Night Vision
Exploring the Infrared Universe

Michael Rowan-Robinson provides a comprehensive history of infrared astronomy in this accessible and well-illustrated guide.

Michael Rowan-Robinson (Author)

9781107024762, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 April 2013

259 pages, 65 b/w illus. 30 colour illus. 1 table
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.56 kg

'The language is accurate and efficient without being excessively technical. … [the book] provides an approachable single source for anyone wishing to understand the major discoveries of infrared astronomy over the past few decades, and sets out the scientific rationale behind the next decade's major ground- and space-based observatories.' Alistair Glasse, The Observatory

Drawing on exciting discoveries of the last forty years, Night Vision explores how infrared astronomy, an essential tool for modern astrophysics and cosmology, helps astronomers reveal our Universe's most fascinating phenomena – from the birth of stars in dense clouds of gas to black holes and distant colliding galaxies and the traffic of interstellar dust from the formation of our Solar System. While surveying the progress in infrared observation, astronomer Michael Rowan-Robinson introduces readers to the pioneering scientists and engineers who painstakingly developed infrared astronomy over the past two hundred years. Accessible and well illustrated, this comprehensive volume is written for the interested science reader, amateur astronomer or university student, while researchers in astronomy and the history of science will find Rowan-Robinson's detailed notes and references a valuable resource.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. William Herschel opens up the invisible universe
3. 1800–1950: slow progress – the moon, planets, bright stars, and the discovery of interstellar dust
4. Dying stars shrouded in dust and stars being born: the emergence of infrared astronomy in the 60s and 70s
5. Birth of far infrared and submillimetre astronomy: clouds of dust and molecules in our Galaxy
6. The cosmic microwave background, echo of the Big Bang
7. The Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the opening up of extragalactic infrared astronomy: starbursts and active galactic nuclei
8. The Cosmic Background Explorer and the ripples, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Explorer, and dark energy
9. Giant ground-based infrared and submillimetre telescopes
10. The Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope: the star-formation history of the universe and infrared galaxy populations
11. Our dusty Solar System, debris disks and the search for exoplanets
12. The future: pioneering space missions and giant ground-based telescopes
Notes
Credits for illustrations
Further reading
Bibliography
Glossary
Index of names
Index.

Subject Areas: Astronomical observation: observatories, equipment & methods [PGG], Astronomy, space & time [PG], Mathematics & science [P]