Written in an accessible style, this unique book aims at describing the Nobel prize winning works in astronomy to readers who only have a background of high school physics. It gives a glimpse of the work done by those prize-winning astronomers at the forefront of research and the state-of-the-art techniques used for that, to an interested reader.
There have been 11 years when Nobel prizes in physics have been given to astronomers. These award-winning works cover almost the entire subject of astronomy, starting from stellar structure all the way to cosmology. The prizes have been divided in 7 categories which are described in 7 chapters. For each prize a brief biography of the winner(s) is given first. The subject of the award is put into context and the reader is reminded of all the basic concepts needed for understanding the work before, finally, the prize-winning work is described.
This enjoyable book will give the interested reader an excellent overview of the highlights and development of astronomy of the 20
th
and early 21
st
century.