Breakthroughs in astronomy seem to be emerging almost as rapidly as the universe itself is expanding. In just the past few years, scores of planets have been discovered, large amounts of ice and possibly liquid water have been found on Mars, dark energy has joined dark matter as a likely chief ingredient of the universe, and we have added more brown dwarfs, microquasars, and magnetars to an already extraordinary cosmic menagerie. With discoveries occurring at meteoric speeds, it’s hard even for professional astronomers–let alone fascinated stargazers–to keep track of all the developments. David Darling’s The Universal Book of Astronomy provides all the history, science, and up-to-the-minute facts you need to explore the skies with authority and with awe.
A perfect complement to Darling’s Complete Book of Spaceflight, The Universal Book of Astronomy provides an alphabetical tour of the universe. More than 3,000 extensively cross-referenced entries span everything from astronomical societies and major observatories to historical biographies of key astronomers, and include a host of individual comets, asteroids, meteorites, moons, planets, constellations, nebulae, and galaxies. Entries include:
- Arches cluster: A group of about 150 hot, young stars crammed within a volume of space roughly one light-year across near the center of the galaxy.
- Cape York meteorite: A huge iron meteorite that landed more than 1,000 years ago in Cape York, West Greenland. Of the three pieces that landed, the Ahnighito chunk weighs 31 tons and is the largest meteorite on display in any museum in the world.
- Castalia: An Earth-crossing and potentially hazardous asteroid that is a member of the Apollo group.
- Crab nebula: The most famous and conspicuous known supernova remnant; it is the centuries-old wreckage of a stellar explosion first noted by Chinese astronomers on July 4, 1054.
- Donati’s comet: Discovered by Giovanni Donati on June 2, 1858, it is one of the brightest and most visible comets of the nineteenth century, last seen on March 4, 1859.
- Fireball: A meteor that is brighter than any planet or star, with an apparent magnitude of —5 or greater.
- Galaxy cannibalism: The swallowing of a smaller galaxy by a much larger one.
- Stephen Hawking: The English theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist famed for his work on black holes and the origin of the universe.
- United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT): A 3.8-m telescope that is the world’s largest dedicated solely to infrared astronomy.
