Based on the most up-to-date astronomical research, The Essential Cosmic Perspective, Fifth Edition retains all of the features that have made this text so popular with new features helping students learn about the process of science and how to interpret visual data. The textbook package also includes updated supplements to support the book's pedagogy, making it the most effective text in the one-semester astronomy market.
The Fifth Edition focuses on building student appreciation of science by helping them understand how astronomers know what they know about the universe, and how information can be gleaned from looking at and interpreting images. To support these goals, the book features new See It For Yourself boxes, Process of Science end-of-chapter questions, Check Your Skills activities which help students learn how to read figures and photos, and five new Cosmic Context two-page figures on key topics throughout the text.
I. DEVELOPING PERSPECTIVE
1. Our Place in the Universe
2. Discovering the Universe for Yourself
3. The Science of Astronomy
II. KEY CONCEPTS FOR ASTRONOMY
4. Making Sense of the Universe: Understanding Motion, Energy, and Gravity
5. Light: The Cosmic Messenger
III. LEARNING FROM OTHER WORLDS
6. Formation of Planetary Systems: Our Solar System and Beyond
7. Earth and the Terrestrial Worlds
8. Jovian Planet System
9. Asteroids, Comets, and Dwarf Planets: Their Nature, Orbits, and Impacts
IV. STARS
10. Our Star
11. Surveying the Stars
12. Star Stuff
13. The Bizarre Stellar Graveyard
V. GALAXIES AND BEYOND
14. Our Galaxy
15. Galaxies and the Foundation of Modern Cosmology
16. Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Universe
17. The Beginning of Time
VI. LIFE ON EARTH AND BEYOND
18. Life in the Universe