Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
'Watch the stars, and from them learn' - advice from Albert Einstein, a chap who knew a thing or two. But where do you even start? Look up on a clear, dark evening and you'll be confronted by thousands of stars, scattered apparently at random. Okay, you can always learn the patterns of the constellations and even the names of individual stars, but what does that tell you about the Universe itself? If only there was some way of focusing on the important ones... The cosmos is a big place, with even the closest stars so far away that the idea of visiting them is a distant dream. But by studying the weak rays of starlight that make it to Earth, astronomers can build up a surprisingly complete picture of the way the universe works. And fortunately, a small handful of stars just love to hog the limelight. Either by virtue of their proximity, their brightness, or their odd behaviour, they have drawn astronomers' attention again and again, providing key evidence for our understanding of the heavens. The History of the Universe in 21 Stars provides a key to the cosmos for the curious, the busy and the bewildered. It offers a complete introduction to the heavens through the tales of these celestial superstars and tells the intriguing, inspiring and sometimes just plain odd story of how stargazers unravelled the mysteries of the universe.
Synopsis
Expert science writer Giles Sparrow guides you through 21 stars you can see in the night sky and what they can teach us about our universe.
On a clear evening, if you look up you can see thousands of stars shining in the dark sky, each with a story of their own. Taking 21 stars (and three imposters, that cheekily aren't technically stars), expert science writer Giles Sparrow offers a complete introduction to what is happening up in the night sky. Sparrow draws 'star maps' to help you easily identify the celestial bodies and then explains (for anyone not an astronomer themselves) what this particular pinprick of light can tell us about the birth, life and death of our universe.
From red giants, quasars and supernovae to black holes, multiple stars and even our own Sun, this fascinating book tells the intriguing, inspiring and sometimes incredible story of how we came to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, and what we learnt along the way. So look up at the sky and marvel at its wonders with this exciting new book.