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Very Short Introductions #322
Stars: A Very Short Introduction
Every atom of our bodies has been part of a star. Our very own star, the Sun, is crucial to the development and sustainability of life on Earth. This Very Short Introduction presents a modern, authoritative examination of how stars live, producing all the chemical elements beyond helium, and how they die, sometimes spectacularly, to end as remnants such as black holes.
Andrew King shows how understanding the stars is key to understanding the galaxies they inhabit, and thus the history of our entire Universe, as well as the existence of planets like our own. King presents a fascinating exploration of the science of stars, from the mechanisms that allow stars to form and the processes that allow them to shine, as well as the results of their inevitable death.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Andrew King shows how understanding the stars is key to understanding the galaxies they inhabit, and thus the history of our entire Universe, as well as the existence of planets like our own. King presents a fascinating exploration of the science of stars, from the mechanisms that allow stars to form and the processes that allow them to shine, as well as the results of their inevitable death.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
137 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 26, 2012
40 people are currently reading
710 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 21, 2017
Because I couldn't be bothered buying eclipse glasses, I figured I should at least read about the sun. This made up for it, really dense introduction to physics, chemistry and astronomy. Time well spent, as it was cloudy here,have to wait for 2024.
December 30, 2014
The most interesting and clearly written book I've read on this subject. In his preface, he mentions "there are simple equations and the book should be accessible to anyone with some recollection of school science," so I started off nervous trying to remember what I remember, but I never stumbled because he explains the ideas in a way that makes them very easy to understand. It may sound funny that a text on astronomy is a page-turner, but it's true. I could hardly put it down.
December 2, 2021
Fundamental fact of stellar life: massive stars have short lives, and low-mass stars live almost forever – certainly far longer than the current age of the Universe.
Once the Hydrogen atoms coalesce, and starts fusing to form Helium, there comes the light.
Mass of the helium nucleus is suggestively close to four times the mass of a hydrogen atom. If the Sun and stars can find a way of making four hydrogen atoms combine to make a helium atom, we can see an amount of energy will be released equal to 0.7% of the total hydrogen mass times c2. This may not sound a lot, but just consider the energy given by transmuting only one kilogram of hydrogen into helium. The speed of light is such a large number (3 × 10^8 metres per second) that one kilogram would release the staggering energy of 6 × 1014 joules. This would meet the energy consumption of the entire world for 8 minutes.
Pulsars:
The energy source for pulsing X-ray sources is accretion, not rotation. To explain why these sources pulse, we have to arrange for accretion spots on the surface rather than the spots of radio emission in pulsars. The obvious answer is again the intense magnetic field we expect a neutron star to have. This is so strong that the accreting gas cannot cross the magnetic field lines. Instead, the gas slides down these lines, landing near the magnetic poles of the neutron star, and making the accretion spots that lead to the pulsing.
Neutron stars:
Neutron stars, like white dwarfs, cannot exist above a certain mass. The precise value of this maximum mass is more uncertain than for white dwarfs, because the physics determining the relation between pressure and density is complicated by nuclear physics. But simple arguments tell us that the maximum mass cannot be much larger than about three times the mass of the Sun, whatever this physics requires. So astronomers have a relatively simple way of picking out black holes from other other X-ray sources: if they can measure the mass of the accreting star and find that it is larger than three solar masses, it must be a black hole.
"Neutron stars 1.4Black Holes>3*Ms
Where,
Ms--> Mass of the sun"
When the last of the stars will be dying in the far future of the universe, Black holes will still be dominating the darkness, slowly fading away....
Once the Hydrogen atoms coalesce, and starts fusing to form Helium, there comes the light.
Mass of the helium nucleus is suggestively close to four times the mass of a hydrogen atom. If the Sun and stars can find a way of making four hydrogen atoms combine to make a helium atom, we can see an amount of energy will be released equal to 0.7% of the total hydrogen mass times c2. This may not sound a lot, but just consider the energy given by transmuting only one kilogram of hydrogen into helium. The speed of light is such a large number (3 × 10^8 metres per second) that one kilogram would release the staggering energy of 6 × 1014 joules. This would meet the energy consumption of the entire world for 8 minutes.
Pulsars:
The energy source for pulsing X-ray sources is accretion, not rotation. To explain why these sources pulse, we have to arrange for accretion spots on the surface rather than the spots of radio emission in pulsars. The obvious answer is again the intense magnetic field we expect a neutron star to have. This is so strong that the accreting gas cannot cross the magnetic field lines. Instead, the gas slides down these lines, landing near the magnetic poles of the neutron star, and making the accretion spots that lead to the pulsing.
