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Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe
The latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope's recent discoveries and fascinating updates. In its 20 years of viewing the heavens NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has traveled 2.8 billion miles, made more than 930,000 observations and snapped over 570,000 images of 30,000 celestial objects. It has forever changed how we view the universe and our place in it. This third edition of Hubble picks up the journey where the last edition left off. It includes a fascinating discussion on how the latest discoveries are revising scientific understanding of the universe, such Since the 2007 edition of Hubble , the Hubble Space Telescope has clocked millions more miles and taken thousands more images. This new edition describes how, like the Hubble Space Telescope's missions, our view of the universe is a constantly evolving journey.
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2003
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123 people want to read
About the author
Robin Kerrod
378 books6 followersRobin Kerrod writes for young people on all aspects of science and technology, and on astronomy for a wider audience. A former winner of the COPUS (Committee on the Public Understanding of Science) Junior Science Book Prize, he was a major contributor to the DK Science Encyclopedia. He has also co-written The Way Science Works for DK, and is one of the authors of The Way the Universe Works.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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November 20, 2008Kept me alive.
October 21, 2023
I wonder about these photo books on Hubble.
In this book, the narrative describes rotating, spiral galaxies, of swirling gas and dust, flattened into a disk, with a large bulge in the center. This is a literal description of the photos, but such descriptions don’t explain why galaxies rotate; why there are spirals (and whether they are flinging gas and dust outward into space or drawing gas and dust inward toward a gravitational center); why there’s a flattening of the gas and dust into a disk; and why there’s a bulge at the center.* The explanation for the other galactic classifications is no clearer. Elliptical galaxies are said to be oval in shape (and without spiral arms), without any explanation as to why these two central features are present. It’s the same with the description of barred galaxies, which have spirals but also a band of stars that go across the galactic nucleus, forming poles on each side of the galactic structure. That’s an indication of something fundamental, but the authors simply describe without explaining, let alone even acknowledging, that something is going on here that is noteworthy. For irregular galaxies, the authors explain that they are often formed by collisions that mess up their spiral or oval structures, which makes sense.
I suppose the bigger problem with this book and others on Hubble is the absence of a theoretical context to explain what might be going on here and, in particular, whether there’s a connection here to Einstein’s theory about how gravity and inertia work to form these galaxies in their various manifestations. Inertia, per Newton, is, in the absence of an accelerating force, a body staying at rest or moving in a straight line. But of course, for Einstein the movement toward a gravitational center is geometric. There’s no attractive force at all. Both inertia and gravity explain orbiting around a gravitational center - a body (gas, dust) wants to move straight, but a gravitational center lies perpendicular to that movement. The orbiting, subject to inverse square law, is the compromise balance point between straight line motion and the presence of a gravitational center. (Almost all books are silent on inertial motion, and refer to gravity in Newtonian, i.e. mutual attraction terms.)
This is what one sees in the Hubble photos of Saturn, and its flattened disks, and of our solar system (the sun and its planets). Galaxies, though, are different. Like the sun and its planets, they have a bulge at the center (concentration of mass) and the flattened disk (brought together via its own local gravitational effects) around the equator of a body (the maximum point of gravity’s effects), with the prevailing straight-line inertial movement in the presence of a gravitational body creating rotation. But unlike a planetary solar system where there is a state of equilibrium between the center and its surrounding disk material (hence, orbiting), the gravitational center of galaxies, which are thought to be black holes, is so strong that all matter moves toward that center and gravity prevails over straight-line inertial motion. Galaxies, in other words, are manifestations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity in the sense that all movement toward a massive gravitational center is not attraction at all, or mutual attraction. It is geometric. Per Wheeler’s formulation (in Google): Einstein's general theory of relativity can be summed up in just 12 words: “Space-time tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to … curve”. Is this what is going on when looking at Hubble photos of galaxies?
