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This Second Edition of Sun, Earth and Sky updates the popular text by providing comprehensive accounts of the most recent discoveries made by five modern solar spacecraft during the past decade. Their instruments have used sound waves to peer deep into the Sun's inner regions and measure the temperature of its central nuclear reactor, and extended our gaze far from the visible Sun to record energetic outbursts that threaten Earth. Breakthrough observations with the underground Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are also included, which explain the new physics of ghostly neutrinos and solve the problematic mismatch between the predicted and observed amounts of solar neutrinos.
This new edition of Sun, Earth and Sky also describes our recent understanding of how the Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to a million degrees, and just where the Sun's continuous winds come from. As humans we are more intimately linked with our life-sustaining Sun than with any other astronomical object, and the new edition therefore provides modern interpretations of ozone depletion and global warming that are related to both the Sun and to human activities.
Written in a light and friendly style, this lavishly illustrated book introduces the Sun and its physics, and describes all aspects of the Sun's interaction with us on Earth.
Good day, sunshine; energizing the sun; ghostlike neutrinos; taking the pulse of the sun; a magnetic star; an unseen world of perpetual change; the violent sun; energizing space; transforming the Earth's life-sustaining atmosphere; fire and ice.
Professor Lang has written several books about the Sun, as well as widely used reference works in astronomy and astrophysics. He has carried out radio observations of the active Sun with the Very Large Array in support of the SOHO spacecraft, teaches an extremely popular introductory course about the Sun to Tufts University students with non-scientific majors, and has served for two years as Visiting Senior Scientist in Solar Physics at NASA Headquarters.
From the reviews of the second edition: "The second edition follows the first in its approach to topics but has been brought up to date -- most especially by reviewing the results from five modern solar spacecraft and from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. ! I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how the Sun works and behaves and how that in turn impinges upon the Earth and our life here." (C. R. Kitchin, Astronomy Now, April 2007) "Lang's revision of his first edition ! includes significant new material such as results from recent theoretical calculations, spectacular images of the sun from satellites such as TRACE and SOHO, and a clear overview of the apparent solution of the 'solar neutrino problem.' ! Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty." (T. Barker, CHOICE, Vol. 44 (9), May, 2007)
