. Kaler
Series Title: Little Book Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21621-8
Publisher: Copernicus New York, NY
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-387-95005-1Published: 17 November 2000
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4757-6759-9Published: 25 February 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-0-387-21621-8Published: 01 November 2013
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 184
Topics: Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Astrophysics and Astroparticles

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

Front Matter

Stars

Collections

The Family

Nightly Parade

Stellar Surprise

Linkages

Dawn

Back Matter

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