New astronomy and space titles reviewed
The Sky is for Everyone
Edited by Virginia Trimble and David A Weintraub Princeton University Press
£25 HB
This book will make you both very angry and amazingly awestruck all at the same time. The energy and enthusiasm in the editors’ prelude alone is infectious. This is a book with an agenda: to allow women – many of whom have battled decades of institutional sexism – to tell the stories of their lives and work. This stands out from other ‘women in science’ books, partly due to the sheer number of women included and partly because of the breadth of experiences it incorporates, all told in the women’s own words.
The book begins with a prelude by editors Trimble and Weintraub setting out their intent – to tell the lives of women in astronomy across the world – and explaining some of the problems they encountered putting the book together. Chapter one gives short biographies of a large number of historical women in science from 1600 onwards, alongside some pretty shocking facts and dates about some of the barriers women in astronomy have faced. There then follows the stories of 37 female astronomers, told in their own words.
This book really makes you think, not only about what these women have achieved, but also about how ridiculous the gender disparity is, and how utterly indefensible the actions of so many male astronomers have been over the years. How, I wondered as I read this, did so many male academics justify offering work and then retracting it, backtracking on pay and introducing arbitrary rules just to make these women’s lives more difficult? Interestingly, many of the women featured married fellow astronomers and this comes across as a very likely reason for them sticking it out when so many other women must surely have been put off and left.
One problem, always true of collections of anecdotal experience, is how much we can generalise. From this collection we can only really say what these particular women, who agreed to contribute, experienced. But it is an amazing starting point that will, I hope, inspire many future research projects. An excellent book for anyone interested in astronomy and anyone who ever asked: why have there been so few women?
★★★★★
Emily Winterburn is a science historian and author of The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel
Interview with the editor Virginia Trimble
What barriers have women astronomers faced throughout history?
At many times and places, women were not welcome at universities and couldn’t prepare for serious astronomical careers. When they finally did have access only to first (bachelors’) degrees, a position as an observatory computer was about as high as they could aim. Families didn’t always want their women out earning a living and perhaps didn’t want them spending nights alone at a telescope or, worse, with male colleagues.
Who were your astronomy role models?
I’m the only child of a chemist father and retired title-insurance secretary mother, and I once thought I would just grow up, marry and support a family. The first woman astronomer I encountered – professor of the first astronomy class I took at UCLA – was Maude Makemson. She was also the first astronomy professor of Vera Cooper (later Rubin). I didn’t set out to be an astronomer. I sort of fell into the territory, which I have never – well hardly ever (to quote the Captain of the Pinafore) – regretted.
Do restrictions remain for women astronomers today?
Demographic research suggests there is still implicit bias against women that affects their chances of graduate admissions, acceptance of papers, funding of proposals, employability, receipt of awards and so forth. Many battles have been won in developed and/or Europeanised countries, but in some countries even access to intermediate-level education for women is greatly restricted.
Virginia Trimble is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine
Soviets in Space
Colin Burgess Reaktion
£25 HB
Decades ago, space theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote: “I have no difficulty imagining the first man overcoming Earth’s gravity and rushing into space. He is a Russian, a citizen of the Soviet Union.” Twenty-five years after his death, Tsiolkovsky’s prophesy came to pass when Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth on 12 April 1961. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics made a significant contribution to human space exploration, but we rarely hear the full breadth of its involvement.
Soviets in Space is a delightful short read that captures every moment between the ‘Rocket Enterprise’ of 1680 Moscow, up to 2021 and the 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s pioneering orbit.
The book is packed with facts about lesser-known missions: for instance, Laika was the first dog to orbit Earth, in 1957, but six years earlier, pooches Tsygan (Gypsy) and Dezik were the first animals in space. And while Burgess lists every cosmonaut, spacecraft, space station, engineer and mission plan, the real treat is his ability to conjure the world of space exploration in the Soviet Union at that time. Nicely paced with an easy style, the book leaves the reader with a better appreciation of the depth of work achieved by the Soviet space sector, including rocket engineer Sergei Korolev’s pivotal role and how his untimely death marked the end of the Cold War Space Race. This is a great resource: one for both personal and public library shelves.
★★★★★
Niamh Shaw is a space writer and a science communicator
Star Mentor
Daniel E Barth Springer
£24.99 PB
“On the day you decide to become a telescope owner… you become a teacher too”, writes Daniel E Barth in his introduction, and this is so true. As such, this book an absolute must-have for anybody involved with astronomy teaching or outreach at any level.
Star Mentor is packed with fantastic activities that can be used as teaching aids. Some involve the reader making models for demonstrations, but many are designed as group activities for the classroom or an outreach event, all using low-cost and readily available materials. There are also in-depth astronomy observation and sketching activities and, in the final chapters, a beginner’s guide to telescopes and binoculars.
Each section begins with background information and facts, followed by detailed activity instructions. The sections end with an opportunity to reflect on the learning outcomes and include suggested follow-up activities. These vary from simple demonstrations, such as ‘What Shape is the Moon?’ to demonstrating complex theories such as ‘Planetary Rings and the Roche Limit’.
There are sections that would benefit from additional photos to show the finished models, such as ‘Exploring Craters in Plaster’ and ‘How Big is the Moon’s Orbit?’, but overall this book is a truly fantastic resource that will benefit every outreach astronomer, as well as any lone astronomers wanting to improve their observational skills.
★★★★★
Mary McIntyre is an astronomy writer, speaker and educator
The Search for Life on Mars
Elizabeth Howell, Nicholas Booth Arcade Publishing
£12.99 PB
Robotic rovers have been exploring Mars since before Christopher Eccleston was announced as Doctor Who. With new images and findings mounting up constantly, think of this book as a catch-up, assembled from a quarter of a century of Mars exploration interviews.
The authors have eyes for detail: we learn how the Curiosity rover and InSight lander see the same clouds from differing angles, being only 400km apart; how the tracks of Curiosity’s wheels spell out ‘JPL’ in Morse code; how the Perseverance rover carried a Martian meteorite from Earth back to Mars for instrument calibration.
The chronology is confusing, however, rather like that of ancient Mars itself. The InSight and Maven missions are covered before Curiosity, then come early Mariner probes and Viking landers, progressing across a 21-year lander gap to microwaveoven-sized Sojourner commencing Mars’s rover era, before moving on to NASA’s latest, Perseverance. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers are largely neglected.
While coverage of ESA’s ExoMars rover is sadly outdated now that the war in Ukraine has stranded it on Earth, the plans for the Mars Sample Return mission are eyebrow-raising: a pinpoint landing by NASA within 7.5km of the samplegathering Perseverance, where ESA’s Fetch rover will drive faster than any rover before it to retrieve the samples while outracing freezing winter (as it lacks nuclear heaters). Then the sample container will slam into Earth with no parachute. It might be simpler just to send people…
This book has the right ingredients, but its meandering structure means it is not the clear-cut ‘detective story’ it promises.
★★★★★
Sean Blair writes for the European Space Agency website