Solar System: Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology, Subvolume B: 4B (Landolt-Börnstein: Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology - New Series) - Tapa dura

The last few decades have been called the “Golden Age of Astronomy”. The rapid increase of knowledge in the field necessitates publishing a new edition of the Astronomy and Astrophysics volumes of the Landolt-Boernstein. The title is now “Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology”. Cosmology has been added in order to make allowances for the increasing role of extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology. The present volume VI/4B on the “Solar System” is the first to be published of the new series. Volume VI/4A on “Instruments and Methods” will follow soon. Additional volumes on “Stars”, the “Galaxy”, “Galaxies, Large Scale Structure and Cosmology” are in the planning stage. The previous volumes covering the Solar System appeared in 1965, 1981 and 1993. In the meantime multi-wavelength observations of the sun – by ground based and space borne telescopes – have produced a wealth of new data. The same is true for telescopic and/or in situ investigations of the planets, moons, asteroids, meteors, meteorites, interplanetary dust, solar wind etc. The use of units for physical quantities in the present volume follows largely the rules given by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), c.f. http://www.iau.org/science/publications/proceedings/_rules/units/, which favour the international system (SI) of units. However, the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system is used in some sections of the present volume, since it is still dominating in certain areas of astrophysics. A table with unit conversion of CGS to SI is given on the inside of the back cover of this book.

The volumes of group VI include topics such as astronomical instruments, position and time determination, astronomical constants, abundances of the elements in the universe, the solar system, the stars, special types of stars, star clusters and associations, the stellar system, and galaxies. Particular importance was attached to the requirement that the contents should be usable by non-astronomers as well.The last few decades have been called the "Golden Age of Astronomy". The rapid increase of knowledge in the field necessitates publishing a new edition of the Astronomy and Astrophysics volumes of the Landolt-Boernstein. The title is now "Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology". Cosmology has been added in order to make allowances for the increasing role of extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology.The present volume VI/4B on the "Solar System" is the first to be published of the new series. The previous volumes covering the Solar System appeared in 1965, 1981 and 1993. In the meantime multi-wavelength observations of the sun -- by ground based and space borne telescopes -- have produced a wealth of new data. The same is true for telescopic and/or in situ investigations of the planets, moons, asteroids, meteors, meteorites, interplanetary dust, solar wind etc.