Over the past 200 years, our knowledge of stars has expanded enormously. From seeing myriad dots of different brightnesses, we moved on to measure distances, temperatures, sizes, chemical compositions, even ages, finding stars that dwarf our Sun and are dwarfed by it, some in their youth, others ancient. First published in 2001, Extreme Stars describes the lives of stars from a fascinating perspective. It examines their amazing extremes and results in an engaging overview of stellar evolution, suitable for anyone interested in viewing or studying stars. Ten chapters, generously illustrated throughout, explain the natures of the brightest, the largest, the hottest, the youngest, and so on, ending with a selection of the strangest stars the Universe has to offer. Taken as a whole, the chapters show how stars develop and die and how each extreme turns into another under the inexorable twin forces of time and gravity.

Presents general information about stars and the sun in a question-and-answer format.

While there are guides to the visible sky, this is the first book to encompass the most important stars known in the universe at a level accessible to the layperson. The noted astronomer James Kaler takes us on a tour of the 100 most interesting stars, describing their characteristics and importance in words and vivid pictures. James B. Kaler is an internationally recognized expert on stars and their formation. A professor of astronomy at the University of Illinois, he is the author of "Stars and Their Spectra" (Cambridge), "Stars" (Freeman/Scientific American Library), "Cosmic Clouds" (Freeman/Scientific American Library), and numerous articles for popular and professional astronomy magazines.

A top astronomer explores the universe through the lens of its most jaw-dropping extremes. The universe is all about extremes, and in this engaging and thought-provoking book, astronomer Bryan Gaensler gives a whirlwind tour of the galaxies, with an emphasis on its fastest, hottest, heaviest, brightest, oldest, densest, and even loudest elements. From supernova explosions a billion times brighter than the sun to an asteroid the size of a beach ball, Extreme Cosmos offers a fascinating, fresh, and informed perspective of the remarkable richness of the universe, and the incredible physics that modern astronomy has revealed.

This book reports the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "An gular Momentum Evolution of Young Stars" held from 17 to 21 September 1990 at Noto, Italy. The workshop had its immediate origin in a discussion about the availability of stel lar rotation data, that took place in 1987 at Viana do Castelo Portugal during the NATO meeting, Formation and Evolution of Low Mass Stars. We recognized that nearly 20 years had passed since the last meeting on stellar rotation and that significant progress in the observation of rotation rates in low mass stars had been made. During the last 20 years, new efficient instrumentation (CCD and photon counting de tectors and echelle spectrographs) and new analysis techniques (profile Fourier analysis) have allowed us to measure rotational velocities as low as 1-2 km/s and to reach low mass stars in young clusters. Even with these advances, rotational velocities of low mass stars would have remained challenging to determine if all single, low mass stars later than GO had rotational velocities of order or less than 10 km/sec. Evidence that this is not always the case was first provided by the photometric variability data obtained by van Leeuwen and Alphenaar for K dwarfs in the Pleiades and more recently by the vsini measurements of low mass stars in several young clusters.

The investigation of the Galactic nucleus and its surroundings is necessarily a modem endeavor, for traditional observations made at visual wavelengths have not even begun to penetrate the veil of -30 magnitudes of visual extinction that intercedes. On the other hand, infrared, and especially radio observers find a relatively unobstructed view of the central portion of the Galaxy, so the study of this arena has proceeded apace with the development of these branches of astronomy. Thus, it is no accident that the first IAU sponsored conference to be held on the Galactic center is timed to coincide with the initiation, or the immediate aftennath, of major technical developments at long wavelengths, including infrared array detectors, millimeter-wavelength aperture synthesis, and self-calibration and refmed deconvolution algorithms in aperture synthesis radio astronomy. The center of the Galaxy is also accessible to X and gamma-ray observers, and progress at high energies has been steady, especially as imaging capabilities are being realized at X-ray wavelengths. However, one might expect that the revolution in the high energy domain is still ahead of us, as instruments with larger collecting areas and improved spatial resolution are now being developed. The youth of this subject is evidenced by the relatively small number of meetings that have been devoted to it.

Thoroughly revised and updated introduction to past and present cosmological theory.

What happens at the end of the life of massive stars? At one time we thought all these stars followed similar evolutionary paths. However, new discoveries have shown that things are not quite that simple. This book focuses on the extreme –the most intense, brilliant and peculiar– of astronomical explosions. It features highly significant observational finds that push the frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics, particularly as before these objects were only predicted in theory. This book is for those who want the latest information and ideas about the most dramatic and unusual explosions detected by current supernova searches. It examines and explains cataclysmic and unusual events in stellar astrophysics and presents them in a non-mathematical but highly detailed way that non-professionals can understand and enjoy.

In this fascinating Journey to the farther reaches of space, astronomer James Kaler explores the nature of stars, describing their origins, varieties, distributions, compositions, and distinctive histories. He demonstrates that stars are the key to our comprehension of how the universe evolved--and that the birth, development, and death of stars is intimately associated with our own origins. From the earliest folklore to recent theories about dark matter, Stars chronicles the science of stellar astronomy, concluding with the evolution of high mass stars, whose spectacular deaths generate supernovae, pulsars, neutron stars, and enigmatic black holes. Elegantly written and illustrated, Stars is a compelling portrait of the cosmos as a vast engine of regeneration where stars are born, live, and die.