Beyond Earth: Mapping the Universe - Hardcover

National Geographic Society

4.17

6 ratings by Goodreads

9780792264675: Beyond Earth: Mapping the Universe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792264673 ISBN 13: 9780792264675

Publisher: National Geographic, 2002

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Features the insights, wisdom, and observations on the art and science of cosmological thinking from some of today's leaders in the sciences, arts, and humanities.

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A historical survey of cosmology, this appealing set of essays benefits from the authors' diverse careers. Some are historians of science, and some are astrophysicists, lending a split personality to the overall volume, yet that does not detract from its appeal. One author specializes in "applied historical astronomy" as he matches Chinese records of supernovae with their visible remnants. A seemingly dull exegesis on Copernicus' De revolutionibus brightens when Harvard historian Owen Gingrich dangles a true-crime angle--his effort led him to pilfered copies of the work. More conventionally, an author explains the serendipity that often characterizes discovery: looking to measure the velocity of the Milky Way's luminous edge, Vera Rubin describes how she instead found the initial clues to the existence of "dark" matter, whose nature is one of the great contemporary mysteries. Jammed with pictures, this browser's delight is augmented by its tightened focus on instrumentation as it improved from the naked eye to today's sensitive detectors. Highly library friendly. Gilbert Taylor
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