Neutron stars:
Neutron stars, like white dwarfs, cannot exist above a certain mass. The precise value of this maximum mass is more uncertain than for white dwarfs, because the physics determining the relation between pressure and density is complicated by nuclear physics. But simple arguments tell us that the maximum mass cannot be much larger than about three times the mass of the Sun, whatever this physics requires. So astronomers have a relatively simple way of picking out black holes from other other X-ray sources: if they can measure the mass of the accreting star and find that it is larger than three solar masses, it must be a black hole.
"Neutron stars 1.4Black Holes>3*Ms
Where,
Ms--> Mass of the sun"
When the last of the stars will be dying in the far future of the universe, Black holes will still be dominating the darkness, slowly fading away....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2012
Stars are some of the most fascinating objects in the universe. They have exercised an oversize grip on our imagination since the dawn of humanity, and it’s not hard to see why: one look at the clear star-sprinkled night sky will leave everyone in awe. Stars have been imbued with all sorts of meaning throughout history: religious, mystical, poetic, and prophetic. One of the major attitude changes happens when we realized that stars are in fact distant suns, and their faint glimmer is the consequence of their incredibly far distance from us. However, this only replaced one mystery with another: how do the Sun and all the other stars keep shining over the incredibly long time frames without changing their overall appearance noticeably. The solution to that puzzle was finally elucidated in the 20th century with the advent of our fuller understanding of microscopic Physics. This explanation – encapsulate in the field of astrophysics – is the basis of modern understanding of stars, and it is the subject matter of this very short introduction.
In order to properly understand star we need to be familiar with all the physical forces – nuclear, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational. We also need a solid understanding of thermodynamics and fluid dynamics. In other words – learning about stars is an excellent way of learning about Physics in general. This book provides an excellent overview of all the physical mechanisms and processes that go into making of a star. The book goes into some detail of the evolution of individual stars. This is a very fascinating topic in its own right, especially when it comes to the later stages of stellar evolution. If stars are massive enough, then their ends can be quite violent resulting in a spectacular explosion known as a supernova. The remnants of such massive stellar endpoints are some of the most exotic objects in the Universe: neutron stars and black holes. These objects would in principle be hard, if not impossible, to observe, but fortunately there is enough of them in the binary stellar systems and in such configurations their existence can be deduced from the effects they have on the companion star and the surrounding matter. Unfortunately, unlike the end stages of the stellar evolution, the origins of stars are still much less well understood, and this is an area of active current theoretical and observational research.
This book is incredibly well written and lucid in its presentation. The author definitely comes across as an expert and authority in the field, and the book presents the best and latest understanding of the stars and their structure. My only issue with this book is that it may be a bit too advanced for the general reader. Many of its explanation and arguments seem very straightforward and reasonable, but in fact rely on the kind of physical intuition that you only develop after having taken a few semesters of college Physics. This is particularly true of the arguments that depend on simple proportionality equations and their manipulations. For us Physicists these sorts of equation manipulations become the second nature, and we tend to forget that most people rarely think along these lines in their everyday lives. If your general Physics background is a bit shaky I would suggest to keep these caveats in mind when reading this book.
In order to properly understand star we need to be familiar with all the physical forces – nuclear, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational. We also need a solid understanding of thermodynamics and fluid dynamics. In other words – learning about stars is an excellent way of learning about Physics in general. This book provides an excellent overview of all the physical mechanisms and processes that go into making of a star. The book goes into some detail of the evolution of individual stars. This is a very fascinating topic in its own right, especially when it comes to the later stages of stellar evolution. If stars are massive enough, then their ends can be quite violent resulting in a spectacular explosion known as a supernova. The remnants of such massive stellar endpoints are some of the most exotic objects in the Universe: neutron stars and black holes. These objects would in principle be hard, if not impossible, to observe, but fortunately there is enough of them in the binary stellar systems and in such configurations their existence can be deduced from the effects they have on the companion star and the surrounding matter. Unfortunately, unlike the end stages of the stellar evolution, the origins of stars are still much less well understood, and this is an area of active current theoretical and observational research.
This book is incredibly well written and lucid in its presentation. The author definitely comes across as an expert and authority in the field, and the book presents the best and latest understanding of the stars and their structure. My only issue with this book is that it may be a bit too advanced for the general reader. Many of its explanation and arguments seem very straightforward and reasonable, but in fact rely on the kind of physical intuition that you only develop after having taken a few semesters of college Physics. This is particularly true of the arguments that depend on simple proportionality equations and their manipulations. For us Physicists these sorts of equation manipulations become the second nature, and we tend to forget that most people rarely think along these lines in their everyday lives. If your general Physics background is a bit shaky I would suggest to keep these caveats in mind when reading this book.
August 7, 2016
Comprehensive but problematic - the edition's proofing wasn't the best; King's explanations were often cloudy, and suffered from a wandering lack of focus.
October 5, 2023
"Güneş için bu zaman ölçeklerinin üçünü de gördük. Nükleer zaman 10 milyar yıl, termal zaman 30 milyon yıl, dinamik zaman ise sadece yarım saattir."
İş Kültür Bilim Serisi'nin 19 numaralı kitabı ünvanını alan bu müthiş kitap her gün gökyüzüne baktığımızda bizim varlığımız için en önemli olanını gördüğümüz yıldızları konu alıyor.
Övmeye nereden başlasam bilemediğim için öncelikle seriden bahsedeceğim. Kişisel olarak bu seriyle obsesif bir bağım var. Her kitabını okumak ve yenileri çıkmaya devam etse bile hepsine sahip olmak istiyorum. (Çok iyi bir kitaplık köşesi olacağından emin olabilirsiniz!) Ancak serinin her kitabı tabii ki aynı kalitede değil. Genel anlamda bütün seri iyi tanımını elde edebilecek olsa da vasat diyebileceğimiz kitaplar da serinin içinde mevcut. Bu da bizi "Yıldızlar" a getiriyor. Yıldızlar bana göre okuduklarım içerisinden serinin en iyi kitabı. Konu bakımından çok yakın olan "Galaksiler" i daha önce okumuştum ama keşke onu okumadan önce Yıldızlar çıkmış olsaydı!
Yıldızlar'ı iyi yapan şey ismindeki "kısa bir giriş" tabirine tam uygun olması. Bu basitlik kitapta aktarılan her bilginin özümsenmesini sağlıyor. İlkokulda öğrendiğimiz kütle, yoğunluk, basınç gibi tabirler yeterli kitabı takip edebilmek için. Böylece evrendeki bütün yıldızları anlamak için gerekli yeterliliği sağlamış oluyoruz. Kitabın anlatısı ise ideal ve ilgi çekici bir biçimde ilerliyor. Bizim için en tanıdık yıldız Güneş ile başlayarak Güneş'in neden kendi kendini yok etmediği veya nasıl bu kadar istikrarlı bir biçimde çok uzun süredir varlığını devam ettirdiği gibi sorular sorarak interaktif bir biçimde bilgilere dalıyoruz. (Burada yine kitabın hakkını vermek gerek, tıpkı yüzlerce sene önce hiçbir bilgisi olmadan göklere bakan meraklı kişiler gibi ilerleyerek işin özünü anlamamızda ekstra yardımcı oluyor.) Yıldızlar hakkında bilgi birikimi edinirken varoluş konusunda düşüncelere dalmamak mümkün değil. Bu sebeple gerçekten efor isteyen bir kitap. En ufak dikkat dağınıklığı yoldan sapmanıza ve birden kendinizi yahu bu denklemler ile çıkarımlar nereden geldi diye sorgulamanıza sebep olabilir. İstediği dikkatin karşılığını ise kesinlikle veren bir eser bana göre.
Belki sadece kişisel bir zevkti ama konusu sayesinde ilham dolu bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum. Virial Teorem'in astrofizik sahnesindeki basitliği, Yıdızların canlı bir organizma olmamasına rağmen var olmaya devam etmelerinin sebebinin tıpkı canlılar gibi yine "var olmak" olması, Hidrojen'den Helyum'a geçerek başlayan sürecin önce bileşenleri, yeni kimyasalları, maddeleri ve en sonunda bir bakıma bizi oluşturmasındaki büyüsellik, en sonunda "Hepimiz Yıldız Tozuyuz" tabirinin makul bir bilimsel açıklamasına kavuşmak beni fazlasıyla etkileyen bilgilerdi. "Kurgu Dışı" dediğimiz türün en önemli problemlerinden biri olan akıcılık konusunda bir sorunu olmayan bir kitaptı.
