Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe, 8th edition

For one-semester Introduction to Astronomy courses.

With the Eighth Edition of Astronomy: A Beginner’s Guide, trusted authors Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan bring a renewed freshness and analysis to recent changes in our understanding of the cosmos. As with the other two textbooks in their Astronomy suite (one for two-semester courses and the other, a brief visual book), the authors continue to emphasize three major themes: the process of science, the size and scale of the universe, and the evolution of the cosmos. This new edition ignites student interest with new discoveries from the latest space missions and a new focus on student-oriented engagement.

Also available as a Pearson eText or packaged with Mastering Astronomy

Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience that can be adopted on its own as the main course material. It lets students highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place, even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it. Educators can easily share their own notes with students so they see the connection between their eText and what they learn in class – motivating them to keep reading, and keep learning. Learn more about Pearson eText.

Mastering Astronomy is the leading online homework, tutorial, and assessment system, designed to improve learning outcomes by engaging students with powerful content. Instructors ensure students arrive ready to learn by assigning educationally effective content before class, and encourage critical thinking and retention with in-class resources such as Learning Catalytics^™. Students can further master concepts after class through homework assignments that provide interactivity, hints, and answer-specific feedback. The Mastering gradebook records scores for all automatically graded assignments in one place, while diagnostic tools give instructors access to rich data to assess student understanding and misconceptions.
Mastering brings learning full circle by continuously adapting to each student’s style and pace of learning, making learning more personal than ever—before, during, and after class.

Students, if interested in purchasing this title with MasteringAstronomy, ask your instructor for the correct package ISBN and Course ID. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.

About the Book

• Process of Science and Discovery
  • The Process of Science is emphasized throughout the book as the authors strive to give students an understanding of how scientists think and work.
  • Students are encouraged to ask, “How do we know what we know?” and to learn the historical development of astronomy.

• Art
  • Vivid, dynamic, and current art keeps students informed and engaged.
  • Part Openers are a concise, visual introduction to each of the book’s four main sections and emphasize the size, scale, and evolution of the universe.
  • Multi-part art employs a series of images to explain complex systems.
  • Complex scientific topics are explained to students simply, through everyday visual analogies.

• Flexible Teaching Tools
  • NEW! Big Picture chapter-opening passages put the chapter in context of the course as it is developing.
  • NEW! Big Question sections tie back to Big Picture passages and emphasize the process of science. They spark student interest by posing the very questions – relevant to the chapter topic – that astronomers are currently investigating.
  • NEW! The Data Speaks feature presents the statistical data from thousands of MasteringAstronomy student responses, revealing the most common errors and misconceptions that lead to incorrect answers.
  • NEW! A two-page graphic on Space Mission programs gives students perspective on historical growth and activity of the space program through the present.
  • More Precisely boxes cover quantitative material outside of the main narrative, allowing you to choose whether or not to cover those topics.
  • Discovery boxes cover a variety of interesting topics, highlighting how discoveries were made and providing further insight into how scientific knowledge evolves, emphasizing the process of science.
  • Concept Link icons refer students back to previous sections in the text to help them understand how concepts are related and allow them to more easily see the “big picture.”
  • Concept Checks and Process of Science Checks are critical-thinking questions that enable first-time readers of the chapter to actively engage in the learning process and check their understanding as they proceed. For students reviewing the chapter, these conceptual and process questions provide a quick quiz.
  • EXPANDED! Exoplanet coverage is substantially revised and increased to include our new understanding of planetary formation and the history of the universe.
  • INCREASED! More figure annotations help students focus on the key information conveyed by the illustrations and photos.
  • REVISED! Big Bang coverage is now integrated into earlier chapters
  • REVISED! A substantially revised chapter on Life in the Universe now includes information on viruses, extremophilic life, and habitable zones.
  • REVISED! All science has been thoroughly updated to keep pace with the latest discoveries.

Also available as a Pearson eText or packaged with Mastering Astronomy

Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience that can be adopted on its own as the main course material. It lets students highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place, even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it. Educators can easily share their own notes with students so they see the connection between their eText and what they learn in class — motivating them to keep reading, and keep learning.

Mastering brings learning full circle by continuously adapting to each student’s style and pace of learning, making learning more personal than ever–before, during, and after class.

Before Class

• Pre-class reading questions prompt students to come to class prepared to engage in discussion or activities, and allow instructors to identify common misconceptions.

• NEW! Interactive pre-lecture videos provide subject overview for exposure to key concepts before class, opening up classroom time for active learning or deeper discussions of topics. These can be used for simple pre-class exposure or fully flipped classrooms.
• NEW! 20 additional Learning Goal-based tutorials provide even more support for students.

During Class

• NEW! Learning Catalytics^™ is an interactive, student response tool that uses students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops to engage them in more sophisticated tasks and thinking. Now included with MyLab & Mastering with eText, Learning Catalytics enables you to generate classroom discussion, guide your lecture, and promote peer-to-peer learning with real-time analytics. Instructors, you can:
  • Pose a variety of pre-built or self-written questions that help your students develop critical- thinking skills.
  • Monitor responses to find out where students are struggling.
  • Use real-time data to adjust your instructional strategy and try other ways of engaging your students during class.
  • Manage student interactions by automatically grouping them for discussion, teamwork, and peer-to-peer learning.

After Class

• Tutorials – featuring specific wrong-answer feedback, hints, and a wide variety of interactive, educationally effective content – guide your students through the toughest topics in physics. The hallmark Hints and Feedback sections offer instruction similar to what students would experience in an office hour, allowing them to learn from their mistakes without being given the answer.
• Narrated Figures and Visual Activities offer visual activities, narration, and animations that expand on figures in the text. Pause-and-respond questions engage students in a deeper understanding of the topic, while visual activities help students build versatile interpretation skills.
• NEW! Pearson eText
  • Now available on smartphones and tablets.
  • Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media.
  • Accessible (screen-reader ready).
  • Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and night-reading mode.
  • Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, bookmarking, and search.
• NEW! and ENHANCED! Interactive Figures are formatted for mobile use.
• NEW! Virtual Astronomy Labs are assignable, online laboratory activities that utilize Stellarium and interactive figures to conduct night sky data collection and inquiry-based labs.

New to the Book

• Big Picture chapter-opening passages put the chapter in context of the course as it is developing.
• Big Question sections tie back to Big Picture passages and emphasize the process of science. They spark student interest by posing the very questions – relevant to the chapter topic – that astronomers are currently investigating.
• The Data Speaks feature presents the statistical data from thousands of MasteringAstronomy student responses, revealing the most common errors and misconceptions that lead to incorrect answers.
• A two-page graphic on Space Mission programs gives students perspective on historical growth and activity of the space program through the present
• INCREASED! More figure annotations help students focus on the key information conveyed by the illustrations and photos.
• REVISED! Big Bang coverage is now integrated into earlier chapters
• REVISED! A substantially revised chapter on Life in the Universe now includes information on viruses, extremophilic life, and habitable zones.
• REVISED! All science has been thoroughly updated to keep pace with the latest discoveries.

Content changes include:

• New chapter-opening images reflecting the latest astronomical discoveries.
• Updated astronomical imagery throughout.
• Streamlined art program providing more direct and accurate representations of astronomical objects.
• Increased use of annotations to clarify figure content.
• Updates in Chapter 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope; new material on new very large ground-based telescopes now under construction.
• New imagery throughout from the recently completed ALMA interferometric array.
• Updated coverage in Chapter 4 of the Dawn mission to asteroids Vesta and Ceres and the Rosetta mission to comet 67 P/Churyumov—Gerasimenko.
• Updates in Chapter 4 on exoplanet properties, with a new focus on Earths and super-Earths; revised discussion of habitable zones and Earth-like worlds.
• Updates on global CO₂ levels and global warming in Chapter 5.
• Updated data in Chapter 5 on lunar interior structure following the LCROSS and GRAIL missions; new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery of lunar surface features.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 6 of Mercury’s surface and internal structure in light of the findings of the Messenger probe.
• Updated discussion of Mars in Chapter 6, including results from the Curiosity mission.
• Updates in Chapter 7 on storm systems on the outer planets, Jupiter’s shrinking Great Red Spot, and Saturn’s polar vortices.
• New Discovery feature in Chapter 7 on solar system exploration.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 8 of Ganymede’s magnetism, subsurface water, and aurora; updated material on Enceladus and its internal ocean.
• New material and rewritten discussion in Chapter 8 of the Pluto system following the New Horizons flyby; updated discussion of trans-Neptunian objects.
• New higher-resolution Solar Dynamics Observatory imagery in Chapter 9 of the corona, sunspots, and coronal mass ejections.
• Improved diagrams and updated discussion of the sunspot cycle in Chapter 9.
• Updated text and ALMA imagery on star-forming regions in Chapter 11.
• New supernova imagery and discussion in Chapter 12.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 13 of gamma-ray bursts and hypernovae.
• New art added to the discussion of Special Relativity in More Precisely 13-1.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 14 of Milky Way formation.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 14 of stellar orbits around the central supermassive black hole.
• New discussion in Chapter 14 of energetic outflows from the Galactic center.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 16 of hot gas in galaxy clusters.
• New discussion in Chapter 16 of the star formation history of the universe.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 16 of galactic cannibalism.
• Integrated treatment in Chapter 16 of tidal streams in the Milky Way.
• Updated discussion in Chapter 17 of the cosmic microwave background; new discussion of acoustic oscillations and their relevance to cosmology.
• Expanded discussion of extremophilic life in Chapter 18.

Also available as a Pearson eText or packaged with Mastering Astronomy

Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience that can be adopted on its own as the main course material. It lets students highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place, even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it. Educators can easily share their own notes with students so they see the connection between their eText and what they learn in class – motivating them to keep reading, and keep learning.

Mastering brings learning full circle by continuously adapting to each student’s style and pace of learning, making learning more personal than ever—before, during, and after class.

Before Class

• Pre-class reading questions prompt students to come to class prepared to engage in discussion or activities, and allow instructors to identify common misconceptions.

• Interactive pre-lecture videos provide subject overview for exposure to key concepts before class, opening up classroom time for active learning or deeper discussions of topics. These can be used for simple pre-class exposure or fully flipped classrooms.
• 20 additional Learning Goal-based tutorials provide even more support for students.

During Class

• Learning Catalytics^™ is an interactive, student response tool that uses students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops to engage them in more sophisticated tasks and thinking. Now included with MyLab & Mastering with eText, Learning Catalytics enables you to generate classroom discussion, guide your lecture, and promote peer-to-peer learning with real-time analytics. Instructors, you can:
  • Pose a variety of pre-built or self-written questions that help your students develop critical- thinking skills.
  • Monitor responses to find out where students are struggling.
  • Use real-time data to adjust your instructional strategy and try other ways of engaging your students during class.
  • Manage student interactions by automatically grouping them for discussion, teamwork, and peer-to-peer learning.

After Class

• Pearson eText 
  • Now available on smartphones and tablets.
  • Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media.
  • Accessible (screen-reader ready).
  • Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and night-reading mode.
  • Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, bookmarking, and search.
• Interactive Figures are formatted for mobile use.
• Virtual Astronomy Labs are assignable, online laboratory activities that utilize Stellarium and interactive figures to conduct night sky data collection and inquiry-based labs.