Beyond the Galaxy: How Humanity Looked Beyond Our Milky Way and Discovered the Entire Universe

by Ethan Siegel

A look up at the night sky reveals a treasury of wonders. Even to the naked eye, the Moon, stars, planets, the Milky Way and even a few star clusters and nebulae illuminate the heavens. For millennia, humans struggled to make sense of what's out there in the Universe, from all we can see to that which lies beyond the limits of even our most powerful telescopes. Beyond the Galaxy traces our journey from an ancient, Earth-centered Universe all the way to our modern, 21st century understanding of the cosmos. Touching on not only what we know but also how we know it, Ethan Siegel takes us to the very frontiers of modern astrophysics and cosmology, from the birth of our Universe to its ultimate fate, and everything in between.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Astronomy, Space, Popular Science

388 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's enthusiasm for the universe and its mysteries and the overall awesomeness of science shine through here. The style is conversational and engaging and accessible and FUN. I mean, how many astronomy books help you remember that the shift of the moon's position in the sky from night to night (12 degrees) is "roughly the amount of space between your index and little finger if you throw heavy metal horns with your arm extended."?? (There's a photo of this, btw, not to be missed.)

This book would be a great text to use if you're teaching an intro astronomy course. Or, if you're like me and just like to brush up on your understanding of astronomy sometimes.

[Mark Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very nice pop-sci history of astronomical discoveries.

[Nick Winlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal book about cosmology. Author Ethan Siegel is an instructor at an Oregon college and he writes for the layperson (a little science background is needed when reading the book) in a clear, non obfuscatory way. The author is impartial in his overall delivery of the subject but heavily critiques his least favorite theories. Siegel IS an educator, after all.

This book plus Siegel's science articles on Forbes.com make me want to learn more about astronomy and cosmology, a *lot* more! There is so much that we do know about this vast field, some things we've ruled out through hypothesis testing and verification of the data, and there are also some unknowns at work. The author is unambiguous about what he understands or rather what the science of the day understands, he extrapolates only from proven, testable cases of astronomical science -- this is Siegel's trademark and he knows he is good at it.

At times Siegel is prescient. If you've studied cosmology at all in the past and haven't read this book but maybe have read Siegel's Forbes.com science articles then you're in for a treat. There are hints of concepts explored before that have not been thoroughly thought out by the scientific community (but already postulated to an extent) that Siegel deftly, carefully explores.

Highly recommended book for the curious at heart and all the astronomy aficionados! I'm looking forward to an update of this book concerning LIGO's discovery of gravitational waves and also NASA's post-JWST launch where we will get (new/improved?) data from that spacecraft which will gaze into deep space.

[Greg Laden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book, and we interviewed the author on our science podcast:

http://ikonokast.com/2016/05/26/bang-...

[Michael Baumli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fundamental read of how much the perception of our universe changed over a short time distilled down to be absorbed by the curious layman.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on cosmology I have ever read.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this guy

[Nazneen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting till the end. I highly recommend this book as an astronomy 101 for adults!

[Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot recommend it highly enough.