Journey from the Center of the Sun. (Hardcover)

by Jack B. Zirker (Author) "You might be surprised at the amount of solar research going on at the moment..." (more)
Key Phrases: dark fibrils, magnetic bipoles, supergranule cells, Maunder Minimum, Cal Tech, Canary Islands (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Journey from the Center of the Sun is written with the experience, perspective, and insight of one who has spent decades in solar physics. . . . Zirker sets out to deal with it all, and does an admirable job. He fits the many pieces together in an eminently satisfying manner. . . . At such a reasonable price, Journey from the Center of the Sun should be purchased and read by anyone with an interest in solar astrophysics. -- Review

Informal style keeps things moving along swiftly, while balancing the latest findings with background on the pioneers of the field. -- Ben Longstaff, New Scientist

Written with the experience, perspective, and insight of one who has spent decades in solar physics. -- Loren W. Acton, Physics Today

Review
[Zirker's] informal style keeps things moving along swiftly, while balancing the latest findings with background on the pioneers of the field.
(Ben Longstaff New Scientist )

A basic overview of the Sun's structure . . . [and] a summary of major unsolved solar problems.
(Robert Burnham Sky & Telescope )

Written with the experience, perspective, and insight of one who has spent decades in solar physics.
(Loren W. Acton Physics Today )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691057818
• ISBN-13: 978-0691057811
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #524,944 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the armchair astronomer, January 5, 2002

By	Frances M. Cleveland "Xanthus" (Boulder Creek, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Journey from the Center of the Sun" hits the right level for me in describing the science of the sun; it uses words, pictures, and word-pictures (no math) to describe how the complex physics of nuclear reactions, plasmas, and enormous magnetic explosions all work to make the sun provide us with energy - and also blast the earth with solar wind storms. I am a reader of Scientific American and love to read layman books on science because there is no way that I could understand the technical, mathematical papers of the experts, and yet am fascinated by the rapidly unfolding developments in physics, astronomy, and cosmology. I would highly recommend this book for those readers who want a well-written explanation of the sun, the on-going work on solar cycles, sunspots, the "missing neutrino" problem, the "coronal heating" conundrum, and the new studies in helioseismology. I will also add that I enjoyed Jack Zirker's first book "Total Eclipses of the Sun" which inspired me to travel to an eclipse - an experience I would like to repeat.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some of the explanations of solar physics confusing, December 18, 2005

By	C. Griffith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Journey from the Center of the Sun (Princeton Science Library) (Paperback)

In contrast to the other reviewers, I found some of the explanations of the physics behind solar processes rather confusing. For example, I couldn't quite understand the points made in the notes to chapter 5 about standing waves, modes and nodes. Also, the captions to the figures often don't explain what the axes of the graphs are supposed to represent.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stellar Journey (pun intended), June 10, 2002

By	Gerald Petrey (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book takes you through an incredible journey inside our nearest star. If you ever thought the sun was just a big nuclear furnace, here you will learn of the amazing complexities and mysteries of this star that gives us all life. Along the way you will meet many of the great scientist that contributed to the wealth of knowledge that we have amassed about the sun over the short time (relative to the sun's life) that we have inhabited this third planet from it.

Dr. Zirker begins with many of the questions we still have about the sun; such as - Why the thin corona outer atmosphere is much hotter that the surface (photosphere)? How is the solar wind accelerated to velocities of 800 km/s? What causes the huge coronal mass ejections and solar flares that have direct consequences on earth? Why does the sun follow solar cycles? Where are the missing neutrinos that should be produced from the proton-proton chain reaction taking place in the core?

The book gives the latest research on these and many other aspects of solar science such as the relatively new fields of helioseismology, chaos theory, fractal geometry, and others. Along the way you will learn why the light produced in the core by the thermonuclear process takes a million years to reach the surface (and then only another 8.3 minutes to reach the earth), why the intense activity in the convection zone (the zone that reaches some 200,000 km below the surface) is attributed to sound waves, and how the sunspots are related to the intense magnetic storms occurring on the sun.

One of the subtle things you will get from this book is how the scientific process works - how theories are proposed, experiments designed and preformed and theories revised (or abandoned) and how our scientific knowledge is perpetuated by "standing on the shoulders of giants" - all the works and sacrifices of those that have come before us.
An inspiring book if ever there was one!