Cosmic Catastrophes: Exploding Stars, Black Holes, and Mapping the Universe 2nd Edition by J. Craig Wheeler | (PDF) Free Download

Description

From supernovae and gamma-ray bursts to the accelerating Universe, this is an exploration of the intellectual threads that lead to some of the most exciting ideas in modern astrophysics and cosmology. This fully updated second edition incorporates new material on binary stars, black holes, gamma-ray bursts, worm-holes, quantum gravity and string theory. It covers the origins of stars and their evolution, the mechanisms responsible for supernovae, and their progeny, neutron stars and black holes. It examines the theoretical ideas behind black holes and their manifestation in observational astronomy and presents neutron stars in all their variety known today. This book also covers the physics of the twentieth century, discussing quantum theory and Einstein’s gravity, how these two theories collide, and the prospects for their reconciliation in the twenty-first century. This will be essential reading for undergraduate students in astronomy and astrophysics, and an excellent, accessible introduction for a wider audience.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I really dig this book. You’ll learn a lot about astral phenomena.

⭐This book is well-written and full of relevant details that many such books skip. Very readable and entertaining if you are into the subject (which I am). Highly recommended.

⭐I bought this book for Dr. Wheeler’s astronomy class at UT and it is excellent. It supplements his lectures wonderfully and explains very complex concepts in a very easy-to-understand way. I’m an English major and I had no large issues understanding the concepts presented in this book.

⭐Love the book.Very informative and enlightening .Page by page , makes you want to read more .Can’t put the book down !If you got your head in the stars ,It’s the book for you .But It !

⭐This is quite an excellent book about stars in general, but it goes into more details concerning the eventual fate of stars, whether it be supernova, neutron stars / pulsars, or black holes. Most of the time, it is easy to read but it is still a notch higher than an introductory textbook, so it better fits the needs of an interested audience, such as amateur astronomers. For example, the author probably assumes you already have a basic understanding before reading the book of the great variety of the nature of light, how it varies from radio waves to infrared, to visible light, to ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays, and about the level of energy associated with each wavelength. It is important to understand basic spectroscopy concepts since the chapters about pulsars and gamma-rays revolves a lot around that and there is no real introduction about the nature of light and wavelengths in the book.The best parts are the ones regarding supernova types and their characteristics, and the fascinating part about the features of black holes. The illustrations showing in 2D how these cosmic phenomenons behave are extremely helpful to understand their complex nature. I would put more of those illustrations for the 3rd edition if I would be the author.I would have given it 5 stars, but I felt the last 2 chapters were kind of thrown out in there and did not fit the whole thing. These chapters about wormholes and string theories are interesting but they try to cover too much ground in too few many pages. So I gave it 4 stars. But overall, this is a very good book about the fate of stars and how they end their lives. You will like it.

⭐If you enjoy reading topics in astronomy and in particular stellar evolution, you will enjoy this book. I had gone to the library to pick up something else, saw this book there, and read it first. This is a straight forward factual discussion of “Cosmic Catastrophes” and other topics in astrophysics. Wheeler provides explanations of certain stellar events, some in a way I have not heard before, and were quite enlightening for me. An example is type 1b and 1c supernova. He leaves out all the dribble we have been treated to by some other recent authors and sticks to the state of the knowledge without pandering to the reader. For example, when dealing with worm holes he states, “The balloon serves as a two-dimensional analog of our three-dimensional space…”, and using your two fingers to simulate a worm hole, “You would have to cut the rubber and attach the ends of the two cones; but cutting the rubber is the analog of cutting the very fabric of space…”. So many other writers have written entire books on the subject carefully ignoring this and a plethoria of issues because it makes for more popular reading. For dark energy he does not forget to let the reader know, “… dark energy is neither predicted nor described by current theories of physics. Understanding dark energy is one of the great challenges to modern physics.” I appreciated the concise factual treatment of these and other subjects. I highly recommend this book, and even though I have already read it, will probably buy a copy for my own bookshelf.

⭐Bought this book for his classes a long time ago and feels as if his teachings are still fresh in my mind. It shaped the way I look at our Universe (i love documentaries/programs about space to this day).The book is an excellent read for those curious about the mysteries in our Universe and written in a way that those without backgrounds in Math, Physics, or Astronomy can easily understand. The professor himself is even greater than his book! Kudos to the man who was the ‘catalyst’ to my thirst for knowledge!

⭐Try another book that goes even deeper in only 30 pages.It’s called “Everything About Black Holes” and it explains everything with science. It’s on Amazon.

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