Our view of our Galaxy has recently been undergoing an increasing divergence from the traditional standpoint. In this book ten authors discuss in eight chapters how the conceptions of the Milky Way have moved in new directions. Starting with the inner parsec and the Center of the Galaxy, the book gradually moves on to the bulge and its relation to the globular clusters and to the disk, of which the presence of a bar is argued. A new look on the HI distribution in the disk, a synthesis of molecular line surveys and the study of stellar populations are discussed in the last three chapters.

This is volume 5 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, a six-volume compendium of modern astronomical research, covering subjects of key interest to the main fields of contemporary astronomy. This volume on “Galactic Structure and Stellar Populations”, edited by Gerard F. Gilmore, presents accessible review chapters on Stellar Populations, Chemical Abundances as Population Tracers, Metal-Poor Stars and the Chemical Enrichment of the Universe, The Stellar and Sub-Stellar Initial Mass Function of Simple and Composite Populations, The Galactic Nucleus, The Galactic Bulge, Open Clusters and Their Role in the Galaxy, Star Counts and the Nature of Galactic Thick Disk, The Infrared Galaxy, Interstellar PAHs and Dust, Galactic Neutral Hydrogen, High-Velocity Clouds, Magnetic Fields in Galaxies, Astrophysics of Galactic Charged Cosmic Rays, Gamma-Ray Emission of Supernova Remnants and the Origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays, Galactic Distance Scales, Globular Cluster Dynamical Evolution, Dynamics of Disks and Warps, Mass Distribution and Rotation Curve in the Galaxy, Dark Matter in the Galactic Dwarf Spheroidal Satellites, and History of Dark Matter in Galaxies. All chapters of the handbook were written by practicing professionals. They include sufficient background material and references to the current literature to allow readers to learn enough about a specialty within astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology to get started on their own practical research projects. In the spirit of the series Stars and Stellar Systems published by Chicago University Press in the 1960s and 1970s, each chapter of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems can stand on its own as a fundamental review of its respective sub-discipline, and each volume can be used as a textbook or recommended reference work for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate courses. Advanced students and professional astronomers in their roles as both lecturers and researchers will welcome Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems as a comprehensive and pedagogical reference work on astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology.

This review of the most up-to-date observational and theoretical information concerning the chemical evolution of the Milky Way compares the abundances derived from field stars and clusters, giving information on the abundances and dynamics of gas.

The formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the most important topics in modern astrophysics. Secular evolution refers to the relatively slow dynamical evolution due to internal processes induced by a galaxy's spiral arms, bars, galactic winds, black holes and dark matter haloes. It plays an important role in the evolution of spiral galaxies with major consequences for galactic bulges, the transfer of angular momentum, and the distribution of a galaxy's constituent stars, gas and dust. This internal evolution is in turn the key to understanding and testing cosmological models of galaxy formation and evolution. Based on the twenty-third Winter School of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, this volume presents reviews from nine world-renowned experts on the observational and theoretical research into secular processes, and what these processes can tell us about the structure and formation of galaxies. The volume provides a firm grounding for graduate students and early career researchers working on galactic dynamics and galaxy evolution.

No modern astronomer made a more profound contribution to our understanding of the cosmos than did Edwin Hubble, who first conclusively demonstrated that the universe is expanding. Basing his theory on the observation of the change in distanct galaxies, called red shift, Hubble showed that this is a Doppler effect, or alteration in the wavelength of light, resulting from the rapid motion of celestial objects away from Earth. In 1935, Hubble described his principal observations and conclusions in the Silliman lectures at Yale University. These lectures were published the following year as "The Realm of the Nebulae," which quickly became a classic work.

How does it happen that billions of stars can cooperate to produce the beautiful spirals that characterize so many galaxies, including ours? This book reviews the history behind the discovery of spiral galaxies and the problems faced when trying to explain the existence of spiral structure within them. In the book, subjects such as galaxy morphology and structure are addressed as well as several models for spiral structure. The evidence in favor or against these models is discussed. The book ends by discussing how spiral structure can be used as a proxy for other properties of spiral galaxies, such as their dark matter content and their central supermassive black hole masses, and why this is important.

This review examines all the key physical processes involved in the formation and evolution of the Milky Way, based on an international meeting held in Granada (Spain).