How Far Is Up?: The Men Who Measured the Universe

by Mary Gribbin, Mary Gribbin

Award-winners Mary and John Gribbin unravel the history of modern astronomy. How far is it to the edge of the Universe? It is less than eighty years since astronomers began to realise that even the distances to the stars are tiny steps on a truly cosmic scale, and that the Milky Way Galaxy in which we live is just one island in an immense ocean of space. John and Mary Gribbin tell the story of how the cosmic distance scale was measured, the personalities involved and the increasingly sophisticated instruments they used. Astronomers can now study light from objects so distant that it has taken ten billion years on its journey across space to us, travelling all the time at a speed of 300,000 kilometres per that's how far up is!

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2003

About the author

Mary Gribbin works in education in East Sussex and writes books about science for children. She won The TES Junior Information Book Award for her book Time and the Universe, and has written a series of books for Ladybird. She has also worked with John Gribbin on Being Human, Ice Age, and major biographies of Richard Feynman and Robert FitzRoy, as well as the "in 90 minutes" series of mini-biographies of Galileo, Newton, Halley, Faraday, Darwin, Mendel, Curie, and Einstein.

She has written for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including She, Cosmopolitan, and the Guardian, has a degree in psychology and has worked for twenty years with children of all ages from 4 to 16. In an earlier incarnation, she was at one time the youngest County Councillor in England. Her other interests include floristry, antiques, and interior design.

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

'The Men Who Measured the Universe' is the story of astronomy\astrophysics through the 20th century.
The men, with a few exceptions, were from the great U.S. of A. Our understanding of our place in the scheme of things began at the top of various mountains during the first half of last century. The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and the beasts built at the top of Mounts Wilson and Palomar.
Amazing,now, to think that at the start of this journey, we perceived 'everything' as the Milky Way.
Here is documented how earthlings wiped the sleep from their eyes and sussed the big in big bang.