The physics-astronomy frontier

Excerpt from the Preface: "The universe is necessarily wider in its range of phenomena than anything we can hope to experience here on Earth. Humans have ever looked to the heavens for clues to the nature and order of the world, and this is still true today. Physicists in search of the laws that order our world have turned to astronomy and cosmology for evidences to support their theories, and astronomers draw upon the experiments of physicists in earthly laboratories to understand the phenomena of the heavens. This fundamental interplay between physics and astronomy has inspired us to write "The Physics-Astronomy Frontier". This book is concerned with astronomy from the point of view of the physicist, which is why we discuss such topics as the nature of atoms, quantum mechanics, and ideas about radiation right at the beginning. Unfortunately, human beings are not equipped with an instinctive understanding of these matters because everyday life is not much concerned with them. Indeed, one must go to a great deal of trouble and expense to become concerned with the structure of atoms, and the study of quantum mechanics was not widespread until the modern era of microelectronics. Yet, it is scarcely possible to proceed a step in our understanding of astronomy without coming to grips with these deeper parts of physics".