• Back to main page: Galaxies in the Universe

    Galaxies in the Universe: the second edition has about 421 pages

    Sections that are new or extensively reorganized between first and second editions are indicated in red.

    Chapter 1: Introduction

    1.1 The stars
    Star light, star bright ... / Stellar spectra / The lives of the stars / Binary stars / Stellar photometry: the magnitude system
    1.2 Our Milky Way
    Gas in the Milky Way/ What's where in the Milky Way: coordinate systems
    1.3 Other galaxies
    Galaxy photometry
    1.4 Galaxies in the expanding Universe
    Densities and ages
    1.5 The pregalactic era: a brief history of matter
    The hot early Universe / Making the elements / Recombination: light and matter uncoupled

    Chapter 2: Mapping our Milky Way

    2.1 The solar neighborhood / Trigonometric parallax / Luminosity functions and mass functions
    2.2 The stars in the Galaxy
    Distances from motions / Spectroscopic parallax: the vertical structure of the disk / Distances to star clusters /
    An infrared view: the bulge and nucleus
    2.3 Galactic rotation
    Measuring the Galactic rotation curve / Dark matter in the Milky Way
    2.4 Milky Way meteorology: the interstellar gas
    Mapping the gas layer / A physical picture

    Chapter 3: The orbits of the stars

    3.1 Motion under gravity: weighing the Galaxy
    3.2 Why the Galaxy isn't bumpy: two-body relaxation
    Strong close encounters / Distant weak encounters / Effects of two-body relaxation
    3.3 Orbits of disk stars: epicycles
    3.4 The collisionless Boltzmann equation
    Mass density in the Galactic disk / Integrals of motion, and some of their uses

    Chapter 4: Our backyard: the Local Group

    4.1 Satellites of the Milky Way
    The Magellanic Clouds / Variable stars as `standard candles' / Dwarf spheroidal galaxies / Life in orbit: the tidal limit
    4.2 Spirals of the Local Group
    The Andromeda galaxy / M33: a late-type spiral
    4.3 How did the Local Group galaxies form?
    Making the Milky Way / The buildup of heavy elements
    4.4 Dwarf galaxies in the Local Group
    Dwarf ellipticals and dwarf spheroidals / Dwarf irregular galaxies
    4.5 Past and future of the Local Group

    Chapter 5: Spiral and S0 galaxies

    5.1 The distribution of starlight
    Astronomical array detectors / Surface photometry of disk galaxies
    5.2 Observing the gas
    Radio telescopes / Cool gas in the disk
    5.3 Gas motions and the masses of disk galaxies
    The rotation curve / Dark matter in disk galaxies / The Tully-Fisher relation
    5.4 Interlude: the sequence of disk galaxies
    5.5 Spiral arms and galactic bars
    Observed spiral patterns / Theories for spiral structure / Barred disks
    5.6 Bulges and centers of disk galaxies
    Bulges / Nuclei and central black holes

    Chapter 6: Elliptical galaxies

    6.1 Photometry
    The shapes of elliptical galaxies / Twisty, disky, or boxy?
    6.2 Motions of the stars
    Measuring stellar velocities / The Faber-Jackson relation and the fundamental plane / How fast should an elliptical galaxy rotate? / Stellar orbits in a triaxial galaxy
    6.3 Stellar populations and gas
    6.4 Dark matter and black holes
    Dark halos / Central black holes

    Chapter 7: Galaxy Groups and Clusters

    7.1 Groups: the homes of disk galaxies
    Close encounters between galaxies: dynamical friction / Galaxy mergers and starbursts
    7.2 Rich clusters: the domain of elliptical galaxies
    Hot gas in clusters of galaxies / Where have all the baryons gone?
    7.3 Galaxy Formation: nature, nurture, or merger?
    7.4 Intergalactic dark matter: gravitational lensing
    Microlensing: light bent by a compact object / Lensing by galaxies and clusters / Weak gravitational lensing

    Chapter 8: The large-scale distribution of galaxies

    8.1 Large-scale structure today
    Measures of galaxy clustering
    8.2 Expansion of a homogeneous Universe
    How old is that galaxy? Lookback times and ages
    8.3 Observing the earliest galaxies
    Luminosity, size and surface brightness / How many galaxies: Space densities
    8.4 Growth of structure: from small beginnings
    Fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation/ Peculiar motions of galaxies / How do peculiar velocities build up? / Weighing galaxy clusters with peculiar motions / Tidal torques: how did galaxies get their spin?
    8.5 Growth of structure: clusters, walls, and voids
    Pressure battles gravity: the Jeans mass / WIMPSs to to the rescue! / How early can galaxies and clusters form? / Using galaxies to test model cosmologies

    Chapter 9: Active galactic nuclei and the early history of galaxies

    9.1 Active galactic nuclei
    Seyfert galaxies / Radio galaxies / Synchrotron emission from radio galaxies / Quasars
    9.2 Fast jets in galactic nuclei, microquasars and gamma-ray bursts
    Superluminal motion and beaming in relativistic jets / Microquasars: relativistic jets in stellar binaries / Fast jets from exploding stars: gamma-ray bursts
     9.3 Intergalactic gas
    Neutral gas: damped Lyman-&alpha clouds / Metals in the intergalactic gas / The Lyman-&alpha forest
    9.4 The first galaxies
    Lyman break galaxies / Observing the earliest galaxies / How and when did galaxies form? / Hidden stars: submillimeter galaxies and molecular gas / Old, red and dead? / The starforming history of the Universe

    Appendix

    A. Units and conversions
    B. Bibliography
    C. Hints for problems

    Index