Posted on by Eva Gallant

Book Review: Space Hoax

The cover of the new book "Space Hoax" by Paul Gillebaard.

Space Hoax, written by Paul Gillebaard, is the adventure filled sequel to his book Moon Hoax (read our review of that book here.) This space thriller begins right where Moon Hoax left off.

Our hero, Peter Novak, living a certainly less than boring life, is on his way back from the Moon. He had launched on what was supposed to be a suicide mission to the Moon in a race to disprove China’s lies. Peter proved our country did go to the Moon; the Apollo missions were not faked. China’s machinations to humiliate the USA in a dizzying plot failed. Saving face and doing the right thing, the two Taikonauts in orbit around the Moon allow Peter Novak to use their Chinese spacecraft as a lifeboat home.

The stage is now set for Peter’s next challenge.

Executives in China are not pleased with their lies being exposed. Ideally, they would love to put an end to Peter Novak. They still wish to embarrass the USA, cripple our space program, and push their own country ahead into the future of spaceflight. Their next possible target: A commercial spaceflight company and the International Space Station (ISS). Any terrorism against the ISS would be incredibly damaging to the USA and the other cooperating space faring nations.

In Space Hoax, Peter is torn. He wants to develop his relationship with the love of his life. She is the daughter of a Cosmonaut, his father’s ally and friend from years past. Once back on Earth, Peter must contend with staying grounded in life and the inevitable pull of his job. He’s trying to move forward with his girlfriend and stay safe for her sake. On the other hand, he is an accomplished astronaut and trusted government agent. When the Space Intelligence Division has a credible threat that a prominent commercial rocket company has a spy within its ranks, Peter Novak is recruited for the job. How much will Peter have to risk this time to complete the mission?

Space Hoax is chock full of rockets, launches, harrowing landings, and spacewalks that all space geeks will love. Paul Gillebaard has a commanding knowledge of aerospace technology and sprinkles the book’s pages with credible tech. As a female reader, Peter Novak’s male swagger can be a bit much, but the plot pulls you in and weaves a plausible tale of high stakes, space race deceit. If you enjoyed Moon Hoax, you will be pleased with its sequel.

You can find Space Hoax on Amazon, and find out more about the author at his website.

Posted on by Katrina Cain

Book Review and Giveaway: Earthrise: My Adventures As An Apollo 14 Astronaut by Edgar Mitchell

Book review by David Freiberg: Universe Today Book Reviewer

Most of us get up in the morning, shower, eat breakfast and sleepily make our way to work. Whether we work in an office, outdoors, with the public or in any number of exciting Earth-based careers, our daily commute can hardly compare to that of a moon astronaut! In Earthrise: My Adventures As An Apollo 14 Astronaut, Edgar Mitchell shares his personal story of how he came to share a career with a scarce 11 other people in history.

This new book tells the story Mitchell’s life; he started out as a farm boy from a small town in New Mexico who grew up in a normal family and lived a normal life but he worked hard enough and got lucky enough to go to the Moon. He wasn’t born into it, and he wasn’t so supremely gifted that he aced everything he tried in his life. He had the willpower to work through years of training, and he had the courage to get into a gigantic rocket that would launch him a quarter of a million miles through space, even though the last people who had tried to go to the Moon were lucky to get back alive.

And, being a real person doing an extraordinary thing, he came back changed by the experience.

Despite the trials and tribulations of training, of flying there, of a close call with a malfunctioning “abort” button, and of the moonwalk itself, Edgar details how the ride home was the most life-changing part of the entire journey. As he saw the Earth shining in front of him, he described a sensation he called metanoia that was to shape the rest of his life. He’d explored as much of outer space as current technology would allow: now he wanted to do the opposite and explore the mind. Though he’d always been interested in topics like ESP (he even conducted his own ESP experiment with a few doctors on Earth during the mission), it was easy to see how it changed his perspective on everything. And, from his descriptions, he’s not the only Apollo astronaut to have a different perspective on life after the mission: they were real people, after all, and if you went to the Moon, you’d probably be changed as well.

That’s where “Earthrise” really shines: you get the idea that you too could do the same thing if you were willing to work for it. This book is strongly recommended for all children who are interested in space; as Edgar Mitchell was inspired by stories of Roswell and of Buck Rogers when he was young, perhaps a child who reads this very book will someday fly around the Moon and watch the Earth come up.

