The Galactic Interstellar Medium

Saas-Fee Advanced Course 21. Lecture Notes 1991. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy

By: W. B. Burton, Bruce Elmegreen, Reinhard Genzel, D. Pfenniger (Editor), P. Bartholdi (Editor)

Write A Review

Hardcover | 8 December 1992

At a Glance

Hardcover
416 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 2.39

Hardcover

$84.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $21.25 with

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

The previous Saas-Fee Advanced Course dedicated to the interstellar medium took place in 1972. The tremendous scientific advances that have occurred in this field since then, in particular owing to the availabihty of receivers working at completely unexplored wavelength bands, fuUy justified a new set of lectures. As a consequence, the members of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and As tronomy voted that "The Galactic Interstellar Medium" should be the subject of the 1991 course. The 21st Saas Fee Advanced Course took place in Les Diablerets from 18 to 23 March 1991, gathering together about 80 participants from all over the world, but mostly from Europe. According to a rule that has proved to lead to success, but also to chal lenge the lecturers' energy, the format of a Saas-Fee Advanced Course consists traditionally of 28 lectures of 45 minutes which take place in the morning and late afternoon, leaving ample time for discussions, self-study, hiking or skiing. Despite the inordinate work load imposed, this year's lecturers felt that the subject was sufficiently dense to increase the lecture time by 1/3! This proved judicious and left more time for questions and discussions during the lectures.

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $79.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Science Physics Applied Physics Geophysics Astrophysics Astronomy, Space & Time Galaxies & Stars Cosmology & The Universe

Distribution and Observational Properties of the ISM (With 72 figures) Chapters 5 and 6 are co-authored, respectively
Introduction	p. 1
Some Qualifying Remarks	p. 1
Some Suggested General References on Various Aspects of Galactic Structure	p. 2
References	p. 4
Observations of HI and Other Tracers of the Low-Latitude Morphology of the Interstellar Medium in Our Galaxy	p. 5
Observations of Pervasive, Heavily Blended HI Emission from the Low-Latitude Galactic Gas Layer	p. 5
Observations of CO and Other Tracers of the Gas Layer Morphology	p. 15
Global Optical-Depth Effects and the Interpretation of Measured HI Intensities	p. 20
Interpretation of the HI Integrated Emission and the Maximum Brightness Observed: Is the Low-
Small-Scale Structure in Heavily-Blended Low-
References	p. 34
Galactic Rotation and the Constants Specifying the Kinematic and Lin ear Scales of the Milky Way; Line-Broadening Mechanisms Determining Profile Shapes at Low Latitudes	p. 36
Introduction; Galactic Rotation	p. 36
The Distance of the Sun from the Galactic Center, R₀	p. 38
The Galactic Circular-Velocity Rotation Curve Evaluated at R<R_0; the Value of ¿(R) at R₀, ¿₀	p. 39
The Galactic Circular-Velocity Rotation Curve Evaluated at R>R₀	p. 42
Line-Broadening Mechanisms Other than Simple Circular Galactic Rotation	p. 43
Considerations Regarding the Velocity-to-Distance Transformation	p. 52
References	p. 57
Global Structural Distribution of Low-Latitude Tracers of the Inner Galaxy	p. 59
Mapping Limitations Imposed by Our Embedded Perspective	p. 59
Longitudinal Distributions of Low-
Radial Distributions Characterizing the Population I Layer	p. 66
Vertical Thickness and Degree of Flatness of the Inner-Galaxy Gas and Dust Layer	p. 72
References	p. 77
Comparative Global Properties of Interstellar Dust and Gas in the Galaxy	p. 79
Introduction	p. 79
Correlation Between HI and 100-µm Intensities	p. 81
Radial Unfolding	p. 85
Morphological Properties	p. 87
Concluding Remarks	p. 96
References	p. 98
Kinematics and Distribution of Neutral Interstellar Gas in the Galactic Bulge Region	p. 100
Use of the Terminal-Velocity Measure to Determine the Inner-Galaxy Rotation Curve	p. 100
The Role of Absorption in Determining the Paucity of HI Emission in the l>0°,v <0kms^-1 Quadrant at b $$$ 0°	p. 105
The Tilted Nature of the Inner-Galaxy Gas Distribution	p. 111
Modelling Some Aspects of the Kinematics and Distribution of the Gas Layer in the Bulge	p. 114
Some Brief Remarks on the Form of the Potential Dominating the Motions in the Bulge Region, and on the Situation in M31	p. 122
References	p. 124
The Warped and Flaring Layer of Atomic and Molecular Gas in the Outer Galaxy	p. 126
Introduction; the Shape of the Outer Galactic Disk	p. 126
The Shape of the Warped and Flaring HI Layer Extending to the Far Outer Galaxy	p. 128
Comments Regarding the Apparent Lopsidedness of the Outer Galaxy	p. 140
The Shape of the Molecular-Cloud Ensemble in the Outer Galaxy	p. 142
Warps in the Two Nearby Galaxies M31 and M33	p. 149
References	p. 153
Large Scale Dynamics of the Interstellar Medium (With 12 figures)
Introduction	p. 157
References	p. 158
Basic State of the Interstellar Gas	p. 159
Giant Clouds	p. 159
Giant Holes	p. 164
Hierarchical Structure	p. 167
Gas Motions	p. 170
Magnetism	p. 172
References	p. 173
Large Scale Heating and Cooling	p. 178
Energy Sources	p. 178
Energy Dissipation	p. 181
Magnetic Diffusion	p. 187
References	p. 189
Explosions	p. 191
Nonlinear Waves and Shock Fronts	p. 191
Discontinuous Fronts	p. 194
Continuous Magnetic Pressure Fronts	p. 208
Common Explosions	p. 211
Supershells and Chimneys	p. 217
Bowshocks and Jets	p. 219
References	p. 220
Gas Flow in Spiral Density Waves	p. 224
An Introduction to Stellar Density Waves	p. 224
Gas Flow in Stellar Density Waves	p. 231
References	p. 245
Gas Instabilities	p. 248
Thermal Instability	p. 248
Gravitational Instability	p. 251
Instabilities in Galactic Disks	p. 252
Two Fluid Gravitational Instabilities	p. 256
Instabilities in Galactic Spiral Shocks	p. 257
Collapse of Ellipsoids	p. 260
References	p. 262
Global Star Formation	p. 264
The Star Formation Rate and Surface Density Threshold	p. 264
Exponential Disks in Galaxies	p. 267
A Universal Galaxy Rotation Curve	p. 269
Star Formation and Spiral Density Waves	p. 269
Starburst Galaxies	p. 272
References	p. 273
Physics and Chemistry of Molecular Clouds (With 34 figures)
Introduction	p. 275
Tools of Infrared and Radio Astronomy	p. 277
Summary of Infrared/Radio Spectroscopy	p. 277
Radiative Transport and Excitation	p. 287
Estimates of Cloud Column Densities and Masses	p. 308
Measuring Temperature and Density	p. 313
References	p. 317
Heating and Cooling Processes	p. 319
Photon Dominated/Photodissociation Regions	p. 320
Shocks in Dense Interstellar Clouds	p. 325
Heating by Energetic Particles	p. 331
Heating by Ambipolar Diffusion	p. 333
References	p. 335
Interstellar Chemistry	p. 337
Chemistry of the Gas	p. 337
Composition of Dust Grains	p. 343
References	p. 346
Structure and Dynamics of Molecular Clouds	p. 349
The Spatial Structure of Molecular Clouds	p. 349
Energy Balance of Molecular Clouds	p. 353
An Example of a Star Forming Cloud: Orion	p. 356
The Orion-KL Star Forming Core	p. 361
Outflows in Star Forming Regions	p. 367
References	p. 367
Circumstellar Clouds and Masers	p. 371
A Close-Up View of BN and IRc2	p. 371
Circumstellar Disks in Low Mass Star Formation Regions	p. 372
Interstellar Masers	p. 372
References	p. 377
Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center and External Galaxies	p. 379
Our Galaxy: The Central 500pc	p. 379
Molecular Gas in Starburst Galaxies	p. 381
Neutral Gas in Photon Dominated Regions	p. 386
Molecular Gas in AGN's	p. 388
References	p. 390
Subject Index	p. 393
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

