Това е едно пътешествие в космоса. На борда на високотехнологичен космически кораб ние ще посетим най-открояващите се места в познатата вселена - ще се втурнем сред потоците чудати светове в нашата Слънчева система, а после навън е Млечния път, за да се срещнем с горещите нестабилни звезди и екзотични екзопланети, през мистериите на междугалактическата бездна към далечни галактики, където гигантски черни дупки сияят, а после и отвъд към експлодиращите звезди и сблъсъците, които създават най-далечните маяци, които сме способни да съзрем. За удобство нашата отправна точка ще бъде близо, на някакви си 499 светлинни секунди разстояние - един астрономически обект, който е наблюдаван още от мига на появата на първите очи на Земята.
Disappointing read, mostly basic astronomy, some now outdated facts and a lack of physics. But nice pictures at times. I also found most of the articles dry, which is surprising as I enjoy reading the New Scientist magazine generally at work when we get the new copies in.
3.5/5. An eye-opening and fascinating journey through our solar system and beyond. Our sun has its own rains, and Mars boasts the highest mountain in our solar system, Olympus Mons, three times the height of Mount Everest.
Saturn's rings are mainly ice (and not rocks), and some of its moons have water-spewing volcanoes (and not lava), the only known bodies besides Earth to have water. Pluto was demoted partly because remembering too many planets is hard for children!
There are stars much larger than our sun, with the biggest discovered being 1,700 times our sun's diameter. The space is mind-bogglingly vast, majestic, and grandly designed, with the universe expanding faster than expected.
Interestingly, Allah mentions this in the Quran:
"The heavens, We have built them with power. And verily, We are expanding it" (Holy Quran, 51:47).
Indeed, if there is a grand design, there must be a Grand Designer.
An interesting and up-to-date review of what we know and what we don't know, from the solar system to the whole universe. There are plenty of items that even the most dedicated New Scientist readers might not have come across.
One highlight of the book is a little interview with Jocelyn Bell, relating the story of how she discovered the first radio signal from a pulsar in 1967; the sexism of the times is quite shocking.
Went right over my head! I thought as it was a 'NewScientist Instant Expert' book it might have been dumbed down a bit for an average reader to find out a little about space. I was wrong and you do need prior knowledge to understand any of the writing.
It probably is a good book to expand your knowledge on the universe... but I can't be sure as I understood very little!!