Hubble's Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images

Hubble's Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images

by Terence Dickinson
Hubble's Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images

Hubble's Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images

by Terence Dickinson

Hardcover(Second Edition, Expanded and Updated)

$39.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Choose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Wednesday, April 3
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Praise for the first edition:
"Superbly well-produced. Any engagement with this 'cosmic portfolio,' from picture gazing to deep reading, is grandly rewarded."
— Booklist

"The book's precise descriptions and captions brilliantly complement the nearly 300 full-color Hubble images.... this is an amazing book.... Outstanding."
— Library Journal

"A treasure map to the majesty of our universe."
— Publishers Weekly

"A reminder that the finest telescope in space might also be the greatest camera ever created."
— Wall Street Journal

The Hubble Space Telescope is now at the apex of its imaging capabilities yet until the publication of Hubble's Universe, no other popular book had presented the latest pictures taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3. For his most recent book, Terence Dickinson selected a breathtaking portfolio of Hubble pictures from a library of more than 700,000 images.

Thanks to Dickinson's familiarity with Hubble's history and discoveries and his access to top Hubble scientists for insight and accuracy, the text includes facts and tidbits not found in any other book. Combined with more than 300 brilliant images, the clear, succinct and illuminating narrative brings to life the fascinating forces at work in the universe.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781770859975
Publisher: Firefly Books, Limited
Publication date: 09/19/2017
Edition description: Second Edition, Expanded and Updated
Pages: 332
Sales rank: 257,226
Product dimensions: 10.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Terence Dickinson, one of Canada's best-loved amateur-astronomy writers, gained renown for unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos. His down-to-earth style made him the award-winning best-selling author of 14 astronomy books, including NightWatch, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, The Universe and Beyond and Hubble's Universe. The cofounder and former editor of SkyNews, Canada's national astronomy magazine, Dickinson was a recipient of the Order of Canada and two honorary doctorates.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: HUBBLE'S UNIVERSE
Chapter 2: HUBBLE'S TOP SCIENCE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Chapter 3: THE MESSAGE OF STARLIGHT
Chapter 4: CRUCIBLES OF CREATION
Chapter 5: STARRY TAPESTRY
Chapter 6: BLAZE OF GLORY
Chapter 7: HUBBLE'S INVISIBLE UNIVERSE
Chapter 8: EMPIRES OF STARS
Chapter 9: NEIGHBOR WORLDS: THE PLANETS
Chapter 10: HUBBLE'S STRANGE UNIVERSE
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
RESOURCES
INDEX

Preface

INTRODUCTION

In addition to being one of the greatest scientific instruments of all time, the Hubble Space Telescope has given humanity a spectacular legacy of beautiful images of the universe. The best of these are displayed—and explained—in this book.

As a teenager in the 1950s, I was captivated by the science fiction of the brilliant visionary Arthur C. Clarke. Browsing the local library, I stumbled upon Clarke's early nonfiction work The Exploration of Space, published in 1951. Half a century later, The New York Times described this classic text as "a seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination that helped usher in the space age."

It was in the pages of Clarke's book that I first encountered the concept of a telescope in orbit around our planet. This telescope would peer at the universe from well above the interference of the Earth's ever turbulent atmosphere, which relentlessly blurs the view in ground-based telescopes and makes stars twinkle. Ahead of his time, Clarke outlined the advantages of an orbiting telescope compared with a telescope that might, at some future point, be installed on the Moon's surface, as had been suggested decades earlier. "Even the Moon's extremely tenuous atmosphere might affect certain delicate observations," he wrote. "[Moreover,] an observatory in space would be able to survey the complete sphere of the sky."

The orbiting scope should even be able to detect planets of nearby stars, enthused Clarke, "something quite out of the question with Earth-based equipment." I couldn't wait! During breaks at my first summer job in the shipping department of a publishing house, I made endless pencil sketches on large sheets of brown paper. I imagined just what the photos from that great eye-in-the-sky would look like—images that would show surface details on the moons of Jupiter, views deep within the core of the globular cluster M13, and so on—until my boss saw what I was up to and cautioned me not to waste any more shipping paper.

Today, the orbiting telescope Clarke envisioned is known as the Hubble Space Telescope, and it has been in service since 1990. That telescope has captured stupendous full-color images that depict the subjects of my crude brown-paper sketches and hundreds more of objects I hadn't yet conjured. What a pleasure it has been to select more than 300 of Hubble's best cosmic portraits for this book. While many of these images have never before appeared in print outside scientific journals and research publications, some were released by the Space Telescope Science Institute as recently as spring 2012. All are accompanied by captions and text that will serve as navigational tools as you undertake this breathtaking journey.

Hubble's Universe is a celebration of the astonishing achievements of a remarkable discovery machine. Enjoy the excursion!

Terence Dickinson

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews