This book explores the nature, evolution and life story of the most numerous inhabitants in space: the stars. These bodies have been objects of fascination and wonder from the very earliest civilisations onwards. The book begins by looking at stars and constellations as we see them in our skies, and examines some of the ideas that ancient pre-scientific cultures had about their nature, behaviour and significance.
We see how astronomers have been able to discover the true nature of stars and measure their distances, brilliancies, temperatures, and their chemical compositions. Many kinds of stars are covered, including supergiants, white dwarfs, stars that go around in pairs, stars that vary in brightness, and stars that explode.
By looking at how massive stars collapse and explode to form supernovas, we see how bizarre objects such as neutron stars and black holes are created. In old age and death some star's material is absorbed into new generations of stars and planets; eventually though, all of the available gas in our Galaxy will have been converted into stars and star formation will cease. Unbelievable as it may seem, in a few hundred trillion years, stars will no longer shine.
An absorbing account of one of the natural wonders of the Universe, 'Stars And Supernovas' uses the latest research combined with stunning images to take the reader on an amazing journey of discovery through the starry cosmos.
