A Pelican Introduction: Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide

Pelican Books #28

by Jo Dunkley

A world-renowned astrophysicist takes us through the huge, unfolding history of the universe.

The night sky is an endless source of wonder and mystery. For thousands of years it has been at the heart of scientific and philosophical inquiry, from the first star catalogues etched into ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets to the metres-wide telescopes constructed in Chile's Atacama Desert today. On a clear night it is hard not to look up and pick out familiar constellations, and to think of the visionary minds who pioneered our understanding of what lies beyond.

In this thrilling new guide to our Universe and how it works, Professor of Astrophysics Jo Dunkley reveals how it only becomes more beautiful and exciting the more we discover about it. With warmth and clarity, Dunkley takes us from the very basics - why the Earth orbits the Sun, and how our Moon works - right up to massive, strange phenomena like superclusters, quasars, and the geometry of spacetime. As she does so, Dunkley unfurls the history of humankind's heroic journey to understand the history and structure of the cosmos, revealing the extraordinary, little-known stories of astronomy pioneers including Williamina Fleming, Vera Rubin and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

Illuminating and uplifting, this is your essential guide to the biggest subject of all.

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

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 31, 2019

About the author

Joanna Dunkley OBE is a British astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at Princeton University. She works on the origin of the Universe and the Cosmic microwave background (CMB) using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the Simons Observatory and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

Her first book, Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide was published in 2019.

Source: wikipedia

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that does pretty much what it says on the tin, providing an 'astronomer's guide' to the universe. Jo Dunkley does so in an approachable, non-technical style, generally speaking not doing anything that a number of other such guides haven't done in the past (all the way back to the likes of Patrick Moore), but with good up-to-date content. And without going over the top on the physics, there's a fair amount of astrophysics as well, from the mechanics of stars to dark matter and dark energy.

If the book has a USP other than being up to date, it is in its claim to give us 'the electrifying story of the deep history, latest science and forgotten women who illuminate our understanding of the cosmos.' I don't think Dunkley's calm writing style can really be described as electrifying, but I'd certainly agree that the science and deep history is up-to-date. Dunkley is at her best when either bringing out some small detail - I love her description of the future of the star Betelgeuse, and the cover image is another good one, showing the relative size of the Sun and the Earth - or when she's delving into the expansion of space, which she handles particularly well. There's also another excellent and rarely mentioned example in the interesting observation that multiple images caused by gravitational lensing will give views of a location from different points in time.

There is a bit of a problem with the 'forgotten women' part, though. Female astronomers such as Henrietta Swann Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaspschkin, Vera Rubin and Annie Jump Cannon certainly could have been described as providing 'previously-overlooked stories of pioneering astronomers' 20 years ago, but I haven't read a single good astronomy book in recent years that didn't give them their full due. Accordingly it reads slightly oddly when Dunkley only gives biographies to her female selection, but doesn't do so for, say, Hubble. There also seems a bit of a bias towards US women - Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, for example, is mentioned does not warrant a biography. This US bias (strange from a Pelican book) comes across also in the use of units, where bizarrely, when not employing astronomical units, distances are given in miles or inches (except for one example where centimetres are used).

The only real disappointment in science content was over dark matter where in a whole chapter on the topic, all of a page is given over to modified gravity, only to pretty much dismiss it by giving an example where dark matter fits but MOND doesn't (the Bullet cluster) without mentioning the various factors (galactic rotations curves, for example) where modified gravity works better than dark matter. We might have expected, after so many failures to find dark matter candidates, that a more balanced approach would be taken.

Overall, though, an excellent purchase for a beginner who wants to get a feel for modern astronomy.

[Malwina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kocham
Kocham wszechświat
I kocham być nerdem

To była bardzo skondensowana książka, aczkolwiek nie w sensie, że uproszczona, tylko poprostu zawierała bardzo. dużo. informacji.

Nie czuję, że posiadłam całą, a nawet połowę wiedzy, jaka jest zawarta w tej książce. Ale pozyskałam ogólne pojęcie o potwornie dużej ilości konceptów i porobiłam zakładki z karteczek samoprzylepnych. Będę ją traktować, jak taką podręczną encyklopedię.

Trudne koncepty były w większości wytłumaczone prosto i zrozumiale. Ta mniejszość to dwuwymiarowa mrówka z latarką czołową. I jej obserwator. Na rulonie papieru. Jako metafora. Wszechświata.

No i przede wszystkim w każdym zdaniu widać, ile researchu musiało być na to przeznaczone!! wow!!!

Polecam👍👍👍👍 Dużo informacji w 1 miejscu👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[Neil Kenealy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Jo Dunkley explains mind bending concepts in easy language with brilliant examples. There is much more in this book which explains what we know so far about the origins and make up of the universe. It's difficult to explain what it says - you just have to read it. The best part of this book is when a theory is explained and the disagreements between physicists are described. For example, Einstein didn't agree with the expanding universe theory until it was proven to him and then it hit him like a bombshell and he bought into it. 

There are also illuminating descriptions of experiments and equipment and global co-operation required to carry out the experiments from the last 50 years.
For example, the LIGO experiment to measure gravitational waves around 2017 picked up waves from the collision of two black holes billions of years ago. We're detecting today something that happened billions of year ago. Not surprising when you think that some of the stars we see in the sky sent their light to us 600 years ago and we're just seeing it now. It's the ability to see back in time that makes astrophysics so amazing.

