Accidental Astronomy: How Random Discoveries Shape the Science of Space

by Chris Lintott

A top astronomer reveals why his field depends on luck If you learn about the scientific method, you learn that first we hypothesize about something we’ve experienced, and then we look for more of it. This works well enough—but what if you are interested in studying a heretofore unknown comet or supernova? That is the essential problem of the the most important discoveries happen without notice!      Indeed, as Chris Lintott argues in Accidental Astronomy, luck defines astronomy. Lintott explores the ways in which happenstance shapes how we investigate the sky. To catch a glimpse of a comet, asteroid, or even a sign of alien life, we must be in the right place at the right time. And if we can’t be there, we must have a team of professionals and amateurs, across the globe, ready to spring into action at a moment’s—or a night’s—notice. For any astronomer, regardless of their experience or resources, the first step to discovery is the to stare at the sky and wait.      A celebration of astronomy, stargazing, and cosmic discovery, Accidental Astronomy offers an irresistible window into how luck defines our knowledge of the skies.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Astronomy, Space, Physics, History, Audiobook

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2024

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

From what Google search tells me of Chris Lintott, the author of this book, he has impressive credentials of being the professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford as well as a co-presenter of the BBC's The Sky at Night (which I plan to look up as soon as I finish this review). From what this book tells me, he’s also excited about his field, good at enthusiastically explaining things in easily accesible terms and is quite funny — in a bit of a Dad joke kind of way, with abundance of humorous footnotes, the combination to which I’m unhealthily partial.

“I know two astronomers who use their asteroid’s number as their PIN. Or at least they do until such time as they read this footnote.”

From the title of the book - Accidental Astronomy: How Random Discoveries Shape the Science of Space - I expected the discussion of how accidents and blunders advanced astronomy, but it’s not quite that. It’s really a mishmash of fun Astronomy topics - SETI, posible life on Enceladus, looking for signs of life in the atmosphere of Venus, Oumuamua visitor from interstellar space that may or may not be the sign of alien presence, Hubble telescope, radio telescopes, cosmic microwave background radiation, asteroids - some of which may indeed have been unexpected lucky discoveries and some of which required work and dedication and questioning and failure rather than the Eureka! moment. Regardless of the concept, it’s a very fun book even for those who are a bit familiar with the ideas here already.

“Of course, WETI’s advocates point out that we can’t really know how hyperintelligent aliens, whose civilizations have millennia’s worth of an evolutionary head start on us, will choose to communicate, and suggest keeping an eye out everywhere. A notable collaboration was with a German T-shirt store that offered visitors to their website the option of purchasing a randomly chosen design; WETI monitored the output of the company’s T-shirt generator to see if aliens were trying to communicate with us by altering the apparel of the cool kids in Berlin. The results, Aleks told me, were inconclusive, but regardless of this failure I still think that WETI deserves an Ig Nobel Prize.”

———

“If they’re out there, I suspect they know that we are here. That’s probably true even if our neighbors didn’t manage to catch the most powerful message ever sent into space, which made use of the EISCAT radar in northern Sweden. The radar is one of the leading facilities in studying the Earth’s upper atmosphere, but when it faced a funding crisis a few years ago its scientists realized that they could sell the right to yell into the cosmos to the highest bidder. Quite what any recipients will make of the result, a video advertisement for Doritos, is not clear, but it’s unlikely to be a threat to our continued existence, not least because no instructions were included on how to decode the video. Unless they manage to guess exactly how modern web standards work, aliens will be unaffected by the tremendous power of advertising and spared the arrival of a quest across the galaxy with an insatiable appetite for tasty, salted, triangular snacks.”

I had a lot of fun reading this book. Lintott makes it so accessible and easily readable, and his enthusiasm is contagious. Loved it, and will certainly be on the lookout for more from him.

“Whenever we choose to go somewhere we haven’t been before, to look in new ways even at familiar objects, or carry out novel experiments or make new kinds of observations, the possibility of discovery opens up. Finding phosphine has reignited interest in understanding Venus’s atmosphere, a just reward for an observation that was taken without any real expectation of success, but simply because it could be done. Trusting in chance turns out to be a good idea, even when we turn our telescopes and imagination to the Universe beyond our Solar System and look out at the cosmos.”

