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Now available in paperback as a Wiley Classics edition, this book presents a comprehensive treatment on the relation of physical processes to interstellar matter. Provides a focus on constant physical principles needed to comprehend rapidly changing observational results in this field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good book
good book
lot's of useful informations.
It's good to have one.

A classic in astronomy, but not worth the price for students
Here, Spitzer introduces many fundamental concepts in astronomy, and at the time it was written was perhaps the only single publication that covered all of the topics in the table of contents from a fairly fundamentallevel. When I paid $80 for this book for an Interstellar Medium course about 5 years ago, the instructor said he would not have required it had he known the price.Now it stands at $112! If this material is important to you and you do not have a well developed graduate level curriculum to study from, then perhaps it is worthhwhile, otherwise I recommend "Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei" by Donald E. Osterbrockfor $36 as an excellent substitute, though you won't find much on dust grains and kinetics in it. For those topics you should go to review articles and a statistical mechanics text anyway! Spitzer was a great astronomer and he wrote what was at the time an indispensible book, but at this price think carefully before you buy. ... Read more

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Updated and revised, "The Physics of the Interstellar Medium, Second Edition" leads the advanced undergraduate through a wide range of disciplines related to the interstellar medium. The book covers the study of the interstellar medium, which incorporates a large range of physical processes on both large and small scales. With chapter introductions provided to aid learning as well as problems and simple models included throughout, this comprehensive overview is suitable for any student studying physics or astrophysics. Considerable progress has been made in the field over the last decade, making this up-to-date understanding of the interstellar medium particularly timely. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Introductory Text
A concise and clear introduction to the interstellar medium.Chapters 5 to 7 on radiatively excited regions and gas dynamics are particularly well written (half the book). The rest of the book is perhaps too concise tocover adequately topics such as dust properties and star formation. ... Read more

Product Description

Describing interstellar matter in our galaxy in all of its various forms, this book also considers the physical and chemical processes that are occurring within this matter. The first seven chapters present the various components making up the interstellar matter and detail the ways that we are able to study them. The following seven chapters are devoted to the physical, chemical and dynamical processes that control the behaviour of interstellar matter. These include the instabilities and cloud collapse processes that lead to the formation of stars. The last chapter summarizes the transformations that can occur between the different phases of the interstellar medium. Emphasizing methods over results, ... Read more

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In the interstellar medium - the space between the stars in galaxies - new stars are born from material that is replenished by the debris ejected by stars when they die. This book is a comprehensive manual for studying the collisional and radiative processes observed in the interstellar medium. This second edition has been thoroughly updated and extended to cover related topics in radiation theory. It considers the chemistry of the interstellar medium both at the present epoch and in the early Universe, and discusses the physics and chemistry of shock waves. The methods of calculation of the rates of collisional excitation of interstellar molecules and atoms are explained, emphasising the quantum mechanical method. This book will be ideal for researchers involved in the interstellar medium and star formation, and physical chemists specialising in collision theory or in the measurement of the rates of collision processes. ... Read more

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Emphasizing microscopic physical and chemical processes in space, and their influence on the macroscopic structure of the interstellar medium of galaxies, this book includes the latest developments in an exciting area of molecular astrophysics. New space and ground-based observational opportunities have resulted in significant additions to our knowledge of the molecular universe in recent years. This comprehensive overview will be an invaluable reference source for undergraduates, graduates and researchers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The state of understanding as it exists today
Inteller space is the hardest vacuum that we know of. But it is not empty. Over the vast distances there are atoms, molecules, dust grains, radiations and more. It is a coprehensive overview of our current theories as backed up by the most recent observational understanding of the interstellar medium of galaxies as of 2005.

As this is a rapidly developing field, the book is filled with references for the student to find more information from web sites and the like that will contain the most recent findings, research, and theories.

This book is suitable for a course for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and for research scientists. The author is a professor of Astrophysics at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in the Netherlands and is a senior scientist with the Dutch Space Agency, SRON. ... Read more

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This book is a graduate-level text covering the fundamental physics and chemistry required for a modern understanding of the interstellar medium. Radiation mechanisms are comprehensively presented, and extensive examples are drawn from observations in the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, mm/sub mm, and radio observations. This book goes beyond a phenomenological study of the interstellar medium to give a detailed quantitative treatment of the radiative and dynamical interactions between stars and the interstellar medium. With an emphasis on a physical understanding of these processes, the mathematical derivations are clean, elegant and easily understandable by anyone with an undergraduate background in physics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium
I bought this book recently so have not had a chance to teach from it yet.I have read through the book and made notes for future use and I like the book a lot.It develops the material logically and avoids using formula that have not been developed from basic principles so it is easier to follow than most presentations.I will post more once I have used it in class, but can compare it to other books and have found it a good solid introduction. ... Read more

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The highly acclaimed first edition of High Energy Astrophysics instantly established itself as a classic in the teaching of contemporary astronomy. Reflecting the immense interest and developments in the subject, Professor Longair has developed the second edition into three texts; in this second volume he provides a comprehensive discussion of the high energy astrophysics of stars, the Galaxy and the interstellar medium. He develops an understanding for the essential physics with an elegance and infectious enthusiasm for which his teaching is internationally renowned, illustrating the issues throughout with results from the forefront of research. This book takes the student with an undergraduate background inphysics and mathematics--but not necessarily with training in astronomy--to the point where current astrophysical research can be understood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good book, but outdated 14 years later
We used this book for a graduate course on High Energy Astrophysics.As I recall, there were a fair number of mistakes (like "Fermi's Exclusion Principle"), but overall I found it quite informative.However, modern astrophysics is rapidly changing, and you should not spend money on a book that is so out dated on many topics.Buy something new and borrow this one from the library if you get the urge.

One of the best books about Cosmic Rays Astrophysics
The two volumes of "High Energy Astrophysics" by M.S. Longair are amongst my favourite books: I read them several times and every time I found interesting hints for my work.I'm waiting for the third volume for 3 years, but it's still missing from the bookshelf...
The first volume ("Particles, Photons and Their Detection") focuses on the interactions between high energy particles and matter, in order to help the reader to understand how detectors work.The theoretical approach is deep enough not to hide the "dirty" steps of the calculations, and some subsection requires good mathematical skills (well, not as much as for Russian books ;-).
The second volume ("Stars, the Galaxy and Interstellar Medium") focuses on the Physics of cosmic rays (CR) while they run through the Galaxy.The author takes the occasion to explain several very exciting items, from the proposed mechanisms of CR acceleration and high energy photons emission, to the diffusion through the interstellar medium and the Solar wind, untill the CR reach the Earth.Special emphasis is given to open problems -- only very few of them were solved in the meantime (Nov. 2001).
The 2 volumes are well suited for advanced students in Physics or Astronomy, and are a good reference for researchers. ... Read more

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The Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt symposium is a well established series of conferences, occurring on a 5-year cycle, on the dense interstellar medium and related topics. The main results constitute valuable proceedings that offer everyone working in this field an authoritative and comprehensive source of reference.

Product Description
Stars, Nebulae and the Interstellar Medium: Observational Physics and Astrophysics complements the author's highly successful Astrophysical Techniques, Fourth Edition (2004). This book describes those characteristics of stars, groups of stars, and the material between the stars that can be directly observed or inferred from the study of electromagnetic emissions and, occasionally, high-energy particles. Providing a wealth of material of interest and use to a wide range of readers, the descriptive chapters are accessible to scientifically literate nonspecialists while the complete text is suitable for most advanced undergraduates in astrophysics. ... Read more

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In this volume three extended lectures addressing bothstudents and experienced astronomers and astrophysicistscover a wealth of material on interstellar matter. The firstlecture details the most recent observationaldata oninterstellar matter inside and outside our galaxy, such astheglobal distribution of matter and atomic or moleculargas and its kinematics. The second treats its large-scaledynamics, including instabilities and star formation. In thethird the physics and chemistry of molecular clouds arediscussed. This book can be used as a textbook for advancedstudents in astrophysics. ... Read more

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This book presents an overview and critical analysis of spectroscopy of the earth's atmosphere and of molecules occurring in the interstellar medium. The field of atmospheric spectroscopy has been comprehensively treated fromt eh microwave to the far and mid-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Theoretical and computations procedures have been outlined for determining the critical parameters needed by spectroscopists, aeronomers, modellers and other scientists engaged in the study of the terrestrial atmosphere; intesities and collision broadening parameters obtained from the infrared spectra have been updated. Another area of considerable interest is the detection and determination of the abundance of organic and inorganic molecules, radicals and ions in interstellar space, which combines in this book to provide a comprehensive review of radioastronomy with an emphasis on the molecular composition of interstellar clouds. ... Read more