Abstract
>The aim of astrophysics is to describe, to understand and to predict the physical phenomena that occur in the Universe. The physical content of the Universe — dense or rarefied, hot or cold, stable or unstable — can usually be classified into categories, such as planets, stars, galaxies, and so on. The information received by observers and transformed into signals is the basis for these classifications, for the physical models and for the predictions, which together make up the science of astrophysics.
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- 1.
After J.A. Simpson in: Composition and Origin of Cosmic Rays, ed. by M. Shapiro (Reidel, Dordrecht 1983) pp.1–24. With the kind permission of D. Reidel Publishing Company.
- 2.
See, e.g., Longair, M.S. (1981): High Energy Astrophysics (Cambridge University Press); see also AF, Sect. 4.3.
- 3.
Three outstanding works provide an in-depth panorama of the four points mentioned: Woltjer, L., Europe’s Quest for the Universe, EDP Sciences, Paris (2006); Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, Heck, A., Ed., Vol.7, Springer (2006); Future Professional Communication in Astronomy, Heck, A. & Houziaux, L., Eds., Académie royale de Belgique, xxviii, 2047 (2007), from which several parts of the following discussion have been extracted.
- 4.
See, for example, Paul Murdin’s contribution to Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, Heck, A., Ed., Vol.7, Springer (2006) for a description of the state of astronomy in the United Kingdom, with an interesting historical perspective.
- 5.
Not everyone shares this view. For example, Jacques-E. Blamont, in his book Le Chiffre et le songe. Histoire politique de la découverte (O. Jacob, Paris, 1993), discerns a strong connection between the historical advancement of astronomy and the level of royal concern.
- 6.
This figure is given for the beginning of the decade 2000–2010, L. Woltjer, Europe’s Quest for the Universe, EDP Sciences, Paris (2006). The definition of what constitutes Europe is somewhat fuzzy here, since it does not correspond exactly to the European Union, which is itself evolving, and since these two perimeters involve a considerable geographic diversity of members, also growing.
- 7.
See Future Professional Communication in Astronomy, Heck, A. & Houziaux, L., Eds., Académie royale de Belgique, xxviii, 2047 (2007).
- 8.
Comité d’éthique of the CNRS (COMETS, March 2007), www.cnrs.fr/fr/organisme/ethique/comets; see also the Universal Code of Ethics for Scientists published by the UK Council for Science and Technology
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Léna, P., Rouan, D., Lebrun, F., Mignard, F., Pelat, D. (2012). Astrophysical Information. In: Observational Astrophysics. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21815-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21815-6_1
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