The 2008 annual covers all major astronomical news on topics beyond the Solar System, placing them in the context of the longer-term goals of astronomers and astrophysicists around the world.
Authors Preface.- Monthly News.- American Astronomical Society Conference update: Martin Ratcliffe.- Features.- The state of the universe: James Kaler.- Topic under review: Carolyn C Petersen.- Formation of planetary systems: James Graham and Paul Kalas.- Chandra review: Wallace Tucker.- NRAO story: David Finlay.- Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Timothy Beers.- The state of the Hubble Space Telescope (servicing mission): Chris Blades.- The state of funding for science: Phil Plait.- Scale of the Universe: Alex Filippenko.- 400 years of the Telescope: Roger Angel.- Star formation: Lisa Rebull.- Current Optical Telescopes.- Future Telescopes.- Current Radio, IR and Sub-millimeter Telescopes.- Future Radio, IR and Sub-millimeter Telescopes.- Optical Interferometers.- Space observatories.
From the reviews: "This softback volume brings together 100 of the most significant astronomy-related press releases that were issued between 2006 April and 2007 March, together with full-colour reproductions of the relevant illustrations. ! this compilation by writer and educator Martin Ratcliffe is a welcome reference. ! Written by recognized experts in their field, these articles cover such diverse topics as 'The history and future of telescopes', 'The state of the Universe', and 'Building planetary disks'." (Peter Bond, The Observatory, Vol. 128 (1204), 2008) "A book that collates and presents a whole year's worth of news stories ! . The succinct nature of these news stories captures the essence of the research, and for those who wish to read up more about each subject, web links to the original press release or even the scientific paper are provided, making this an excellent resource ! . Anyone wanting a year book style review of the current state of affairs in the Universe ! will enjoy reading this book." (Emily Baldwin, Astronomy Now, July, 2008)