Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe

by Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott

Book Overview

The latest photos from Hubble's recent discoveries, with fascinating new and updated information. After 17 years, 25,000 astronomical targets and more than 700,000 images, the Hubble Space Telescope... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1554073162
• ISBN13: 9781554073160
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 9.4" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

Hubble in the Heavens

An awe-inspiring trip into the heavens. Inspirational, fantastic, colorful photos of other worlds, galaxies, nebulae, space.... I fall asleep looking at the pictures and have the most amazing dreams.

The new edition corrects problems other reviewers saw

First, it's important to know that the most recent, 2007 edition corrects many of the problems some of the other reviewers are talking about. The images are high quality, and the text has been edited and formatted much better than in previous editions. The 300 or so images that comprise the bulk of the book are stunning. The Hubble Space Telescope is truly a window into the universe, and it more than justifies its reputation as the most important space mission of all time. There are a number of images in the book that are from other space missions, and they're not always differentiated from the HST images in the text. Those non-HST images are excellent, but I think the editing in this regard leaves something to be desired. While the images are the point of the book, the text is quite good, too. There is an overview of astronomy in general, and each of the chapters is devoted to star formation, galaxies, planets, etc. Kerrod's writing is concise and lucid. The "Glossary of Terms" at the end of the book is much more useful than similar features in other books, and it contains up-to-date terms. This is a book that's well worth reading. The images are visually stunning, and the text is well done. The new edition corrects most of the problems the other reviewers saw. I'm happy I bought this book, and I'd do it again.

Our first clear view of the Universe

Circling a few hundred miles overhead is one of the engineering marvels of the late twentieth century: humanity's very own mirror on the universe, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Now that we have seen such wonders reflected through its glass, what can we do but venture out into the universe for a closer look? English astronomer, Robin Kerrod supplies enough explanatory text so that this isn't just another book of beautiful photographs. Among other wonders, we learn about the origins and deaths of stars, cometary knots (which have nothing to do with comets), gaseous stalagmites that have been dubbed 'the pillars of creation,' and protoplanetary disks in the Orion Nebula. Hubble lets us peer through Titan's atmosphere and into clusters of millions of stars. The planetary nebulae such as the Butterfly and the Spirograph may yield the most beautiful photographs in this book, but it is always the photographs of the vast starfields such as those in the Tarantula Nebula that stop me dead. To think that a few hundred years ago, we were able to count around six thousand stars in the night sky, and now a single photograph yields a million stars in a small pond of gas and dust. Cosmological theories explode into nonexistence because of these photographs. Others, even stranger are born. The Hubble Deep Field photograph of a small region just north of the Big Dipper (a 120 hour exposure) shows infant galaxies, only a few billion years older than the Universe itself. What will theorists do with this single photograph of a small square of space? Everyone should own a copy of this book, especially those who are arrogant enough to believe human beings are the center of the Universe. My only problem with some of the double-page photographs is that their most interesting objects are hidden in the book's stitching. This is a very small complaint in the midst of such wonder.

Chapters also cover the science and astronomy involved

Robin Kerrod's Hubble gathers some of the most important, breathtaking images from the Hubble system, from the birthplace of stars and the deaths of massive red stars to planets in the making and documentation supporting the collision of galaxies. This isn't just a picturebook: chapters also cover the science and astronomy involved, making this a perfect choice for any who would learn about the latest findings via Hubble.

Good Coffee Table Material

This book is worth a spot on the coffee table (or bookshelf even). It is more than a "pretty face" in that it goes into depth in quite a few areas considered very current research in Astronomy such as MACHOS, WIMPS, and galactic cannibalization (with illustrations, of course). Other than a few glaring mistakes they missed in the editing (like saying the Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies is only 100 light years across - pg. 105) it does a good job. Just keep in mind it is long on great photos and a little brief on some topics. Excellent layout that will please both deep sky explorers and planetary "nuts" alike. Divided into 6 chapters each with its focus on one area (ie. Galaxies, Solar System, Cosmology) and the afterwards about the Hubble Space Telescope history was very interesting and replete with pictures also. What I liked best was how the text with the pictures added rather than detracted from the whole reading experience. The text allowed me to stare at the picture even longer and say "wow" more often when I knew more about what I was looking at.