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Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets: The Science of What's Out There
What happens to space and matter near a black hole? Where did the moon come from? How do we know what stars are made of? Are we alone in the universe?
In Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets , Fred Watson, an award-winning astronomer, presents the most up-to-date knowledge on hot topics in astronomy and space science, providing a fascinating and entertaining account of the latest research. Watson explains how to find invisible planets around other stars, why dark matter matters, and the future of citizen space travel, all while recounting the seismic shifts in understanding that have taken place during his illustrious career.
The book features illuminating discussions of microbes in space; the dividing line between day and night; exploding stars and light echoes; fast radio bursts and signals from space; meteors, meteorites, and space dust; what happened to the Martian ocean; the seas and lakes of Titan; and the birth of the universe.
In Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets , Fred Watson, an award-winning astronomer, presents the most up-to-date knowledge on hot topics in astronomy and space science, providing a fascinating and entertaining account of the latest research. Watson explains how to find invisible planets around other stars, why dark matter matters, and the future of citizen space travel, all while recounting the seismic shifts in understanding that have taken place during his illustrious career.
The book features illuminating discussions of microbes in space; the dividing line between day and night; exploding stars and light echoes; fast radio bursts and signals from space; meteors, meteorites, and space dust; what happened to the Martian ocean; the seas and lakes of Titan; and the birth of the universe.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 14, 2020
7 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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January 18, 2020Made Nature's Five Best science books of the week list:
"Astronomer Fred Watson is a science communicator par excellence. Here, with infectious enthusiasm, he plunges the reader into the science on sky-watching and space observation. Kicking off with a nuanced discussion of twilight — covering everything from crepuscular rays to the ‘green flash’ — he moves on to meteor showers, the potential contamination of the Solar System’s ice moons by earthly microbes, the mystery of a hypothesized Planet Nine and the real origins of the Moon."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
"Astronomer Fred Watson is a science communicator par excellence. Here, with infectious enthusiasm, he plunges the reader into the science on sky-watching and space observation. Kicking off with a nuanced discussion of twilight — covering everything from crepuscular rays to the ‘green flash’ — he moves on to meteor showers, the potential contamination of the Solar System’s ice moons by earthly microbes, the mystery of a hypothesized Planet Nine and the real origins of the Moon."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
May 22, 2024
I wish I understood more about astrophysics to fully understand the words in this book! However, I was very pleased with the spare bits of sense I could make of it via piecing together what the author was trying to convey through his illustrations.
My fascination with this topic starts with what I remember of my grandfather's copy of Cosmos. Then I took a couple of classes in school. Then I got into the University. Then star gazing started to get really much too hard. This was before I started to have any head problems. Then I started to have to go to bed too early for anything interesting to be seen, which was somewhat unfortunate, but I can still observe the works of people like Watson et al. (All the other interesting people's names have fled my mind right now. I think there's a fun TV show or two out there.)
In between pp. 116 and 117 are 8 pages of full colour inserts of this scientist's work. I am glad my birds are no longer here - not because I didn't like them - I cried very hard when the flock leader passed on - but because I remember all birds absolutely loved chewing at all the paper of my books or whatever else I had in my hands and this is a library book, I don't like having fines on my account, and the ideas in this book ought to be protected from damage in particular!
The reason I mention the birds at all (I have raised a dozen cockatiels so far, to find their mutations interesting to observe) is since I think the birds and outer space are possibly connected, but this is possibly a bad theory due to the vacuum property of deep space.
My bird was just with me all the time while I was doing my Physics work, and there are none with me any more, hence if there are any here now, they are invisible, just like the Invisible Planets in the title of this manuscript.
...which I hope you might enjoy picking up next!
My fascination with this topic starts with what I remember of my grandfather's copy of Cosmos. Then I took a couple of classes in school. Then I got into the University. Then star gazing started to get really much too hard. This was before I started to have any head problems. Then I started to have to go to bed too early for anything interesting to be seen, which was somewhat unfortunate, but I can still observe the works of people like Watson et al. (All the other interesting people's names have fled my mind right now. I think there's a fun TV show or two out there.)
