| Contents |
A hidden ocean on Europa? / Clark R. Chapman -- The Kuiper Belt / Jane Luu -- Case study: Gerard Kuiper and the trans-Neptunian comet belt -- Detecting extra-solar planets / David C. Black -- Interplanetary impact hazards / David Morrison -- Profile: Ernst Chladni and rocks from the sky -- The Orion Nebula: a stellar nursery / C. Robert O'Dell -- Circumstellar disks and the prevalence of life / Steven V.W. Beckwith -- Planetary nebulae / Adam Frank -- Case study: Friedrich Bessel and the companion of Sirius -- When stars collide / Michael M. Shara -- Profile: Cecilia Payne and the composition of the stars -- Galaxies through space and time / Henry C. Ferguson -- Searching for dark matter in galaxies with gravitational lensing / Christopher Stubbs -- Profile: Vera Rubin and dark matter -- Faint galaxies / Julianne Dalcanton -- Active galaxies and black holes / Roeland P. van der Marel -- Case study: John Michell and black holes -- Mapping the universe / Michael A. Strauss -- Case study: the cosmic microwave background radiation -- Cosmic expansion and acceleration / Robert P. Kirshner -- Profile: Fritz Zwicky's extraordinary vision -- Two views of the cosmos / Edward Harrison -- Profile: Ole Roemer and the speed of light -- Case study: Olbers' paradox: why is the sky dark at night? -- What happened before the big bang? / Lee Smolin -- Profile: Georges Lemaître, father of the big bang -- Habitable worlds / Christopher Chyba -- Subsurface life on the earth and other worlds / Thomas Gold -- Can interplanetary rocks carry life? / H.J. Melosh -- Case study: fossil microbes from Mars? |
| Contents |
-- Bringing life to Mars / Christopher P. McKay -- Profile: Carl Sagan and the quest for life in the universe -- Gamma ray bursts / Bohdan Paczynski -- Case study: neutrino observatories -- Astrophysical computer modeling / Mordecai-Mark Mac Low -- NASA's origins program: answering the ancient questions / Alan Dressler -- Profile: Lyman Spitzer and the space telescope -- SETI: the next forty years / Jill C. Tarter. |
| General note | "An American Museum of Natural History book." |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-231). |
| LCCN | 00051101 |
| ISBN | 1565846028 (pbk.) |
