An authoritative primer on the cutting-edge science of planet huntingAlien worlds have long been a staple of science fiction. But today, thanks to modern astronomical instrumentation and the achievements of many enterprising observational astronomers, the existence of planets outside our solar system—also known as exoplanets—has moved into the realm of science fact. With planet hunters finding ever smaller, more Earth-like worlds, our understanding of the cosmos is...

“Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue.”—Carl Sagan, The Denver PostIf you ever daydream about space travel and human space flight—or hope to one day rove the Red Planet alongside Curiosity—then MARS DIRECT will teach you how we can get thereThe human race is at a crossroads. In the coming decades, we will make decisions regarding our human spaceflight program that will lead to one of two familiar futu...

The award-winning science writer "packs a lot of learning into a deceptively light and enjoyable read" exploring the contentious history of the black hole ( New Scientist).For more than half a century, physicists and astronomers engaged in heated dispute over the possibility of black holes in the universe. The strange notion of a space-time abyss from which not even light escapes seemed to confound all logic. Now Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein's U...

What is time? The 5th-century philosopher St Augustine famously said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him.Is time a fourth dimension similar to space or does it flow in some sense? And if it flows, does it make sense to say how fast? Does the future exist? Is time travel possible? Why does time seem to pass in only one direction?These questions and others are among the deepest and most subtle that one can ask, but Introducing Time ...

This book is a simple, non-technical introduction to cosmology, explaining what it is and what cosmologists do. Peter Coles discusses the history of the subject, the development of the Big Bang theory, and more speculative modern issues like quantum cosmology, superstrings, and dark matter. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in ...

The solar system is a complicated but very interesting subject to study. The problem is, school textbooks are so heavy with texts, they become very boring to children. The good news is, workbooks such as this exist. Using a hands-on and picture-dominated approach to learning, a child would have absolute fun learning about the star and the planets. Secure a copy today!

Tannon Bessimer is an amateur astronomer who has discovered an object that is inbound to our solar system. And its getting the world's attention. The final destination is unknown, but if earth is the UFO's target, communication is the key. The object is silent until Tannon becomes the unexpected first contact. Artificial intelligence has been evolving aboard the featureless inbound sphere during its flight between the stars. Now it is preparing to meet a new form of alien life. Tannon figh...

This book is about the history and future of life and the universe, written at a level that any educated lay-person can understand and enjoy. It describes our place in time and space, how we got here and where we are going. It will take you on a journey from the beginning of time to the end of the universe to uncover our origins and reveal our destiny. It will explain how mankind acquired this knowledge starting from the beginning of civilization when the ancient Greeks first began to ask ...

If the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe is just around the corner, what would be the consequences for religion? Would it represent another major conflict between science and religion, even leading to the death of faith? Some would suggest that the discovery of any suggestion of extraterrestrial life would have a greater impact than even the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. It is now over 50 years since the first modern scientific papers were published on the search for extr...

In the twenty-first century, the debate about life on other worlds is quickly changing from the realm of speculation to the domain of hard science. Within a few years, as a consequence of the rapid discovery by astronomers of planets around other stars, astronomers very likely will have discovered clear evidence of life beyond the Earth. Such a discovery of extraterrestrial life will change everything.Knowing the answer as to whether humanity has company in the universe will trigge...

The story of unmanned space exploration, from Viking to todayDreams of Other Worlds describes the unmanned space missions that have opened new windows on distant worlds. Spanning four decades of dramatic advances in astronomy and planetary science, this book tells the story of eleven iconic exploratory missions and how they have fundamentally transformed our scientific and cultural perspectives on the universe and our place in it.The journey begins...

Inevitably, there are times in a nation’s history when its hopes, fears and confidence in its own destiny appear to hinge on the fate of a single person. One of these pivotal moments occurred on the early morning of May 5, 1961, when a 37-year-old test pilot squeezed himself into the confines of the tiny Mercury spacecraft that he had named Freedom 7. On that historic day, U.S. Navy Commander Alan Shepard carried with him the hopes, prayers, and anxieties of a nation as his...