The Sun Today

There are several billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. One of them is the middle-aged G2V yellow dwarf that rules our lives. The Sun Today discusses the Sun’s appearance and composition, its internal workings, and the various kinds of radiation it emits, and it puts forward a novel explanation for coronal heating. The book draws on the findings of telescopic observation, space missions, and technical and theoretical advances in many fields, and shows why we need to know more if we are to understand and manage our foothold in the Universe.

From the reviews of other books by Claudio Vita-Finzi:

The Sun – A User’s Manual (2008)

….this, jargon-free, concise, beautifully illustrated and eminently readable book…
D.W. Hughes, Times Literary Supplement

Solar History (2013)

....a book that is supremely informative, intensely stimulating and enjoyable to read...
Ian Seymour, Astronomy Now

A History of the Solar System (2016)

...there is a huge amount of useful information in this book that would benefit anyone who needed more detail than is available in a typical popular science title.
Brian Clegg, Popular Science

Preface

1. A commonplace star 

A G2V star

Sun-like stars

Observing the Sun

2.An inconstant star

The solar constant

Spectral effects

3.Solar composition

The photosphere

Abundances

Meteorites

The solar body

Solar volume

Solar diameter

Waves and vibrations

5. The solar furnace

The nuclear core

Coronal heating

6. Solar magnetism

The heliosphere

The Global Field

Magnetic structures on the solar surface

Impact on the Earth

7. Sun and weather

Galactic cosmic rays

UV

Heliohydrology

Index

Claudio Vita-Finzi was born in Sydney, Australia, and educated in Argentina and the UK (BSc, PhD, ScD were all obtained at Cambridge University). He taught Geology and Planetary Science at University College London before moving to the Natural History Museum where he has been Scientific Associate in the Department of Earth Sciences working on solar fluctuations since 2001. He was awarded the Warren Prize of the US Academy of Sciences in 1994 and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1997 and the British Academy in 2012. His books include The Mediterranean Valleys (1969), Recent Earth History (1973), Archaeological Sites (1978), Recent Earth Movements (1986), Monitoring the Earth (2002), Planetary Geology (2005), The Sun: A User's Manual (2008), Solar History (2012), and A History of the Solar System (2016), the last three published by Springer.