*For planet formation, the authors do say that molecular clouds collapse under gravity, and rotate as a result, and such rotation becomes faster with the move toward the center. While most understand gravity’s concentration effect, there’s not much here to describe why there’s rotation (versus straight-line movement to the gravitational center) and why there’s increased speed. The reader is left to speculate that rotation has something to do with inertial, straight line motion under the presence of curvature, and that increased speed has something to do with the inverse square law (with increased strength comes increased speed).
In this book, the narrative describes rotating, spiral galaxies, of swirling gas and dust, flattened into a disk, with a large bulge in the center. This is a literal description of the photos, but such descriptions don’t explain why galaxies rotate; why there are spirals (and whether they are flinging gas and dust outward into space or drawing gas and dust inward toward a gravitational center); why there’s a flattening of the gas and dust into a disk; and why there’s a bulge at the center.* The explanation for the other galactic classifications is no clearer. Elliptical galaxies are said to be oval in shape (and without spiral arms), without any explanation as to why these two central features are present. It’s the same with the description of barred galaxies, which have spirals but also a band of stars that go across the galactic nucleus, forming poles on each side of the galactic structure. That’s an indication of something fundamental, but the authors simply describe without explaining, let alone even acknowledging, that something is going on here that is noteworthy. For irregular galaxies, the authors explain that they are often formed by collisions that mess up their spiral or oval structures, which makes sense.
I suppose the bigger problem with this book and others on Hubble is the absence of a theoretical context to explain what might be going on here and, in particular, whether there’s a connection here to Einstein’s theory about how gravity and inertia work to form these galaxies in their various manifestations. Inertia, per Newton, is, in the absence of an accelerating force, a body staying at rest or moving in a straight line. But of course, for Einstein the movement toward a gravitational center is geometric. There’s no attractive force at all. Both inertia and gravity explain orbiting around a gravitational center - a body (gas, dust) wants to move straight, but a gravitational center lies perpendicular to that movement. The orbiting, subject to inverse square law, is the compromise balance point between straight line motion and the presence of a gravitational center. (Almost all books are silent on inertial motion, and refer to gravity in Newtonian, i.e. mutual attraction terms.)
This is what one sees in the Hubble photos of Saturn, and its flattened disks, and of our solar system (the sun and its planets). Galaxies, though, are different. Like the sun and its planets, they have a bulge at the center (concentration of mass) and the flattened disk (brought together via its own local gravitational effects) around the equator of a body (the maximum point of gravity’s effects), with the prevailing straight-line inertial movement in the presence of a gravitational body creating rotation. But unlike a planetary solar system where there is a state of equilibrium between the center and its surrounding disk material (hence, orbiting), the gravitational center of galaxies, which are thought to be black holes, is so strong that all matter moves toward that center and gravity prevails over straight-line inertial motion. Galaxies, in other words, are manifestations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity in the sense that all movement toward a massive gravitational center is not attraction at all, or mutual attraction. It is geometric. Per Wheeler’s formulation (in Google): Einstein's general theory of relativity can be summed up in just 12 words: “Space-time tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to … curve”. Is this what is going on when looking at Hubble photos of galaxies?
*For planet formation, the authors do say that molecular clouds collapse under gravity, and rotate as a result, and such rotation becomes faster with the move toward the center. While most understand gravity’s concentration effect, there’s not much here to describe why there’s rotation (versus straight-line movement to the gravitational center) and why there’s increased speed. The reader is left to speculate that rotation has something to do with inertial, straight line motion under the presence of curvature, and that increased speed has something to do with the inverse square law (with increased strength comes increased speed).
July 19, 2019
I wish there had been more of the hubble pictures and less writing. I still learned a lot though and enjoyed it
February 28, 2022
I read this book for the 52 book club 2022 February mini-challenge prompt: Mirror, mirror on the wall.
November 13, 2012
NOTE: This review originally showed up on my (now defunct) nonfiction book review blog. I read and reviewed this book in September 2008.
*****
Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe by Robin Kerrod & Carole Stott is a flat-out gorgeous book. I picked it up because the front cover was eye catching and because my inner child still wants to grow up and be an astronaut.
