Review by Choice Review
Written by two nonspecialists, this book reads like a breathless press release for the Hubble Space Telescope. Wilkie and Rosselli attempt to cover almost every topic in astronomy, and an uncritical reader might be left with the incorrect impression that the spacecraft has revolutionized our understanding of all of them. There are a number of errors in fact and concept. Auroral displays on Jupiter are said to be caused by "magnetically charged" particles. A red dwarf is described as being "one of the smallest stars in our galaxy," but in fact white dwarfs and neutron stars are much smaller. The important concept of luminosity is never explained and is mistakenly used interchangeably with the term brightness. It is stated that astronomers "have long since abandoned taking pictures using photographic film," which is far from true. Carolyn Collins Petersen and John C. Brandt's two books, Hubble Vision (CH, Mar'96) and Hubble Vision: Further Adventures with the Hubble Space Telescope (2nd ed., 1998), contain better reproductions of the images and are written in a clearer, more engaging style by writers more familiar with both astronomy and the human side of the development and operation of the Hubble Space Telescope. Not for academic libraries. T. Barker; Wheaton College (MA)
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
If it isn't already "the most famous photograph ever taken by [the] Hubble" Space Telescope--as Wilkie and Rosselli suggest--the Hubble's portrait of pillars of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, with new stars coming to life some 7,000 years ago, will surely be the most familiar Hubble photo once this season's remarkable astronomy books reach the shelves. The image graces the front dust jackets of Other Worlds and Visions of Heaven, is inset on the back dust jacket of Magnificent Universe, and is featured and discussed in those books and in Unfolding Our Universe. Former Astronomy magazine editor Burnham's focus is too narrow to include that Hubble picture. But Great Comets, too, is lavishly illustrated, with images of great comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, taken by both amateur and professional astrophotographers during the comets' 1996 and 1997 flybys. Burnham celebrates the great comets and describes new knowledge their study has provided about the composition of the universe. He discusses the Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp passages in detail and considers past and planned scientific missions to study comets, as well as the cultural impact of comets through the ages. We are now, Burnham suggests, "in the curious position of discarding a former superstition while keeping a wary eye on Earth's neighborhood." Burnham's final chapter provides print and Web resources on comets. Nicolson's Unfolding Our Universe is the most academic of these featured books: although it includes plenty of fascinating deep-space photographs, it also offers dozens of diagrams and charts that clarify astronomical basics. Nicolson's explanations are sometimes a bit dry, but beginning astronomy buffs will relish his discussions of, for example, how various types of telescopes work and the physics of star formation. Three brief appendixes summarize useful information on measurement, the solar system, and the brightest and nearest stars. The Hubble Space Telescope is, in a sense, the center of Wilkie and Rosselli's Visions of Heaven: their narrative includes the story of how Hubble was lifted into space and how its inadequately focused instruments were mended. When images from other sources are included, the authors' major intent is to demonstrate how Hubble has improved scientists' understanding of what's going on "out there." In other respects, this British volume by a physicist and a journalist adopts the same objective as Croswell and Trefil: to use these astonishing pictures to illustrate current scientific knowledge about planets, nebulae, and galaxies, and about distant places and distant times. Lack of an index is their volume's one weakness. The big dogs in the battle for astronomy shelf space (and, no doubt, coffee-table space) are Croswell and Trefil, award-winning science writers known for enabling nonspecialists to grasp complex subjects. Trefil, a George Mason University physics professor, opens Other Worlds with a helpful analogy: he visualizes the universe as a huge matryoshka doll, with our entire solar system in the two smallest dolls and five more layers of "dolls" beyond the known universe. This concentric image serves Trefil well as he examines the birth of the solar system and then its inner and outer planets. He closes with a discussion of the universe beyond our solar system--"The Great Beyond." Croswell, author of Planet Quest (1997), also moves outward from our solar system to stars, galaxies, and the universe itself, but well over half the book focuses on stars and galaxies. Thus, readers will find thorough explanations of star spots and star clusters, the event horizon, and galactic empires. Like Trefil, he includes images from a number of sources; like Trefil, Wilkie and Rosselli, and Nicolson, Croswell closes with a thoughtful discussion of the cosmological questions the study of astronomy inevitably raises. A glossary and suggested further reading are appended, along with five tables of data on our neighboring planets, moons, stars, and local group galaxies. --Mary Carroll
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