A future experiment is the idea to deploy thousands of robots on the dark side of the moon to try to  detect signals from the early stages of the universe shortly after the Big Bang.

There's no mention at all of Stephen Hawking. What that means I don't know. Is he the Kim Kardashian of Astrophysics? i.e. makes a lot of noise but in the grand scheme of things he's not that important.

The story of our discovery of the universe is still unfolding and there are big plans for experiments in the 2020's. When I hear some news story such as how a black hole was measured, having read this book greatly helps my appreciation of that event.

It sure puts our little world into perspective and it certainly makes God a pretty out of date concept. Game, set and match Science as far as I'm concerned.

[Rama Rao · Rating 1 out of 5]

The smorgasbord view

This book is targeted to a lay audience without prior scientific knowledge of the cosmos. But it is not structured well and written in a hurried fashion to give an overview of the universe. The book’s narratives are colloquial which focuses on space instead of spacetime. Some Figures that illustrate physical astronomy ideas are referred to cartoons. How can serious ideas be referred to caricatures that depicts humor? Figure 5.7 that tries to illustrate the expansion of the cosmos (space) and the distancing of galaxies is confusing and difficult to comprehend. The second chapter entitled “We are made of Stars” that purports to a discussion of stars and galaxies in the cosmos gravitate to a discussion of inner rocky planets and the gaseous Jupiter and Saturn of the outer solar system.

The book lacks photographs of galaxies and stellar clusters in cosmic background. This is not what I expected from a book the universe.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a subtly feminist book. Just look at all these bogus reviews of 3 and 4 stars by MEN who complain about the biographical references, many of which were of women who extraordinarily excelled in a field that didn’t allow women until relatively recently.

Our Universe is a well-written and reader-friendly book about the extremely dense and vast universe and it’s concepts. So much exists beyond our galaxy! Dunkley expertly uses little crude black and white line-drawings to diagram phenomena that someone outside of astronomy would scantly understand- she calls these drawing cartoons.

I loved the scientific explanation of humans actually being made of stars!

[Jake Helton · Rating 5 out of 5]

— First Review —

This is such a great introductory book to the past, present, and future of astronomy: beginning in the Solar System, continuing in the Milky Way and the Local Group, until we eventually reach the entire observable Universe. I will recommend this to anyone in the future for a holistic picture of the Universe that we live in. The graphics are simple, yet informative and intuitive. It is always helpful for me to read popular science books such as these, to build experience discussing complex topics in simple terms. Also, Jo Dunkley was one of my former undergraduate advisors!

— Second Review —

This book was even better on my second read through. I concur with my original review in saying that this is such a great introduction to the past, present, and future of astronomy. I will definitely be forcing Laurel and Cole read this in the near future, so that they can better understand my field of study.

I loved the presentation of the history of astronomy, which is a difficult and multi-faceted story to tell. Jo Dunkley, who was one of my former undergraduate advisors, does an impressive of job presenting this history in a manner that is easy to follow.

Reading this history of astronomy and presenting some of the most important unsolved questions makes me super excited to be a scientist, but especially an astronomer. Some parts of the section about cosmic dawn gave me chills, since this is what I am studying, and my recent work has shed new light on this unknown period of our history.

I have listed below my favorite figures, which are simple yet informative. I have also listed some of my favorite quotations, although these are too numerous to completely include here…

••••

Figure 1.1, Page 23: A person casts a longer shadow on a smaller, more curved, planet.
Figure 1.4, Page 34: Venus transit of Sun determines distance.
Figure 1.5, Page 46: The relative sizes of the planets in our Solar System.
Figure 1.6, Page 56: Using parallax to measure the distance to a star.
Figure 1.8, Page 75: Realms of the universe.
Figure 2.3, Page 92: The full range of light.
Figure 3.2, Page 151: Evidence for dark matter from a galaxy’s rotation curve.
Figure 3.3, Page 155: Cartoon of cosmic web of dark matter.
Figure 3.5, Page 161: Light from a galaxy gets bent by a heavy object.
Figure 3.6, Page 166: Two marbles can take paths of different lengths across the trampoline.
Figure 4.1, Page 187: Two different ways for a one-dimensional space to have no ends.
Figure 4.2, Page 189: How an expanding one-dimensional space looks from different viewpoints.
Figure 4.4, Page 193: In an expanding space, the more distant galaxies should appear to recede faster from the Milly Way.
Figure 4.5, Page 195: If a galaxy is receding, its light will be received with a lengthened wavelength, known as redshift.
Figure 4.9, Page 219: Different geometries of space.
Figure 4.11, Page 225: Some different topologies that a strip of paper can have.
Figure 5.2, Page 240: Proportions of elements formed in first few minutes after the Big Bang.
Figure 5.3, Page 241: Timeline for first 400,000 years after the Big Bang.
Figure 5.4, Page 243: The formation of the cosmic microwave background light.
Figure 5.5: Timeline for first 9 billion years of the universe.
Figure 5.7, Page 264: Cartoon showing how we found out that the expansion of space is speeding up.
Figure 5.8; Page 267: Current ingredients of the universe.

••••

“… Astronomy is the study of everything that lies outside our Earth’s atmosphere, and the quest to understand why those things behave the way they do.” — Pages 3-4

“Vision is enabled by light. The more light you can collect, the further out into space you can see. A telescope is, partly, a much larger bucket for collecting light than the human eye, allowing us to peer further out into the darkness of space and to see features in better detail…” — Page 8

“… When we look at the stars, we are looking back in time. This is an incredible gift. We can see parts of space, parts of our universe, as they were many years ago. The further we can collect light from, the further back in time we can look. If you look at the bright star Betelgeuse, which glows in the Orion constellation, you wind time back more than six hundred years. Its reddish glow started its journey to Earth in the Middle Ages. The stars in Orion’s belt are even further away. Their light, familiar to generations of humans, has travelled at least 1,000 years to reach us. This means we have a chance of understanding the history of the universe because we can see the more distant parts of it as they were in the past, thousands or millions or billions of years ago. This ability to look back in time has existed since humans first looked at the stars but has only become a key feature of astronomy in the past century as we have looked out beyond the Milky Way. The great extent of the universe in both space and time can make modern-day astronomy seem overwhelming. Space is so immense that the numbers describing distances are at risk of becoming meaningless. Numbers with too many zeros are hard to process. To get around this, we come up with ways of making sense of the different scales of space, and we simplify things and let go of some of the details…” — Page 14

“Much of this story reflects how we still do astronomy today, more than 200 years later: working out how to make a difficult measurement, coming up with different ways to do it, planning many years ahead and going to often inhospitable and inaccessible places to get the best measurement possible. Central to the project’s success was applying for funding from national governments for equipment, salaries and travel costs, coordinating with national and international teams, and combining results from different groups. These are all things we still do now in astronomy. Like today, each country’s groups were happy to work together towards a common purpose but were particularly eager to make the best measurement themselves. As scientists we are often both competitive and collaborative in our pursuit of nev discoveries.” — Page 38

“We now take our final step outwards, arriving at the extraordinary viewpoint that takes in our entire observable universe, On this largest scale the universe appears as an intricate network of galaxy superclusters that together contain about 100 billion galaxies. Those galaxies are themselves huddled together throughout space in their smaller collections of clusters and galaxy groups. Each of those galaxies has around 100 billion stars, and a huge number of those stars will have their own systems of planets orbiting around them. With such numbers, it is no wonder that most astronomers suspect that life exists in some form elsewhere in the cosmos. When we refer to ‘observable’ universe we mean what we are able to see from Earth. What limits this is not how good our telescopes are, but how old the universe is. The universe as we know it has not been around for ever. If we are to be able to see some distant galaxy, that means its light has had time to travel through space to us on Earth. A galaxy that is further away, so far away that its light has not yet had time to get to us, is beyond our cosmic horizon, and beyond our reach. So how far away is this horizon? We will come around later, in chapter 4, to the idea of the birth of the universe and its age. For now we can say that astronomers have worked out that the cosmic horizon is about 50 billion light-years away from us in all directions. It is more than 14 billion light-years, the distance light could travel during what we now know to be the life-span of the universe, because space has been growing during that time. Our observable universe is therefore spherical, centred on ourselves here on Earth. This does not of course mean that we are at the middle of the universe. We are just, by definition, at the middle of the part we can see. If we now imagine putting the whole observable universe in our basketball court, our home supercluster Laniakea would be about the size of a cookie right in the centre…” — Pages 72-73

“From what we can tell, there is dark matter in every galaxy, and in every group and cluster of galaxies. It also not only lies within and around those great cosmic objects but threads through space to form a great interconnected cosmic web. This web looks reminiscent of the neurons in our brains, blown up to gigantic proportions. It dominated over the visible stuff, with five times more mass in dark matter than regular atoms. The starlit parts of the galaxies are just the bright jewels in this larger dark network.” — Page 153

“… Computer coding, coupled with telescopes, has become the foundation of modern astronomy, and our ability to understand our universe is closely connected to how powerful our computers are. In the case of tracking how dark matter evolves, each sum is simple, as it just involves the simple law of gravity, but tracking how each bit of the dark matter interacts with all the other ones requires a huge number of calculations to be performed in quick succession.” — Pages 156-157

“Returning now to our place in the universe, we locate ourselves on our small planet travelling around the Sun. Our Sun is surrounded in space by its neighbouring stars, many of them encircled by their own tiny planets. Our neighbouring stars move around in the longer spiralling arm of stars that makes up part of our larger home, the Milky Way galaxy. Our Galaxy, a huge disc of stars and gas embedded in a much larger halo of invisible dark matter, is spinning gently around. We look out to our neighbouring galaxy, the majestic spiralling Andromeda, slowly moving towards us through the depths of space. Around us there are many more galaxies, scattered through space and grouped together in smaller groups or larger clusters. Inside them, stars are born and die. Further out, we find more galaxies in their groups and clusters, as far as we can see. If we look far enough, we see them grouped into even larger structures, the megalopolis-like superclusters. The galaxies and clusters of galaxies are the bright lights on the backbone of the universe, the web of dark matter. We know that the universe has not always been like this. It is not only individual stars that get born, but entire galaxies too. They have not always been there, and the stars within them have not always shone brightly. By noticing that the galaxies surrounding us seem, on average, to be moving away from us, we have worked out that our universe must be growing. Everything in space is getting further away from everything else. If we then wind time backwards, we are led to the inevitable conclusion that, sometime in the past, our whole universe must have started to grow. It had something that could be called a beginning…” — Pages 233-234

“After a couple of hundred million years the universe approaches the end of the Dark Ages. At last the clumps of atoms have become dense enough to form the first mini-galaxies at the dense nodes of the cosmic web of dark matter. These proto-galaxies would have been quite unlike the galaxies that we can see around us in the universe now. Many times smaller, they would have been just tens of light-years across and perhaps a million times heavier than our Sun. At first they would have contained no stars at all. By following what happens in computer simulations, we have come to think that these galaxies were each made of a disc of gas, embedded in a larger, sphere-like shape of dark matter. The ingredients of the gas would have been only hydrogen and helium, very different to star-forming gas in galaxies like our own. The ingredients of solar systems like ours, with elements like carbon and oxygen, did not yet exist. What happened inside those mini-galaxies? The pull of gravity would have compressed the gas, heating it up to about 1,000 degrees. Where the gas was densest it would clump together ever more tightly, bringing hydrogen and helium atoms close together. Before a clump of gas can collapse into a star, though, the atoms inside it need to get cold enough for their inward-pulling gravity to win out over their outward-pushing pressure. The colder the gas, the lower the pressure. In practice this means cooling the gas clumps down to hundreds of degrees below zero, which happens when the atoms collide with each other. This slows them down, lowering their temperature, until at last the dense clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms can collapse into the very first stars. As we learned in chapter 2, fusion can then begin in their cores, generating light and heat. Hydrogen and helium atoms do not collide and cool down as readily as gases made of elements like carbon and oxygen. This means that these earliest clumps of gas would have had a stronger outward-pushing gas pressure than we find within gas clouds in the Milky Way today. That, in turn, means that those first stars were likely born on average much heavier than a typical star today, with a stronger inward-pull from gravity to counteract the pressure. There would have been many more of the short-lived white and blue stars, the heaviest and hottest of all the stars. We believe that the first stars formed in this way a couple of hundred million years after the Big Bang, marking the start of the ‘Cosmic Dawn’ of the universe. Astronomers have not yet determined the exact time this happened, because we cannot see their starlight…” — Pages 247-248

“Our community of astronomers has come an enormous way in advancing our understanding of our universe and our place within it. It is extraordinary to think that a century ago we did not even know that there were other galaxies beyond our own, we didn’t know how stars created their light and we were not aware that space is growing. Even in the past twenty years we have transformed our understanding of such basic matters as the age of the universe, the nature of solar systems around other stars and the fundamental ingredients of the universe. We can now trace the evolution of the universe from the earliest moments through its almost 14-billion-year history, understanding how galaxies, stars and planets like ours came to be. Our understanding of how things work in space has taken leaps forward, allowing astronomy to evolve from a science based mainly in empirical observation into a science grounded in our deeper understanding of the physical behaviour of the objects and phenomena we see in the sky. This is a golden age for astronomy, full of interest and possibility. One of the great excitements is that there are undoubtedly new discoveries just around the corner. Discoveries of new planets will continue apace, and perhaps soon there will be signs of conditions that hint at the possibility of extraterrestrial life. In the next few years we will no doubt see many more gravitational wave signals coming from black holes and neutron stars colliding throughout space, giving us a new way to see and understand the universe. We hope to soon discover what the invisible dark matter particles really are. And in the coming years we expect to at last see the first galaxies that formed in the universe. These discoveries are being made possible with magnificent new telescopes coupled with ever-increasing computing capabilities. The telescopes being prepared for the next decade span all of the wavelengths of light, as well as gravitational waves, and they will target high-definition views of particular objects as well as broad surveys of the entire sky. Highlights include the Square Kilometre Array to measure radio waves, the James Webb Space Telescope to examine the infrared and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope to map the skies in visible wavelengths. To interpret the data, our computers will continue to increase in speed and capacity, allowing ever better simulations of the cosmos and the objects within it. There will also be discoveries that are not just around the corner, which will take much longer to reach. Being able to observe a planet suitable for life in great detail could take decades. So, too, will compiling a complete history of how our Milky Way was created. Understanding why the universe is growing ever faster, and how it started growing in the first place, will likely be a long process. But we can contemplate working towards each of these goals, because doing this work is a continual process that each of us plays a small part in. We stand on the shoulders of our scientific predecessors, all of whom have contributed in some way to the scaffolding that holds us up and that lets us together climb up further. When we look to the future, we hand our tools and knowledge on to our students, and we plan for things that might happen fifty or a hundred years from now, anticipating the success of those who follow in our footsteps. Our past is strewn with examples of visionary astronomers and physicists who did not make the discovery that they dreamed of. Halley never got to see the transit of Venus. Hale never got to see his magnificent telescope completed. Zwicky never saw a gravitational lens. But these were not failures. These scientists inspired younger generations to keep following their path and equipped them to make their own new discoveries. While we strive towards new discoveries, our past experience also tells us that our bigger picture of the universe and the laws of nature may still need some major aajustments. Our observations are certainly real, and our current interpretation of them tells a consistent story, but we should reasonably assume that some future shifts in the big picture are yet to come. The most exciting discoveries are the ones we least expect, ones that can radically change what we thought was true and ultimately lead us to a better understanding of our wider world. We look forward to them with eager anticipation.” — Pages 276-277

[Tony Cinque · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book. Concise and educational. A lesson for the novice.

Unpretentious. Written plainly, in order that the reader may learn. Great instructional diagrams.

It reinforces the awe and wonder of the known universe; and the awe and wonder of the unknown universe.

I did not read this book for this purpose but, for me, it has clarified and reinforced my firm belief in one good God, the Creator of all things. If God can create a grain of sand out of nothing, out of absolutely nothing, he can also create the universe, the big bang, an atom of hydrogen, black matter, (potentially) infinite galaxies, trillions upon trillions of stars, dark energy, and anything else, seen or unseen, out of absolutely nothing, too.

Go outside at night, find a dark place, lie on your back, stare up into space, enjoy the show, revel in its infinite brilliance, and contemplate in admiration and thanksgiving.

And, then, in the morning, get back to work on your astronomical studies! This book is your launching pad.

[Kuba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best astro book for beginners! No physics knowledge needed!

[❆ Ash ❆ (fable link in bio) · Rating 5 out of 5]

So well written. Perfectly explained. An incredible read that was really interesting!

“ᴡᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ.”

[dantelk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite high level, and easy to understand.

The first three chapters are very clear, the last two a bit more on the "meh" edge.

I found the bigbang & quantum relation very clever, tough the topic is not explained in detail as I wished.

It is great that the author is very careful not to lose her balance between different explantions to dilemmas of the scientific community; Dunkley allocates equal space for different camps views (tough the allocated space is very limited due to the length of the book).

A few given examples could have been better, the universe's growing could be best described with a baloon, as did by an other author whom I cannot recall.

Some feminist taught is reflected in the text (in a positive way).

I enjoyed this paragraph too, maybe it's because i was reading the book after losing a relative, and feeling a bit desperate and broken about the idea of death:

We really are made of stars. The heavier atoms that Earth, and life on it, are made of were formed billions of years ago in a giant furnace right at the middle of stars that have now ended their lives. Of course our bodies grow and can make new molecules themselves, but they can only do that by replicating other cells, building on the elements that our Earth is made of.

[Ozan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evren hakkında derin bilgisizliğimi gidermek için okuduğum bu kitapta kesinlikle beklediğimden fazlasını buldum. Birkaç yerde lafın fazla uzamasını ve zamanla içindeki bilgilerden bazılarının geçerliklerini yitireceği gerçeğini görmezden gelirsem bu kitap için “Mükemmel!” diyebilirim.

İnsan; evrenin geçmişi ya da dinamikleri hakkında hipotezler okurken heyecanlanır mı? Ben birkaç yerde kalbimin hızlandığını hissettim.

Bu kitabı kapağı sayesinde okudum. Kapaktaki Güneş-Dünya karşılaştırmasını başlangıçta fark edememiştim ama fark ettiğim anda beni adeta büyüledi. Başka bir kapağa sahip olsaydı büyük ihtimalle ne bu metni okurdum ne de (bir süre daha) astronomiyle ilgili başka bir kitap.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

and i was like: *SCREAMS*

this book was just one existential crisis after another like why is space so big who let that happen

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose I read this. I don’t know. My life is probably as busy as it’s ever been professionally. And most of my free time I spend reading, or maybe movies or something, but for the sake of this review, it’s reading.

And I notice that when I read a pop-science book anymore, I tend to not dwell on it like I used to. Probably because the revelations that are being dropped aren’t as revelatory as they used to be. I mean, it’s not like I can learn about Special or General Relativity and be just as stunned the 20th time I hear about as I was the first, you know?

Same can be said for known cosmic mysteries and such. I get it, space is awesome and weird and terrifying and I am nothing in comparison. It’s truly stunning. But I’m not sitting outside anymore staring at the night sky and freaking out about it all like I used to. I loved doing that. And I still have an interest, but also, I have work to get to and I need to go soon.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, then I envy you. I wish it didn’t make sense to me either.

But, all that said, it seems like I should at least remember the fact that I even read it. I don’t. So that means it wasn’t bad, because I remember bad, and it wasn’t good, because I’d remember that too. This was that little sliver in the middle where it was fine. Maybe at a different time in my life it would have been amazing, but for me now, it made zero impact on me.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly accessible guide to the state of contemporary astronomy / astrophysics detailing in comprehensible language for the most part phenomena at the outer edge of our knowledge from the steady state theory, the big bang, pulsars, quasars, dark matter & energy, black holes & other seemingly mysterious entities. The author, Jo Dunkley, without seeming to grind an axe, also does a marvelous job of acknowledging significant contributions to the science achieved by women, in many cases against major obstacles & lacking proper recognition.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

decently good book, but the illustrations throughout were basic plain black and white illustrations, and they could have been a thousand times better with images of space or better graphical illustrations of concepts. A real misstep to an otherwise educational and illuminating book. Also, weird mix of science explication with historical bits about some scientists and their lives, which was distracting.

[Camilla Reiersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love our universe <3

this book does exactly what it promises to do, and it does it well. it provides a guide to understanding our universe, with easy to understand overviews, good explanations, and interesting stories.

[Richard Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the history of the universe and the current areas of study/debate for non-astronomers. Well worth the read!!

[Gala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuando tenía ocho o nueve decía que quería estudiar astronomía. Me acuerdo que me preguntaba dos cosas: una, qué había antes del universo y, otra, por qué cuando los cohetes y todas esas cosas entraban a la Tierra parecía que se metían, que atravesaban algo pero cuando entraban a otro planeta (como Marte) parecía que solo se quedaban en la superficie. Ninguna de estas dos preguntas me las respondió este libro. La primera porque nadie sabe la respuesta y la segunda porque ni siquiera sé si es una buena pregunta.

Mis partes favoritas de este libro fueron dos: cuando habla de las estrellas y de los agujeros negros. Las dos cosas me hicieron pensar en literatura. Lo de las estrellas porque cuando vemos las estrellas vemos el pasado, no el presente. Entonces ahí hay una superposición de presente y pasado. ¿Se puede hacer eso en literatura? ¿Superponer dos estados del tiempo que parece que se excluyen? Y lo de los agujeros negros porque parece que todo, ahí adentro, no responde a las leyes de la física. Hay como una exageración de todos los fenómenos físicos que se desarrollarían normalmente fuera de un agujero negro, y esa exageración hace que las reglas dejen de funcionar. Esto me hizo pensar en cuando se llevan al extremo las reglas de los géneros. Por ejemplo, me pregunto qué pasaría si se exageran las convenciones del policial, de la ciencia ficción en una peli de acción. Seguirían respondiendo a esos géneros o se convertirían en otra cosa, como pasa adentro de los agujeros negros?

[Kelly Sedinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, short appraisal of the current state of cosmology and how we've arrived at our current understanding of things. There are books of this type that go deeper into various issues, and there are more rigorous volumes about the science thereof, but if a one-volume briefing on how science sees the universe is something you desire, you can do a lot worse than this one. Honorable mention to Dunkley's focus on making sure that a lot of female contributors to the scientific progress of the last couple centuries actually get recognized. If you're looking for a book for your teen about the current state of the affairs in astronomy and cosmology, I'd recommend this book for that fact alone.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating introduction to all things space related for those of us who haven’t kept up with the science beyond high school. Jo Dunkley possesses the ability to break down concepts into digestible pieces. She restores important players ignored by history to their rightful place. I’m now reading news about space exploration as it comes out. I have a few more pages left and will reread the book to make sure I’ve got it all straight in my head before hanging with some of my astro inclined friends. :)

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide" by Jo Dunkley is a captivating exploration of the cosmos that takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the vast expanse of space and time. With her extensive knowledge and passion for astronomy, Dunkley expertly navigates the complexities of the universe, making it accessible and engaging for readers of all backgrounds.

The book is structured in a thoughtful and logical manner, beginning with the fundamentals of astronomy and gradually delving deeper into more advanced topics. Dunkley skillfully balances the need to provide sufficient background information for novice readers while keeping the content intellectually stimulating for those with a more scientific background. This makes "Our Universe" a perfect choice for both astronomy enthusiasts and casual readers seeking to expand their understanding of the cosmos.

One of the book's greatest strengths lies in Dunkley's ability to distill complex scientific concepts into easily digestible explanations. She employs clear and concise language, accompanied by helpful analogies to elucidate abstract ideas. Whether she is discussing the nature of light, the formation of galaxies, or the mysteries of dark matter, Dunkley's explanations are both informative and engaging. She never underestimates her readers' intelligence but instead empowers them to comprehend the wonders of the universe.

Another commendable aspect of "Our Universe" is the author's emphasis on the scientific method and the ongoing nature of scientific inquiry. Dunkley highlights the collaborative and iterative nature of scientific progress, discussing the contributions of numerous astronomers throughout history and providing glimpses into the cutting-edge research being conducted today. This approach not only instills a sense of wonder but also promotes critical thinking and encourages readers to question and explore the universe for themselves.

Dunkley's passion for her subject matter shines through in her writing. She conveys a deep sense of awe and reverence for the universe, reminding readers of their place within it. Her enthusiasm is infectious, creating a sense of wonder that permeates every page of the book. From the birth and death of stars to the mind-boggling concept of multiple universes, Dunkley's narrative style captivates the imagination and leaves readers eager to learn more.

"Our Universe" does an excellent job of covering a wide range of topics within the field of astronomy. Dunkley discusses the formation and evolution of the universe, the life cycles of stars, the intricacies of galaxies and black holes, and the search for extraterrestrial life, among many other subjects. While she covers these topics in sufficient detail, she never overwhelms the reader with excessive technical jargon, ensuring that the book remains accessible to a broad audience.

While "Our Universe" excels in many aspects, there are a few areas that could have been further explored. The book primarily focuses on the physical aspects of the universe, and while Dunkley briefly mentions the philosophical and existential questions that arise from studying the cosmos, she does not delve deeply into them. While this is not necessarily a flaw, as the book primarily aims to provide a scientific understanding of the universe, a more in-depth exploration of the philosophical implications could have added an additional layer of depth to the narrative. Furthermore, while Dunkley covers a broad range of topics, some readers with a deeper understanding of astronomy may find certain sections to be too introductory. However, it is important to note that the book strikes a delicate balance between accessibility and scientific rigor, ensuring that readers with varying levels of expertise can enjoy and benefit from the content.

Despite these minor considerations, "Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide" remains an exceptional work. Jo Dunkley's writing is engaging, informative, and filled with genuine enthusiasm. The book offers a comprehensive overview of the cosmos, presenting complex ideas in an approachable manner without sacrificing scientific accuracy. Whether you are a curious reader with a newfound interest in astronomy or a seasoned astronomer seeking to expand your knowledge, this book is an excellent resource.

The author's commitment to promoting scientific literacy and critical thinking is commendable. Dunkley emphasizes the importance of evidence-based reasoning and encourages readers to think critically about the universe and the scientific methods used to understand it. By acknowledging the limits of our current knowledge and acknowledging the uncertainties that remain, she provides a realistic and honest portrayal of the scientific process. This approach fosters a sense of intellectual humility and curiosity, inspiring readers to continue exploring the mysteries of the cosmos long after they have finished reading the book.

Overall, "Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide" is a captivating and enlightening book that takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the cosmos. Jo Dunkley's expertise and passion for astronomy are evident on every page, as she effortlessly guides readers through the complexities of the universe, from the smallest particles to the grandest galaxies. With its engaging narrative, accessible language, and stunning visuals, the book succeeds in igniting a sense of wonder and deepening our understanding of the universe we inhabit.

[Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

again, the universe blows my mind

[Pi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niezwykłe zrozumiałe kompendium wiedzy o Wszechświecie - tak można tę książkę w skrócie scharakteryzować. To napisana przystępnym językiem, z wielkim zaangażowaniem i sercem w gwiazdach opowieść o tym: gdzie jesteśmy, z czego powstaliśmy i dokąd zmierzamy.
Jo Dunkley jest profesorem astrofizyki na Uniwersytecie w Princeton i z całą pewnością ma dar do nauczania. Nie komplikuje, nie rzuca w nas terminologią, nie popisuje się, ale tłumaczy. Dlatego też uważam, że jest to idealna książka dl kogoś, kto nigdy nic w tym temacie nie czytał. "NASZ WSZECHŚWIAT" kładzie solidne fundamenty, na których można budować zamki z galaktyk... czyli sięgać po inną literaturę "kosmiczną".
Autorka dostarcza nam nie tylko wiedzy aktualnej, ale prowadzi nas przez historię astronomii, która nie zawsze był dla niej łaskawa, a nigdy nie była prosta. Podoba mi się to zagłębienie w przeszłości, która w naturalny sposób urodziła naszą teraźniejszość. Faktycznie, tak jak to brzmi pierwszy rozdział, odkrywamy: Nasze miejsce w kosmosie.
Poza oczywistym tekstem mamy tu równie wiele ilustracji - schematów, które pozwalają jeszcze lepiej zrozumieć opisywane zjawiska, ale też i mają niemały wpływ na zapamiętanie prezentowanych zagadnień. Bardzo podoba mi się ta książka i ją polecam, szczególnie - jak już wspomniałam - tym, co z kosmosem mieli do tej pory nie po drodze. Jestem pewna, że się zakochacie i będziecie chcieć więcej.
Dla mnie była to, w pewnym sensie, powtórka czegoś, z czym już kiedyś się spotkałam, ale była to bardzo udana powtórka. Wyjątkowo miło było mi czytać o tak przeze mnie kochanej ciemnej materii - tego tematu nigdy za mało. Ogromnie cieszyły mnie te historyczne podróże, bo myślałam właśnie o zaopatrzeniu się w książkę, która pod tym kątem prezentuje badania nad Wszechświatem - i mam! Wszystko jest tu jasne i przejrzyste - nic, tylko czytać.
Wspomnę również o jeszcze jednym, niezwykle istotnym elemencie zawartym w tej pozycji, mianowicie o eksperymentach. Jo Dunkley posługuje się łatwymi skojarzeniami, czymś co dla czytelnika jest oczywiste, jak np. gumka (chociażby do włosów) i tłumaczy rozciąganie się Wszechświata. Są to metody znane, ale tak je wplotła w treść, że naprawdę każdy załapie o co chodzi.
I ostatnia rzecz, ok której tu napiszę, to wygląd książki. Cóż... jest pięknie wydana. Twarda oprawa, genialny projekt okładki, która pod odpowiednim kątem mieni się milionem gwiazd i dobitnie podkreśla naszą samotność w morzu nieodgadnionej przestrzeni. Jest w tym jakiś romantyzm, jakieś marzenie, które zawsze marzeniem pozostanie i dlatego jest wspaniałe. Ach i ten podtytuł: WSZYSTKO, CO WIEMY, CZEGO NIE WIEMY I JESZCZE WIĘCEJ.

8/10
Wydawnictwo Prószyński i S-ka

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two and a half chapters of this book, read to me like an updated version of Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". It had fewer attempts at humor and some different analogies that helped explain older concepts in a new way. I learned a few new tidbits as well and overall, enjoyed the start.

Chapter 4 (and part of 3), however, became bogged down in a lot of highly theoretical conjecture on the universe itself. At about a quarter of the book, this was a huge yawner. Not to mention, by this point some of the methodology behind measuring the activity of the universe, had me raising a skeptical eyebrow. Giant 2.5 mile arms measuring their own length looking for a change in length measuring trillionths of a millimeter to signal colliding black holes. Computer models showing how the universe initially expanded or galaxies collide, when humans are the ones creating the parameters of the modeling in the first place and inputting theoretical, along with known, data. Don't get me wrong, I don't disbelieve all science because I can't follow every detail, but if modeling truly worked, then we could do things like accurately predict the weather...which we can't past a couple of days at most, so how are we going to model billions of years of the universe?

The fifth chapter, which was probably referred to about thirty times prior with the parenthetical (more on that in chapter 5), was a huge bust. It was essentially a summary that led to a highly conjectural theory about the future of the universe. Interest waned quickly under the heading of "who cares" since so much of these ramblings were far beyond humankind's time and space. There were also several times where I couldn't help but think of ancient and medieval cartographers having maps that were half relatively accurate representations of land and sea, coupled with half pure conjecture and fantasy. We are too limited in our technology, instrumentation, and perspective (stuck on earth and in the solar system) to fully grasp the fundamental scope of the universe.

Look, it wasn't a bad book. I learned about current astronomy projects and new discoveries and got a fresh take on our world and its place in the universe. Ultimately though, there was simply too much theory, too many extrapolations, and too large of a focus on what if and what may be, for me to love this book. Pick it up off the shelf if you are interested in astronomy, but just understand that it is a longer, duller, albeit updated, version of Hawking classics.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey fellow space explorers! I just finished reading this super cool book called "Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide," and it's like taking a journey through the stars with a real-life astrophysicist! Let me tell you all about it.

So, there's this amazing astrophysicist named Professor Jo Dunkley, and she's like our space guide, showing us the incredible history of the universe. The night sky has always been a mystery, right? But Professor Dunkley takes us on a thrilling adventure from the basics, like why the Earth goes around the Sun and how our Moon works, all the way to the mind-blowing stuff like superclusters and quasars. Fancy words, right?

The best part is that she explains everything with so much warmth and clarity. It's like having a space chat with your favorite science teacher, but way more exciting! Imagine learning about the geometry of spacetime – that's some serious space magic!

And it's not just about stars and planets. Professor Dunkley shares the incredible stories of astronomy pioneers like Williamina Fleming, Vera Rubin, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. They're like the heroes of space exploration, and their stories are so inspiring.

The book is full of pictures and illustrations that make everything even more awesome. It's like a space visual feast, and I couldn't stop looking at all the cool things in our universe.

If you're into stars, galaxies, and the amazing stories of people who explored the cosmos, "Our Universe: An Astronomer's Guide" is the book for you. It's like going on a space adventure without leaving your comfy reading spot. Get ready to be amazed by the wonders of the universe! 🚀📖🌌

[James J · Rating 5 out of 5]

In short: An excellent book which has helped reignite a childhood obsession.

I enjoyed the style of writing throughout, which was friendly and approachable. It very much took a 'no physics needed' approach, though at times I did want some equations (for example, what maths was behind Hubble's Law and Lambda), but understand that this was not the purpose of the book.

Jo Dunkley set out to provide a book which gave a whistle-stop tour of the universe in as much detail as one can in a digestible format. I believe this was easily achieved.

It was also interesting to learn about individuals (mostly women) who had an important part to play, particularly in the late 19th-early-2oth Centuries but have mostly been undiscussed and unknown.

Whilst the book is mostly up to date, it's amazing how quickly a book about what is deemed infinite can become outdated. Not massively so, but I would love for Jo Dunkley to release an updated version in 2030 to account for the telescopes and satellites that have and will be deployed throughout this decade.

I would say I expected a bit more about what we can see as amateurs (i.e naked eye/amateur telescopes), as it is targeted towards amateurs. I think that's a mistake on my part rather than the author. I would have enjoyed some actual photographs of what is described, though will accept that the black and white simplistic figures made it easy to understand.

The book also had an extensive bibliography at the end, which provides ample options for further reading.

Overall, thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

[Dan Moses · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read about what we know (and don't know) about the universe, Dunkley makes the complexities of cosmology easy to grasp for untrained readers like myself. It reads a bit like Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything where the journey seems long in places, but you keep reading because you know around the corner is some intriguing tidbit you don't want to miss. A few of these tidbits from Dunkley include how elements are made from stars, the shape and speeding expansion of the universe, and the peculiarities of how light travels around the universe. She also does a great job including unsung heroes of astronomy, many of which have been women.

[Kade Flowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent. Jo Dunkley has done an excellent job at structuring a very entertaining introduction to the universe. She explains the complicated physics underpinning some concepts in a way which is comprehensible but not condescending, something that is quite hard to achieve. Jo has provided the best explanation of gravitational lensing and its mesmerising manifestations in the most engaging way that I have come across. This book is excellent for someone who does not anything about the universe such as its age, how we know its age, how stars are born, why some stars form black holes and others don't etc, but there is still alot to gain for people who already know these basics due to the way that Jo explains them.

I highly recommend this small but educational and entertaining book.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fab non-fiction read (or audiobook in my case. Can thoroughly recommend the audio as it was super easy to listen to) and it covered a great many number of really interesting topics.

I love this subject matter and it was a great recap/ retelling of some of the concepts and science I already knew but also shared plenty that I hadn’t come across before. It was written super well and it wasn’t hard to tell that the author knew this subject matter expertly.

The loss of a star was solely on me and not reflection on the book or author, as I was listening to the audiobook it was a bit easier for me to zone out and I did a major house clean with this on in the background so I should have given it more of my attention!

It’s a sure fire enjoyable read for all those who enjoy astronomy and want to find out more about this little old universe we live in!

[Carlos Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about science, it's hard to find interesting literature that deep dive into astronomy topics without being boring, but this book teaches, and teaches a lot, I have been reading and studying for many years about our universe, but most of documental series and "science programs" only scratch the surface, just talking about the solar system over and over again, or how Pluto is not longer a planet, finally I found new info here:

- Parallax method to measure distances.
- Complete stars life description.
- Why the light behave as it is and why the black holes present to us the way they do.
- Dark matter and dark energy theory.

To the ones with some physics knowledge and eager to understand the universe, this is the right book.