1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910150446503321

Autore

English Neil

Titolo

Space Telescopes : Capturing the Rays of the Electromagnetic Spectrum / / by Neil English

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2017

ISBN

3-319-27814-2

Edizione

[1st ed. 2017.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XII, 312 p. 103 illus., 88 illus. in color.)

Collana

Astronomers' Universe, , 1614-659X

Disciplina

520

Soggetti

Astronomy

Observations, Astronomical

Astronomy—Observations

History

Space sciences

Popular Science in Astronomy

Astronomy, Observations and Techniques

History of Science

Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Light: Nature's Great Information Superhighway -- Chapter 2: The Hubble Space Telescope - Tragedy and Triumph -- Chapter 3: Hubble - The People's Telescope -- Chapter 4: The Infrared Universe -- Chapter 5: The Gamma Ray Universe -- Chapter 6: The Universe Through Ultraviolet Eyes -- Chapter 7: The X-Ray Universe -- Chapter 8: Probing the Microwave Sky -- Chapter 9: Empire of the Sun -- Chapter 10: Measuring the Heavens -- Chapter 11: Looking to the Future: The James Webb Space Telescope -- Useful Websites on Space Telescopes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

Space telescopes are among humankind’s greatest scientific achievements of the last fifty years. This book describes the instruments themselves and what they were designed to discover about



the Solar System and distant stars. Exactly how these telescopes were built and launched and the data they provided is explored. Only certain kinds of radiation can penetrate our planet's atmosphere, which limits what we can observe. But with space telescopes all this changed. We now have the means to "see" beyond Earth using ultraviolet, microwave, and infrared rays, X-rays and gamma rays. In this book we meet the pioneers and the telescopes that were built around their ideas. This book looks at space telescopes not simply chronologically but also in order of the electromagnetic spectrum, making it possible to understand better why they were made.