Customer Reviews

The Formation of Stars (Physics Textbook)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book goes into the details of star formation. And I do mean "details". This is probably geared toward graduate students in astronomy. For example, the details on how masers are created near newly formed stars is unlikely to get more than a sentence in an intro astro text.
If you are really committed, you may read this from cover to cover. But I find myself curious about some part of stellar evolution and it's easy to find where to jump in and read 3 or 4 chapters. If you need even more information, the references are excellent.
My copy had some printing problems which caused a lot of pages to be stuck together. I bet that was a rare occurrence.
So the 5 stars in this review is for those who really want to know the details, others might need to look elsewhere.

I took a graduate course in star formation that used this text, and I am ashamed to admit that I did not take full advantage of this book while a student in the course. I am now finding that The Formation of Stars is an excellent reference for many topics in astronomy, beyond subjects limited to specific details star formation. All topics discussed in the book are, of course, relevant to star formation, but the book develops the background needed to understand star formation. This includes topics like heating and cooling processes in the interstellar medium and molecular transitions, which were much more clearly explained in The Formation of Stars than they were in texts about the interstellar medium that I have consulted. I would encourage anyone taking a class on star formation to use this book.