Carl Sagan once noted that there is only one generation that gets to see things for the first time. We are in the midst of such a time right now, standing on the threshold of discovery in the young and remarkable field of X-ray astronomy. In The Restless Universe, astronomer Eric Schlegel offers readers an informative survey of this cutting-edge science. Two major space observatories launched in the last few years--NASA's Chandra and the European Newton--are now orbiting the Earth, sending back a gold mine of data on the X-ray universe. Schlegel, who has worked on the Chandra project for seven years, describes the building and launching of this space-based X-ray observatory. But the book goes far beyond the story of Chandra. What Schlegel provides here is the background a nonscientist would need to grasp the present and follow the future of X-ray astronomy. He looks at the relatively brief history of the field, the hardware used to detect X-rays, the satellites--past, present, and future--that have been or will be flown to collect the data, the way astronomers interpret this data, and, perhaps most important, the insights we have already learned as well as speculations about what we may soon discover. And throughout the book, Schlegel conveys the excitement of looking at the universe from the perspective brought by these new observatories and the sharper view they deliver. Drawing on observations obtained from Chandra, Newton, and previous X-ray observatories, The Restless Universe gives a first look at an exciting field which significantly enriches our understanding of the universe.

Highly readable introduction to modern physics, written by a Nobel laureate, develops general concepts of Newtonian mechanics and thermodynamics. Additional topics include the structure of the atom and nuclear physics.

This 12-hour free course introduced major achievements and figures in the history of physics.

'The Restless Universe' presents a fascinating overview of the 'big ideas' that have shaped the world of physics from the time of Copernicus to the present day. Main developments covered include the mechanical universe, thermodynamics, electromagnetism and the concept of fields, relativity and quantum mechanics. As well as theories of scientific discovery, the book features rare biographical insights into the lives of leading physicists and the impact their ideas have on how we live.

The Restless Universe: Applications of Gravitational N-Body Dynamics to Planetary Stellar and Galactic Systems stimulates the cross-fertilization of ideas, methods, and applications among the different communities who work in the gravitational N-body problem arena, across diverse fields of astrophysics. The chapters and topics cover three broad the

Post-modernism constructed by a master, Raffel's stories dance and delight the reader on each page.