An Introduction to Cosmochemistry
Cambridge University Press, 2/2/1995
EAN 9780521459204, ISBN10: 0521459206
Paperback, 504 pages, 24.6 x 17.3 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
This textbook describes the composition and evolution of material objects in the universe. The survey begins with a discussion of terrestrial materials and ends with the composition of quasars and distant galaxies. There are two main themes: chemical processes responsible for the abundances we observe, and nuclear processes in which the chemical elements originate. The author presents a total pedagogic synthesis of the subject, building on the basic information in the first chapters leading into a fuller explanation of the composition of the planets and stellar and primordial nucleosynthesis. The later chapters treat the analytical methods of stellar and nebular spectra, and move on to the composition of stars and galaxies. The book is fully referenced and includes problem sets.
1. Overview
2. Minerals
an introduction to the nomenclature and chemistry
3. A brief introduction to petrology
4. A resumé of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
5. Condensation sequences and the geochemical classification of the elements
6. The theory of the bulk composition of the planets
7. Meteorites and the standard abundance distribution (SAD)
8. An introduction to isotope geology
9. Some concepts from nuclear physics
10. Energy generation in stars and nucleosynthesis
11. Atomic and molecular spectra
12. The analysis of stellar spectra
13. The chemistry of stars and the stellar systems;14. Cold, non-stellar material in galaxies
15. Emission line regions and their chemical abundances
16. Abundances of the elements in galaxies.