ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY

This book deals with topics in atomic and molecular structure and dynamics that are important to astronomy. Indeed, the topics selected are of central interest to the field of astronomy, many having been initiated by the needs of understanding worlds other than ours. Except for some lunar surface material returned by the Apollo missions, and material naturally delivered to us by cosmic rays, comets, and meteors, our only access to the other worlds of our astronomical Universe is through our observations of electromagnetic radiation from them. (Very recently, neutrinos from the Sun and supernovae have also been studied, and there are hopes for observations of gravitational waves in the next decades.)