Alpha Centauri, the Nearest Star

by Isaac Asimov

Discusses the constellations and stars, their distance, luminosity, and size, steller astronomy, starlight, and life on other planetary systems, with special reference to the third brightest and also the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Nonfiction

191 pages, Hardcover

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Remo · Rating 5 out of 5]

El libro se llama Alpha Centauri pero a Alpha Centauri le dedica menos de un 10% de lo que nos cuenta. Aprendemos sobre paralajes, medidas de distancias interestelares, tipos de estrellas, vidas de las estrellas y sus finales dependiendo del tamaño que tengan, un montón de cosas útiles. Las descripciones sobre nuestra estrella hermana (Próxima Centauri, la más brillante de las tres estrellas que forman Alpha Centauri, es prácticamente idéntica al Sol) son la guinda del pastel. Un libro interesantísimo.

[Centauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

there is so much science in this book and if allowed, it can be cumbersome. but i enjoyed learning how complex the study of the stars can be; it makes me appreciate astronomers that much more. my favorite part is learning about which earthly hemispheres could view which constellations.

the book is about my namesake and i never appreciated as i should have

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clear and simple, if sometimes a little repetitive, explanation of how scientists have learned about suns. The title is really a misnomer - the second poorly titled non-fiction book I've read this week, grrr - as it's not really about Alpha Centauri, as I'd hoped when I picked up the book. Which was initially rather disappointing, but if I'd thought about it I would have realised that there's not really enough known about Alpha Centauri at time of writing, perhaps, to fill a couple of hundred pages. Instead, Asimov has done as he often does in his science writing, and gone into the background of what a star is, and how we know what direction it's going, what mass it has, how luminescent it is, and so forth. Alpha Centauri is frequently used as an example, but then so are a handful of other stars so it really doesn't merit title billing. The real strength of this book is in the science writing itself, which is absolutely accessible to beginners on up, though I do wonder if the dozens of tables weren't perhaps a bit of overkill. I understand that the author probably wanted to use them to illustrate trends, but there are only so many columns of numbers you can read before your eyes start to glaze over.

[Damon Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book in 8th grade. As a young man at the time torn between the uncertainties of living a teenage life and a desire to know all there was to know about the universe around us, Asimov helped me to see the power of science. I read this book and Jupiter sequentially, and both reminded me that it was science that would offer my foundation (no pun intended) for the future. Asimov has always been my favorite author, and I think his plain spoken expression of scientific wonder was part of that. I will always be in his debt as a person and an author, I only wish I could have met him.

It probably is a dated work today, we know so much more, we're discovering exoplanets left and right, and science is leaping forward. But that doesn't change the value it had, nor the impression this man made on a young mind. Thank you, Isaac Asimov. I'm grateful.

[Jose Sanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short, and a little outdated ( of course, considering the year in which it was written ). More about the stars in general than about Alpha Centauri.
It ends with a somehow depressing conclussion, that is that it is very difficult that humanity scapes the solar system.

[Thomas Rausch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The musings about the search for extraterrestrial life are pure speculation. The rest of the book is facts and can be enjoyed.

[Curtiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good Doctor's discussion of the discovery of the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, delivered with his usual emphasis on the historic context.

[Jose Moa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As ever with allmost all Asimov books a good entertainig and interesting easy to read book about stars specially our nerarest neibourgh Alpha Centauri