Fundamentals of Astrophysics

Stan Owocki is a professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, following positions at Harvard and U.C. San Diego. He has co-authored more than 300 scientific papers, with his research focussing on mass loss from luminous, massive stars. His teaching at undergraduate to graduate levels includes the development of his flagship 'Fundamental of Astrophysics' course, which form the basis for this textbook.

• Part I. Stellar Properties: 1. Introduction; 2. Astronomical Distances; 3. Stellar Luminosity; 4. Surface Temperature from a Star's Color; 5. Stellar Radius from Luminosity and Temperature; 6. Composition and Ionization from Stellar Spectra; 7. Surface Gravity and Escape/Orbital Speed; 8. Stellar Ages and Lifetimes; 9. Stellar Space Velocities; 10. Using Binary Systems to Determine Masses and Radii; 11. Stellar Rotation; 12. Light Intensity and Absorption; 13. Observational Methods; 14. Our Sun; Part II. Stellar Structure and Evolution: 15. Hydrostatic Balance between Pressure and Gravity; 16. Transport of Radiation from Interior to Surface; 17. Structure of Radiative vs. Convective Stellar Envelopes; 18. Hydrogen Fusion and the Mass Range of Stars; 19. Post-Main-Sequence Evolution: Low-Mass Stars; 20. Post-Main-Sequence Evolution: High-Mass Stars; Part III. Interstellar Medium and Formation of Stars and Planets: 21. The Interstellar Medium (ISM); 22. Star Formation; 23. Origin of Planetary Systems; 24. Water Planet Earth; 25. Extra-Solar Planets; Part IV. Our Milky Way and Other Galaxies: 26. Our Milky Way Galaxy; 27. External Galaxies; 28. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and Quasars; 29. Large Scale Structure and Galaxy Formation and Evolution; Part V. Cosmology: 30. Newtonian Dynamical Model of Universe Expansion; 31. Accelerating Universe with a Cosmological Constant; 32. The Hot Big Bang; 33. Eras in the Evolution of the Universe; Part VI. Appendices.

'Owocki's book is a welcome addition to the handful of good textbooks that cover astrophysics at an introductory level. Building on the typical first year undergraduate STEM curriculum, he makes a thorough quantitative survey of all the important topics in stellar, galactic, and extragalactic astrophysics. Teachable within a one-semester course, this book creates an attractive technical elective in this fascinating field.' Jim Napolitano, Temple University