"Astrophysics of Red Supergiants' is the first book of its kind devoted to our current knowledge of red supergiant stars, a key evolutionary phase that is critical to our larger understanding of massive stars. It provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental physical properties of red supergiants, their evolution, and their extragalactic and cosmological applications. It serves as a reference for researchers from a broad range of fields (including stellar astrophysics, supernovae, and high-redshift galaxies) who are interested in red supergiants as extreme stages of stellar evolution, dust producers, supernova progenitors, extragalactic metallicity indicators, members of massive binaries and mergers, or simply as compelling objects in their own right. The book is accessible to a range of experience levels, from graduate students up to senior researchers."--Source : résumé de l'éditeur.

This book deals with stars during a short episode before they undergo a ma jor, and fatal, transition. Soon the star will stop releasing nudear energy, it will become a planetary nebula for abrief but poetic moment, and then it will turn into a white dwarf and slowly fade out of sight. Just before this dramatic change begins the star has reached the highest luminosity and the largest diameter in its existence, and while it is a star detectable in galaxies beyond the Local Group, its structure contains already the inconspicuous white dwarf it will become. It is called an "asymptotic giant branch star" or "AGB star". Over the last 30 odd years AGB stars have become a topic of their own although individual members of this dass had already been studied for cen turies without realizing what they were. In the early evolution, so called "E-AGB"-phase, the stars are a bit bluer than, but otherwise very similar to, what are now called red giant branch stars (RGB stars). It is only in the sec ond half of their anyhow brief existence that AGB stars differ fundamentally from RGB stars.

Ultraviolet Astronomy and the Quest for the Origin of Life addresses the use of astronomical observations in the ultraviolet range to better understand the generation of complex, life-precursor molecules. The origin of RNA is still under debate but seems to be related to the generation of pools of complex organic molecules submitted to heavy cycles of solution in water and drying. This book investigates whether these cycles require a planetary surface or may occur in space by examining both the theoretical and observational aspects of the role of UV radiation in the origin of life. This book offers the latest advances in these studies for astronomers, astrobiologists and planetary scientists. - Addresses both the theoretical and observational aspects of the role of Ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the origin of life - Builds on the requirements to produce prebiotic molecules in space and the implications for the origin of RNA - Investigates the use of ultraviolet observations related to planetary system formation, the evolution of young planetary disks, and the interaction of stars with planetary atmospheres

Well-balanced, carefully reasoned study covers such topics as Ptolemaic theory, work of Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Eddington's work on stars, much more. Illustrated. References.