Perhaps the most common question that a child asks when he or she sees the night sky from a dark site for the first time is: 'How many stars are there?' This happens to be a question which has exercised the intellectual skills of many astronomers over the course of most of the last century, including, for the last two decades, one of the authors of this text. Until recently, the most accurate answer was 'We are not certain, but there is a good chance that almost all of them are M dwarfs. ' Within the last three years, results from new sky-surveys - particularly the first deep surveys at near infrared wavelengths - have provided a breakthrough in this subject, solidifying our census of the lowest-mass stars and identifying large numbers of the hitherto almost mythical substellar-mass brown dwarfs. These extremely low-luminosity objects are the central subjects of this book, and the subtitle should be interpreted accordingly. The expression 'low-mass stars' carries a wide range of meanings in the astronomical literature, but is most frequently taken to refer to objects with masses comparable with that of the Sun - F and G dwarfs, and their red giant descendants. While this definition is eminently reasonable for the average extragalactic astronomer, our discussion centres on M dwarfs, with masses of no more than 60% that of the Sun, and extends to 'failed stars' - objects with insufficient mass to ignite central hydrogen fusion.

The years 2012/2013 mark the 50th anniversary of the theoretical prediction that Brown Dwarfs, i.e. degenerate objects which are just not massive enough to sustain stable hydrogen fusion, exist. Some 20 years after their discovery, how Brown Dwarfs form is still one of the main open questions in the theory of star formation. In this volume, the pioneers of Brown Dwarf research review the history of the theoretical prediction and the subsequent discovery of Brown Dwarfs. After an introduction, written by Viki Joergens, reviewing Shiv Kumar's theoretical prediction of the existence of brown dwarfs, Takenori Nakano reviews his and Hayashi's calculation of the Hydrogen Burning Minimum Mass. Both predictions happened in the early 1960s. Jill Tarter then writes on the introduction of the term 'Brown Dwarf', before Ben Oppenheimer, Rafael Rebolo and Gibor Basri describe their first discovery of Brown Dwarfs in the 1990s. Lastly, Michael Cushing and Isabelle Baraffe describe the development of the field to the current state of the art. While the book is mainly aimed at the Brown Dwarf research community, the description of the pioneering period in a scientific field will attract general readers interested in astronomy as well.

This volume provides a state-of-the-art review of our current knowledge of brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars. The hunt for and study of these elusive objects is currently one of the most dynamic areas of research in astronomy for two reasons. Brown dwarfs bridge the gap between stars and planets, and they may constitute an important part of the 'dark matter' of the Universe. This volume presents review articles from a team of international authorities who gathered at a conference in La Palma to assess the spectacular progress that has been made in this field in the last few years.

Once you have looked at the night sky on a moonless night it is not hard to realise why so much of our science and religion has its roots in the stars. Yet it took until 1850 to realise that fainter stars were not necessarily further away, nor the brighter ones closer. In fact within the magnitude range observable to the naked eye it is probable that the brighter star is in fact further away. Even today the measurement of stellar distances is relatively difficult and is gener ally only done using dedicated telescopes. In the early years of the 20th century Hertzsprung and Russell developed a powerful classification diagram which al lows stars to be distinguished using a plot of their colour versus magnitude. The construction of this diagram involved the use of spectroscopy which has become the cornerstone of modern astronomy. As telescopes become more powerful, de tectors more sensitive and more physics is added to astrophysics, astronomical spectroscopy becomes a more powerful tool. The concern of this book is the spectral classification of stars. With a single spectrum of a star it is possible to uniquely classify an object and find its place on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. This spectrum is thus equivalent to having the colour and the magnitude of the object which can in turn be related to mass and other quantities.

Covering the Cosmos from before the Big Bang through to the creation of our universe and up to but not including our arrival on stage; our will is not yet imposed, we had no hand, act nor part in its provisions, beyond investigating to understand what has been delivered us. The many aspects of the Cosmos are melded, in a headline driven style, to paint a cohesive picture as well as allowing the reader choose to delve further where they may choose to paint their personal picture. Cosmos – includes; • The creation mechanism for our Universe and why there exists a possible Multiverse. • The creation mechanisms of the galaxies with their diversity of Star types. • The space exploration of our Solar System. • The Earth and Moon from their birth to their life driving engines for our planet. • The evolutionary processes that led to our arrival on the planet. • Our natural world with its great events. • Documentary video links on all topics of the book are included. The story is factual in manner, in the proper tradition of reporting, no personal opinions are expressed. The life stories of the standout personalities, in text and video, without whom what is now known, could not have been unraveled, in the case of Cosmos, they are; • Galileo Galilei • Isaac Newton • Albert Einstein • Charles Darwin This is a Video Book, vBook, beyond its text there are 150+ video titles, 100+ viewing hours, downloaded and stored locally on your computer, to be able to watch anytime, offline, without the need for local internet connection. Google ‘Cosmos’ and you get about 27,800,000 search results, so over these last several years I’ve searched out the best documentary videos with their hyperlinks included here, blending their content to report cohesively, supplementing, where appropriate, from Wikipedia and also include those hyperlinks for readers wanting to delve further. The ‘List of Contents’ runs to 6 levels to provide a form of map to the reader as the reporting sequence is not a mere chronology of Cosmic events, it delves, as necessary into the stories as to how the events became understood to us. There is a 7th level, hyperlinked, at its base, which brings further background content, from Wikipedia, to those who choose to read further into any of the topics. The ‘Index’ allows navigation for the reader who has specific interests to investigate through the fabric of the report. The ‘Text’ is structured to 4 levels beginning with the primary, headline driven, main body content followed by relevant Wikipedia extracts, indented in purple, for those choosing to read further into a particular topic through to hyperlinked Wikipedia - Full Article text within the book and in turn out to the website itself. For the reader that wants to stay with the big picture, main body content, there is a “Skip” link to take you past each of the extracts, on to the next headline title and main body content. There are 150+ video content links delivering 100+ hours of viewing time, of the best documentary film available online. The main sequence structure is; • Cosmology – Universe & Multiverse • Geology – Earth & Moon • Biology – Life – Plant & Animal • Ecology – Evolution & Environment – Plant, Animal & Human Special Edition There is also a Special Edition of this book available for US$49.95 which streams all video content from a secure Cloud Drive; therefore, video content cannot be removed by third party video platform providers such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo….. This Standard Edition streams from these. The Cloud Drive Server also allows you conveniently download to your local drive, as much video content as you choose, to watch, offline, at a time that best suits you. To view or purchase, paste the books ASIN: B00LEWY5WW into the Kindle Store search box. If you've any queries, feel welcome to contact [email protected]

This state-of-the-art reference work includes over 15 sections dealing with all aspects of exoplanets and exobiology research, including historic aspects, the Solar System as a template, objects at the planet-to-star transition, exoplanet detection and characterization with related instrumentation, technology and software tools, planet and planet-system statistics with recent and planned surveys, their atmosphere and formation and evolution processes, habitability and exobiology implications, and outlooks for future exploration and science development, including visionary contributions. Each section has 10-20 contributions written by the top experts in their subject, including both senior researchers as well as young, smart researchers who represent the future of the discipline. All in all, this handbook comprehensively tackles one of the most challenging and dynamic fields of modern astronomy and astrophysics.

Volume 18 continues the Reviews in Modern Astronomy with twelve invited reviews and highlight contributions which were presented during the International Scientific Conference of the Astronomical Society on the topic "From Cosmological Structures to the Milky Way", held in Prague, Czech Republic, September 20 to 25, 2004. The contributions to the meeting published in this volume discuss, among other subjects, X-ray astronomy, cosmology, star formation and the Galactic Centre.

Offers a unique combination of informative text, magnificent illustrations and stylish design Examines the 100 most important discoveries since the invention of the telescope Features spectacular photographs, taken with the largest telescopes on Earth and in space, that portray distant corners of the universe Author Govert Schilling is a renowned astronomy journalist and science communicator In his Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries, astronomy journalist Govert Schilling tells the story of 400 years of telescopic astronomy. He looks at the 100 most important discoveries since the invention of the telescope. Doing what Schilling does best, he takes the reader on an adventure through both space and time. Photographs and amazing pictures line the pages of this book, offering the reader an escape from this world and an invitation to a world far beyond what the unaided human eye can detect.

It is the customary practice to report the major events of a General Assembly -the Invited Discourses, Joint Discussions and Joint Commission Meetings in Highlights of Astronomy. Vol. 8 reports the highlights of the XXth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, 1988 August 2-11, Baltimore, USA. The present volume contains the 3 Invited Discourses and papers presented at 7 Joint Discussion Meetings and 6 Joint Commission Meetings. Two Joint Commission Meetings will be reported elsewhere -JCM5 Spectroscopy of Individual Stars in Globular Clusters and the Early Chemical Evolution of our Galaxy (in summary only here, published by the Imprimerie de l'Observatoire de Paris) and JCM7 Star Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds (see Transactions of the IAU, Vol.XXB, report of Commission 37). I am most grateful to the authors of the invited discourses R.M. West and V.I. Moroz, M. Schmidt and M. Rees for sending me the manuscripts so promptly. I am also indebted to the Chairmen of the Joint Discussion and Joint Commission Meetings for their organisation of the meetings and for the assembly of their material for publication. Unfortunately the deadline for receipt of manuscripts coincided with an extended postal strike in France which seriously hindered the preparation of the volume for publication.