The Galactic Interstellar Medium

Saas-Fee Advanced Course 21. Lecture Notes 1991. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy

At a Glance

Hardcover

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in Astronomy, Space & Time

The First Astronomers

How Indigenous Elders read the stars

Outback Astronomer

The extraordinary story of how an amateur astronomer's unwavering passion for the cosmos propelled him from the mines of Broken Hill to working with NASA

2026 Australasian Sky Guide

Australasian Sky Guide

A Guide to the Night Sky

The science and lore behind our constellations

God, the Science, the Evidence

The Universe

The Book Of The BBC TV Series Presented By Professor Brian Cox

Black Holes

The key to understanding the universe

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Anniversary Edition

Longitude

Little Book, BIG Universe

A Guide to Exploring Australia's Night Skies: Australia Reads

Exactly

How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World

2026 Guide to the Night Sky Southern Hemisphere

A month-by-month guide to exploring the skies above Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Under the Stars Camping Australia and New Zealand

Lonely Planet

The Music of the Spheres

A Listener's Guide

The Return of the God Hypothesis

Three Scientific Discoveries Revealing the Mind Behind the Universe

Stargazing for Beginners

Explore the Wonders of the Night Sky

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

My Big TOE Awakening Discovery Inner Workings

The Complete My Big TOE Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe 2

Quanta and Fields

A Brief History Of Time

From Big Bang to Black Holes

Night Sky Almanac 2026

A Stargazer's Guide

Human Universe

The Planets

The Astronomy Handbook

The Ultimate Guide to Observing and Understanding Stars, Planets, Galaxies, and the Universe

This product is categorised by