Spacecraft for Astronomy - 9780816057740

When two streams of technical development remote sensing and space flight joined forces in the middle of the 20th century, this technological union caused a major revolution in observational astronomy similar to when Galileo Galilei held his first primitive telescope up to the heavens in 1610. Spacecraft for Astronomy takes a close look at these types of phenomena by examining the important roles that astronomical instruments now play above the Earth's atmosphere. This illustrated volume describes the historic events, scientific principles, and technical breakthroughs that allow complex orbiting astronomical observatories to increase our understanding of the universe, its origin, and its destiny.

Spacecraft for Astronomy contains a specially selected collection of illustrations, which features historic, contemporary, and future space observatories, and allows students to appreciate the tremendous technical progress that has been made since the dawn of the Space Age. A generous number of sidebars are strategically positioned throughout the book to provide expanded discussions of fundamental scientific concepts and observational techniques. Capsule biographies of key scientists in the field highlight the human dimension in the development and operation of astronomical spacecraft.

Chapters include:

• From Petroglyphs to the Spitzer Space Telescope
• High Energy Astrophysics: Meeting the Universe Face-To-Face
• A Revolution in Planetary Astronomy
• Optical Astronomy and the Hubble Space Telescope
• Gamma Ray Astronomy and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
• X-Ray Astronomy and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory
• Infrared Astronomy and the Spitzer Space Telescope
• Ultraviolet Astronomy and the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
• A Visit to the Nearest Star: Space-Based Solar Physics
• The Moon as a Platform for Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Searching for Extrasolar Planets, Brown Dwarfs, and Dark Matter
• Looking for Wrinkles in the Cosmic Microwave Background and Other Cosmological Quests.