About the authors: Dr. Edgar Mitchell was a pilot in the historic 1971 Apollo 14 mission and the sixth man to ever walk on the Moon. He is the author of “Paradigm Shift,” “The Space Less Traveled,” and “The Way of the Explorer,” and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, three NASA Group Achievement Awards and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. He is the founder of the renowned Institute of Noetic Sciences and lives in Lake Worth, Florida. Ellen Mahoney has worked for Walt Disney Imagineering and produced radio features for the BBC Science in Action show. She is an instructor of journalism at Metro State University of Denver and lives in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Brian Cox is a professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester School of Physics and Astronomy, Manchester, England. He presents space and science programs on BBC radio and television, including “Wonders of the Universe.”

Universe Today and Chicago Review Press are pleased to be able to offer three free copies of “Earthrise: My Adventures as An Apollo 14 Astronaut” to our readers. This contest is open to US and Canadian residents only. In order to be entered into the giveaway drawing, just put your email address into the box at the bottom of this post (where it says “Enter the Giveaway”) before Wednesday, April 30, 2014. If this is the first time you’re registering for a giveaway, you’ll receive a confirmation email immediately where you’ll need to click a link to be entered into the drawing. For those who have registered previously, you’ll receive an email later where you can enter this drawing.

If you are not lucky enough to win one of our three free copies, or if you don’t want to wait, you can purchase the book from Amazon.com.

Posted on by Mark Mortimer

Book Review: “Our Mathematical Universe – My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality”

Mathematics seems to be the bane of many people, and especially many authors. Editors will often say that putting any mathematical equation into a book will sideline it to a destiny of either a textbook or dust collector. So what is an author to do? It appears Max Tegmark plays this line by continually talking about mathematics but never actually using any in his book ‘Our Mathematical Universe – My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality.’ From a publisher’s view, this is a keen gambit. From a reader’s point of view, there may be referrals to some fancy equations but the lack of mathematics serves to convey this author’s message very well.

Max Tegmark is a professor of physics at MIT and a leading expert on theories of the Universe. But he writes with aplomb about a subject of which few people have much grasp and fewer people can manipulate. In a nutshell, he runs through the tenants of extreme physics both in the time and size dimensions, that is, from quarks to galaxies and from the big bang to whatever string theory may have in store for us.

The tentative hypotheses defining our future drive most of the original work in this book. Specifically starting from the Uncertainty Principle, the author argues that all possibilities can and indeed will occur. Just try following along with his argument about a quantum machine gun to determine life and/or death (but don’t try this at home). He then goes on to argue that an infinite number of universes are needed to enable all these options. Next, and apparently his personal purpose of the book, is his appreciation that given these probability states and the finite representation for basic physical entities in our universe, such as the dark-energy density, then our universe and indeed any universe is equivalent to a mathematical structure. This prognosis is his rationale for entitling his book Our Mathematical Universe. He then goes on to claim that this underlying mathematical structure should be the much sought after Theory of Everything. However, he readily admits in his book that he hasn’t got all the details just yet.

While Tegmark has presumably written this book for the lay person, there is a strong sense of an academic grounding in the writing style. The subject is solidly technical with only the occasional interpose of the author’s personal life. There’s a bit about his family, though not much more than that he has one. There’s much more about the physicists that have touched upon his career as well as conferences he’s attended and papers that he’s written. But still, the feeling of being near textbook like does appear. Perhaps this is what makes this book a bit more of a challenge to read. It’s not the difficult prose but the author’s many thought experiments usually based upon mathematical arguments. Reading it requires hard thinking that puts into question your very existence and indeed whatever you may think the purpose may be of your existence. But the reading can be very rewarding even for the lay purpose who’s looking for the latest in cosmology and physics.

So, this book is what we get apparently when a professor has become tenured. It’s a solid personal view that has more to do with what they feel is correct than what is the social or academic norm. Tegmark admits to and writes of some very off norm points in his life. His book ‘Our Mathematical Universe – My Quest for the Ultimate nature of Reality’ may be his most off putting. But equally, he shows the true value of universities, where the best and brightest can advance the knowledge of our species for all to share and from which all profit.

Posted on by Ray Sanders

Book Review: ‘Five Billion Years of Solitude’ by Lee Billings

"Five Billion Years of Solitude" By Lee Billings

Over the past few years, the field of astrobiology has made great strides. With missions such as Kepler making exoplanet discoveries commonplace, the question no longer is “Are other planets out there?” but “When will we find a true twin of Earth?”

