Third Pacific Rim Conference On Recent Development On Binary Star Research

Third Pacific Rim Conference on Recent Development on Binary Star Research

The Influence of Binaries on Stellar Population Studies

A star in a binary may interact with its companion and this complicates significantly its structure and evolution. During several decades in the past many astronomers hoped that the number of binaries is small. This is sometimes reflected in theoretical studies dealing with large populations of stars where it is ASSUMED (without any justification) that binaries do not alter the results. The number of confirmed binaries increases as observations improve and we there fore thought that the time was right to organize a meeting where the main topic would be the effect of binaries on stellar population studies. The SOC proposed a program with extended general overviews and highlights of non-evolved and evolved binaries, with low mass, intermediate mass and massive components, the link with supernova explosions, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, the effect of binaries on the chemical evo lution of galaxies. Specialists in the different research fields were invited and have given very interesting and highly educational talks. As can be noticed by reading the proceedings, the authors have put a lot of effort in preparing their contribution.

The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia

This book examines the ways in which attitudes toward astronomy in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand and Uzbekistan have changed with the times. The emergence of astrophysics was a worldwide phenomenon during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it gradually replaced the older-style positional astronomy, which focused on locating and measuring the movements of the planets, stars, etc.. Here you will find national overviews that are at times followed by case studies of individual notable achievements. Although the emphasis is on the developments that occurred around 1900, later pioneering efforts in Australian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese radio astronomy are also included. As the first book ever published on the early development of astrophysics in Asia, the authors fill a chronological and technological void. Though others have already written about earlier astronomical developments in Asia, and about the recent history of astronomy in various Asian nations, no one has examined the emergence of astrophysics, the so-called ‘new astronomy’ in Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.