Search Publications
Secular Evolution and the Formation of Pseudobulges in Disk Galaxies
Kormendy, John; Kennicutt, Robert C., Jr.
The Universe is in transition. At early times, galactic evolution was dominated by hierarchical clustering and merging, processes that are violent and rapid. In the far future, evolution will mostly be secular the slow rearrangement of energy and mass that results from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral st…
ISO Spectroscopy of Gas and Dust: From Molecular Clouds to Protoplanetary Disks
van Dishoeck, Ewine F.
Observations of interstellar gas-phase and solid-state species in the 2.4 200 m range obtained with the spectrometers on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) are reviewed. Lines and bands caused by ices, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, silicates, and gas-phase atoms and molecules (in particular H2, CO, H2O, OH, and CO…
Eros and Faint Red Galaxies
McCarthy, Patrick J.
This chapter reviews the properties of faint IR-selected field galaxies and the extremely red color-selected populations in particular. These populations are a mix of passively evolving stellar systems and heavily obscured star-forming galaxies. The star-forming component appears to constitute 20 50% of the population depending on the magnitude an…
My Cruise Through the World of Astronomy
Blaauw, Adriaan
I was born in 1914 in Amsterdam. I grew up there, filling my teenage years with activities as an amateur astronomer. I later studied at Leiden University and volunteered at Leiden Observatory. From 1938 to 1945, I was assistant at the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen, including during the war years 1940 1945, returning to Leiden in October 1945. Aft…
The New Solar Corona
Aschwanden, Markus J.; Rabin, Douglas M.; Poland, Arthur I.
We focus on new observational capabilities (Yohkoh, SoHO, TRACE), observations, modeling approaches, and insights into physical processes of the solar corona. The most impressive new results and problems discussed in this article can be appreciated from the movies available on the Annual Reviews website and at http://www.lmsal.com/pub/araa/araa.ht…
The Hubble Deep Fields
Dickinson, Mark; Ferguson, Henry C.; Williams, Robert
The Hubble space telescope observations of the northern Hubble deep field, and more recently its counterpart in the south, provide detections and photometry for stars and field galaxies to the faintest levels currently achievable, reaching magnitudes V ~ 30. Since 1995, the northern Hubble deep field has been the focus of deep surveys at nearly al…
Stellar Structure and Evolution: Deductions from Hipparcos
Lebreton, Yveline
During the last decade, the understanding of fine features of the structure and evolution of stars has become possible as a result of enormous progress made in the acquisition of high-quality observational and experimental data, and of new developments and refinements in the theoretical description of stellar plasmas. The confrontation of high-qua…
Far-Ultraviolet Radiation from Elliptical Galaxies
O'Connell, Robert W.
Far-ultraviolet radiation is a ubiquitous, if unanticipated, phenomenon in elliptical galaxies and early-type spiral bulges. It is the most variable photometric feature associated with old stellar populations. Recent observational and theoretical evidence shows that it is produced mainly by low-mass, small-envelope, helium-burning stars in extreme…
The HR Diagram and the Galactic Distance Scale After HIPPARCOS
Reid, I. Neill
The completion and publication of the Hipparcos astrometric catalogue has revitalized studies in many fundamental areas of Galactic structure and stellar evolution. This article reviews the impact of the new parallax results on our understanding of the location of the main-sequence as a function of abundance, of the luminosity calibration of prima…
Reference Frames in Astronomy
Johnston, K. J.; de Vegt, Chr.
Advances in wide-angle astrometric measurements of three to four orders of magnitude in the last thirty years have resulted in a redefinition of the fundamental astronomical reference frame. This new frame, the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), is based on the radio positions of 212 compact extragalactic radio sources. The ICRF defin…