Son olarak, kitabın muhteşem analojilerinden söz etmemek mümkün değil. Bana göre kitabı güzel yapan ve bütün bu basitliği sağlayan da bu. "Battaniyenin İçi" , "Çok sayıda ağaçtan oluşan bir orman" ve "Yıldızların Cesetleri" kesinlikle çok sağlam ve anlaşılabilir benzetmeler. Zaten dünyanın en karmaşık konularını bile aktarılabilir yapan analojilerin böyle etkin bir biçimde kullanımıdır her daim.
Tüm kitap boyunca yıldızların evrimi ve yaşamlarını sürdürmelerinin arkasındaki gizemi işleyip en kaotik ve tartışılabilir bölüm olan yıldızların nasıl doğduğu sorusunun sona bırakılması ise kitap için son derece uyumlu bir son olmuş. Ben de artık yıldızları seyrederken bu soruyu sona bırakacak ve kendime cevabı bilmeden hesap yapmaya başlamamayı sonsuza dek hatırlatacağım! (:
June 8, 2024
Stars: A Very Short Introduction" is an engaging and informative book that captures the excitement of astronomy. The first half of the book is particularly thrilling and easy to get through. It explains big concepts about stars like their size, brightness, and life cycles in a way that's easy to understand. However, the chapter on binary neutron stars and black holes is a bit complex due to the math. Despite this, the book provides a great overview and is quite enjoyable. It's a small book packed with interesting details, perfect for anyone curious about the stars. Overall, this is a fun and insightful read.
June 18, 2019
Another excellent offering from the 'Very Short Introduction' collection. I have read several of these before and like the substance offered, which is more than you get in a coffee table book but less than a textbook. Having said that, this one was a lot more technical than others I have read. There is a level of mathematical understanding to appreciate the size, mass, and luminosity of stars and furthermore to understand how the distance to the stars is calculated. This book has whetted my appetite. I'm now planning to read more in the series: Galaxies, Cosmology, Planets, Moons.
April 16, 2018
really cool little book. the chapter on binary neutron/black holes and their other star the math was a bit hard to follow but the rest on size and luminosity and life cycles were really interesting. we are all start dust. (heard it before) the bit on how stars are formed was a little light. (heh heh) not sure if I read this more for astronomy or physics but it was fun for both.
July 18, 2018
Good book that does what the title suggests. Covers the physics, classifications, life-cycles etc. I found the introduction to the virial theorem a bit confusing - should probably re-read it as this is central to the rest of the book.
November 16, 2018
Kinda cool!
September 5, 2021
Exactly what I was hoping for
An excellent overview of the lifecycle of stars. Makes one wonder what we’ll do once our sun reaches the limit of supporting life.
An excellent overview of the lifecycle of stars. Makes one wonder what we’ll do once our sun reaches the limit of supporting life.
April 6, 2023
Physics 😭😭 still good though!!
October 29, 2021
First half of the book was good, thought me some some things, but the later chapters were a bit boring and tedious. I felt like other books described the later chapters better. All around a pretty good book for a brief look into stellar physics, a very quick read/refresher.
April 17, 2013
The book I read to research this post was Stars A Very Short Introduction by Andrew King which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. I think you need a good knowledge of maths to understand this book & quite a lot of this book tells you how they calculate things like a stars mass. It's an interesting addition to this series although I preferred Galaxies & Planets in this series. The universe is twice as old as our sun and so isn't really as old as you might expect. The biggest stars are about 100 times as massive as the sun and the smallest are about 1/10th. Neutron stars are only about 10 kilometres in radius but have about the same mass as the sun and one cupful of matter from one of these would weigh tons. If a star has more than an initial mass of 7 times the mass of the sun it won't end its days as a white dwarf and will end as either a nova or supernova. That's when a star gets very hot and sheds much of its mass making it more bright. The reaction going on in a star is the conversion of hydrogen into helium by fusion or nuclear reaction. This is a chain reaction and some of the helium changes back into hydrogen due to being unstable at these high temperatures. Other elements are made in this reaction but only relatively small amounts. The core of a star tends to be mostly helium. In a red giant the core is compressed until it spills out in a huge reaction making the star much bigger. These stars have a lower surface temperature than the sun hence they glow red.
January 1, 2014
What an amazing book! Quite technical as it needs to be to tell how we gained our knowledge of stars by observations, logic, and application of principles of science.
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July 16, 2015523.8 K521 2012
September 25, 2015
This book gives a good understanding of Stars and their life-cycle without going into too much of Mathematics.
Currently reading
March 28, 2018There is a lot of information in this book. I have re-read the first two chapter twice before proceeding because I want to understand the basics to build on. So far, very informative. Page 29.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews