New astronomy and space titles reviewed
Discovering the Universe
Dr Sten Odenwald Arcturus £14.99 HB
Discovering the Universe is designed to be a book for beginners, providing an introduction to different aspects of the Universe via eight chapters that include ‘How to build a Universe’, ‘Stellar evolution’ and ‘Planetary systems’. The layout being half text and half pretty Discover the Milky Way and much more in this pictures makes each book for beginners chapter digestible and quick to read. The language is more informative than mere storytelling. These aspects would make the book perfect to inspire readers about our Universe, except there are a number of issues that crop up upon reading.
There are several errors in Discovering the Universe, some of which might be excused as typos (such as mislabelling the location of the Virgo detector as being in Louisiana rather than Italy and implying that the James Webb Space Telescope launched in October 2021. More importantly is the fact that the book tries to cover too many topics too briefly and without providing the necessary background. This makes certain concepts confusing or misleading. For instance, ‘gravity waves’, a term that the author uses repeatedly, are something very different to ‘gravitational waves’. The few pages on this topic imply that current gravitational wave detections could have come from mergers of compact objects that include a white dwarf, which is not true. If more considered language was used, such misleading information could be avoided. But since this book is meant for beginners, there is a worry that the reader could come away with the wrong ideas. It is also a pity that the author doesn’t highlight contributions to astronomy from women, and repeatedly uses language such as ‘manned’ when describing space exploration.
The second half of the book is much more enjoyable than the first. It describes the Milky Way and Solar System, and as such is filled with beautiful images rather than artist’s impressions. However, many readers may not be able to put Discovering the Universe on the same bookshelf as other beginner astrophysics books that are A4 in size with gorgeous pictures – the books that inspired generations of children and young people when they first began discovering the Universe.
Interview with the author Dr Sten Odenwald
How old is astronomy?
The best evidence we have that our distant ancestors paid attention to the night sky comes from preserved objects such as the Nebra sky disc (c. 1,600 BC) and alignments in Stonehenge (c. 3,000 BC), and it could also include alignments in Göbekli Tepe in Turkey (c. 9,000 BC). Some controversial evidence also includes cave art from 40,000 BC.
We are not that different to our Paleolithic ancestors and we all enjoy looking at the night sky. We have probably done so for 100,000 years!
Are we any closer to discovering why anything exists?
Compared to 100 years ago, we have arrived at an answer in terms of the origin of planets, stars and galaxies. But Big Bang theory and the Standard Model are now begging questions for which experimental verification seems beyond reach. Our best attempts to extend these theories do not tell us why time or space exist at all. We also have no idea how consciousness and the human mind evolved from inanimate matter.
What are your hopes for the future of crewed spaceflight?
I hope in the next 100 years we will invest in nuclear-electric propulsion engines (that we already know how to create), so we can take trips to Mars in under a few weeks. This reduces the risk of radiation poisoning and biological decay that currently plagues long-term occupation of space. We will have colonies on the Moon and Mars. We will have robotic AI-driven probes crawling around on the surfaces and oceans of Europa and Titan. We may even find life!
Sten Odenwald is Director of the STEM Resource Development project at NASA and a science educator
Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction
Raymond T Pierrehumbert Oxford University Press £8.99 PB
Don’t be fooled by the title: this book might be short, but it provides an expert, comprehensive overview rather than a brief introduction.
The ‘Very Short Introduction’ series is designed to give a succinct, accessible introduction to a particular topic written by a variety of experts on their specialist subject, yet in a slim format that could easily fit in a pocket. The Planetary Systems of the title covers both our own Solar System and those across the Universe, and discusses their formation and evolution, the methods and missions through which astronomers have learnt about them and how life might develop in these distant systems in snappy chapters.
This is not necessarily an introduction for total beginners – some familiarity with common physics concepts would be useful to get the most out of it – but it is clear and concise. The writing is not especially floral or embellished, but that’s the point: it is efficient and articulate, and it tells you what you need to know. The author manages to sprint through the material at an impressive rate without sacrificing knowledge or becoming unclear. Diagrams are used effectively to illustrate ideas and a useful list of further reading is included. Brief histories of important telescopes like ALMA and key figures such as Emanuel Swedenborg are also included, giving a context to the technical content.
For those wanting to learn about planetary systems, there could be no better starting point.
Soviets In Space
Colin Turbett Pen & Sword £25 HB
The story of the Space Race between the competing ideologies of the US and the Soviet Union has, until recently, been rather one-sided. While the triumphs and failures of the US took place under the gaze of publicity, the Soviet approach was different.
Rather than concentrating on the technical details, this book primarily tells the stories of people; from ordinary citizens inspired by the advances made by their nation, to those most closely involved in this highly secretive world.
Soviets in Space begins by looking at the USSR, following the devastation of World War Two and how they built on the knowledge developed by Germany to create their own missile and rocket programmes. We are taken on a journey from the first flights, with their early successes and milestones, right through to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The author does a great job in cutting through the propaganda and bias that coloured both sides’ opinion of their rival and details both the triumphs that we heard about and the failures that were kept hidden. Some of those brave pioneers have only been publicly acknowledged since the end of the Cold War.
Some readers may be disappointed by the lack of technical details regarding the launchers and vehicles, but the book lives up to its subtitle, “The people of the USSR and the race to the Moon”.
We are reminded that, despite the political tensions, those involved on either side were gifted and brave.
This Way to the Universe
Michael Dine Viking £20 HB
The two flagship theories of modern physics, general relativity and quantum mechanics, are staggeringly successful in their description of the Universe.
But, frustratingly, science is still far from an all-encompassing ‘theory of everything’. This first foray into popularisation from physicist Michael Dine seeks to show how we have arrived at the current impasse, while extolling the many puzzles and triumphs along the way. After discussing the emergence and development of the two principal theories, the author leads us through contemporary areas of research such as quantum chromodynamics, supersymmetry and string theory. Although primarily concerned with the very small, the implications of particle physics for cosmology, cosmic inflation, the Hubble Constant, dark matter, dark energy, the fate of the Universe, the existence of multiverses and more, are expertly laid bare.
It is not an easy task to take the complexities of theoretical physics, which is deeply ingrained in advanced, sometimes even esoteric mathematics, and translate it into common prose. It is even more difficult to make that prose accessible to the lay enthusiast. The author has done an admirable job and hasn’t shirked away from many of the more difficult and arcane topics, but the reader should be in no doubt that the text is heavy going. This is a book about mathematics, with no mathematics, and one should expect some confusion, re-reading of sections, even a healthy mental bruising, before the last page is turned. But as a comprehensive and uncompromising tour de force of literally all of fundamental physics, there can be few better alternatives.