Grigor A. Gurzadyan – författare

This monograph contains an overview of classical dynamics, providing a solid basis on which to build an understanding of the theory of interplanetary flights. The treatment of the topic is based on both historical and topical perspectives. The theoretical development is illustrated with a number of practical examples, bringing to bear the author's experience gained from working on the Soviet space programme. Many examples are taken from current space missions - new data is included on the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, the flight of ULYSSES over the Solar poles and the Voyager's tour of the solar system.

Dynamical systems provide powerful methods for the study of profound properties of many-dimensional nonlinear systems. In this unique book, the authors offer a consistent geometrical treatment of observational cosmology from the concepts of the theory of dynamical systems. The dynamics of clusters of galaxies differ drastically from stellar dynamics, thus requiring a mathematical approach to large-scale problems. Since mathematical techniques are not a familiar tool in this field, a full summary of the elementary ideas of differential geometry, ergodic theory and catastrophe theory are also considered in this exploratory text. Readership: Mathematicians, astrophysicists, and cosmologists, as well as anyone interested in the many subject disciplines related to geometrical and topological aspects of the large-scale universe.

This book is based on the author's lectures at the Yerevan State University, Yerevan Polytechnic Institute and to Soviet cosmonauts. Oriented toward students, it includes details on Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet's impact with Jupiter, flight of Ulysses over the Solar poles, and Voyagers' solar system tour.

This is a considerably revised English translation of the Russian original of 1993. It gives a rather complete survey of the astrophysics of planetary nebulae, including theory and observations. The book covers various subjects ranging from various aspects of emission lines, ionization equilibrium, electron temperature, the ultraviolet and the continuous spectra, the infrared radiation and radio emission all the way to distances, dimensions, dynamics and, finally, the origin of planetary nebulae. It addresses students as well as professional and amateur astronomers.