The Supernova Story

Astronomers believe that a supernova is a massive explosion signaling the death of a star, causing a cosmic recycling of the chemical elements and leaving behind a pulsar, black hole, or nothing at all. In an engaging story of the life cycles of stars, Laurence Marschall tells how early astronomers identified supernovae, and how later scientists came to their current understanding, piecing together observations and historical accounts to form a theory, which was tested by intensive study of SN 1987A, the brightest supernova since 1006. He has revised and updatedThe Supernova Storyto include all the latest developments concerning SN 1987A, which astronomers still watch for possible aftershocks, as well as SN 1993J, the spectacular new event in the cosmic laboratory.

Preface (1994)
Preface (1988)
Acknowledgments
A View from Planet Earth Stars and Stories	p. 1
What Astronomers Do	p. 4
Lights in the Sky	p. 6
Taking Stock of the Sky	p. 7
Messages in Starlight The Measure of the Stars	p. 19
The Doppler Shift and the Motions of Stars	p. 26
The Measure of the Universe	p. 30
New Stars in Ancient Times The Early Records	p. 42
The Chinese Records	p. 45
How to Recognize a Supernova	p. 50
First Millennium Supernovae	p. 54
The Supernova of 1006	p. 56
The Supernova of 1054	p. 59
The Supernova of 1181	p. 65
A Thousand Years of Watching	p. 67
Supernovae and the Revolution in Science Aristotle and the Medieval Cosmos	p. 69
Tycho and the Nova Stella of 1572	p. 74
The New Star of 1604	p. 82
The New Cosmos	p. 86
The Long Wait The Unsteady Stars	p. 90
A Bright Star in Andromeda	p. 94
The Recognition of Supernovae	p. 97
Supernovae Defined	p. 101
The Search Begins	p. 107
High Tech Enters the Picture	p. 111
The Human Eye versus the Eye of the Machine	p. 114
Still Waiting after All These Years	p. 116
Why Stars Explode Supernovae Observed	p. 119
The Life of a Star	p. 125
Over the Brink	p. 130
Light Curves and Spectra	p. 136
Type I Supernovae	p. 139
Growing Distinctions	p. 140
The State of Present Knowledge	p. 142
Wisps and Tatters Supernova Remnants	p. 145
The Crab Nebula	p. 146
The Secret Life of Cassiopeia A	p. 155
Young Supernova Remnants	p. 161
Old Supernova Remnants	p. 164
The Eye of the Storm Looking for Phantoms	p. 169
The Discovery of Pulsars	p. 170
The Nature of the Beast	p. 174
Pulsars, Neutron Stars, and Supernova Remnants	p. 181
From Neutron Stars to Black Holes	p. 186
A Partial Picture	p. 194
Seeding the Stars Atoms and the Universe	p. 197
In the Beginning	p. 201
Element Formation in Stars	p. 203
Seeding the Stars	p. 206
The Journeywork of the Stars	p. 212
Cosmic Dimensions A Universe of Galaxies	p. 217
Probing the Depths of Space	p. 218
Shaping the Galaxies	p. 223
Primordial Supernovae	p. 230
A Death in the Neighborhood A Dot in a Cloud of Light	p. 235
Which Star Exploded?	p. 243
Much Ado about Almost Nothing - The Neutrino Burst	p. 249
Observations and Theories	p. 256
Clues in the Spectra	p. 260
The Mystery Spot	p. 261
What Do We Know So Far?	p. 264
What's Next?	p. 265
Into the Future A New Science	p. 269
New Ways of Looking	p. 271
Prospects	p. 274
Epilogue (1994)	p. 277
Bibliographical Notes	p. 299
Glossary	p. 303
Index	p. 311
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