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Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe
Astronomers study the oldest observable stars in the universe in much the same way that archaeologists study ancient artifacts on Earth. Here, Anna Frebel—who is credited with discovering several of the oldest and most primitive stars using the world’s largest telescopes—takes readers into the far-flung depths of space and time to provide a gripping firsthand account of the cutting-edge science of stellar archaeology.
Weaving the latest findings in astronomy with her own compelling insights as one of the world’s leading researchers in the field, Frebel explains how sections of the night sky are “excavated” in the hunt for these extremely rare relic stars—some of which have been shining for more than 13 billion years—and how this astonishing quest is revealing tantalizing new details about the earliest times in the universe. She vividly describes how the very first stars formed soon after the big bang and then exploded as supernovae, leaving behind chemical fingerprints that were incorporated into the ancient stars we can still observe today. She shows how these fingerprints provide clues to the cosmic origin of the elements, early star and galaxy formation, and the assembly process of the Milky Way. Along the way, Frebel recounts her own stories of discovery, offering an insider’s perspective on this exciting frontier of science.
Lively and accessible, this book sheds vital new light on the origins and evolution of the cosmos while providing a unique look into life as an astronomer.
Weaving the latest findings in astronomy with her own compelling insights as one of the world’s leading researchers in the field, Frebel explains how sections of the night sky are “excavated” in the hunt for these extremely rare relic stars—some of which have been shining for more than 13 billion years—and how this astonishing quest is revealing tantalizing new details about the earliest times in the universe. She vividly describes how the very first stars formed soon after the big bang and then exploded as supernovae, leaving behind chemical fingerprints that were incorporated into the ancient stars we can still observe today. She shows how these fingerprints provide clues to the cosmic origin of the elements, early star and galaxy formation, and the assembly process of the Milky Way. Along the way, Frebel recounts her own stories of discovery, offering an insider’s perspective on this exciting frontier of science.
Lively and accessible, this book sheds vital new light on the origins and evolution of the cosmos while providing a unique look into life as an astronomer.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published August 17, 2012
24 people are currently reading
398 people want to read
About the author
Anna Frebel
8 books17 followersAnna Frebel (born 1980 in Berlin) is a German astronomer working on discovering the oldest stars in the universe.
Anna Frebel grew up Göttingen, Germany. After finishing high school, she studied physics in Freiburg im Breisgau. She continued her studies in Australia, and obtained her PhD from the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. A W. J. McDonald Postdoctoral Fellowship brought her to the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 where she continued her studies.
From 2009 to 2011 she was a Clay Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge (Massachusetts). Since 2012 she is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2005 Frebel discovered the star HE 1327-2326 which is the most iron-deficient star, stemming from a time very shortly after the Big Bang. In 2007 she also discovered the red giant star HE 1523-0901 which is about 13.2 billion years old.
(from Wikipedia)
Anna Frebel grew up Göttingen, Germany. After finishing high school, she studied physics in Freiburg im Breisgau. She continued her studies in Australia, and obtained her PhD from the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. A W. J. McDonald Postdoctoral Fellowship brought her to the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 where she continued her studies.
From 2009 to 2011 she was a Clay Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge (Massachusetts). Since 2012 she is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2005 Frebel discovered the star HE 1327-2326 which is the most iron-deficient star, stemming from a time very shortly after the Big Bang. In 2007 she also discovered the red giant star HE 1523-0901 which is about 13.2 billion years old.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 21, 2015
Princeton University Press kindly asked me if I'd like to review Searching for the Oldest Stars, and I agreed without thinking twice. But now, having read it, I'm confused about where to start. What is it, exactly? It doesn't have equations or a bibliography so it can't be a monograph, but it seems rather too technical to be a popular science book, and there's not enough about the author's life for it to be a memoir. It doesn't quite seem to fit any standard category. But even if it's not a memoir, it comes across a very personal statement; so I'm going to pretend we found ourselves sitting next to her on a flight from Geneva to Melbourne, and imagine what might have happened.
**********************
Shortly after take-off, we start chatting with our neighbor, a pretty but rather exhausted-looking thirty-something brunette with a German accent who introduces herself as Anna Frebel. She says she's an assistant professor at MIT, and she's been visiting one of the nuclear physics groups at CERN to discuss some stuff they've been doing with exotic isotopes. We're delighted to find that she's just had lunch with our friend T. Now she's on her way to Canberra, where she did her doctoral work; she's going to be giving a couple of lectures based on her new book. I want to ask about the book, but Not gets in first with a question about Australia. What was it like being a German doing her PhD there? Anna laughs. Oh, she says, pretty intense. First it seemed like it would be a disaster, when Mount Stromlo Observatory was largely destroyed by a bushfire a few months after she arrived. Not commiserates, and she and Anna swap Canberra bushfire stories for a bit.
Actually, Anna continues, it couldn't have worked out better. She'd been handed a thesis topic which at first seemed rather dull, going through thousands of stars to try and find a few that might be unusually low in metals. But she'd had a fantastic stroke of luck; a year into her project, she discovered that one of the stars on her list wasn't just low, it was off the charts. By finding this unusual object, she was overnight a person of some importance in the world of observational astronomy. It kick-started her career, and she'd been searching for low-metal stars ever since. By now, she was probably the world's foremost authority on the subject.
