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Cosmic Perspective, Media Update, The, 2/E
Jeffrey Bennett, University of Colorado, Boulder
Megan Donahue, Space Telescope Science Institute
Nicholas Schneider, University of Colorado, Boulder
Mark Voit, Space Telescope Science Institute

ISBN-10: 0805386882
ISBN-13: 9780805386882

Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Copyright: 2003
Format: Paper Bound w/CD-ROM; 666 pp
Published: 08/01/2002

Have there been developments in astronomy that have led you to teach some topics differently from how you learned them as a student? Are your students overwhelmed with the amount of information they need to learn in their astronomy class? Then consider the fresh approach of <W0BI>The Cosmic Perspective, Second Edition Media Update. Built from the ground up on our new understanding of the universe, this student-friendly text focuses on central ideas and unifying themes to provide a cosmic context. Scientific concepts are linked to everyday experience to help students develop an appreciation for the scientific method and to see how physics and astronomy are foundations for understanding their world, and recent discoveries spark students' curiosity in the universe as a whole.

Following the widespread critical acclaim for the innovative interactive tutorials on The Astronomy Place, this Media Update includes a significantly expanded suite of tutorials. This Update also includes an electronic textbook CD-ROM, updated planetarium software, and an engaging media workbook. All these tools have been designed to help your students better understand the key concepts.

Cosmic context. Each topic is presented within a cosmic context—establishing a framework of understanding by first exploring the underlying themes, and then fleshing these out with more details. The book opens with an overview of the evolving universe to give students a big picture that is returned to throughout the book. This approach gives students a motivation for learning, and helps them develop an integrated understanding of astronomy and a lasting appreciation for science.

Exceptional art program. Crystal-clear and imaginative illustrations have been carefully developed to help students better understand the most difficult concepts. They represent a new level of integration of scientific content and artistic visualization. Comprehensive star charts are also included at the end of the book.

Focus on the universality of physics and the importance of science. The text emphasizes key physical concepts that enable students to understand how science can explain the phenomena they see in their lives and how these are connected to the processes that govern the cosmos.

Evolving vision of galaxies and dark matter. Rather than the traditional emphasis on galaxy classification, this book concentrates on our emerging understanding of galaxy evolution — explaining starbursts, quasars, and intergalactic clouds within context — and how this parallels stellar evolution. The text also devotes a full chapter to the crucial role of dark matter in the universe.

True comparative planetology. Departing from the traditional planet-by-planet facts and figures, the text emphasizes the similarities between planets by exploring connecting processes. This gives students a contextual framework and leads to a deeper understanding of our solar system, our own world, and prospects for life elsewhere in the universe.

End-of-chapter problems. Carefully structured problems of varying difficulty accommodate diverse learning levels.

More tutorials. The acclaimed Astronomy Place tutorials focus on important and hard-to-grasp concepts and build understanding through carefully structured pedagogy. The suite of tutorials has been significantly expanded and now includes Scale of the Universe, Eclipses, Doppler Effect, Formation of the Solar System, Detecting Extrasolar Planets, Measuring Cosmic Distances, and Fate of the Universe.

Media workbook. This innovative workbook provides a wide selection of media activities and projects using The Astronomy Place interactive tutorials and Voyager: SkyGazer, College Edition v3.4 planetarium software. These activities are suitable for the lab or may be completed as homework assignments.

Electronic Textbook CD-ROM. Students will find their favorite material from The Astronomy Place Web site with added functionality in this new self-contained Electronic Textbook CD-ROM. A browser-based version of the text with extensive hyperlinks and the complete illustration program makes this CD-ROM ideal for students on the go. An Electronic Textbook CD-ROM is included with each new copy of the text.

Updated planetarium software with streamlined functionality, Voyager: SkyGazer, College Edition v3.4 CD-ROM is included with each new copy of the text. This revised and updated planetarium software provides over 70 pre-packaged examples (covering eclipses, planet flybys, precession, and more) and many other tools to help students explore and understand the universe.

I. DEVELOPING PERSPECTIVE.

1. Our Place in the Universe.

2. Discovering the Universe for Yourself.

S1. Celestial Timekeeping and Navigation.

II. KEY CONCEPTS FOR ASTRONOMY.

3. The Science of Astronomy.

4. A Universe of Matter and Energy.

5. Universal Motion: From Copernicus to Newton.

6. Light: The Cosmic Messenger.

7. Telescopes and Spacecraft.

III. LEARNING FROM OTHER WORLDS.

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. Remnants of Rock and Ice: Asteroids, Comets, and Pluto.

13. Planet Earth and Its Lessons on Life in the Universe.

IV. A DEEPER LOOK AT NATURE.

S2. Space and Time.

S3. Spacetime and Gravity.

S4. Building Blocks of the Universe.

V. STELLAR ALCHEMY.

14. Our Star.

15. Stars.

16. Star Stuff.

17. The Bizarre Stellar Graveyard.

VI. GALAXIES AND BEYOND.

18. Our Galaxy.

19. Galaxies: From Here to the Horizon.

20. Galaxy Evolution.

21. Dark Matter and the Fate of the Universe.

22. The Beginning of Time.

S5. Interstellar Travel and the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations.

APPENDIXES.

Appendix A: Useful Numbers.

Appendix B: Useful Formulas.

Appendix C: A Few Mathematical Skills.

Appendix D: The Periodic Table of the Elements.

Appendix E: Planetary Data.

Appendix F: Stellar Data.

Appendix G: Galaxy Data.

Appendix H: Selected Astronomical Web Sites.

Appendix I: The 88 Constellations.

Appendix J: Star Charts.

Glossary.

Acknowledgements.

Index.

