Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide

By Jo Dunkley

Book Overview

A BBC Sky at Night Best Astronomy and Space Book of the Year

"[A] luminous guide to the cosmos...Jo Dunkley swoops from Earth to the observable limits, then explores stellar life cycles, dark matter, cosmic evolution and the soup-to-nuts history of the Universe."
--Nature

"A grand tour of space and time, from our nearest planetary neighbors to the edge of the observable Universe...If you feel like refreshing your background knowledge...this little gem certainly won't disappoint."
--Govert Schilling, BBC Sky at Night

Most of us have heard of black holes and supernovas, galaxies and the Big Bang. But few understand more than the bare facts about the universe we call home. What is really out there? How did it all begin? Where are we going?

Jo Dunkley begins in Earth's neighborhood, explaining the nature of the Solar System, the stars in our night sky, and the Milky Way. She traces the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang fourteen billion years ago, past the birth of the Sun and our planets, to today and beyond. She then explains cutting-edge debates about such perplexing phenomena as the accelerating expansion of the universe and the possibility that our universe is only one of many. Our Universe conveys with authority and grace the thrill of scientific discovery and a contagious enthusiasm for the endless wonders of space-time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674248236
• ISBN13: 9780674248236
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Loved

Full transparency, I listened to this as an audiobook and I highly recommend it because Dunkley reads the book herself, which I always love the authors reading their own work. I love that Dunkley includes plenty of women in astro history in the book. I also love how Dunkley talks about space. Im not claiming to be as smart as her after reading her book or anything, but I really do feel like I have a better grasp of things than I did before reading her book. Which is saying something because space feels unfathomable to me. I think she did an incredible job at making space a smidge more fathomable. Also there's a lot of interesting questions she asks, given some of the theories about space and the answers we are currently trying to find. It's a lot. But it's really cool.