And I fell in love with it from page one. I have always been a huge astronomy fan, starting from when I would take long walks with my father out in the desert. We’d look at the different constellations, with him giving me info on each one.
So it’s not surprising that I’d be interested in a book about the Hubble telescope. What is surprising is how much I learned from the book, and how much I enjoyed reading it. Some of the pictures taken by Hubble are jaw dropping. Spread over two pages, they are colorful, gorgeous snapshots of deep space.
The pictures are the best part of this book, but that’s not to say that the text isn’t interesting. The book was loaded with everything from black holes to pulsar stars, and the history behind each discovery. I felt as if I had taken an in-depth astronomy class by time I finished reading the book. Even better, it wasn’t dry, boring facts, just thoroughly engrossing reading.
I was really excited to find a site online that allowed me to download a picture from the inside of the book. Now granted, this picture isn’t one of the larger ones, and it isn’t as colorful as some of the other pictures, and it’ll definitely lose something in translation (from the book to the website to my computer to my website to your computer - whew!!) but at least it gives you an idea of what the book offers.
[Sorry - I no longer have access to this picture, so you'll just have to use your imagination. :)]
Isn’t that a cool picture? One of the things that I was excited to find out is that none of the pictures in the book were “touched up” to provide brighter or more eye-catching colors. All of the pictures were published exactly how the galaxies look in outer space. I had no idea our universe was so colorful!
So whether you’re a homeschooling mom who wants to do a section on space, or just someone with even a mild interest in astronomy and the universe, you really need to pick this one up! I honestly cannot think of a single thing to change about it. I enjoyed the book from beginning to end.
A rare 5 out of 5 stars for Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe. Kudos to Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott for a job well done.
Havs
*****
Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe by Robin Kerrod & Carole Stott is a flat-out gorgeous book. I picked it up because the front cover was eye catching and because my inner child still wants to grow up and be an astronaut.
And I fell in love with it from page one. I have always been a huge astronomy fan, starting from when I would take long walks with my father out in the desert. We’d look at the different constellations, with him giving me info on each one.
So it’s not surprising that I’d be interested in a book about the Hubble telescope. What is surprising is how much I learned from the book, and how much I enjoyed reading it. Some of the pictures taken by Hubble are jaw dropping. Spread over two pages, they are colorful, gorgeous snapshots of deep space.
The pictures are the best part of this book, but that’s not to say that the text isn’t interesting. The book was loaded with everything from black holes to pulsar stars, and the history behind each discovery. I felt as if I had taken an in-depth astronomy class by time I finished reading the book. Even better, it wasn’t dry, boring facts, just thoroughly engrossing reading.
I was really excited to find a site online that allowed me to download a picture from the inside of the book. Now granted, this picture isn’t one of the larger ones, and it isn’t as colorful as some of the other pictures, and it’ll definitely lose something in translation (from the book to the website to my computer to my website to your computer - whew!!) but at least it gives you an idea of what the book offers.
[Sorry - I no longer have access to this picture, so you'll just have to use your imagination. :)]
Isn’t that a cool picture? One of the things that I was excited to find out is that none of the pictures in the book were “touched up” to provide brighter or more eye-catching colors. All of the pictures were published exactly how the galaxies look in outer space. I had no idea our universe was so colorful!
So whether you’re a homeschooling mom who wants to do a section on space, or just someone with even a mild interest in astronomy and the universe, you really need to pick this one up! I honestly cannot think of a single thing to change about it. I enjoyed the book from beginning to end.
A rare 5 out of 5 stars for Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe. Kudos to Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott for a job well done.
Havs
May 20, 2013
(This review pertains to the 2003 edition - newer editions may have corrected some of the problems).
Although the name of the book is "Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe", it is not really about the Hubble Space Telescope. It does use a lot of early pictures taken by the HST to illustrate the text (more about the pictures below), but rather than the telescope or even the images it takes, the book is about astronomy in general, covering the Solar System, the Milky Way, neighbouring galaxies, nebulas, the origins of the Universe, supernovae etc.
