Supergiant stars and stellar evolution are the first topics to be covered in a new astronomy ebook collection from the American Astronomical Society and IOP Publishing.
In the first book in the collection, Astrophysics of Red Supergiants, Professor Emily Levesque, from the University of Washington in Seattle, explores our current knowledge of red supergiant stars, a key evolutionary phase that is critical to our larger understanding of massive stars. The book is an overview of the fundamental physical properties of red supergiants, their evolution, and their extragalactic and cosmological applications. It serves as a reference for researchers from a broad range of fields who are interested in red supergiants as extreme stages of stellar evolution, dust producers, supernova progenitors, extragalactic metallicity indicators, members of massive binaries and mergers, or as compelling objects in their own right.
The second book to publish is Understanding Stellar Evolution, co-authored by Professor Emeritus in Astrophysics at Utrecht University, Henry J G L M Lamers, and Professor Levesque. Based on a series of graduate-level courses taught at the University of Washington since 2004, the book is written for physics and astronomy students, and anyone with a physics background who is interested in stars. It describes the structure and evolution of stars, with emphasis on the basic physical principles and the interplay between the different processes inside stars. Based on these principles, the evolution of low- and high-mass stars is explained, from their formation to their death. An extensive set of accompanying lecture slides is available for teachers in both Keynote® and PowerPoint® formats.
More information about the forthcoming titles and the collection can be found on the AAS|IOP Astronomy webpage.
Professor Levesque’s webinar is available to watch on demand on IOPscience.