Astrophysics in faces. Levin A.E.

This book contains detailed biographies of eighteen main participants in astrophysical studies who lived and worked from the second half of the 19th century to the present day. The book is a continuation of the monograph of the author “Astronomy in the Persons” (URSS, 2022), in which the evolution of Copernican and postcoraman astronomy is considered up to the beginning of its synthesis with physics. Like the first book, this is not a selection of traditional biographies of researchers, but the story of one of the most important sciences of our time, presented through the biographies of its creators. These sections, as in the first book, are supplemented by vast information material on the history of the instrumental base of optical astronomy and the evolution of a number of key concepts of theoretical astrophysics. The author has the courage to consider his work unique in content and technology. In any case, he is unknown to other works on the history of astronomy and astrophysics, made in a similar paradigm.

The book will be interesting and accessible to all readers who will want to trace and understand the historical development of astrophysics by seeing this process through the eyes of the main creators of this science.