An Introduction to Radio Astronomy - Hardcover

Burke, Bernard F.; Graham-Smith, Francis; Wilkinson, Peter N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107189411 ISBN 13: 9781107189416

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2019

Synopsis

Radio astronomy is an active and rapidly expanding field due to advances in computing techniques, with several important new instruments on the horizon. This text provides a thorough introduction to radio astronomy and its contribution to our understanding of the universe, bridging the gap between basic introductions and research-level treatments. It begins by covering the fundamentals physics of radio techniques, before moving on to single-dish telescopes and aperture synthesis arrays. Fully updated and extensively rewritten, the fourth edition places greater emphasis on techniques, with detailed discussion of interferometry in particular, and comprehensive coverage of digital techniques in the appendices. The science sections are fully revised, with new author Peter N. Wilkinson bringing added expertise to the sections on pulsars, quasars and active galaxies. Spanning the entirety of radio astronomy, this is an engaging introduction for students and researchers approaching radio astronomy for the first time.

About this title

Book Description

A thorough introduction to radio astronomy and its contribution to our understanding of the universe, perfect for beginners. Fully revised and updated, the fourth edition covers the basic physics and observational techniques, including interferometric and digital techniques, single-dish telescopes and aperture synthesis arrays.

About the Author

Bernard F. Burke was William A. M. Burden Professor of Astrophysics, formerly of the Radio Astronomy Group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Research Laboratory of Electronics, and principal investigator at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. He was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1970, and served as the American Astronomical Society (AAS) President from 1986 to 1988. He and Kenneth Franklin discovered Jupiter as a source of radio waves while working at the Carnegie Institution for Science; and he was part of the 6-member team credited with the 1988 discovery of the first Einstein ring.

Francis Graham-Smith, FRS is Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester. He was Astronomer Royal from 1982 to 1990 and Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory between 1981 and 1988. As Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory between 1975 and 1981, Graham-Smith instituted the UK optical observatory on La Palma. In his student days at the University of Cambridge he made the first accurate locations for cosmic radio sources, leading to their identification. At Jodrell Bank he discovered radio emission from cosmic ray showers, and continues to work on pulsars, in which he discovered the polarization of the radio pulses. He is a co-author of Pulsar Astronomy (Cambridge, 4th edition, 2012).

Peter N. Wilkinson is Emeritus Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He has been involved in the development of radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank Observatory since 1967, including five years spent at a combination of the California Institute of Technology and the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory. In 1991 he wrote the first published paper describing the scientific rationale and outline structure of a radio interferometer array which developed into the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. He is now working on a novel radio telescope to map the sky with a precision ten times better than achieved by the discoverers of the Cosmic Microwave Background. He is a leading member of the UK's Newton Project, which teaches radio astronomy to students world-wide.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1107189411
• ISBN 13: 9781107189416
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 540