Book Review for "Introduction to Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology"
When you first leaf through this book, you will immediately notice the rich illustrations, it contains 444 illustrations, many of them in colour. The layout is appealing and there is also a bookmark attached to a ribbon. Externally, this book is very successful.
Regarding the content, you can - no, you have to - say the same thing! The book is aimed at students who have a basic knowledge of astronomical terms and methods. Accordingly, the representation is kept, it is very clear and always tries to explain physical connections and backgrounds. All illustrations are explained by detailed captions.
After an introduction and an overview of the current state of extragalactic astronomy and telescopes from the radio to the gamma range, our Milky Way system is treated as a galaxy, including the search for macho and the latest results of the exploration of the galactic center. The chapter "The world of galaxies" covers classification, elliptical and spiral galaxies, scaling relations, black holes in galaxies, distance determination, luminosity function, galaxies as gravitational lenses and population synthesis, so it gives a fairly comprehensive overview.
The author treats the cosmology in three sections: In Cosmology I he discusses homogeneous and isotropic world models, including the thermal history of the universe. The next two chapters are dedicated to active galaxies and galaxy clusters as well as galaxy groups. Cosmology II describes inhomogeneities in the universe, i.e. density fluctuations and structure formation, Cosmology III the new results of the various methods for determining the cosmological parameters including the WMap measurements of the anisotropies of the cosmic background radiation. The last chapter deals with the universe at high redshifts, i.e. LBGs, EROs etc. up to reionization.
The appendix summarizes some basics such as the magnitude system and state variables of the stars. Recommendations for literature and references are of course not missing.
Reading the book offers an almost complete and up-to-date overview of extragalactic astronomy. The connections become clear, all topics are de alt with in context. The style is never textbook dry or even boring. Extragalactic astronomy is at an exciting time. The formation and evolution of galaxies and the universe are explored and the reader participates. One of the book's strengths is undoubtedly the sections on gravitational lensing and cosmology.
Conclusion: An excellent, unreservedly recommendable book that will secure a permanent place. It is now also available in English.
