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Dieses reich bebilderte Buch gibt eine Einführung in die Physik der Sonne und ihre Bedeutung für die Erde. Gestützt auf neueste Forschungsergebnisse aus Radioteleskop- und Satellitenbeobachtungen beschreibt der Autor die gewaltigen atomenergetischen Prozesse der Sonne, ihren geheimnisvollen Neutrinofluß, ihre seismischen Aktivitäten, Magnetfelder und Sonnenflecke, Korona, Sonnenausbrüche und Protuberanzen, den Sonnenwind, und die außerordentlich wichtige und vielfältige Bedeutung des Sonnenlichts, das Leben auf der Erde entstehen läßt und es auch gefährdet. Gut verständlich und in ansprechender Sprache geschrieben ist es ein wunderbares Buch für den Leser populärwissenschaftlicher Literatur, ein wertvolles Geschenk für Studenten der Astronomie und verwandter Disziplinen sowie Amateurastronomen.

This book was written for my daughter, Julia; her love and comfort have helped sustain me. It is a pleasure to watch Julia noticing details of every­ thing around her. Children and other curious people perceive worlds that are invisible to most of us. Here we describe some of these natural unseen worlds, from the hid­ den heart of the Sun to our transparent air. They have been discovered and explored through the space-age extension of our senses. A mere half-century ago astronomers were able to view the cosmos only in visible light. Modern technology has now widened the range of our perception to include the invisible realms of subatomic particles, magnetic fields, radio waves, ultraviolet radiation and X-rays. They are broadening and sharpening our vision of the Sun, and providing a more complete description of the Earth's environment. Thus, a marvelous new cosmos is now unfolding and opening up, as new instruments give us the eyes to see the invisible and hands to touch what cannot be felt.

The First Edition of The Sun from Space, completed in 1999, focused on the early accomplishments of three solar spacecraft, SOHO, Ulysses, and Yohkoh, primarily during a minimum in the Sun's 11-year cycle of magnetic activity. The comp- hensive Second Edition includes the main ndings of these three spacecraft over an entire activity cycle, including two minima and a maximum, and discusses the signi cant results of six more solar missions. Four of these, the Hinode, RHESSI, STEREO, and TRACE missions were launched after the First Edition was either nished or nearly so, and the other two, the ACE and Wind spacecraft, extend our investigations from the Sun to its varying input to the Earth. The Second Edition does not contain simple updates or cosmetic patch ups to the material in the First Edition. It instead contains the relevant discoveries of the past decade, integrated into chapters completely rewritten for the purpose. This provides a fresh perspective to the major topics of solar enquiry, written in an enjoyable, easily understood text accessible to all readers, from the interested layperson to the student or professional.