Galaxy

Author: Ken Croswell
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1999-10-01
Features: The Galaxy takes us on a journey through the Milky Way, offering a fascinating tour of modern astronomy, while providing clues about the origin of the universe through our understanding of the galaxy. The Milky Way—the home of Earth, the Sun, and countless other stars—has long been a mysterious object in human eyes. Australians believed the Milky Way to be smoke from campfires in the sky, while Native American warriors saw it as a path to their final resting place. Later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, astronomers pointed their telescopes at the Milky Way, attempting to determine its shape and map the stars within it. However, as astronomer Ken Croswell points out in The Galaxy, the most outstanding scientific discoveries about the galaxy we call home were completed in the last 40 years. Croswell, with his exceptional ability to clarify complex concepts, presents the current ideas about the galaxy to readers in a clear and detailed manner. For example, he explains that the Milky Way was likely formed by the violent collision of many early galaxies; many elements on Earth, including the iron and oxygen that flow through our bodies, were ejected into space by exploding supernovae; there may be a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way with a mass millions of times that of the Sun; and the oldest stars in the galaxy store elements produced by the Big Bang, making them "fossils" of the universe's earliest period. Croswell also introduces the distinguished astronomers who made significant contributions to these discoveries and recounts the fierce debates that advanced our understanding of the Milky Way. Finally, perhaps most importantly, he shows us how specific knowledge about the Milky Way gives us profound insights into the origin of the entire universe.