Description
About 400 years ago, Galileo looked to the sky with his perspicillum, or spyglass, and changed how we see the universe around us forever. The seemingly flat moon was suddenly full of craters, the creamy Milky Way was dotted with stars and the large black sky held more than just the Earth and its moon.
Fast forward to the 21st century, when humans have walked on the moon half a dozen times and perspicillums, or telescopes, are several hundred times larger and gather images of phenomena Galileo couldn’t fathom.
Galileo’s New Universe doesn’t just document astronomical advances, it compares and contrasts Galileo’s world with today’s. Learn the consequences Galileo faced when he supported the Copernican Theory of the sun as the center of the universe to current scientific debates such as how the universe works. Find out what’s changed in astronomy and why and what hasn’t evolved since the 17th century.
Co-written by the NASA-scientist author of Astronomy for Dummies and an award-winning astronomy educator, this book offers two centuries’ differing views on the planets, sun, meteors and much more.
About the Author
Dr. Stephen P. Maran spent more than 35 years in NASA, working on the Hubble Space Telescope and other scientific projects and is the press officer for the American Astronomical Society. His 10 previous books include Astronomy for Dummies® and The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia. His awards and honors include the naming of an asteroid for him by the International Astronomical Union, the NASA Medal for Exceptional Achievement, the George Van Biesbroeck Prize of the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Klumpke-Roberts Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.
Laurence Marschall, Ph.D., is the W.K.T. Sahm Professor of Physics at Gettysburg College where he teaches courses in astronomy, physics and science writing. He received his bachelor’s degree at Cornell University and his doctorate at University of Chicago. He writes a regular column on science books of note for Natural History magazine and is a contributing editor of Smithsonian Air and Space. He also contributes annual astronomy updates to the World Book Encyclopedia. He serves as deputy press officer of the American Astronomical Society. In addition to more than 40 articles in professional journals, Marschall has written for publications such as Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, Natural History, Discover, Harper’s, Newsday and the New York Times Book Review.