A new book, “Five Billion Years of Solitude,” takes the reader from the earliest efforts of astrobiology, along with information on how life took hold on Earth, to how we can use that information to help understand how life may flourish on other worlds – all while giving us a glimpse inside the minds of some of the field’s most notable scientists.

Read a Q&A with Billings here.

To say that author Lee Billings tackles only the subject of astrobiology in “Five Years of Solitude” would be selling this book extremely short. While the main focus of the book is life on Earth and the possibility of life elsewhere, readers will find “Five Years of Solitude” incredibly engaging. Combining conversations with such legends like Frank Drake and Sara Seager with in-depth discussions of numerous science topics related to the search for life, Billings has created a book that is not only entertaining, but educational as well.

For those who aren’t well-versed in the details of astrobiology, the casual, “conversational” approach Billings takes to presenting scientific concepts makes for easily digestible reading. While the scientific concepts explained in the book are laid out in good detail, Billings doesn’t present them in an overly dry, or boring manner. Weaving scientific knowledge with interviews from heavy hitters in the world of astrobiology is one of the book’s strongest selling points. The book is both a primer on astrobiology, and a collection of knowlegde from some of the greatest minds in the field.

In the many conversations Billings has with people such as Geoff Marcy, Frank Drake, Sara Seager, and many others, one can get a “feel” for the sometimes insurmountable obstacles scientists face in trying to get their projects approved and funded. Readers will finish “Five Billion Years of Solitude” with a deep appreciation for the miracle of life on Earth, and the hard work and dedication researchers invest in understanding life on Earth, and the possibility of life elsewhere.

Additionally, Billings provides a gold mine of additional materials that readers can dive into if they want to immerse themselves much deeper into the field of astrobiology. If you are interested in the field of Astrobiology, and understanding how life developed on Earth (and possibly elsewhere), you’ll find “Five Billion Years of Solitude” a very engaging book.

Stay Tuned for an interview with the author, Lee Billings, here at Universe Today later this week. ‘Five Billion Years of Solitude” is available now online, and at your local bookstore.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Book Review: ‘Crescent’ By Homer Hickam

Crescent, by Homer Hickam.

You probably know Homer Hickam from his book “Rocket Boys” and the movie, “October Sky.” But Hickam’s repertoire of 15-plus books range from fiction to nonfiction, covering multiple topics beyond space flight and building rockets.

His most recent series – the Helium-3 trilogy of life on the Moon set 120 years into the future — is science fiction written for young adults. But adults with a penchant for science fiction seem just as taken with these books and their engaging characters.

Find out how to win a copy of “Crescent”

“I like to say I’m like Robert Heinlein, in that I write all my books for everybody!” Hickam told Universe Today by phone in a recent interview.

The idea of writing for a younger audience, he admits, wasn’t his own.

“I was asked to write a series for young adults,” he said, “and I had never had really written for that age group before. I figured it would be a challenge to write something that would be of interest to them, but I kind of took the easy way out by projecting the story 120 years into the future where I could make young adults think, feel and do pretty much what I wanted them to do! Hopefully I created characters that young adults will enjoy.”

Hickam has succeeded. The first book in the Helium-3 trilogy, “Crater” was published in 2012, and the newest, called “Crescent” was published this summer. Both books have been well received by young adult readers, and as mentioned, by adults, too.

The protagonists in the series are young adults themselves, which means there’s a lot of room for growth, discovery and coming of age.

Crater Trueblood is a 19-year-old miner of helium-3 on the Moon who has been forced to become a soldier in the ongoing war against the Crowhoppers. Crowhoppers are bio-engineered humans that are trained for battle and trained to kill. During a battle, Crater captures one of the Crowhoppers, a female named Crescent. Instead of killing her, as she expects and wants, Crater brings her to Moontown and finds he enjoys being with her.

Bring in Maria Medaris, the granddaughter of the richest man on the Moon, Colonel Medaris (a descendant of the character Jack Medaris from Hickam’s 1999 book, “Back to the Moon.” Maria and Crater have a history together, with a complicated relationship. But they end up defending Crescent when she’s falsely accused of murder; then Crater and Crescent escape into the lunar wilderness to avoid Crescent’s imprisonment and to survive must defend themselves from both the Moontowners and a band of Crowhoppers sent to capture or kill them. They must make hard decisions of what is worth fighting for.

Hickam says all his fiction books are character-driven, but he takes every chance he can to include scientifically accurate information.

“It’s very important to me to have scientifically accurate details,” Hickam said. “But where I put in technical details, it is primarily to advance the plot or for the character to grow – in other words, I’m not writing a textbook.”

But of course, there’s also speculation within the story, such as the gillie, a computer that is a synthetic, semi-sentient life-form.

“Nobody has created that yet,” Hickam said, “but it’s nothing I’ve invented out of whole cloth, as some scientists are looking to create a bio-computer.”

But that leads to contemplation of what do you do with a lifeform that is a computer.

Additionally, Hickam’s depiction of life on the Moon in the next century certainly isn’t of a utopia.

“I think that 100 years in the future we’ll probably be surprised about what is life is going to be like then,” Hickam said. “What I’ve done is take technology of today and imagine what it is going to be like 120 years in the future, with some bumps in the road. I don’t see any kind of nirvana or utopia coming –and we’d probably be all pretty bored if that happened! I think advances will come in biology and technology fields, and that is going to raise a host of moral questions for all of us.”

For example, Crescent is a genetically engineered human that is made to look ugly and fearsome as well as being a trained killer.

“So what do we do with humans that look scary, or that act even scarier?” Hickam pondered. “For those who haven’t read the book, think about what if you had someone who loved nothing more to help you, take care of you, cook for you, do everything for you. Everyone says, oh yes, that’s great. But you do know you are talking about wanting a slave. We are going to be able to create helpers, and when we do that, the moral questions for the human race is going to be huge.”

Of all the characters in this series, Hickam says he’s most intrigued by Maria.

“To me Maria is a fascinating character, and we’re still not sure about her and how she’s going to end up,” he said.

And how is the series going to play out? Hickam turned in his transcript for the third book in the trilogy in early September, but gave us no hints of what’s to come.

“The third one is supposed to wrap it all up,” he said with a laugh, “but really, there’s no way to wrap it all up!”

Tomorrow, we’ll talk more with Hickam about his journey from rocket scientist to writer and his views of the current state of space exploration.

Posted on by Tyler Simko

Book Review: “New Frontiers of Space: From Mars to the Edge of the Universe”

You know that friend who’s hopelessly confused about science news, the one who asks classics like “didn’t we just send an SUV or something to Mars?” Are you that friend? Regardless of who it is, you’ve just found their next birthday present.

In TIME‘s newest book, New Frontiers of Space: From Mars to the Edge of the Universe by Jeffrey Kluger and Michael D. Lemonick, readers learn just what’s been going on in our universe lately. The book seeks to “explore the latest scientific discoveries within our solar system and beyond,” and it does so with an approach that is unique and interesting for a number of ways – this is not your typical science read.

Throughout this volume, the editors of TIME brilliantly match scientific insight with gorgeous photographs. The physically large book would not only look wonderful on a coffee table or desk, but would be an interesting read for all who are smart enough to check. This is a book that you judge by its cover – and it’s wonderful.

Reminiscent of one of Time’s wonderful science series, the book is composed of about two dozen relatively short articles, with each focusing on a new stimulating insight from somewhere in the scientific world. Topics range from the quirky launch-day habits of the scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the possibilities of finding life elsewhere in the universe, and perhaps finding remnants of it in our very solar system.

The articles themselves are everything that one would come to expect from one of the world’s leading publications; each one is brilliantly written, and the matching illustrations are as inspiring as they are stimulating. This set up allows for short bursts of sciencey-goodness; perhaps in the form of a daily dose during your morning coffee.

One of the most refreshing parts of this volume is it almost exclusively focuses on recent breakthroughs, it doesn’t seek to be a fundamental introduction to the mysteries of the cosmos – it shows where science has recently landed, where it is now, and where it’s going next. Think of it as a beautifully illustrated crash course on contemporary astronomical news.

In addition to showcasing scientific events, this volume also portray many of the heavy-hitters who help accomplish them. The ’25 Most Influential People In Space’ section was certainly a favourite for me, as it allowed access into a usually dark area of scientific accomplishment – namely, the scientists themselves! Everyone seems to know who the most famous actors in the country are, but now it’s time to learn about some people who spend more of their time socializing with the stars in the sky than those on the red carpet.

I’ll let the Time editors speak for themselves when they say that “space has a way of making sweet, goofy dreamers of us all. Come join us on that mission.”

