Abstract
In this introductory chapter we ‘set the scene’ for the rest of the book by defining the term ‘astrophysics’ and tracing major aspects in its evolution, particularly in Europe and North America during the second half of the nineteenth century.
We then present our wide-ranging definition of ‘Asia’, and identify those nations that are discussed in this book: Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, India and Uzbekistan. Overview chapters presented for all of these nations review the development of astronomy in the pre-astrophysics era and then the emergence of astrophysics. In a number of these countries, pioneering astrophysical research was undertaken during the late nineteenth century or early in the twentieth century, before the wholesale national emergence of astrophysics, and some of these (e.g. key solar eclipse expeditions), are presented as case studies. Further case studies are presented for Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand and India, all of which made important contributions to international radio astronomy, thus helping open a new window on the Universe.
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Notes
- 1.
Hereafter unless explicitly mentioned, the birth and death years of historical individuals are taken from Hockey et al. (2014).
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Nakamura, T., Orchiston, W. (2017). Introduction. In: Nakamura, T., Orchiston, W. (eds) The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62082-4_1
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