The text of the book is excellent and informative for the most part. The captions sometimes descent into emotional hyperbole, but I guess that's a matter of taste. However, many of the images used in a book are grainy and pixelated, some of them even looking like video game art from the 80s. This is understandable, since the book was published already a decade ago and had only the images of the time at its disposal, but as such, it certainly loses out to some of the newer books (for example "Hubble: Window on the Universe"). Many of the images in this book have also been much enhanced in newer books, using better quality pictures from Hubble itself and combining them with pictures from various other telescopes to produce pictures superior in sharpness, detail, resolution and saturation.
The age of the books shows not only in pictures, but also in some of the texts. For example, some of the things the text only speculates about (like the smaller star of the binary Sirius star system), were later photographed by Hubble and so not just speculations but actual pictures are available in newer books. Additionally, the elliptical origins of galaxies have been refuted by now, Pluto is no longer counted among the planets of our solar system and so on. This is all natural, since that is the way science develops as we gain more knowledge and have a better understanding about the universe around us. The information presented in the book is the best that was known at the time, but it is just something a careful reader should keep in mind.
For a general introduction to cosmology and astronomy, this book is nevertheless an excellent source. However, most of the images are from a period when Hubble was only producing mediocre quality pictures. Also, the title is a bit misleading, since the book only talks about the Hubble Space Telescope in the last few dozen pages. If your goal is to also see the newest images taken by HST or learn more about the HST itself, "Hubble: A Window on the Universe" is a better choice.
Although the name of the book is "Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe", it is not really about the Hubble Space Telescope. It does use a lot of early pictures taken by the HST to illustrate the text (more about the pictures below), but rather than the telescope or even the images it takes, the book is about astronomy in general, covering the Solar System, the Milky Way, neighbouring galaxies, nebulas, the origins of the Universe, supernovae etc.
The text of the book is excellent and informative for the most part. The captions sometimes descent into emotional hyperbole, but I guess that's a matter of taste. However, many of the images used in a book are grainy and pixelated, some of them even looking like video game art from the 80s. This is understandable, since the book was published already a decade ago and had only the images of the time at its disposal, but as such, it certainly loses out to some of the newer books (for example "Hubble: Window on the Universe"). Many of the images in this book have also been much enhanced in newer books, using better quality pictures from Hubble itself and combining them with pictures from various other telescopes to produce pictures superior in sharpness, detail, resolution and saturation.
The age of the books shows not only in pictures, but also in some of the texts. For example, some of the things the text only speculates about (like the smaller star of the binary Sirius star system), were later photographed by Hubble and so not just speculations but actual pictures are available in newer books. Additionally, the elliptical origins of galaxies have been refuted by now, Pluto is no longer counted among the planets of our solar system and so on. This is all natural, since that is the way science develops as we gain more knowledge and have a better understanding about the universe around us. The information presented in the book is the best that was known at the time, but it is just something a careful reader should keep in mind.
For a general introduction to cosmology and astronomy, this book is nevertheless an excellent source. However, most of the images are from a period when Hubble was only producing mediocre quality pictures. Also, the title is a bit misleading, since the book only talks about the Hubble Space Telescope in the last few dozen pages. If your goal is to also see the newest images taken by HST or learn more about the HST itself, "Hubble: A Window on the Universe" is a better choice.
April 29, 2008
This book has incredible photographs of space taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It also had good descriptions of what you were seeing in the pictures and explained the science of nebulas, galaxies, etc. Many things I had learned in my earth science class came back to me and i was reminded about how fascinating space is. I love contemplating the vastness of the universe!
Read
July 23, 2012Thought I had deja vu at one point. One page about Edwin Hubble completely repeats the text from another a few pages before it, although with different pictures.
An interesting book although probably in need of an update by now.
An interesting book although probably in need of an update by now.
August 3, 2010
it's sounds good
June 18, 2013
I liked the pictures more than the text in this book. It seems like the flow of the text detracted from the images.
June 13, 2012
Absolutely beautiful, and a great review of some of the science I learned in school.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews