Horizons: Exploring the Universe, Hybrid (with CengageNOW Printed Access Card) - Softcover

Michael A. Seeds has been Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since 1970. In 1989, he received F&M College's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Seeds' love for the history of astronomy led him to create upper-level courses on Archaeoastronomy and Changing Concepts of the Universe. His research interests focus on variable stars and the automation of astronomical telescopes. Mike is coauthor with Dana Backman and Michele Montgomery of HORIZONS HYBRID: EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE, Thirteenth Edition, and UNIVERSE HYBRID: SOLAR SYSTEM, STARS AND GALAXIES, Eighth Edition, both published by Cengage. He was Senior Consultant in the creation of the twenty-six-episode telecourse accompanying the book HORIZONS: EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE, Twelfth Edition.

Dana Backman taught in the physics and astronomy department at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1991 until 2003. He invented and taught a course titled "Life in the Universe" in F&M's interdisciplinary Foundations program. Dana now teaches introductory Solar System astronomy at Santa Clara University and introductory astronomy, astrobiology, and cosmology courses in Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program. His research interests focus on infrared observations of planet formation, models of debris disks around nearby stars, and evolution of the solar system's Kuiper belt. Dana is employed by the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, as director of education and public outreach for SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) at NASA's Ames Research Center. Dana is coauthor with Mike Seeds of Horizons: Exploring the Universe, 14th edition (2018); Universe: Solar Systems, Stars, and Galaxies, 7th edition (2012); Stars and Galaxies, 8th edition (2013); The Solar System, 8th edition (2013); and ASTRO, 2nd edition (2013), all published by Cengage.

Since 2004, Michele M. Montgomery has been part of the physics faculty at one of the top three universities with the most undergraduate students, The University of Central Florida. She teaches introductory astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology, galaxies and cosmology courses to large and small audiences, both face-to-face and online. At UCF, she created a Life in the Universe course that is taught each spring as a follow-up to the fall semester's astronomy course. Since 2006, she has been an adjunct professor at Valencia College, an urban college with more than 35,000 students, where she started the astronomy program at the east campus. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of AAS WOMEN, a weekly newsletter product of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA). She is a co-author on 'WOMEN IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATH (STEM) - Getting Ahead via the Internet' in the book 'WOMEN, WORK, AND THE WEB: HOW THE WEB CREATES ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES' BY SCARECROSS PRESS 2013. With Mike Seeds and Dana Backman, she coauthors HORIZONS HYBRID: EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE 13e and UNIVERSE HYBRID: SOLAR SYSTEM, STARS, AND GALAXIES, 8e and contributed to HORIZONS: EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE 13e AND UNIVERSE: SOLAR SYSTEM, STARS, AND GALAXIES 7e - all published by Cengage. Dr. Montgomery earned her bachelor's degree in nuclear/mechanical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, master's degree in physics from the University of Alabama, and Ph.D in physics from Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to her career in academia, she was a nuclear engineer for Bechtel Corporation working on projects at DOE's Savannah River Plant and TVA's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant.

PART I: EXPLORING THE SKY. 1. Here and Now. Where Are We? When Is Now? Why Study Astronomy? 2. A User's Guide to the Sky. The Stars. The Sky and Its Motion. 3. Cycles of the Sun and Moon. Cycles of the Sun. Astronomical Influences on Earth's Climate. The Changeable Moon. 4. The Origin of Modern Astronomy. Classical Astronomy. The Copernican Revolution. Planetary Motion. Galileo Galilei. Isaac Newton and Orbital Motion. 5. Light and Telescopes. Radiation: Information from Space. Telescopes. Observatories on Earth: Optical and Radio. Airborne and Space Observatories. Astronomical Instruments and Techniques. PART II: THE STARS. 6. Atoms and Spectra. Atoms. Interactions of Light and Matter. Understanding Spectra. 7. The Sun. The Solar Atmosphere. Solar Activity. Nuclear Fusion in the Sun. 8. The Family of Stars. Star Distances. Apparent Brightness, Intrinsic Brightness, and Luminosity. Star Spectra. Star Sizes. Star Masses--Binary Stars. A Census of the Stars. 9. The Formation and Structure of Stars. The Interstellar Medium. Making Stars from the Interstellar Medium. Young Stellar Objects and Protostellar Disks. Stellar Structure and Nuclear Fusion. Main-Sequence Stars. 10. The Deaths of Stars. Giant Stars. The Deaths of Lower-Main-Sequence Stars. The Evolution of Binary Systems. The Deaths of Massive Stars. 11. Neutron Stars and Black Holes. Neutron Stars. Black Holes. Compact Objects with Disks and Jets. PART III: THE UNIVERSE OF GALAXIES. 12. The Milky Way Galaxy. Discovery of the Galaxy. Structure of the Galaxy. Spiral Arms and Star Formation. The Nucleus of the Galaxy. Origin and History of the Milky Way Galaxy. 13. Galaxies: Normal and Active. The Family of Galaxies. Measuring the Properties of Galaxies. The Evolution of Galaxies. Active Galactic Nuclei. Supermassive Black Holes. 14. Modern Cosmology. Introduction to the Universe. The Big Bang Theory. Space and Time, Matter and Energy. Twenty-First-Century Cosmology. PART IV: THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 15. The Origin of the Solar System. The Great Chain of Origins. A Survey of the Solar System. The Story of Planet Building. Planets Orbiting Other Stars. 16. Earth and Moon: Bases for Comparative Planetology. A Travel Guide to the Terrestrial Planets. Planet Earth. The Moon. 17. Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Mercury. Venus. Mars. 18. The Outer Solar System. A Travel Guide to the Outer Solar System. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune. Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. 19. Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets. Meteoroids, Meteors, and Meteorites. Asteroids. Comets. Asteroid and Comet Impacts. PART V: LIFE. 20. Astrobiology: Life on Other Worlds. The Nature of Life. Life in the Universe. Intelligent Life in the Universe. Afterword. Appendix A Units and Astronomical Data. Appendix B Observing the Sky. Glossary. Answers to Even-Numbered Problems. Credits. Index.