Posted on by Tyler Simko

Book Review: “The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality” by Dave Goldberg

It’s not every day that you find a Physics book that is both wonderfully thorough and wildly entertaining – but, then again, it’s not every day that Dave Goldberg publishes a book; he’d be quite the busy boy if that was the case. But as writer for the fantastic Ask a Physicist column on io9.com (seriously, check it out), professor and director of undergraduate studies at Drexel University, Slate and LA Times contributor, husband and father – he’s plenty busy already. As an avid reader of Ask A Physicist, I was already familiar with his entertaining writing style – but getting to enjoy it in a full-length book was quite the treat.

Enter The Universe In The Rearview Mirror. Although many recent physics books focus almost entirely on the oddities of quantum mechanics, Goldberg steps outside the now almost tiresome discussions of randomness and Schrodinger’s Cat to enlighten readers on a topic less often discussed, but just as (if not more) fascinating – symmetry. Goldberg’s perusal of symmetry extends far beyond your Elementary School-inspired notions of bilaterally symmetric shapes into questions about the origins, shape and inevitable fate of the universe – among many others!

At most times in Rearview Mirror, Goldberg’s style feels more like a discussion than a book – it’s as if your delightfully nerdy friend from college (the one with a knack for identifying stars, he’s convinced it’s a total turn-on) came over for dinner one night to talk about his favorite topic – the mysteries of the cosmos. Even with the conversational essence, Goldberg is sure to never get bogged down in scientific jargon,instead he frequently relies on allusions and analogies to get his point across.

In the book’s first five pages alone Goldberg makes creative allusions to Star Wars, Angels & Demons, Isaac Asimov, The Incredible Hulk, Twilight , and Star Trek. In the world of science writing since The Big Bang Theory, countless authors have tried to appeal to the “nerdy” sub-genre, but the allusions and comparisons in most books typically seem forced, even irrelevant at times. Perhaps due to his extensive teaching experience, this is never the case with Goldberg’s writing – every allusion is spot-on and fascinating, even Feynman-like at times. Never before had I thought of Lewis Carroll’s Alice jumping down the rabbit hole when discussing a black hole, and now I’ll never be able to think of taking the plunge without doing so.

Throughout the slightly-over-300-page-journey, readers explore fascinating conundrums posed as the subtitle of every chapter, concerning topics like Antimatter (“why there is something rather than nothing”), The Cosmological Principle (“why it is dark at night”) and quantum Spin (“why you aren’t a sentient cloud of helium and what a spoonful of neutron star would do to you”). Although each chapter does seek to answer these questions, the excitement comes from Goldberg’s masterful leadership – he paves the way with insightful analogies and surprisingly digestible descriptions of complex concepts (no equations allowed).

Once the journey is over, readers will not only have a thorough understanding of how symmetry truly shapes our universe, but also a plethora of exciting dinner conversations sure to spice up any date – “Hey, did you know that poker can teach us a lot about entropy?”

Posted on by Brett Szmajda

Book Review – ‘The Lost Art of Finding Our Way’ by John Edward Huth

It’s a moment that you’ve always dreaded – you stepped away from your hiking buddies to take a photo, but on the way back you slipped down an embankment. Now you’re isolated, you can’t find the trail or your friends, and you’re in unfamiliar woods. You try your phone – no signal. How did people navigate before GPS, anyway? In The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, author John Edward Huth aims to show us just that. In a richly-illustrated 544 pages, Huth tries to illuminate the techniques that let man circumnavigate the globe, long before the first GPS satellite was launched.

The book is divided into roughly two halves, with the first being historical tales and discussions of techniques used by ancient navigators to find their way. The Norse are here, as are Pacific Islanders and European sailors: all have lessons to teach us about our environment, from the way that waves form around a cluster of islands, to how to use a cross-staff to estimate the position of a star on a heaving ship deck. Following this, the second half of the book is more abstract, dealing with factors useful to navigators: like weather prediction, or the factors that create the swell and tides in the ocean.

I found the first half of the book to be the most interesting, as the practical techniques for, say, triangulating your position with only a map and a compass are very interesting to a city-bound boy. The second half was much tougher reading as it is quite dry, often reading like a physics textbook. Descriptions are clear, although I will note that if you were looking for a practical manual to teach you navigation, this book isn’t it. It will, for instance, explain how dip angle and refraction in the atmosphere complicate accurate estimates of the horizon and the elevation of stars—but stop short of pointing you a resource to help correct for these inaccuracies.

