The Illustrated Timeline of the Universe: A Crash Course in Words & Pictures

by Richard H. Sanderson, Philip S. Harrington

It all begins with the “Big Bang” and continues through to the recent landing on Mars. Filled with magnificent images and illustrated renditions of the universe’s most significant highlights, this natural history timeline soars through galaxies, nebulae, and solar systems, and tracks human exploration in the starry skies. Follow Earth and the other planets as they cool; the appearance of “modern humans” in Africa; and the creation of technology, from telescopes to satellites. Introductory pages help shed insight on each section, and copious sidebars answer some of the most fascinating questions about a variety of phenomena.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction

128 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published October 28, 2006

Reviews

[Zhelana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't really learn anything new from this book. because it was a really cursory look at the entire history of astronomy which i know from both astronomy and history of science classes that I've taken. But it was totally worth reading this book both for the pictures (most of the space on each page is taken up with pictures) and for the timeline format where they talked about everything relative to year instead of with other pieces of history that sort of go together. So you could see the threads of different stories that you know unfolding over time with respect to each other, and watching how they influenced each other. I'm giving this book 5 stars because I really appreciated their attempts to show different timelines together including color coding by continent. This book is a bit dated already, which of course is very hard to keep up with all of the advances in astronomy that are happening right now, but you have to stop at some point unless you want to make a website instead of a book. So I really appreciated this book and am glad that I was gifted it by an anonymous giver from the holiday wishes community on dreamwidth.

[Jason Freng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting first few chapters on early history of our universe and our understanding of the universe before and after the telescope. The final chapter on manned space flight gets a little into esoterica

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really informative series, i'd buy it if only I could somehow get some more bookshelf space.