List of Figures vii Preface xi Chapter 1. The Age o Myths and Speculations 1 1.1 Ancient Egypt and the Middle East 2 1.2 Ionia: The Eastern Greek School 4 1.3 Southern Italy: The Western Greek School 6 1.4 The Athenian Period 7 1.5 The Alexandrian Period 12 1.6 From the Dark Age to the Renaissance 16 1.7 The Emergence of Modern Astronomy 22 Chapter 2. Three Centuries of Optical Discoveries: 1610-1910 29 2.1 Distances to the Sun and the Stars 30 2.2 The Beginnings of Spectroscopy 33 2.3 The Sun as a Star 40 2.4 Solar Activity and Rotation 43 2.5 Intrinsic Properties of Stars 47 2.6 Binary Stars and Stellar Masses 56 2.7 Variable and Unusual Stars 59 2.8 The Rise of Astrophysics 64 Chapter 3. The Time of Pioneers: 1840-1910 66 3.1 The Puzzle of the Sun's Energy 67 3.2 The First Solar Models 73 3.3 The Pulsation Theory of Variable Stars (I) 79 3.4 The Double-Star Problem 81 3.5 Early Views of Stellar Evolution 84 3.6 Outline of Solar Activity and Rotation 88 3.7 Retrospect: The Nineteenth-Century Advances 91 Chapter 4. The Formative Years: 1910-1940 94 4.1 The Beginnings of Quantitative Astrophysics 96 4.2 The Stellar-Energy Problem 100 4.3 The Internal Structure of Stars 103 4.4 Pre-1938 Views of Stellar Evolution 110 4.5 White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars 114 4.6 The Pulsation Theory of Variable Stars (II) 120 4.7 The Early Studies of Stellar Rotation 123 4.8 Solar and Stellar Hydrodynamics 128 Chapter 5. The Golden Age: 1940-1970 133 5.1 Nuclear Reactions and Energy Production in Stars 135 5.2 Calculation of Stellar Structure 143 5.3 A Brief Survey of Stellar Evolution 147 5.4 Postgiant Evolution and Stellar Remnants 156 5.5 Evolution of Close Binary Stars 166 5.6 The Pulsation Theory of Variable Stars (III) 173 5.7 Stellar Rotation and Magnetic Fields 177 5.8 The Maturing of Solar Physics 183 Chapter 6. The Era of Specialization: 1970-192 6.1 Single, Double, and Multiple Stars 193 6.2 Early-Type Stars 202 6.3 The Sun 210 6.4 Late-Type Stars 220 6.5 The Pulsation Theory of Variable Stars (IV) 228 6.6 Final Stages of Stellar Evolution 234 Epilogue 247 Appendix A. Lane's Fully Convective Gas Spheres 250 Appendix B. Ritter's Polytropic Gas Spheres 251 Appendix C. Ritter's Theory o Pulsating Stars 252 Appendix D. Radial and Nonradial Stellar Pulsations 254 Appendix E. Bohr's Model of the Atom 257 Appendix F. Einstein's Mass-Energy Relation 260 Appendix G. Three Important Nuclear Reactions 263 General Bibliography 265 Index of Names 269 Index of Subjects 277
Unusually well researched and well written, this book is much more than a history. Written by two active astrophysical researchers, it has the distinction of being both a thorough history and an excellent introduction to the finer points of this difficult but important field. Rather than spoonfeeding sophisticated theory to its readers, as some books do, it leads its readers through the instructive if sometimes circuitous paths that the pioneers in the field followed. It does this so well that a reader will find even the most arcane topics to be understandable in a satisfying way. I have not seen this accomplished before so expertly. -- Paul W. Hodge, Editor of "The Astronomical Journal", author of "Higher than Everest: An Adventurer's Guide to the Solar System" Comprehensive without being tedious, this book is particularly valuable--indeed, exceptional--for its presentation of important problems in the field and its stress on theoretical research. I know of no other book that treats the history of stellar physics in such depth. It will broaden the perspective of students who already have a working knowledge of applied math and modern physics; this, at a time when specialization has become so prominent in astronomy. As an astronomer, I enjoyed reading this book and learned a good deal outside my own specialty. -- Jack B. Zirker, former Director of the National Solar Observatory, author of "Journey from the Center of the Sun"
Jean-Louis and Monique Tassoul received the 2001 Paul and Marie Stroobant Prize of the Academie Royale de Belgique for their work on stellar rotation and stellar stability. From 1968 to 1993, Jean-Louis, whose books include "Theory of Rotating Stars" (Princeton), was a faculty member of the Physics Department at the Universite de Montreal.
"This is a fascinating story well told. A host of brief biographies, portraits and figures brings the text to life."--David Hughes,New Scientist "The authors have compressed an amazing amount of information into a relatively slender book, and I expect that it will be a standard reference for many years."--William R. Green, The Leading Edge
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