Astronomy (Physics & Astronomy)

Cosmic Perspective Media Update with MasteringAstronomy™, The, 5/E
Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit
©2009 | Addison-Wesley | Paper Package; 864 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321551389 | ISBN-13: 9780321551382
Net price: $101.00 (What's this?)Brief Description

Building on a long tradition of effective pedagogy and comprehensive presentation, The Cosmic Perspective Media Update, Fifth Edition includes Voyager: SkyGazer planetarium software, an updated Astronomy Media Workbook on CD-ROM at no extra charge, and an enhanced MasteringAstronomy^™ online tutorial and assessment system. This edition’s expanded visual pedagogy features new Cosmic Context two-page illustrations that walk students through key processes and summarize the major concepts in each Part. Zoom-in figures also provide students with a sense of orientation, scale, and relation between images. In addition to its enhanced visuals, the text also features See It For Yourself boxes with practical hands-on activities for in-class use or self-study, and a new set of Process of Science end-of-chapter questions that challenge students to think through how we know what we know about astronomy. Renowned for its up-to-date, expert coverage and strong pedagogical support for student learning, the Media Update Fifth Edition retains and builds on all the features and supplements from previous editions that have helped to make it the most widely adopted astronomy textbook.

Offered with The Cosmic Perspective Media Update, Fifth Edition is an unparalleled media package designed to help professors and students seamlessly incorporate media into lectures and independent study. MasteringAstronomy^™, the most sophisticated yet easy-to-use astronomy tutorial and assessment system ever built, provides a library of assignable tutorial problems, a powerful gradebook for instructors, and a robust self-study area that includes quizzes, Interactive Tutorials, new Interactive Figures and Photos^™, RSS news feeds that provide up-to-date articles from major astronomy news sources, a content-plus eBook, with enhanced functionality, write-to capability, live links, and more. For additional instructor media resources, The Cosmic Lecture Launcher v5.0 CD-ROM set includes high resolution JPEGs of all images from the book, Interactive Figures and Photos based on figures in the text, PowerPoint^® Lecture Outlines, and Clicker Quizzes based on the book and book-specific interactive media, plus a variety of additional instructor resources.
Cosmic Perspective with MasteringAstronomy™, The, 6/E
Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit
©2010 | Addison-Wesley | Paper Package; 0 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321620909 | ISBN-13: 9780321620903
Net price: $101.00 (What's this?)Brief Description

Building on a long tradition of effective pedagogy and comprehensive coverage, The Cosmic Perspective, Sixth Edition provides the most engaging and up-to-date introduction to astronomy for non-science majors. The text provides a wealth of features to help enhance student skill building, including new Visual Skills Check end-of-chapter questions that provide an opportunity for students to test their visual interpretation skills, new Cosmic Context Figures that help students synthesize key concepts and processes, and a new comprehensive visual overview of scale to help students explore the scale of time and space. The Sixth Edition has also been fully updated to include the latest astronomical observations, research, and theoretical developments. The text is supported by the most robust package of instructor ancillaries, and MasteringAstronomy^™, the market-leading online tutorial and homework system, has been updated to include a wealth of new content to help students learn and review more efficiently outside of class.

Cosmic Perspective, Media Update, The |
Author Bios

Jeffrey Bennett received a B.A. in biophysics from the University of California at San Diego in 1981 and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado in 1987. He currently spends most of his time as a teacher, speaker, and writer. He has taught extensively at all levels, including having founded and run a science summer school for elementary and middle school children. At the college level, he has taught more than 50 college courses in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and education. He served two years as a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters, where he helped create numerous programs for science education. He also proposed the idea for and helped develop the Voyage Scale Model Solar System, which opened in 2001 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Besides his astronomy textbooks, he has written college-level textbooks in astronomy, mathematics, and statistics, and a book for the general public, On the Cosmic Horizon (Addison-Wesley, 2001). He also recently completed his first children's book, Max Goes to the Moon (Big Kid Science, 2003). 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, Max.

Megan Donahue is an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. After growing up in rural Nebraska, she obtained an S.B. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado in 1990. Her thesis on intergalactic galaxies won the Robert J. Trumpler Award (1993). She continued her research as a Carnegie Fellow at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, California, and later was an Institute Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute. She is an active observer, using ground-based telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and orbiting X-ray telescopes. Her research focuses on questions of galaxy evolution, the nature of intergalactic space, large-scale structure formation, dark matter, and the fate of the universe. She married Mark Voit while in graduate school and they are the parents of two children, Michaela and Sebastian.

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 is an astronomer in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He earned his A.B. in physics at Princeton University in 1983 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 Research Fellow in theoretical astrophysics. NASA then awarded him a Hubble Fellowship, under which he conducted research at the Johns Hopkins University. His research interests range from interstellar processes in our own galaxy to the clustering of galaxies in the early universe. Occasionally he escapes to the outdoors, where he and his wife, Megan Donahue, enjoy running, hiking, orienteering, and playing with their children. Mark is also author of the popular book Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe.

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MasteringAstronomy™ Student Access Kit for Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit
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©2008 | Addison-Wesley | Access Code Card | Instock
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Stand-alone Access Code Tutor Center
Addison-Wesley
©2008 | Addison-Wesley | Access Code Card | Instock
ISBN-10: 0201721708 | ISBN-13: 9780201721706
Net price: $36.15 (What's this?)

This package contains:
• Bennett, Donohue, Schneider & Voit, Cosmic Perspective E-Book CD, The, 2/E (2002)
• Bennett, Donohue, Schneider & Voit, Cosmic Perspective, The, 2/E (2002)
• Bennett, Voyager: SkyGazer, College Edition, version 3.4, 2/E (2003)

Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students contact your Pearson Higher Education representative.