Black Holes, Quasars, and the Universe

by Harry L. Shipman

Book Overview

Light edge wear. Text is clean of markings. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395284996
• ISBN13: 9780395284995
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An attractive subject...

Harry Shipman of the University of Delaware wrote this book on black holes, quasars and other astronomical phenomena before they had become (if you'll forgive the pun) attractive subjects. One of the stated purposes, from his introduction, is to supplement classical introductions to astronomy -- most introductory surveys of astronomy cover these subjects as a matter of course now, but this was not so in the 1970s. Despite the age of the text and the fact that many discoveries and advances have been made since the original publication date of this book, it still provides an interesting and accessible survey to some of the more interesting objects and topics in astronomy. Shipman designed this book to be a supplement to introductory astronomy texts, a stand-alone volume for those without significant scientific background, and a primer for those who were preparing for more advanced work in the sciences.The introduction begins with preliminary terminology and definitions, a brief survey of astronomy and the related physics concepts. It also looks at scientific method. This introduction leads to the first primary topic -- black holes. Shipman covers the aspects of gravity, stellar growth and decay, the different kinds of star 'death' (white dwarf, neutron star, pulsar), and devotes several chapters to aspects of the black hole itself. These address the event horizon and changes there, searching for black holes and issues of detection, and future directions in research. Shipman's general descriptions are still very good scientifically.The second primary section addresses the phenomena of galaxies and quasars. Issues of the expanding universe, distances to quasars, redshift and its causes, different types of galaxies, and observational problems are addressed in the several chapters. Quasars may or may not be related to black holes, just as active galaxies might be fueled by black holes. The third section pulls the information together, looking at broader cosmological issues. The life cycle of the universe is presented, concentrating primarily on the Big Bang theory. The issues of dating the universe, based on different kinds of observational data, and the large scale structure of the universe from galactic clusters to superclusters are set forth. Issues in the final fate of the universe (total mass, expansion rate changes, etc.) are explored -- this has become a hot topic for cosmology today, too.Shipman writes in an engaging and interesting style, and sets forth complicated issues in easy-to-grasp ways. This was one of the earliest books of astronomy I read, and I still refer to it on a frequent basis.

Fantastic, Interesting, Informative...

Need I say more? It's remarkably clear; it includes an introductory chapter to teach the basic concepts and definitions of physics for those not familiar with the field; it is very interesting as well! I was pleasantly surprised (after all, it is a technical book) to find it so easy to read and so informative! I have learned so much from this book.