It’s perhaps ironic that The Lost Art of Finding Our Way sometimes feels a little directionless. Maybe it’s because the very scope of the book is so large: in the one book, you can find a discussion of how search parties can be most efficient; descriptions of the magnetic field variations across the Earth’s surface, and their causes; speculation as to why many cultures have ‘great flood’ myths; and an explanation of the physics of wind interacting with sails.

Overall, this book is an impressive attempt to give a broad overview of a number of navigation techniques. Unfortunately it is marred by its own ambition, and the result is a book that can at times feel random, aimless and meandering.

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Book Review: The Milky Way, An Insider’s Guide

About 70 pages into The Milky Way, An Insider’s Guide, a strange craving for hamburgers overtook me.

The text of William H. Waller, an astronomer and author, was in the midst of a discussion of a kind of organic molecule called PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. As I was reading about the Spitzer Space Telescope’s discoveries in this field, the last sentence in the paragraph struck me:

“On Earth, PAHs are as familiar to us as the mouth-watering aromas of a barbecued hamburger, the sweetly acrid odors of burning tobacco, and the choking fumes behind a diesel bus,” Waller wrote. “If we had big enough nostrils, what would our home galaxy smell like?”

I’m never going to read about PAHs again without wanting to run to that greasy joint nearby my place. Or, I guess, run in the opposite direction from the nearest bus stop.

A digital all-sky mosaic of our view of the Milky Way from Earth, assembled from more than 3,000 individual CCD frames. Credit: Axel Mellinger. Click on image to view a zoomable panorama.
A digital all-sky mosaic of our view of the Milky Way from Earth, assembled from more than 3,000 individual CCD frames. Credit: Axel Mellinger.

Waller’s book is designed as a reference guide for those with a serious interest in astronomy, but who perhaps are just starting to think about taking it in school. Another audience could be the serious amateur astronomer wanting to understand more about telescopic targets.

While not light cottage reading, Waller isn’t afraid to throw in references to popular culture or to drop in humor now and then, much like a kindly Astronomy 101 professor trying to snap your attention back when it might be wandering.

On that note, this illustration in the book (with some important context) may be my favorite astronomy textbook image of all time. It’s another example of how science can, kinda sorta, meet science fiction.

The USS Enterprise has many uses for its deflector shields, including repelling the Borg (Paramount Pictures)
You will find Star Trek references in this book, we promise you. (Paramount Pictures)

The breadth of material Waller covers is astonishing. One 43-page chapter is essentially a history of how we looked at the sky mythologically, philosophically and of course scientifically — a feat that is more interesting when you realize a goodly number of those pages are actually in-context, interesting illustrations.

The book’s bulk, though, looks to summarize astronomical phenomena. It’s definitely not for the beginning reader; for example, the term “nebula” is referred to several times before finally being defined some pages into the book. But if you know what Waller is aiming at, you’ll learn quite a bit.

The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram.
The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram.

The book purports to be about galaxies, but much of it is also devoted to what I think of as hacking the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram showing the types of stars in relation to each other.

Three full chapters are devoted to star birth, the lives of stars and stellar afterlives (y’know, supernovae and the like.) This makes perfect sense as galaxies are collections of stars, so it is only by studying these individual members that we can truly appreciate what a galaxy is about.

The more serious reader will be pleased to see equations included (such as calculating parallax) and a detailed explanation of Drake’s Equation showing the factors behind the probability of finding extraterrestrial life.

So to sum up: definitely not for the person with a nascent interest in astronomy, but a valuable reference for those looking to learn about it seriously. As a space journalist, I’ll definitely keep this book on my shelf.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Win a Copy of “Beyond the Solar System” for the Kids in Your Life

In reviewing the book “Beyond the Solar System: Exploring Galaxies, Black Holes, Alien Planets, and More; A History with 21 Activities” by Mary Kay Carson, UT writer Eva Gallant described it as “written for children and for the inquisitive child within us.”

Thanks to the publisher, Universe Today has three free copies of this book to giveaway — perfect for the kids in your life (even if that’s you!)

This contest will run for a week starting today, so get your entries in! How?

In order to be entered into the giveaway drawing, just put your email address into the box at the bottom of this post (where it says “Enter the Giveaway”) before Monday, June 19, 2013. We’ll send you a confirmation email, so you’ll need to click that to be entered into the drawing.

We’re only going to use these email addresses for Universe Today giveaways/contests and announcements. We won’t be using them for any other purpose, and we definitely won’t be selling the addresses to anyone else. Once you’re on the giveaway notification list, you’ll be able to unsubscribe any time you like.