by The science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena is called Astrophysics. Astrophysics seeks to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies, rather than their positions or motions in space what they are, rather than where they are. Science is curious about the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium, and the cosmic microwave background. Emissions from these objects are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. The list of the best Astrophysics books will enrich your knowledge in this broad subject of Astrophysics.
Best Astrophysics Books
| Book Name & Author | Image | Rating | Price |
| An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie |   |
9.5 | View on Amazon |
| Fundamentals of Astrophysics by Stan Owocki |   |
9.6 | View on Amazon |
| Introduction to Astrophysics: The Stars (Dover Books on Physics) by Jean Dufay & Owen Gingerich |   |
9.0 | View on Amazon |
| Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson |   |
9.4 | View on Amazon |
| Lectures on Astrophysics by Steven Weinberg |   |
9.5 | View on Amazon |
| Astrophysics in a Nutshell by Dan Maoz |    |
9.3 | View on Amazon |
1. An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics
This book is a comprehensive, well-organized, and engaging text covering every major area of modern astrophysics. It presents from the solar system and stellar astronomy to galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, and cosmology. The book is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of modern astrophysics. This textbook is suitable for astronomy and physics majors who have had a first-year introductory physics course with calculus.
It features a brief summary of the main scientific discoveries that have led to our current understanding of the universe. Practical examples to facilitate the understanding of the concepts presented in the book. It comes with end-of-chapter problems to practice the skills acquired and computational exercises to numerically model astronomical systems. In fact, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics is the go-to textbook for learning the core astrophysics curriculum as well as the many advances in the field.
If you do not have a solid foundation of general relativity, then this is the best book you can begin with for beginning the study of astrophysics and modern astronomy. Everything in this book is substantially easier to grasp in comparison will have a very good knowledge of astrophysics. Dark matter is discussed in the last chapter of the book which the authors describe as one of the most important theoretical issues in cosmological astrophysics.
2. Fundamentals of Astrophysics
Fundamental of Astrophysics is designed specifically for a one-semester course in astrophysics. It introduces astrophysical concepts to undergraduate science and engineering students with a background in college-level, calculus-based physics. The text is organized into five parts covering: stellar properties; stellar structure and evolution; the interstellar medium and star/planet formation; the Milky Way and other galaxies; and cosmology.
Structured around short easily digestible chapters, instructors have the flexibility to adjust their course’s emphasis as it suits them. Exposition drawn from the author’s decade of teaching his course guides students toward a basic but quantitative understanding, with ‘quick questions’ to spur practice in basic computations, together with more challenging multi-part exercises at the end of each chapter.
You will also get advanced concepts like the quantum nature of energy and radiation developed as needed. The text’s approach and level bridge the wide gap between introductory astronomy texts for non-science majors and advanced undergraduate texts for astrophysics majors.
This much-needed text fills the void for good up-to-date introductions to astrophysics for second or third-year undergraduates with a calculus-based intro physics background. You will especially like the division into short ‘one topic per session’ chapters which makes the text useful for modern active-learning-based approaches.
3. Introduction to Astrophysics: The Stars (Dover Books on Physics)
This is a readable and authoritative translation from French that provides an excellent guide to observational astrophysics and performs as a bridge between introductory and advanced technical treatments. Physics students and professionals will appreciate the text’s mid-level approach in which methods of research and observation receive as much attention as results.
The author examines current methods of stellar photometry and spectroscopy and the main results of research involving star classification and properties confining his discussion to normal stars. You will find additional topics including the construction of Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams, Yerkes two-dimensional classification, masses and densities of stars, general theories about the constitution of stellar atmospheres and the evolution of stars, and much more.
This is indispensable for specialists. This volume is also a fine resource for hobbyists and others with some grounding in astronomy wishing to further explore the intricacies of astrophysics. This book is probably great for an instructor who wants to give an overview of how astrophysicists coped with the information obtained by less sophisticated technology. The book contains many mathematical equations, some of which need to show more minutely how they were derived so the student can understand where the final equations came from.
4. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
By reading this book, you will get answers to the following vital questions about Astrophysics.
What is the nature of space and time?
How do we fit within the universe?
How does the universe fit within us?
There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly with sparkling wit in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.
While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
The book also mentions so many fascinating facts such as different colors have different temperatures. It also features explanations of most of the elements in the periodic table, amusing speculations like the possibility that Earthlings might just be a descendant of Martians, and much space-science stuff.
5. Lectures on Astrophysics
This Lectures on Astrophysics book will provide you with an account of classic and contemporary aspects of astrophysics with an emphasis on analytic calculations and physical understanding. It introduces fundamental topics in astrophysics including the properties of single and binary stars, the phenomena associated with interstellar matter, and the structure of galaxies.
Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg combines exceptional physical insight with his gift for clear exposition to cover exciting recent developments and new results. It Emphasizes theoretical results and explains their derivation and application. This book provides an invaluable resource for physics and astronomy students and researchers.
This book is entitled Lectures on Astrophysics and indeed is based on notes from courses on astrophysics delivered in recent years. Thus the material is road-tested and as is necessary in any lecture course compromises have been made on the scope of the work in order to make the treatment digestible.
Steven Weinberg has written a self-contained and relatively short account of the foundations of astrophysics, from stars to galaxies. The result is extremely pleasant and particularly suitable for students and young practitioners in the field.
The book will stimulate a wealth of considerations on the mutual interplay of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The problems of dark matter, dark energy, gravitational waves, and neutrino masses are today so interlocked that it is quite difficult to say where particle physics stops and astrophysics takes over.
6. Astrophysics in a Nutshell
Astrophysics in a Nutshell has become the text of choice in astrophysics courses for science majors at top universities in North America and beyond. In this expanded and fully updated edition, the book gets even better with a new chapter on extrasolar planets; a greatly expanded chapter on the interstellar medium. It offers fully updated facts and figures on all subjects from the observed properties of white dwarfs to the latest results from precision cosmology, and additional instructive problem sets.
Dan Maoz, a leading active researcher, and designed for advanced undergraduate science majors, Astrophysics in a Nutshell is a brief but thorough introduction to the observational data and theoretical concepts underlying modern astronomy. It covers the essentials of modern astrophysics emphasizing the common physical principles that govern astronomical phenomena, and the interplay between theory and observation. It also introduces subjects at the forefront of modern research including black holes, dark matter, dark energy, and gravitational lensing.
- Contains a broad and well-balanced selection of traditional and current topics.
- Uses simple, short, and clear derivations of physical results.
- Trains students in the essential skills of order-of-magnitude analysis.
- Features a new chapter on extrasolar planets, including discovery techniques.
- Includes new and expanded sections and problems on the physics of shocks, supernova remnants, cosmic-ray acceleration, white dwarf properties, baryon acoustic oscillations, and more.
- Contains instructive problem sets at the end of each chapter.