Why are they so interesting? I ask. Anna looks smug. That's what her book's about, she explains. "Low-metal", to an astronomer, means low in elements that aren't hydrogen or helium. Directly after the Big Bang, that's all there was, neglecting a tiny amount of lithium. So the very first generation of stars was basically made of nothing but hydrogen and helium, and the lower a star is in "metals", the closer it is to that elusive first generation. If you can find a very-low-metal star, you've found something that's been around almost since the beginning of the universe, which might give you invaluable clues about what things were like back then. The star she'd found was apparently 13.2 billion years old. I do a bit of mental arithmetic. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old -- subtract 13.2 -- hm! I begin to see why people are excited.
How do they know it's that old though? And how do they locate these things? Anna's clearly very used to answering these questions, and blitzes out a hail of information about nucleosynthesis, stellar formation, telescope schedules and image analysis. It makes pretty good sense, though the details aren't always easy to follow; I keep wishing I knew the periodic table better. She tells you where each element comes from the way the chef of a fancy restaurant informs you about the provenance of his ingredients. Somewhere in the middle of an intricate analysis of the different types of supernovae and the types of atom they can each create, I turn round and find Not has gone to sleep; she shows no inclination to wake up when Anna takes out her laptop and starts explaining how you read a spectrogram. By the time we've reached the Indian Ocean, I'm also a bit dozy but decide to hang in there. The stuff about how you try to infer the composition of the very early universe from these fossil stars is too good to miss.
She's just wrapping up as we arrive in Melbourne; as soon as the cabin crew say we can release our seat belts she makes a run for the front of the line, explaining over her shoulder that she's hoping to catch a 10 am meeting. Not looks after her suspiciously.
"Is she married?" she asks after a while.
"I don't know," I say, surprised.
"Excuse me," says Not. "You just spent all night talking with her, and you don't know if she's married?"
"Hm," I say, suddenly feeling more than a little sleepy. "My guess is, she's married to her work. And they seem like they're made for each other."
**********************
Shortly after take-off, we start chatting with our neighbor, a pretty but rather exhausted-looking thirty-something brunette with a German accent who introduces herself as Anna Frebel. She says she's an assistant professor at MIT, and she's been visiting one of the nuclear physics groups at CERN to discuss some stuff they've been doing with exotic isotopes. We're delighted to find that she's just had lunch with our friend T. Now she's on her way to Canberra, where she did her doctoral work; she's going to be giving a couple of lectures based on her new book. I want to ask about the book, but Not gets in first with a question about Australia. What was it like being a German doing her PhD there? Anna laughs. Oh, she says, pretty intense. First it seemed like it would be a disaster, when Mount Stromlo Observatory was largely destroyed by a bushfire a few months after she arrived. Not commiserates, and she and Anna swap Canberra bushfire stories for a bit.
Actually, Anna continues, it couldn't have worked out better. She'd been handed a thesis topic which at first seemed rather dull, going through thousands of stars to try and find a few that might be unusually low in metals. But she'd had a fantastic stroke of luck; a year into her project, she discovered that one of the stars on her list wasn't just low, it was off the charts. By finding this unusual object, she was overnight a person of some importance in the world of observational astronomy. It kick-started her career, and she'd been searching for low-metal stars ever since. By now, she was probably the world's foremost authority on the subject.
Why are they so interesting? I ask. Anna looks smug. That's what her book's about, she explains. "Low-metal", to an astronomer, means low in elements that aren't hydrogen or helium. Directly after the Big Bang, that's all there was, neglecting a tiny amount of lithium. So the very first generation of stars was basically made of nothing but hydrogen and helium, and the lower a star is in "metals", the closer it is to that elusive first generation. If you can find a very-low-metal star, you've found something that's been around almost since the beginning of the universe, which might give you invaluable clues about what things were like back then. The star she'd found was apparently 13.2 billion years old. I do a bit of mental arithmetic. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old -- subtract 13.2 -- hm! I begin to see why people are excited.
How do they know it's that old though? And how do they locate these things? Anna's clearly very used to answering these questions, and blitzes out a hail of information about nucleosynthesis, stellar formation, telescope schedules and image analysis. It makes pretty good sense, though the details aren't always easy to follow; I keep wishing I knew the periodic table better. She tells you where each element comes from the way the chef of a fancy restaurant informs you about the provenance of his ingredients. Somewhere in the middle of an intricate analysis of the different types of supernovae and the types of atom they can each create, I turn round and find Not has gone to sleep; she shows no inclination to wake up when Anna takes out her laptop and starts explaining how you read a spectrogram. By the time we've reached the Indian Ocean, I'm also a bit dozy but decide to hang in there. The stuff about how you try to infer the composition of the very early universe from these fossil stars is too good to miss.
She's just wrapping up as we arrive in Melbourne; as soon as the cabin crew say we can release our seat belts she makes a run for the front of the line, explaining over her shoulder that she's hoping to catch a 10 am meeting. Not looks after her suspiciously.
"Is she married?" she asks after a while.
"I don't know," I say, surprised.
"Excuse me," says Not. "You just spent all night talking with her, and you don't know if she's married?"
"Hm," I say, suddenly feeling more than a little sleepy. "My guess is, she's married to her work. And they seem like they're made for each other."
March 18, 2019
A true science-of-the-stars book; Prof Frebel intertwines some of her personal experience as an astrophysicist to bring the reader a combination of 201- or 250- level astrophysics (definitely not a 101) and a taste of what it’s like to be in her profession.
This isn’t the best book to read if it’s your first book about astrophysics because it’s a bit more advanced than certain other authors’ work you’ll find at a bookstore (I had to order mine, and worth every penny!)
I’ve read an ignorant review of this book where the reviewer was criticizing the book by questioning what kind of book it is; is it a science book or an autobiography?
It’s obviously not an autobiography. Prof Frebel spends some ink and a couple of chapters on telling us about her experience because she probably figures that if you’re interested enough in astrophysics that you’re reading this book, you have probably considered taking the career path she has. And so she’s letting you know what it can be like: long, lonely, sometimes boring hours at the telescope; a lot of data logging. It’s not for everyone. Neither is being a rock musician. You have to have a passion for this, and she’s letting you know what it’s like. Those sometimes long and grueling hours of nocturnal hard work are just so often rewarded with discoveries that can change the course of the science and lead to, or begin a greater understanding of the stars and cosmochemistry. It’s scientists like Prof Frebel who discovered that we are all stardust (and allowed Joni Mitchell to poetically and somewhat accurately phrase “billion year old carbon”).
And as even the most novice of scientists knows, all science, especially astrophysics, cross-pollinates to other studies, including biology, geology, and technology.
And throughout the history of scientific discoveries, scientists have stood on the shoulders of older generation-scientists. She recognizes that the work won’t be done in her lifetime.
This is a brilliant and very comprehensive work.
This isn’t the best book to read if it’s your first book about astrophysics because it’s a bit more advanced than certain other authors’ work you’ll find at a bookstore (I had to order mine, and worth every penny!)
I’ve read an ignorant review of this book where the reviewer was criticizing the book by questioning what kind of book it is; is it a science book or an autobiography?
It’s obviously not an autobiography. Prof Frebel spends some ink and a couple of chapters on telling us about her experience because she probably figures that if you’re interested enough in astrophysics that you’re reading this book, you have probably considered taking the career path she has. And so she’s letting you know what it can be like: long, lonely, sometimes boring hours at the telescope; a lot of data logging. It’s not for everyone. Neither is being a rock musician. You have to have a passion for this, and she’s letting you know what it’s like. Those sometimes long and grueling hours of nocturnal hard work are just so often rewarded with discoveries that can change the course of the science and lead to, or begin a greater understanding of the stars and cosmochemistry. It’s scientists like Prof Frebel who discovered that we are all stardust (and allowed Joni Mitchell to poetically and somewhat accurately phrase “billion year old carbon”).
And as even the most novice of scientists knows, all science, especially astrophysics, cross-pollinates to other studies, including biology, geology, and technology.
And throughout the history of scientific discoveries, scientists have stood on the shoulders of older generation-scientists. She recognizes that the work won’t be done in her lifetime.
This is a brilliant and very comprehensive work.
March 31, 2016
I am biased towards astronomy books, but even by my exacting standards, this is a gem. It has everything a good popular science book should have: with a nice overview of basic astronomy, stellar and galactic astrophysics, nuclear processes and spectral classification for newbies to start with and later chapters becoming more technical (even I found things I didn't know, specifically in the chapter on different types of old stars and the differences in their chemical abundances!). But what sets this apart from many other introductions to stellar astrophysics for laypersons is the fact that Frebel is a working astronomer herself--and she introduces quite a few anecdotes, stories, experiences from her working career. Those touches make the text personal and engaging on a level separate from theoretical discussions--and will hopefully help inspire more people to follow the stars.
June 29, 2021
I am so bad at reading nonfiction. utterly fascinating information though
January 11, 2016
Mit vielen interessanten Fakten und Details aus dem Leben einer Astronomin angereichert, aber stellenweise sehr spezifisch und generell wenig strukturiert.
April 2, 2017
I just finished this book today and well I am ready to put to words my thoughts. First I enjoyed it, but be warned there are three chapters that are pretty hard to get through. One really needs a good understanding of how atoms and chemistry works for those chapters. The remaining chapters are a very good popular level book reading and I loved reading them. Her talking about the fires in Australia, the computer reboot problems of a telescope and how her PhD thesis made a huge discovery for her, are worth the price of the book. The problem though are those three chapters about how stars become metal poor and the chemistry in stars are really hard reading for a normal person or someone maybe with a passing interest in space. Overall though I enjoyed this book as a whole but I did wonder after finishing it if the author took a couple of her lectures and a couple of public speaking engagements and tried to merge them into a book. The book really to me feels that way looking back on it after reading. I was really hopeful that this book would be more memoir/popular science reading then it was, those were the parts I enjoyed the most. I would completely read a memoir type book on the author's travels as an astronomer.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews