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ISBN-10: 0-465-05262-2
ISBN-13: 9780465052622
Publisher: Basic Books
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Year: June 1986
Number of pages: 264
Binding: Paperback
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Rudolf Kippenhahn, Jean Steinberg (translator)
Princeton University Press; 1993
Paperback
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How are the nuclear power plants we call »stars« formed? Where do they get their energy and how do they die--and what does this suggest about the future of the universe? One of the most popular books written on astrophysics, 100 Billion Suns provides an exhilarating and authoritative life history of the stars.
reviews
Very good book, it was able to keep me interested and I could learn some new stuff, building on what I've already studied. This book is pretty brainy, there is no fluff. The print is nice and large. I got it very cheap.
with out question one of the most exciting books about star evolution.
I read a lot of astronomy books, so any one book tends only to reinforce what I know already, plus just a little bit of additional information.
This book was different. I learned a lot about star formation and particularly about the meaning of the ubiquitous Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. The diagram is obligatory in a discussion of any astronomy other than planetary, but it tends to be described rather than explained. Here Kipenhahn goes through the life of stars of various sizes, showing their evolution along the H-R diagram and why the »main sequence« is so thickly populated (simply, because that's when the stars are burning hydrogen, which is what they do most but not all of the time).
Once done with the basics, he goes on to cover binary stars, neutron stars, and other stellar oddities. He also devotes a chapter to planetary formation and the possibility of life on other planets. Three brief but valuable appendices cover the measurement of stellar velocities, distances, and masses.
This book is a treasure and an authoritative work on the topic. Highly recommended.
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