The Road to Galaxy Formation (Springer-Praxis Books in Astrophysics and Astronomy) [Hardcover]

William C. Keel (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1852335742 | ISBN-13: 978-1852335748 | Publication Date: October 28, 2002 | Edition: 1

The formation of galaxies is one of the greatest puzzles in astronomy, the solution is shrouded in the depths of space and time, but has profound implications for the universe we observe today. The book discusses the beginnings of the process from cosmological observations and calculations, considers the broad features of galaxies that we need to explain and what we know of their later history. The author compares the competing theories for galaxy formation and considers the progress expected from new generations of powerful telescopes both on earth and in space.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Keel’s own research has covered a wide range of topics, which is reflected in the richness and variety of subjects covered in this book. It is refreshing, in a market dominated by theorists, to come across a book on galaxy formation written from an observational perspective. After all, any model of galaxy formation, no matter how appealing from a theoretical point of view, is eventually judged by how well it describes what is actually out there... The Road to Galaxy Formation should prove to be a handy primer on observations for graduate students, advanced undergraduates and theorists who feel too shy to visit a telescope. A particularly useful feature is the bibliography at the end of each chapter, which contains a brief resumé of selected research papers and will not doubt be invaluable to newcomers to the field who need guidance in selecting further reading from a burgeoning literature."

NATURE

"So what does it all mean? Have astronomers finally solved the riddle of how galaxies were born and evolved? And if not, where do we go from here? University of Alabama astronomer William C. Keel sums it up. With mammoth new maps of the nearby cosmos, he states, scientists today can study 13 billion years of galaxy evolution just by looking at the sky around them. "We can also see some pieces of the evolution of galaxies over the last several billion years, in decreasing detail as we look farther back [in time]," he writes. But a veil still conceals what happened during the first, crucial period of galaxy formation, which astronomers have dubbed the Dark Ages. It began perhaps half a million years after the Big Bang and ended about a billion years later."
–NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

"One of the most intriguing problems of modern astronomy is explaining how remarkably uniform gas in the early Universe managed to clump together to form billions of galaxies. William Keel has written an accessible introduction to this complex subject. He delicately balances observational evidence against today’s relevant theoretical possibilities." (New Scientist, March, 2003)

"William Keel’s book outlines the two competing theories of galaxy formation: the ‘monolithic collapse’ and the hierarchical scenario. … Keel’s own research has covered a wide range of topics, which is reflected in the richness and variety of subjects covered in his book. It is refreshing, in a market dominated by theorists, to come across a book on galaxy formation written from an observational perspective. … The Road to Galaxy formation should prove to be a handy primer on observations on galaxies … ." (Carlton Baugh, Nature, February, 2003)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (October 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852335742
• ISBN-13: 978-1852335748
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,922,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a gem of science culture, January 11, 2010

By 

drollere (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Road to Galaxy Formation (Springer Praxis Books / Astronomy and Planetary Sciences) (Hardcover)

this is one of those books that is indispensable not because it is comprehensive or groundbreaking, but because it brings the reader into the center of the science it describes. by turns skeptical or tendentious, expansive or selective, the reader is given the recent history of cosmology (including thumbnail portraits of some of the major protagonists, such as zwicky), the development of concepts and evidence, the major interpretations of the evidence with their residual questions and mysteries, and finally a review of some future proposed space and earth observatories. the narrative begins with "a cosmological cartoon" (cartoon here meaning "sketch") that lays out the key elements -- red shift, relativity, large scale structure and microwave background -- then builds cumulatively to a theory of how galaxies form from stars and gas, and evolve a variety of forms, clusters and interactions. attention is directed to the various forms of observational bias that distort out understanding of what and how much is really out there, and popular glamor topics (such as black holes) take a back seat to the effort to understand the universe as an evolving ecology of enormous dimensions. all in a book that can be easily completed in a week of evenings.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for observational astronomers studying galaxy evolution, October 16, 2010

By 

S. Salim (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Road to Galaxy Formation (Springer Praxis Books / Astronomy and Planetary Sciences) (Paperback)

Most advanced astronomy books fall into two categories: textbooks and conference proceedings. The case is similar for the topic of galaxy evolution. Textbooks are not that essential for observational astronomers, while conference proceedings are often of very non-uniform quality and by their nature are very discrete in coverage. "The Road to Galaxy Formation" (currently in its second edition) fills the void for a good overview of modern observational study of galaxy evolution. It quickly covers basics and then goes into a very insightful overview of the current state of knowledge and many unresolved problems. The level and the style of the book is that of some expertly written (and interesting) discussion section in an astronomy paper. Focusing on observational results, the book is almost devoid of equations, but has a number of key plots and figures and references to astronomical papers. For graduate students this book can be an excellent way to get an overview of the field without reading hundreds of papers, while for more advanced researchers it can serve to put their research into perspective and gain some additional insight.