The Cosmic Perspective

Building on a long tradition of effective pedagogy and comprehensive coverage, The Cosmic Perspective, Seventh Edition provides a thoroughly engaging and up-to-date introduction to astronomy for non-science majors. The text provides a wealth of features that enhance skill-building, including new group work exercises that help you retain concepts longer and build communication skills for the future. The Seventh Edition has also been fully updated to include the latest astronomical observations, results from recent space missions, research, and theoretical developments that inform our understanding of the early universe.

 

Note: This is a standalone book.

  

Two volumes of this text are also available:

• The Cosmic Perspective: The Solar System, Seventh Edition (includes Chapters 1–13, 24)
• The Cosmic Perspective: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology, Seventh Edition (includes Chapters 1–6,  S2–S4, 14–24)

 

Jeffrey Bennett
Jeffrey Bennett holds a B.A. (1981) in biophysics from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.S. and Ph.D. (1987) in astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has taught at every level from preschool through graduate school, including more than 50 college classes in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and education. He served 2 years as a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters, where he created NASA’s “IDEAS” program, started a program to fly teachers aboard NASA’s airborne observatories (including SOFIA), and worked on numerous educational programs for the Hubble Space Telescope and other space science missions. He also proposed the idea for and helped develop both the Colorado Scale Model Solar System on the CU-Boulder campus and the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. In addition to this astronomy textbook, he is also lead author of college-level textbooks in astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics (all from Pearson); of critically acclaimed two books for the general public including , On the Cosmic Horizon (Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2001) and Beyond UFOs (Princeton University Press, 2008/2011) and Math for Life (Roberts & Co, 2012); and an of the award-winning series of children’s books that includes Max Goes to the Moon, Max Goes to Mars, Max Goes to Jupiter, and Max’s Ice Age AdventureThe Wizard Who Saved the World. When not working, he enjoys participating in masters swimming and in the daily adventures of life with his wife, Lisa; his children, Grant and Brooke; and his dog, Cosmo. His personal Web site is www.jeffreybennett.com.

 

Megan Donahue
Megan Donahue is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University. Her current research is mainly about using X-ray, UV, infrared, and visible light to study clusters of galaxies: their contents–dark matter, hot gas, galaxies, active galactic nuclei–and what they reveal about the contents of the universe and how galaxies form and evolve. She grew up on a farm in Nebraska and received an S.B.. in physics from MIT, where she began her research career as an X-ray astronomer. She has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado. Her Ph.D. thesis on theory and optical observations of intergalactic and intracluster gas won the 1993 Trumpler Award from the Astronomical Society for the Pacific for an outstanding astrophysics doctoral dissertation in North America. She continued postdoctoral research as a Carnegie Fellow at Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and later as an STScI Institute Fellow at Space Telescope. Megan was a staff astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute until 2003, when she joined the MSU faculty. Megan is married to Mark Voit, and they collaborate on many projects, including this textbook and the raising of their children, Michaela, Sebastian, and Angela. Between the births of Sebastian and Angela, Megan qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon. These days, Megan runs trails, orienteers, and plays piano and bass guitar whenever her children allow it.
 
Nicholas Schneider
Nicholas Schneider is an associate professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado and a researcher in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He received his B.A. in physics and astronomy from Dartmouth College in 1979 and his Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona in 1988. In 1991, he received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award. His research interests include planetary atmospheres and planetary astronomy, with a focus on the odd case of Jupiter’s moon Io. He enjoys teaching at all levels and is active in efforts to improve undergraduate astronomy education. Off the job, he enjoys exploring the outdoors with his family and figuring out how things work.
 
Mark Voit
Mark Voit is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University. He earned his A.B. in astrophysical sciences at Princeton University and his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Colorado in 1990. He continued his studies at the California Institute of Technology, where he was a research fellow in theoretical astrophysics, and then moved on to Johns Hopkins University as a Hubble Fellow. Before going to Michigan State, Mark worked in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope, where he developed museum exhibitions about the Hubble Space Telescope and helped design NASA’s award-winning HubbleSite. His research interests range from interstellar processes in our own galaxy to the clustering of galaxies in the early universe. He is married to coauthor Megan Donahue, and cooks terrific meals for her and their three children. Mark likes getting outdoors whenever possible and particularly enjoys running, mountain biking, canoeing, orienteering, and adventure racing. He is also author of the popular book Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe.

I. DEVELOPING PERSPECTIVE

1. Our Place in the Universe 

2. Discovering the Universe for Yourself

3. The Science of Astronomy

S1. Celestial Timekeeping and Navigation

II. KEY CONCEPTS FOR ASTRONOMY

4. Making Sense of the Universe: Understanding Motion, Energy, and Gravity

5. Light and Matter: Reading Messages from the Cosmos

6. Telescopes: Portals of Discovery

III. LEARNING FROM OTHER WORLDS

7. Our Planetary System

8. Formation of the Solar System

9. Planetary Geology: Earth and the Other Terrestrial Worlds

10. Planetary Atmospheres: Earth and the Other Terrestrial Worlds

11. Jovian Planet Systems

12. Asteroids, Comets, and Dwarf Planets: Their Nature, Orbits, and Impacts

13. Other Planetary Systems: The New Science of Distant Worlds

IV. A DEEPER LOOK AT NATURE

S2. Space and Time

S3. Spacetime and Gravity

S4. Building Blocks of the Universe

V. STARS

14. Our Star

15. Surveying the Stars

16. Star Birth

17. Star Stuff

18. The Bizarre Stellar Graveyard

VI. GALAXIES AND BEYOND

19. Our Galaxy

20. Galaxies and the Foundation of Modern Cosmology

21. Galaxy Evolution

22. Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Universe

23. The Beginning of Time

VII. LIFE ON EARTH AND BEYOND

24. Life in the Universe