to the Second Edition The development of astronomy in the last ten years has been nothing short of explosive. This second edition of The New Cosmos, considerably revised and enlarged, tries to share this development with its readers. Let us mention a few key words: from mo on landings, planetary probes, aild continental drift through pulsars, X-ray and y-ray sources, interstellar molecules, quasars, and the structure and evolution of stars and stellar systems right up to cosmological models. As before, the most important task of this book is to give a not too difficult introduction to present-day astronomy and astrophysics, both to the student of astronomy and to the specialist from a neighboring discipline. We therefore draw to the attention of the reader, as an essential part of our description, the numerous illustrations-many of them new-and their detailed captions. As far as possible we link a description of important observations with basic features of the theory. On the other hand, when it comes to detail we often content ourselves with abrief description, leaving the detailed explanation to the specialist literature. The transition to the specialist literature should be eased by the Bibliography at the end of the book. Important new investigations are noted in the text by their year, not so much for historical reasons as to enable the original work to be found in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts (1969 on).

Astronomy, astrophysics, and space research have witnessed an explosive development over the last few decades. The new observational potential offered by space stations and the availability of powerful and highly specialized computers have revealed novel aspects of the fascinating realm of galaxies, quasars, stars, and planets. Succeeding editions of Unsold's The New Cosmos, originally published in English in 1969, have chronicled these advances for 30 years. -- Provides ample evidence of the dramatic developments in technology. -- Assumes only a modest prior knowledge of mathematics and physics. -- Gives a coherent introduction to the entire field of astronomy and astrophysics. -- Offers new insight and enjoyment not only to students and researchers in the fields of astronomy, physics and earth sciences, but also to a wide range of interested amateurs. -- Newly update edition.