In between pp. 116 and 117 are 8 pages of full colour inserts of this scientist's work. I am glad my birds are no longer here - not because I didn't like them - I cried very hard when the flock leader passed on - but because I remember all birds absolutely loved chewing at all the paper of my books or whatever else I had in my hands and this is a library book, I don't like having fines on my account, and the ideas in this book ought to be protected from damage in particular!
The reason I mention the birds at all (I have raised a dozen cockatiels so far, to find their mutations interesting to observe) is since I think the birds and outer space are possibly connected, but this is possibly a bad theory due to the vacuum property of deep space.
My bird was just with me all the time while I was doing my Physics work, and there are none with me any more, hence if there are any here now, they are invisible, just like the Invisible Planets in the title of this manuscript.
...which I hope you might enjoy picking up next!
Want to read
August 29, 2022With labelled drawings throughout and color illustrations in the last chapter following a detailed index, this book is written as a story, that plays directly to our emotions, and our sense of who we are. and is an overview of life formation on our Earth and the potential for life on another planet or exoplanet, another galaxy or ...
He adds that " Science fiction has imagined extraterrestrial life-forms in every permutation from the hostile to the benevolent." He makes reference to scientists such as Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Seth Shostak; Galileo and Shrodinger; his astrobioloy colleagues and defines a living organism as a self-sustaining, self-replicating entity that is capable of Darwinian evolution.
He ends by talking of the mystery of life quoting Max Planck who said that we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.
At times, the story sounds like a eulogy:
"Sadly David Allen did not live to see these exciting discoveries. He died on 26 July 1994 at the age of 47, from a brain tumour. But I can well imagine the glee with which he would have welcomed our present-day knowledge of Supernova 1987a.." Chapter 16 David Allen had predicted that Supernova 1987a would excavate its own bubble in space in the form of a bipolar nebula and he was right. The author convinces us that we are sure to discover more light echoes from long-extinct supernovae.
The Crab Nebula is the remnant of an explosion. * It is located 6,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, the Crab Nebula can be spotted with a small telescope and is best observed in January. The nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731, and later observed by Charles Messier who mistook it for Halley’s Comet.
Author: 1944 -
Book published 2019
He adds that " Science fiction has imagined extraterrestrial life-forms in every permutation from the hostile to the benevolent." He makes reference to scientists such as Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Seth Shostak; Galileo and Shrodinger; his astrobioloy colleagues and defines a living organism as a self-sustaining, self-replicating entity that is capable of Darwinian evolution.
He ends by talking of the mystery of life quoting Max Planck who said that we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.
At times, the story sounds like a eulogy:
"Sadly David Allen did not live to see these exciting discoveries. He died on 26 July 1994 at the age of 47, from a brain tumour. But I can well imagine the glee with which he would have welcomed our present-day knowledge of Supernova 1987a.." Chapter 16 David Allen had predicted that Supernova 1987a would excavate its own bubble in space in the form of a bipolar nebula and he was right. The author convinces us that we are sure to discover more light echoes from long-extinct supernovae.
The Crab Nebula is the remnant of an explosion. * It is located 6,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, the Crab Nebula can be spotted with a small telescope and is best observed in January. The nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731, and later observed by Charles Messier who mistook it for Halley’s Comet.
Author: 1944 -
Book published 2019
April 28, 2020
Starting with the planet Mercury, traveling through the galaxies, back to the early beginnings of the Universe. I am not overly religious, but I am spiritual. One way I choose to see a Higher Being is by looking at the extraordinary wonders spread throughout the universe. Filled with mind-boggling finds, that I never knew existed out there. Oh, like merging black holes and the concept dod dark matter.
A bit heavy on the science and I, admittedly, got lost in some of the jargon. That's okay because being humbled by concepts beyond one's grasp helps (at least for me) appreciate the bigger picture better. The jargon wasn't overwhelming and the book isn't a difficult read. More importantly-- makes for a great change from the normal types of books I read.
A bit heavy on the science and I, admittedly, got lost in some of the jargon. That's okay because being humbled by concepts beyond one's grasp helps (at least for me) appreciate the bigger picture better. The jargon wasn't overwhelming and the book isn't a difficult read. More importantly-- makes for a great change from the normal types of books I read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews