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The Day We Found the Universe
The riveting and mesmerizing story behind a watershed period in human history, the discovery of the startling size and true nature of our universe.
On New Years Day in 1925, a young Edwin Hubble released his finding that our Universe was far bigger, eventually measured as a thousand trillion times larger than previously believed. Hubble’s proclamation sent shock waves through the scientific community. Six years later, in a series of meetings at Mount Wilson Observatory, Hubble and others convinced Albert Einstein that the Universe was not static but in fact expanding. Here Marcia Bartusiak reveals the key players, battles of will, clever insights, incredible technology, ground-breaking research, and wrong turns made by the early investigators of the heavens as they raced to uncover what many consider one of most significant discoveries in scientific history.
On New Years Day in 1925, a young Edwin Hubble released his finding that our Universe was far bigger, eventually measured as a thousand trillion times larger than previously believed. Hubble’s proclamation sent shock waves through the scientific community. Six years later, in a series of meetings at Mount Wilson Observatory, Hubble and others convinced Albert Einstein that the Universe was not static but in fact expanding. Here Marcia Bartusiak reveals the key players, battles of will, clever insights, incredible technology, ground-breaking research, and wrong turns made by the early investigators of the heavens as they raced to uncover what many consider one of most significant discoveries in scientific history.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2009
72 people are currently reading
3234 people want to read
About the author
Marcia Bartusiak
13 books57 followersCombining her skills as a journalist with an advanced degree in physics, Marcia Bartusiak (pronounced MAR-sha Bar-TOO-shack) has been covering the fields of astronomy and physics for three decades. Currently, she is a visiting professor with the Graduate Program in Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bartusiak is the author of Thursday's Universe, a layman's guide to the frontiers of astrophysics and cosmology, Through a Universe Darkly, a history of astronomers' centuries-long quest to discover the universe's composition, and Einstein's Unfinished Symphony, about the on-going attempt to detect gravity waves, the last experimental test of Einstein's theory of general relativity. All three were named notable science books by The New York Times. She also co-authored A Positron Named Priscilla, a National Academy of Sciences book on cutting-edge science. Her latest books are Archives of the Universe, a history of the major discoveries in astronomy told through 100 of the original scientific publications, and The Day We Found the Universe.
Graduating in 1971 with a degree in communications from American University in Washington, D.C., Bartusiak first spent four years as a TV reporter and anchorwoman in Norfolk, Virginia. Assignments at the nearby NASA Langley Research Center sparked a love for science news, which encouraged her to enter Old Dominion University for a master's degree in physics. Her research involved the effects of radiation on materials sent into space as parts of orbiting astronomical observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Ultraviolet Explorer.
Starting her science-writing career as an intern at Science News and then as a charter member of Discover's writing staff, she continues to write about astronomy and physics in a variety of national publications. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Science, Popular Science, World Book Encyclopedia, Smithsonian, and Technology Review. For many years a contributing editor at Discover, she is now on the editorial advisory board of Astronomy magazine. She has also reviewed science books for both The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Bartusiak was awarded the distinguished 2006 Andrew W. Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics, a prize given annually by the AIP to recognize "significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics," and in 2008 was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1982, she was the first woman to receive the AIP Science Writing Award and won the award again in 2001 for Einstein's Unfinished Symphony. She was also a finalist in NASA's Journalist-in-Space competition. For the 1994-95 academic year, she was a Knight Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Marcia Bartusiak lives with her husband, mathematician Steve Lowe, and their dog Hubble in Sudbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.
Graduating in 1971 with a degree in communications from American University in Washington, D.C., Bartusiak first spent four years as a TV reporter and anchorwoman in Norfolk, Virginia. Assignments at the nearby NASA Langley Research Center sparked a love for science news, which encouraged her to enter Old Dominion University for a master's degree in physics. Her research involved the effects of radiation on materials sent into space as parts of orbiting astronomical observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Ultraviolet Explorer.
Starting her science-writing career as an intern at Science News and then as a charter member of Discover's writing staff, she continues to write about astronomy and physics in a variety of national publications. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Science, Popular Science, World Book Encyclopedia, Smithsonian, and Technology Review. For many years a contributing editor at Discover, she is now on the editorial advisory board of Astronomy magazine. She has also reviewed science books for both The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Bartusiak was awarded the distinguished 2006 Andrew W. Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics, a prize given annually by the AIP to recognize "significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics," and in 2008 was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1982, she was the first woman to receive the AIP Science Writing Award and won the award again in 2001 for Einstein's Unfinished Symphony. She was also a finalist in NASA's Journalist-in-Space competition. For the 1994-95 academic year, she was a Knight Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Marcia Bartusiak lives with her husband, mathematician Steve Lowe, and their dog Hubble in Sudbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
August 27, 2009
Of course, there is that scene in Cosmos where Carl Sagan is sitting on a beach somewhere and talking about the stars. He picks up a handful of sand and says that the number of grains of sand in his hand is about as many as the number of stars you might be able to see unaided if you looked up at a clear night sky. He then says that modern cosmology has shown that there are more stars in the universe than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world.
This is a book about what happened when people went from being able to see merely a handful of grains of sand to suddenly getting to witness the endless beaches overflowing with grains. As you might expect, it took people a while to work out just what it was they were looking at, just how big it actually all was.
I found this book quite fascinating. Astronomers are very strange creatures and they probably need to be observed as closely as they themselves might view their favourite celestial object. I had no idea Edwin Hubble was supposed to be quite so handsome. Someone, in fact, said that if they had decided to make a film of his life and he had applied to play himself they couldn’t take him as no one would believe he was right for the part - he was simply too good looking to be a scientist.
He was also remarkably strange in his own way. He became a Rhode’s Scholar and went off to Oxford – but came back with a strange (and quite fake) English accent, and a taste for English tailored shirts and suits, all of which he kept up for the rest of his life.
In many ways this book is a series of biographies, the most interesting of which is that of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a bit of a hero of mine now – the human computer. She discovered the Cepheids and what they meant and then went virtually unnoticed despite this most incredibly important discovery.
And Cepheids are incredibly important. They are stars that vary in intensity over fixed periods of time. What Henrietta discovered was that there was a relationship between how long they took to vary from bright to dim and back again and their maximum intensity. That is, a Cepheid that has a period of 10 days will always have a certain maximum luminosity – one that varies ever 20 days will always have some other maximum luminosity, no matter where in the sky it is. So, if you were standing beside a Cepheid with a period of 10 days and you looked out into the dark depths of the sky and saw another Cepheid also with a period of 10 days you would know that both of these stars actually were shining with the same brightness.
So what, I hear you say? Well, knowing how bright an object is in the sky allows you to know how far away it is – as light becomes dimmer with the inverse square of the distance the star is away from you. That means that Henrietta was one of the most important people in astronomy as she provided the yardstick by which we are able to measure the universe. If she had had the good sense to have been born a man we might even remember her today – but, typically, women never seem capable of learning this most simple of laws.
A large part of this book is devoted to the question of whether those odd looking little spiral things that appear to be hanging off the side of the Milky Way are virtually connected to our galaxy or are island galaxies all on their own and just as large as our galaxy. This story of how evidence was piled up on both sides to defend each side’s favourite prejudice is a wonderful example of people ‘hearing what they want to hear’. But just in case you have lost all faith in humanity and science there is a wonderful moment in this book where conclusive proof is finally presented to one of the scientists who argued fiercely all of his life against there being more galaxies than the Milky Way and who then said something to the effect of ‘Oh well, their goes my view of the universe’ and from that day on was a champion of the new theory. Anyone who can change their mind (on just about any topic) is about as close to Godlike in my book as we can expect here on Earth.
This is the fascinating story of the people who gave us our current perspective on our place in the universe. The science here is told in simple prose and should present no problems to even the most scientifically ignorant. Great stuff.
This is a book about what happened when people went from being able to see merely a handful of grains of sand to suddenly getting to witness the endless beaches overflowing with grains. As you might expect, it took people a while to work out just what it was they were looking at, just how big it actually all was.
I found this book quite fascinating. Astronomers are very strange creatures and they probably need to be observed as closely as they themselves might view their favourite celestial object. I had no idea Edwin Hubble was supposed to be quite so handsome. Someone, in fact, said that if they had decided to make a film of his life and he had applied to play himself they couldn’t take him as no one would believe he was right for the part - he was simply too good looking to be a scientist.
He was also remarkably strange in his own way. He became a Rhode’s Scholar and went off to Oxford – but came back with a strange (and quite fake) English accent, and a taste for English tailored shirts and suits, all of which he kept up for the rest of his life.
In many ways this book is a series of biographies, the most interesting of which is that of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a bit of a hero of mine now – the human computer. She discovered the Cepheids and what they meant and then went virtually unnoticed despite this most incredibly important discovery.
And Cepheids are incredibly important. They are stars that vary in intensity over fixed periods of time. What Henrietta discovered was that there was a relationship between how long they took to vary from bright to dim and back again and their maximum intensity. That is, a Cepheid that has a period of 10 days will always have a certain maximum luminosity – one that varies ever 20 days will always have some other maximum luminosity, no matter where in the sky it is. So, if you were standing beside a Cepheid with a period of 10 days and you looked out into the dark depths of the sky and saw another Cepheid also with a period of 10 days you would know that both of these stars actually were shining with the same brightness.
So what, I hear you say? Well, knowing how bright an object is in the sky allows you to know how far away it is – as light becomes dimmer with the inverse square of the distance the star is away from you. That means that Henrietta was one of the most important people in astronomy as she provided the yardstick by which we are able to measure the universe. If she had had the good sense to have been born a man we might even remember her today – but, typically, women never seem capable of learning this most simple of laws.
A large part of this book is devoted to the question of whether those odd looking little spiral things that appear to be hanging off the side of the Milky Way are virtually connected to our galaxy or are island galaxies all on their own and just as large as our galaxy. This story of how evidence was piled up on both sides to defend each side’s favourite prejudice is a wonderful example of people ‘hearing what they want to hear’. But just in case you have lost all faith in humanity and science there is a wonderful moment in this book where conclusive proof is finally presented to one of the scientists who argued fiercely all of his life against there being more galaxies than the Milky Way and who then said something to the effect of ‘Oh well, their goes my view of the universe’ and from that day on was a champion of the new theory. Anyone who can change their mind (on just about any topic) is about as close to Godlike in my book as we can expect here on Earth.
This is the fascinating story of the people who gave us our current perspective on our place in the universe. The science here is told in simple prose and should present no problems to even the most scientifically ignorant. Great stuff.
July 13, 2016
This book provides a virtual front row seat to the discoveries of facts about the universe that were bigger, stranger, and more spectacular than anybody could have imagined at the beginning of the 20th Century. Today the newness has worn off of such terms as expanding universe, space-time continuum, and multiple galaxies. So it's good to imagine the excitement that must have been felt when these words were first uttered. If these concepts seem unfathomable now, they were even more unbelievable then.
This book covers the professional biographies of multiple individuals who played important roles in the advancement of astronomy from 1900 to 1930. Consequently the book's structure reminds me of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, Team of Rivals where she provided multiple mini-biographies of Lincoln's cabinet. The author, Marcia Bartusiak, in this book skillfully hops from one personality to another, each mini-biography being told chronologically, but generally jumping backward in time when changing from one astronomer to another. The narrative is written with such skill that it's hard to imagine it being told in any other way.
Of course Edwin Hubble ends up being the star in the end. But the service provided by this book is to tell the story of others who provided the base of knowledge upon which Hubble was able to build. Among the personalities involved, Hubble was not the most likeable person to select if one were choosing a storybook hero. He was physically attractive, but a stuffed-shirt guilty of some boorish behavior. Nevertheless, in addition to being very intelligent, he had the luck of being at the right place at the right time. All the others in this story were very intelligent people, and there were several who could have achieved the findings regarding the size of the universe before Hubble, but for various reasons didn't do it.
The following quote from the book provides a good summary of the excitement and significance of the time.
"...perhaps never again will astronomy face such a dramatic shift in its conception of the universe. It took only three short decades―from 1900 to 1930, ... ―to make this mind-altering transition. The Milky Way, once the universe's lone inhabitant floating in an ocean of darkness, was suddenly joined by billions of other star-filled islands, arranged outward as far as telescopes could peer. ... Astronomers barely had time to adjust to this astounding celestial vastness when they were faced with the knowledge that space-time ... was expanding in all directions ...
Conservative religious people who feel that science is always chipping away at their views of the universe should remember that when evidence of the "Big Bang" was first reported that many religious people enthusiastically welcomed the news as vindication of their views about creation. This is a reminder that science goes where the evidence leads, and occasionally science and religious myths may end up in the same ball park (metaphorically speaking).
One of the individuals who could have beaten Hubble to his findings was Harlow Shapley. Unfortunately, he was so convinced of the single galaxy model that he didn't look for contrary evidence. When he first received a letter from Hubble describing his initial findings, Shapley was quoted as saying, "the letter has destroyed my universe!" The book's narrative goes on to say, "Once proven wrong, ...(Shapley)... didn't look back and quickly adjusted to the new cosmic landscape, soon becoming its most boisterous promoter."
Here's my favorite quotation by Harlow Shapley from his 1969 memoir:
"The solar system is off center and consequently man is too."
The above quotation is a comment about the discovery that the solar system is not located at the center of our galaxy. And for that matter, the Milky Way Galaxy is only one of many billions of galaxies and isn't at the center of anything, least of all the universe. So if God created the universe for the exclusive enjoyment of earthlings, he/she/it apparently selected an arrangement that emphasized our insignificance. After Copernicus discovered that the earth wasn't in the center of the solar system, we should have known that there was going to be more news headed in that direction.
The following is from the author's blog:
"... taking the Copernican principle to its finale―our universe may not be the only one. As physicists attempt to construct a theory that unifies all the forces of nature, one theme repeatedly arises: that additional cosmic realms may be lurking in other dimensions. We could be part of the multiverse; the Big Bang might have occurred when universes outside our dimensional borders bumped into one another."
This book covers the professional biographies of multiple individuals who played important roles in the advancement of astronomy from 1900 to 1930. Consequently the book's structure reminds me of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, Team of Rivals where she provided multiple mini-biographies of Lincoln's cabinet. The author, Marcia Bartusiak, in this book skillfully hops from one personality to another, each mini-biography being told chronologically, but generally jumping backward in time when changing from one astronomer to another. The narrative is written with such skill that it's hard to imagine it being told in any other way.
Of course Edwin Hubble ends up being the star in the end. But the service provided by this book is to tell the story of others who provided the base of knowledge upon which Hubble was able to build. Among the personalities involved, Hubble was not the most likeable person to select if one were choosing a storybook hero. He was physically attractive, but a stuffed-shirt guilty of some boorish behavior. Nevertheless, in addition to being very intelligent, he had the luck of being at the right place at the right time. All the others in this story were very intelligent people, and there were several who could have achieved the findings regarding the size of the universe before Hubble, but for various reasons didn't do it.
The following quote from the book provides a good summary of the excitement and significance of the time.
"...perhaps never again will astronomy face such a dramatic shift in its conception of the universe. It took only three short decades―from 1900 to 1930, ... ―to make this mind-altering transition. The Milky Way, once the universe's lone inhabitant floating in an ocean of darkness, was suddenly joined by billions of other star-filled islands, arranged outward as far as telescopes could peer. ... Astronomers barely had time to adjust to this astounding celestial vastness when they were faced with the knowledge that space-time ... was expanding in all directions ...
Conservative religious people who feel that science is always chipping away at their views of the universe should remember that when evidence of the "Big Bang" was first reported that many religious people enthusiastically welcomed the news as vindication of their views about creation. This is a reminder that science goes where the evidence leads, and occasionally science and religious myths may end up in the same ball park (metaphorically speaking).
One of the individuals who could have beaten Hubble to his findings was Harlow Shapley. Unfortunately, he was so convinced of the single galaxy model that he didn't look for contrary evidence. When he first received a letter from Hubble describing his initial findings, Shapley was quoted as saying, "the letter has destroyed my universe!" The book's narrative goes on to say, "Once proven wrong, ...(Shapley)... didn't look back and quickly adjusted to the new cosmic landscape, soon becoming its most boisterous promoter."
Here's my favorite quotation by Harlow Shapley from his 1969 memoir:
"The solar system is off center and consequently man is too."
The above quotation is a comment about the discovery that the solar system is not located at the center of our galaxy. And for that matter, the Milky Way Galaxy is only one of many billions of galaxies and isn't at the center of anything, least of all the universe. So if God created the universe for the exclusive enjoyment of earthlings, he/she/it apparently selected an arrangement that emphasized our insignificance. After Copernicus discovered that the earth wasn't in the center of the solar system, we should have known that there was going to be more news headed in that direction.
The following is from the author's blog:
"... taking the Copernican principle to its finale―our universe may not be the only one. As physicists attempt to construct a theory that unifies all the forces of nature, one theme repeatedly arises: that additional cosmic realms may be lurking in other dimensions. We could be part of the multiverse; the Big Bang might have occurred when universes outside our dimensional borders bumped into one another."
August 17, 2013
One day in 1925 :
Hubble : The universe is bigger than everybody thinks.
A humbler astronomer invented for the purpose of this review : Yeah? How big are we talking?
Hubble : Well, you know the Milky Way? Okay, now see through this telescope, see those little wispy things there?
Astronomling: You mean those spiral nebulae?
Hubble : Well what if I told you they weren’t spiral nebulae?
Little astronomer: Aww, you mean they’re just smudges on the lens? Damn. We wasted a lot of time on those things.
Hubble : No. I mean that those wispy little doodads which no one has been able to figure what in tarnation they are up to now are actually nothing more than other Milky Ways, vast conglomerates of billions upon billions of other stars separated by incalculable distances of deep space.
Lesser astronomer : Hmm. You don’t say so.
Hubble : But I do say so.
Unimportant astronomer : Oh I know you do. It’s just an expression.
***
Gotta tell you that for a non-scientist like myself, the 30 page introduction to this pretty much told me everything I needed to know and the rest was a bunch of unattractive men arguing politely about difficult sums. Not much sense of wonder there.
Hubble : The universe is bigger than everybody thinks.
A humbler astronomer invented for the purpose of this review : Yeah? How big are we talking?
Hubble : Well, you know the Milky Way? Okay, now see through this telescope, see those little wispy things there?
Astronomling: You mean those spiral nebulae?
Hubble : Well what if I told you they weren’t spiral nebulae?
Little astronomer: Aww, you mean they’re just smudges on the lens? Damn. We wasted a lot of time on those things.
Hubble : No. I mean that those wispy little doodads which no one has been able to figure what in tarnation they are up to now are actually nothing more than other Milky Ways, vast conglomerates of billions upon billions of other stars separated by incalculable distances of deep space.
Lesser astronomer : Hmm. You don’t say so.
Hubble : But I do say so.
Unimportant astronomer : Oh I know you do. It’s just an expression.
***
Gotta tell you that for a non-scientist like myself, the 30 page introduction to this pretty much told me everything I needed to know and the rest was a bunch of unattractive men arguing politely about difficult sums. Not much sense of wonder there.
January 17, 2010
This book is a fantastic, popular-science history of a pivotal era in astronomy: the moment in time when we went from a belief that the Milky Way was the Universe entire, to the knowledge that the Milky Way is but one galaxy in a Universe comprising billions of others.
Both the famous names (Hubble, Einstein, etc) and the less well-known players (Vesto Slipher, Milton Humason, Georges Lemaître, etc) are represented in this fascinating, well-written, and well-researched book.
Both the famous names (Hubble, Einstein, etc) and the less well-known players (Vesto Slipher, Milton Humason, Georges Lemaître, etc) are represented in this fascinating, well-written, and well-researched book.
February 25, 2012
I can't even imagine what it would have felt like to have seen some of these early images of the expanding universe during this time but it must have been completely inspiring, and if any book gives you a glimpse into what this must have felt like this book is it. It contains an assortment of well known and less well known but equally important contributors to Astronomy in the early 1900's leading towards today. It really makes you look differently at the giants of this time such as Edwin Hubble and Slipher and how the inter play between so many different contributors lead to the view of the expanding universe as we now see it. A wonderful companion to any collected works on astronomy. I would have loved to have seen more of the early images though, I found myself having to revert to google throughout the book.
April 29, 2023
A fun ride through the backstory of what took up only a few pages of my mid-seventies astronomy course (taught by John Craig Wheeler). This was a nice bit of creamy center for the nerdier astronomy and physics books I usually read. So if that’s what you’re looking for, look elsewhere.
Meanwhile, I am where the “tired photon” theory came home to roost.
Meanwhile, I am where the “tired photon” theory came home to roost.
October 22, 2015
Oh, to have been an astronomer in the heyday in the early 1900s. I've always wanted to be an astronomer (was never good in physics). Now I know what time I would have ideally wanted to be one. Everything was new...the telescopes, the country, the skies were free from light pollution, and the glory of discovery. Oh, to dream.
May 5, 2024
Not going to lie..a little bit boring of a read because it went over history about astronomers in the early 1900’s. There was a lot of information but made me want to snooze:/ Smaller version of the book, On the Shoulders of Giants.
June 29, 2014
This is easily the most interesting book that I've
read this year and I've read quite a few. Please
don't shy away from it due to a fear that it might
be a difficult read, it's totally accessible and
requires no prior knowledge of astronomy &c.
The action really starts just prior to 1900 and
continues on for the first three decades of that
century, a period that revolutionized our under-
standing of the Universe, its structure, extent
and our place in it.
Einstein's is a name familiar to all of us, and
Edwin Hubble to perhaps more than a few, but you
will meet many more people, likely for the first
time, whose combined efforts, in what was at times
a contentious struggle, were able to answer some
seriously perplexing questions.
Was our own Milky Way the extent of the Universe,
or were the faintly perceived nebulae themselves
"island-universes" lying beyond its bounds, re-
ducing us to just one of untold many Galaxies?
Was the Universe static and bounded, or was space
itself in a state of unimagined expansion? Had
Einstein added new understanding with his Special
Theory of Relativity or had he managed to make the
issue even murkier, the problems more difficult?
How distant were the objects that we were finally
able to resolve with the ever larger telescopes?
Are they truly moving away at speeds that were
almost impossible to believe? If so, why? How were
those measurement problems solved and what new
understanding came as a consequence?
Not the least interesting part of the story is the
wide range of talents and backgrounds of the people
involved in the search for answers. Some of their
stories are heroic, some are tragic and the credits
don't get evenly parceled out. If it were a novel
it would be hard to find some of it credible. It's
a compelling story.
read this year and I've read quite a few. Please
don't shy away from it due to a fear that it might
be a difficult read, it's totally accessible and
requires no prior knowledge of astronomy &c.
The action really starts just prior to 1900 and
continues on for the first three decades of that
century, a period that revolutionized our under-
standing of the Universe, its structure, extent
and our place in it.
Einstein's is a name familiar to all of us, and
Edwin Hubble to perhaps more than a few, but you
will meet many more people, likely for the first
time, whose combined efforts, in what was at times
a contentious struggle, were able to answer some
seriously perplexing questions.
Was our own Milky Way the extent of the Universe,
or were the faintly perceived nebulae themselves
"island-universes" lying beyond its bounds, re-
ducing us to just one of untold many Galaxies?
Was the Universe static and bounded, or was space
itself in a state of unimagined expansion? Had
Einstein added new understanding with his Special
Theory of Relativity or had he managed to make the
issue even murkier, the problems more difficult?
How distant were the objects that we were finally
able to resolve with the ever larger telescopes?
Are they truly moving away at speeds that were
almost impossible to believe? If so, why? How were
those measurement problems solved and what new
understanding came as a consequence?
Not the least interesting part of the story is the
wide range of talents and backgrounds of the people
involved in the search for answers. Some of their
stories are heroic, some are tragic and the credits
don't get evenly parceled out. If it were a novel
it would be hard to find some of it credible. It's
a compelling story.
February 3, 2014
the title of this book should be changed to "The entire history of star gazing PLUS the entire backstory of every person that ever had a telescope in their life AND (maybe) the day they all got together"
i did not finish this book. i made it about halfway through and it was the most boring thing ever! i was expecting a book about a single day and some in depth knowledge on that day and some stuff about astrophysics and scientists who i have heard of and who i havent.
well, this is not that. and i should have known better. it is about every person ever in history BEFORE the day that changed the universe. because it wasn't like an AHA! discovery in was a series of little discoveries proven and disproven over time.
oh, and if you want to understand the language in this book, you should probably have some kind of degree in physics.
i did not finish this book. i made it about halfway through and it was the most boring thing ever! i was expecting a book about a single day and some in depth knowledge on that day and some stuff about astrophysics and scientists who i have heard of and who i havent.
well, this is not that. and i should have known better. it is about every person ever in history BEFORE the day that changed the universe. because it wasn't like an AHA! discovery in was a series of little discoveries proven and disproven over time.
oh, and if you want to understand the language in this book, you should probably have some kind of degree in physics.
May 19, 2024
Hands down the best part of this book is that it made me realize I've been living around hella cool history for five years. I need to visit the Carnegie Observatories before I leave Pasadena - I biked past it to work for an entire summer without any idea that it was there. And crazy that Hubble went to MD for his defense contractor era after achieving astronomy fame! Maybe I'll go out to Aberdeen sometime and see if they have any other cool history there.
Anyway, this was a really solid nonfiction book and I have a few thoughts about it. I think this book did a couple of things well:
-It really showed how much is lost in the way stories are told about scientific advances. This was a really tumultuous and exciting time in astronomy and cosmology, and Bartusiak did a really great job of painting a picture of the competing viewpoints of the era. I also really appreciated the attention paid to the cast of characters (at Mt. Wilson, and at Lowell, Yerkes, Lick, and in Cambridge and Europe) whose role in paving the way for Hubble's discovery has been lost as history lionized Hubble alone. In particular, it really struck me that Hubble didn't readily embrace the cosmic expansion his data seemed to show - I've always figured he was shouting it from the rooftops but he was careful to just provide the data and not draw conclusions lest history prove him wrong (and learning about his background as a lawyer kind of explains that to me). It's all the lore that makes him out to be this sole progenitor of the cosmic expansion theory. (Also, it really is interesting to see how it went to his head.)
-In the vein of Hubble being a lawyer by trade, it was cool how much science is not just about data speaking for itself and discoveries but also politics and persuasion. Hubble was clever in gathering quotes from key critics to make sure the scientists of the time didn't discount his theories readily. In a book with so many examples of scientists who were onto something that others discounted, it was interesting to see how Hubble made people pay attention.
-It really helped snap me out of the perspective I've known all my life (the Milky Way is far from the only galaxy, the universe is vast and expanding, Earth is not at the center of the solar system, which is not at the center of the galaxy, which is not at the center of the universe) and realize how disorienting these paradigm shifts were. I can understand why these people were sitting in cold domes for night after night - if ideas like this were dangled in front of me I'd want to do anything I could for more data, too.
The chronology could be a bit disorienting at times, particularly in the first half when there was some jumping back and forth from Lick to earlier observations by Herschel etc. Lots of fun facts, though! For example, Pluto is named that way in part because the first two letters, PL, are the initials of Percival Lowell - Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory. It was also interesting to learn about the rise and fall of the refractor telescope!
Anyway, this was a really solid nonfiction book and I have a few thoughts about it. I think this book did a couple of things well:
-It really showed how much is lost in the way stories are told about scientific advances. This was a really tumultuous and exciting time in astronomy and cosmology, and Bartusiak did a really great job of painting a picture of the competing viewpoints of the era. I also really appreciated the attention paid to the cast of characters (at Mt. Wilson, and at Lowell, Yerkes, Lick, and in Cambridge and Europe) whose role in paving the way for Hubble's discovery has been lost as history lionized Hubble alone. In particular, it really struck me that Hubble didn't readily embrace the cosmic expansion his data seemed to show - I've always figured he was shouting it from the rooftops but he was careful to just provide the data and not draw conclusions lest history prove him wrong (and learning about his background as a lawyer kind of explains that to me). It's all the lore that makes him out to be this sole progenitor of the cosmic expansion theory. (Also, it really is interesting to see how it went to his head.)
-In the vein of Hubble being a lawyer by trade, it was cool how much science is not just about data speaking for itself and discoveries but also politics and persuasion. Hubble was clever in gathering quotes from key critics to make sure the scientists of the time didn't discount his theories readily. In a book with so many examples of scientists who were onto something that others discounted, it was interesting to see how Hubble made people pay attention.
-It really helped snap me out of the perspective I've known all my life (the Milky Way is far from the only galaxy, the universe is vast and expanding, Earth is not at the center of the solar system, which is not at the center of the galaxy, which is not at the center of the universe) and realize how disorienting these paradigm shifts were. I can understand why these people were sitting in cold domes for night after night - if ideas like this were dangled in front of me I'd want to do anything I could for more data, too.
The chronology could be a bit disorienting at times, particularly in the first half when there was some jumping back and forth from Lick to earlier observations by Herschel etc. Lots of fun facts, though! For example, Pluto is named that way in part because the first two letters, PL, are the initials of Percival Lowell - Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory. It was also interesting to learn about the rise and fall of the refractor telescope!
November 27, 2024
Very educational, with a very approachable writing style.
I loved how the author often placed the spotlight on the lesser known individuals who contributed immensely to astronomy, and helped pave the way for the later, more well known players of the field.
Particularly, James Keeler and Henrietta Leavitt.
We’re at this point right now because of those two people. Henrietta, especially, had to work twice as hard for half the recognition, and even then, there was around a decade of scientific advancement lost because “that’s usually a man’s job”.
Either way, a great book on my favorite topic!
I loved how the author often placed the spotlight on the lesser known individuals who contributed immensely to astronomy, and helped pave the way for the later, more well known players of the field.
Particularly, James Keeler and Henrietta Leavitt.
We’re at this point right now because of those two people. Henrietta, especially, had to work twice as hard for half the recognition, and even then, there was around a decade of scientific advancement lost because “that’s usually a man’s job”.
Either way, a great book on my favorite topic!
March 19, 2018
Great information. Not just on the discoveries but the people and politics behind them.
January 9, 2019
I always loved astronomy and was expecting something different from this book which it delivered. It had a lot of names of astronomers but the small stories were so coherent and beautifully told that by the end of it I was amazed and inspired. Enjoyed every single page of it.
June 17, 2019
Aside from the misleading title, this was an interesting, well-written book. It is the history of the controversy surrounding the size of the universe that raged till the late 1920s. It most closely focuses on the struggles to identify and measure what were then called spiral nebulae. To do that, it also includes the history of two leading observatories and the people that worked at them.
The vast majority of the book though details time-consuming acquisition of new data and the sometimes personal debates that raged about it.
If you are interested in the history of science and scientists, I think you will find this as an interesting book.
While the focus of the book is not on the origins controversy, it is brought in ever so slightly towards the end of the book.
There were a couple of curse words.
The vast majority of the book though details time-consuming acquisition of new data and the sometimes personal debates that raged about it.
If you are interested in the history of science and scientists, I think you will find this as an interesting book.
While the focus of the book is not on the origins controversy, it is brought in ever so slightly towards the end of the book.
There were a couple of curse words.
December 20, 2013
A dramatic and wonderfully written book about a special group of scientists that shaped our knowledge of the universe, in turbulent period at the beginning of the 20th century.
It follows their lives, their work, their battles of ideas, theories and calculations that inflated our universe from our solar system and Milky Way to the ever-expanding vastness filled with countless galaxies.
Meet the scientists that searched for their answers among the stars, people like James Keeler, Heber Curtis, Henrietta Leavitt, Harlow Shapley, and finally, Edwin Hubble, learn about their lives and their personalities, their persistence, their successes and their errors.
Discover how astronomers painstakingly learned to measure distances and velocities of distant objects, see how Lemaître proved to Einstein that universe is not a static space filled with unmoving galaxies.
Very informative read, suitable for anyone who wants to learn something about people that changed our understanding of the world. Five out of five stars.
It follows their lives, their work, their battles of ideas, theories and calculations that inflated our universe from our solar system and Milky Way to the ever-expanding vastness filled with countless galaxies.
Meet the scientists that searched for their answers among the stars, people like James Keeler, Heber Curtis, Henrietta Leavitt, Harlow Shapley, and finally, Edwin Hubble, learn about their lives and their personalities, their persistence, their successes and their errors.
Discover how astronomers painstakingly learned to measure distances and velocities of distant objects, see how Lemaître proved to Einstein that universe is not a static space filled with unmoving galaxies.
Very informative read, suitable for anyone who wants to learn something about people that changed our understanding of the world. Five out of five stars.
October 27, 2017
Excellent "detective story" of the search for the size of the universe. Were those fuzzy nebulae inside the Milky Way? Or were they "island universes" of their own? Hubble showed that they were outside our galaxy, and he and Lemaître showed that the universe was expanding. Great stories of the observational astronomers at Lick Observatory, Mt Wilson, and Lowell Observatory. I only have a few small technical quibbles, but for the most part the science is described accurately. Bartusiak does an excellent job - which she also did in her other book on the search for gravitational waves, "Einstein's Universe."
September 28, 2016
Interesting history (mainly 1910-1930 ish) of how they determined that those fuzzy "small and nearby" nebulae were really far distant galaxies. I liked it because it doesn't just say "and they found it was this far away;" but she explains how they came to and verified their conclusions.
October 16, 2010
History is boring, Astronomy is fun. So, this book was half way in between.
September 1, 2016
The universe is expanding and so is my brain from reading this book, although not at the same rate.
April 14, 2018
My favorite book about the history of astronomy. I have read it 3 times including quite recently.
February 8, 2018
Studies (as late as 2013) continue to confirm that the Universe is approximately 14 billion years old. Anyone who has come into contact with astronomy during their education, probably takes it for granted that we live on a planet in the backwaters of an unremarkable galaxy in a universe of billions of galaxies. Furthermore, most of us know that our Universe is expanding in all directions from a point where, in distant history, an event we call the "Big Bang" took place.
But how do we know all of that?
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the size and age of the universe was the subject of intense scientific debate. As late as 1923, large numbers of scientists believed that earth was at the center of one gigantic galaxy -- the only galaxy in a vast sea of pretty much nothing else. Because of this belief, most astronomers were simply focused on the (somewhat monotonous) task of cataloging stars, trying to discover more about our solar system, gathering data on occasional comets, and going on solar eclipse treks. Only a very few were focused on the fuzzy clouds at the outskirts of our ability to see -- nebulae.
This book covers the personalities (men and women), techniques, funding and (eventually) technologies that resolved this debate and allowed astronomers to determine the approximate size, age and expanding nature of the universe. The "Day" in the title of the book refers to 1/1/1925, the date on which Hubble's paper "Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae" was presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science , at their convention in Washington D.C. The "Cepheids" to which Hubble's paper referred provided the final breakthrough to understanding the true size and age of our universe.
My interests wander around technologies & methods, most of which Bartusiak describes fairly well. Spectrography, a technology that has been evolving since Newton's time, allows us to both determine the composition of celestial bodies and provides key information to help us determine their distance. However, before we were able to develop large stable mirrors for reflector telescopes, spectrography had limited use. Refractors (Galilean type telescopes) absorb many wavelengths. Only a reflector allows those wavelengths to be seen and analyzed spectrographically. Reflectors of sufficient size only appeared in the 20th century.
We also needed "mileposts" to estimate distances. Cepheids, a type of periodic stars, are the perfect mileposts but, until large reflectors (like the 100 inch at Mount Wilson) were available it was impossible to catalog a sufficient number of them to plot the data to understand their distance relationships. So a meticulous Rhodes Scholar like Edwin Hubble needed Mount Wilson's new 100 inch reflector to make meaningful observations of galactic nebulae, and gather sufficient Cepheid data, in order to determine distances to these "galaxies". Doppler theory & red shifts are involved and covered adequately by Bartusiak.
"The Day We Found the Universe" tells a very human story of competing theories, astronomers (Hubble, Shapely, van Maanen, Vesto Slipher), those who acquired or funded their efforts (Hale, Yerkes), underpaid and occasionally brilliant women (such as Harvard's Henrietta Leavitt) and physicists like Einstein and Lemaitre. It is ultimately a story that confirms (to the frustration of Shapely, van Maanen and others) the triumph of meticulous work, examined in the court of scientific method, over human ego.
Marcia Bartusiak does an excellent job of unpacking the drama of how all of these characters contributed to the current and more humbling understanding of our place in the universe.
But how do we know all of that?
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the size and age of the universe was the subject of intense scientific debate. As late as 1923, large numbers of scientists believed that earth was at the center of one gigantic galaxy -- the only galaxy in a vast sea of pretty much nothing else. Because of this belief, most astronomers were simply focused on the (somewhat monotonous) task of cataloging stars, trying to discover more about our solar system, gathering data on occasional comets, and going on solar eclipse treks. Only a very few were focused on the fuzzy clouds at the outskirts of our ability to see -- nebulae.
This book covers the personalities (men and women), techniques, funding and (eventually) technologies that resolved this debate and allowed astronomers to determine the approximate size, age and expanding nature of the universe. The "Day" in the title of the book refers to 1/1/1925, the date on which Hubble's paper "Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae" was presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science , at their convention in Washington D.C. The "Cepheids" to which Hubble's paper referred provided the final breakthrough to understanding the true size and age of our universe.
My interests wander around technologies & methods, most of which Bartusiak describes fairly well. Spectrography, a technology that has been evolving since Newton's time, allows us to both determine the composition of celestial bodies and provides key information to help us determine their distance. However, before we were able to develop large stable mirrors for reflector telescopes, spectrography had limited use. Refractors (Galilean type telescopes) absorb many wavelengths. Only a reflector allows those wavelengths to be seen and analyzed spectrographically. Reflectors of sufficient size only appeared in the 20th century.
We also needed "mileposts" to estimate distances. Cepheids, a type of periodic stars, are the perfect mileposts but, until large reflectors (like the 100 inch at Mount Wilson) were available it was impossible to catalog a sufficient number of them to plot the data to understand their distance relationships. So a meticulous Rhodes Scholar like Edwin Hubble needed Mount Wilson's new 100 inch reflector to make meaningful observations of galactic nebulae, and gather sufficient Cepheid data, in order to determine distances to these "galaxies". Doppler theory & red shifts are involved and covered adequately by Bartusiak.
"The Day We Found the Universe" tells a very human story of competing theories, astronomers (Hubble, Shapely, van Maanen, Vesto Slipher), those who acquired or funded their efforts (Hale, Yerkes), underpaid and occasionally brilliant women (such as Harvard's Henrietta Leavitt) and physicists like Einstein and Lemaitre. It is ultimately a story that confirms (to the frustration of Shapely, van Maanen and others) the triumph of meticulous work, examined in the court of scientific method, over human ego.
Marcia Bartusiak does an excellent job of unpacking the drama of how all of these characters contributed to the current and more humbling understanding of our place in the universe.
February 14, 2023
I got this book because I wanted a biography of Edwin Hubble. This book isn't that, but in many ways, it is more valuable than a strict biography. Instead of extensively treating the life of one man, the book less extensively treats the life of the many men and women who made the contributions that culminated in Hubble's great discoveries.
In that way, the book firmly rejects "great man" history. It repeatedly attacks the notion that Hubble made his galactic and expanding universe discoveries all on his own, in a vacuum. Indeed, this is probably a more nuanced and accurate take on history, especially in the history of science, as science is built on a thousand people making contributions that culminate in one person's grand discovery.
So, instead of a mere biography of Hubble, we get ten to fifteen mini biographies on various astronomers throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bartusiak has a way of writing about these people that makes them feel real, more than just mere human calculators. She also has an amazing ability to simplify their contributions in a way that is easy for someone like me, who has no astronomical training, to understand.
My main criticism of the book is that it isn't something you can start reading and then leave on the shelf for a few weeks. I did that, and by the time I finished the book, I was really struggling to remember some of the finer details and characters of the earlier chapters. However, if you can read this in one large chunk, it is a great reading experience.
In that way, the book firmly rejects "great man" history. It repeatedly attacks the notion that Hubble made his galactic and expanding universe discoveries all on his own, in a vacuum. Indeed, this is probably a more nuanced and accurate take on history, especially in the history of science, as science is built on a thousand people making contributions that culminate in one person's grand discovery.
So, instead of a mere biography of Hubble, we get ten to fifteen mini biographies on various astronomers throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bartusiak has a way of writing about these people that makes them feel real, more than just mere human calculators. She also has an amazing ability to simplify their contributions in a way that is easy for someone like me, who has no astronomical training, to understand.
My main criticism of the book is that it isn't something you can start reading and then leave on the shelf for a few weeks. I did that, and by the time I finished the book, I was really struggling to remember some of the finer details and characters of the earlier chapters. However, if you can read this in one large chunk, it is a great reading experience.
August 19, 2019
The central theme of this book is explaining the the events that led up to the now-prevailing cosmological model known as the Big Bang Theory. I picked it up in order to understand some of the history surrounding the developments in astronomy in the early twentieth century. While I did get that, the book does not read like a history book. Instead, it reads more like a series of intertwined biographical episodes, with each chapter focusing on one or two important figures in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century astronomy.
Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of biographies, so this book was a chore to get through at times. I would have preferred it if this book emphasized the science with biographical content only added in every so often. What little scientific details are found in these pages are so engulfed in biographical language, it is hard to get a clear picture of the progression of the scientific developments. This is further complicated because the stricture of intertwined biographical episodes required Bartusiak to jump around back and forth in time, resulting in a departure from a chronological telling of history. Nevertheless, it was an interesting read.
With that said, if you're interested in understanding the backstories of many important figures in the history of astronomy, this is probably the book for you. But if you want to dive into the details of the scientific developments, this book doesn't have much to offer.
Unfortunately, I'm not the biggest fan of biographies, so this book was a chore to get through at times. I would have preferred it if this book emphasized the science with biographical content only added in every so often. What little scientific details are found in these pages are so engulfed in biographical language, it is hard to get a clear picture of the progression of the scientific developments. This is further complicated because the stricture of intertwined biographical episodes required Bartusiak to jump around back and forth in time, resulting in a departure from a chronological telling of history. Nevertheless, it was an interesting read.
With that said, if you're interested in understanding the backstories of many important figures in the history of astronomy, this is probably the book for you. But if you want to dive into the details of the scientific developments, this book doesn't have much to offer.
June 17, 2017
Bartusiak expertly weaves the tapestry of astronomical players and their ideas together, tying into Hubble's culminating moment and subsequent theory. She not only highlights the science but the personalities of the individuals involved in the "Big Bang" of progress during the early decades of the 20th century. One of the most progressive elements occurred in the development of telescopes themselves, evolving both in size and type to gather more light--fascinating! Anyone interested in astronomy or biographies of significant figur will enjoy this book. Technical without being inaccessible.
Also fascinating are the hypotheses and assumptions on which cosmology rest, one leading to another as further and better exploration is done. While the men chronicled here made immense contributions, their observations are ultimately the outline in a coloring book, waiting for details to further develop the picture. One scientist noted how many and how quickly paradigms were developed, supported, evidence, and rejected. This sounds like an uncertain system on which to build a whole system of belief, despite the amazing discoveries and insights of astronomers, mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers alike.
Also fascinating are the hypotheses and assumptions on which cosmology rest, one leading to another as further and better exploration is done. While the men chronicled here made immense contributions, their observations are ultimately the outline in a coloring book, waiting for details to further develop the picture. One scientist noted how many and how quickly paradigms were developed, supported, evidence, and rejected. This sounds like an uncertain system on which to build a whole system of belief, despite the amazing discoveries and insights of astronomers, mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers alike.
March 1, 2017
A fascinating history about Edwin Hubble's discovery (with the help of quite a few others) that our universe was much larger than we ever imagined, this is a book that grabs you from the beginning and holds you until the end. Much of what we know about our universe now was not so apparent until Hubble's findings were unveiled on January 1, 1925. The impact of that unveiling has reverberated to this day. What is even more incredible is to consider that those of us fortunate enough to reside in or around the Pasadena/Los Angeles area are so close to such an historic site, the Mount Wilson Observatory. Having had the privilege of personally observing through both the 60- and 100-inch telescopes, and having walked among the very site where much of Hubble's discovery was made, I can say that the experiences have been no less than breathtaking. This book managed to put into clear historical perspective, the meaning, not only of the historic findings, but of the historic site, that contributed so much to a knowledge that continues to expand much as we now know our universe does. This is a highly recommended read!
December 11, 2025
The book nicely tells the story of our discovery of our place in the universe – how we went from mapping our own galaxy to the universe beyond – through the work of astronomers such as Slipher, Shapley, Einstein, Hubble, Humason, Lemaître and more. Even though I know the story quite well, it was interesting to get the details of how the story unfolded and the personalities involved and their arguments with each other. The story illustrates how science progresses, and also that scientists are indeed humans, with their own beliefs and idiosyncrasies. As is written in the book: ‘There is more to the advance of science than new observations and new theories,’ historian Norriss Hetherington has noted. ‘Ultimately, people must be persuaded.’
The book is quite rich in detail, and that might not appeal to everyone. But I mostly enjoyed it!
I loved seeing all the historical images I hadn’t seen before, such as Hubble’s hand drawings and log books. I just wish some of them were larger so that it was easier to see the details.
I appreciatedthe extensive list of notes in the back.
The book is quite rich in detail, and that might not appeal to everyone. But I mostly enjoyed it!
I loved seeing all the historical images I hadn’t seen before, such as Hubble’s hand drawings and log books. I just wish some of them were larger so that it was easier to see the details.
I appreciatedthe extensive list of notes in the back.
April 25, 2020
Outstanding!
I've often been confused by the seeming interchangeability of the words Galaxy and Universe. Here is the reason why. Until the 1920's they thought the Milky Way was the whole universe. This book tells the story of the scientific discoveries that changed out view of the universe and our place in it, in 30 short years. Colorful and memorable characters from Percival Lowell and Edwin Hubble to Einstein and Georges Lemaître (the Catholic priest who proposed what later became known as the "Big Bang theory")
This all sounds dry and academic but this book is fun. I enjoyed reading about all theses guys and ladies (especially Henrietta Leavitt who discovered how to judge the distance of a variable star)
here is a view of a world that goes from horse draw coach the atomic bombs is one leap and discovers the universe along the way.
I've often been confused by the seeming interchangeability of the words Galaxy and Universe. Here is the reason why. Until the 1920's they thought the Milky Way was the whole universe. This book tells the story of the scientific discoveries that changed out view of the universe and our place in it, in 30 short years. Colorful and memorable characters from Percival Lowell and Edwin Hubble to Einstein and Georges Lemaître (the Catholic priest who proposed what later became known as the "Big Bang theory")
This all sounds dry and academic but this book is fun. I enjoyed reading about all theses guys and ladies (especially Henrietta Leavitt who discovered how to judge the distance of a variable star)
here is a view of a world that goes from horse draw coach the atomic bombs is one leap and discovers the universe along the way.
August 26, 2019
It was great to hear about the many steps and people involved in the great accomplishments that usually are credited to Hubble and Hubble alone. There is so much more, as always science stands on the discoveries of all the predecessors and no scientist works in a vacuum. This is very well narrated, though the metaphors get a bit stretchy here and there, but it gave me a sense of discovering through each step as if I didn't already know what the final discoveries would be. It's a fun read, thoroughly informative, and inspiring.
April 6, 2023
Είναι ένα απολαυστικό βιβλίο, γραμμένο μέ τρόπο που γοητεύει τον αναγνώστη, τον ταξιδεύει στον κόσμο της γνώσης και των επιστημόνων. Ένα θαυμάσιο ταξίδι, μεταφρασμένο υπέροχα στα ελληνικά, σε μια πολύ όμορφη έκδοση. Αποκτήστε το και αφήστε τη Μπαρτούσακ να σας οδηγήσει. Εγγυημένη η απόλαυση!
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