Günther Hasinger – författare

In the last 45 years, X-ray astronomy has become an integral part of modern astrophysics and cosmology. There is a wide range of astrophysical objects and phenomena, where X-rays provide crucial diagnostics. In particular they are well suited to study hot plasmas and matter under extreme physical conditions in compact objects. This book summarizes the present status of X-ray astronomy in terms of observational results and their astrophysical interpretation. It is written for students, astrophysicists as well a growing community of physicists interested in the field. An introduction including historical material is followed by chapters on X-ray astronomical instrumentation. The next two parts summarize in 17 chapters the present knowledge on various classes of X-ray sources in the galactic and extragalactic realm. While the X-ray astronomical highlights discussed in this book are mainly based on results from ROSAT, ASCA, RXTE, BeppoSAX, Chandra and XMM-Newton, a final chapter provides an outlook on observational capabilities and projects discussed for the future.

"Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology" have developed into important and fruitful research areas with a hitherto unprecented public interest. The year 2005, which marked the 100th anniversary of the ''annus mirabilis'', that year in which Albert Einstein published three of his most important scientific papers, was the perfect opportunity to review and to present the current scientific understanding of relativistic topics including cosmological models, cosmology related measurements, the large scale properties of the Universe, dark matter and dark energy, the theory of gravity, black holes, theory and measurements, active galactic nuclei, clusters of galaxies, jets. Each of these subjects is addressed and the book represents a useful reference tool both for the expert and the new-comer in these fields.