Journey from the Center of the Sun.

Rating:
Summary: For the armchair astronomer
Review: "Journey from the Center of the Sun" hits the right level for me in describing the science of the sun; it uses words, pictures, and word-pictures (no math) to describe how the complex physics of nuclear reactions, plasmas, and enormous magnetic explosions all work to make the sun provide us with energy - and also blast the earth with solar wind storms. I am a reader of Scientific American and love to read layman books on science because there is no way that I could understand the technical, mathematical papers of the experts, and yet am fascinated by the rapidly unfolding developments in physics, astronomy, and cosmology. I would highly recommend this book for those readers who want a well-written explanation of the sun, the on-going work on solar cycles, sunspots, the "missing neutrino" problem, the "coronal heating" conundrum, and the new studies in helioseismology. I will also add that I enjoyed Jack Zirker's first book "Total Eclipses of the Sun" which inspired me to travel to an eclipse - an experience I would like to repeat.

Rating:
Summary: A Long, Well Documented and Interesting Journey It Is!
Review: For science, always read the latest available information. For the sun, this book has it. Contains excellent summary descriptions of solar theories, both proven and proposed. The author is familiar with most solar research and the researchers involved. The writing is clear. The science is accurate. A "must read" for armchair astronomers wanting the latest about the sun.

Rating:
Summary: Popular Science Writing at its Best
Review: I loved this book. As a biochemistry professor I always particularly appreciate good popular science writing, the kind that can engage and excite my students. Clearly written and beautifully illustrated, Journey strikes a perfect balance between too simple and too heavy--with a few technical appendices for those who need more details. I highly recommend it as supplementary reading for college astronomy courses, or just fun reading for science buffs at all levels.

Rating:
Summary: Journey from the Center of the Sun
Review: This book takes you through an incredible journey inside our nearest star. If you ever thought the sun was just a big nuclear furnace, here you will learn of the amazing complexities and mysteries of this star that gives us all life. Along the way you will meet many of the great scientist that contributed to the wealth of knowledge that we have amassed about the sun over the short time (relative to the sun's life) that we have inhabited this third planet from it.

Dr. Zirker begins with many of the questions we still have about the sun; such as - Why the thin corona outer atmosphere is much hotter that the surface (photosphere)? How is the solar wind accelerated to velocities of 800 km/s? What causes the huge coronal mass ejections and solar flares that have direct consequences on earth? Why does the sun follow solar cycles? Where are the missing neutrinos that should be produced from the proton-proton chain reaction taking place in the core?

The book gives the latest research on these and many other aspects of solar science such as the relatively new fields of helioseismology, chaos theory, fractal geometry, and others. Along the way you will learn why the light produced in the core by the thermonuclear process takes a million years to reach the surface (and then only another 8.3 minutes to reach the earth), why the intense activity in the convection zone (the zone that reaches some 200,000 km below the surface) is attributed to sound waves, and how the sunspots are related to the intense magnetic storms occurring on the sun.

One of the subtle things you will get from this book is how the scientific process works - how theories are proposed, experiments designed and preformed and theories revised (or abandoned) and how our scientific knowledge is perpetuated by "standing on the shoulders of giants" - all the works and sacrifices of those that have come before us.
An inspiring book if ever there was one!

Rating:
Summary: A Stellar Journey (pun intended)
Review: This book takes you through an incredible journey inside our nearest star. If you ever thought the sun was just a big nuclear furnace, here you will learn of the amazing complexities and mysteries of this star that gives us all life. Along the way you will meet many of the great scientist that contributed to the wealth of knowledge that we have amassed about the sun over the short time (relative to the sun's life) that we have inhabited this third planet from it.

Dr. Zirker begins with many of the questions we still have about the sun; such as - Why the thin corona outer atmosphere is much hotter that the surface (photosphere)? How is the solar wind accelerated to velocities of 800 km/s? What causes the huge coronal mass ejections and solar flares that have direct consequences on earth? Why does the sun follow solar cycles? Where are the missing neutrinos that should be produced from the proton-proton chain reaction taking place in the core?

The book gives the latest research on these and many other aspects of solar science such as the relatively new fields of helioseismology, chaos theory, fractal geometry, and others. Along the way you will learn why the light produced in the core by the thermonuclear process takes a million years to reach the surface (and then only another 8.3 minutes to reach the earth), why the intense activity in the convection zone (the zone that reaches some 200,000 km below the surface) is attributed to sound waves, and how the sunspots are related to the intense magnetic storms occurring on the sun.

One of the subtle things you will get from this book is how the scientific process works - how theories are proposed, experiments designed and preformed and theories revised (or abandoned) and how our scientific knowledge is perpetuated by "standing on the shoulders of giants" - all the works and sacrifices of those that have come before us.
An inspiring book if ever there was one!

Rating:
Summary: Journey from the Center of the Sun
Review: We have learned a lot about the sun in recent years, from data taken using powerful telescopes on the ground and in space, from computer simulations of the manner in which the sun vibrates, and even from underground mines, where neutrinos originating in the sun have been captured. Zirker, an eminent solar physicist, has deftly met the difficult challenge of explaining these sophisticated observations to the lay reader in a manner that is both engaging and informative. As his theme, he follows the propagation of energy from its origin in nuclear fusion in the solar core until it escapes the outer reaches of the solar atmosphere in the form of radiation and particles. Each stage in this process is carefully described, and analogies to more common physical situations are used with effect. The illustrations are generally helpful, and the more technical endnotes prove very useful. The book concludes by comparing the sun with other stars and by discussing the influence of the sun on Earth. In content it is similar to Nearest Star by Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff (CH, Oct'01), but it is somewhat more advanced and discussion of the physical principles is more satisfactory.