4.5 stars, rounding up.

——————

Thanks to NetGalley and Basic Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick, enjoyable read covering a number of recent (and not-so-recent) astronomical discoveries. It served as a good referesher for some, and an introduction for a few others. The author's premise is that, unlike most science, many astronomical discoveries happen by accident. I agree there's an element of chance or discovery that's greater here than it is elsewhere, but the point really just serves to assemble the author's favorite discoveries in the field. That's OK - I enjoyed reading about them. He does go against his own point a couple times when he discusses some of the large, comprehensive sky surveys. That wasn't an issue for me.

[Frank-Intergalactic Bookdragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Knowing that most of the stars that I can see have planets transforms the familiar constellations from abstract patterns to a map of places that we might, one day, visit."

Some interesting information in this novel, Accidental Astronomy itself admits that the premise is a bit weak given all discoveries have been by accident, in the sense that astronomers fuck around and find out. It could have been more focused if it only included discoveries made while researching something unrelated, or maybe this could have been about discoveries we made while searching for aliens as that's a recurring theme. As is, Accidental Astronomy is a bit too loose, becoming an info dump. But I do appreciate most of the info, especially the stuff about aliens.

Also there were waaayyyyy too many footnotes.

[Steve Kimmins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A popular science book taking as its main theme the discovery process, often accidental, in astronomical research.
The author is an Oxford university professor and well known in Nerd Town, UK, as the co-presenter of the monthly BBC astronomy magazine programme, “The Sky At Night”. He gave a talk at my local astronomy club recently on the same topics addressed in his book. It was one of the best popular science talks I’ve attended so I bought the book!

It’s a very easy popular science read, light on jargon (though there’s a thorough Appendix on every space probe, telescope and research process/programme in the book, if required) and with a chatty style. He covers a wide range of astronomical phenomena but, as I mentioned, primarily from the discovery angle. For example, pulsars are now well understood objects, the ultra dense remnants of stars spinning rapidly and sometimes emitting radio signals in our direction. But the author concentrates on their discovery; the unexpected detection of regular ‘beep, beep, beep’ radio signals and the various theories people came up with to explain them, including aliens.

In fact, the alien aspect is surprisingly considered for a number of the other discoveries he covers in the book. Much of the first chapter relates to this and he’s more open to aliens as a potential hypothesis than other active researchers I’ve come across. Not because he’s specially susceptible to this much more unlikely explanation over established physical processes but because modern automated highly sensitive telescopes are producing so much data that there’s now maybe just a chance that something like that could be, just possibly, hidden away in the signals, more so now than there’s ever been. So why not consider it, even if only briefly?
The Vera Rubin survey telescope, probably starting up in 2025, will survey the entire sky repeatedly every three nights (looking for changes is an important aim), with incredible sensitivity. With its 3200 megapixel camera and 8m diameter focusing mirror it’ll produce 30 terabytes of data per night; in two months it’s expected to find more distant supernova than we’ve detected in all previous astronomical research work. This vast quality of data, as with other current survey telescopes, is difficult to examine well even with computerised tools so ‘citizen science’ will play a role, something the author is very familiar with as he’s been the pioneer of such efforts over the last decade or so in other projects. Just maybe in all that data there might be some alien artefact hidden away!

All in all, the book tries to return a sense of wonder to astronomical research. Looking at the “that’s strange..” moment when something new or unexpected is found rather than the “Eureka” moment when the phenomenon is, apparently, properly understood later on.
I’ve gotten a little fed up with science documentaries that try to introduce a wonder factor by using fancy CGI, swelling crescendos of classical music and sexy voiced background commentary. While at the same time rushing through a history of the 13.8 billion year old universe in 45 minutes, with all the loose ends nicely tied up. The author does a far better job here in book format by looking at specific events and the surprise the researchers had, confusion even, when they discovered something unexpected.

One criticism from me is that it is meandering and chatty in style drifting over a range of phenomena which I’m fairly familiar with (Astronomy is a lifelong interest and hobby for me), while I prefer a bit more organisation. I like to know what to expect in a chapter and specific objects in specific chapters! But that relaxed style will probably be a plus for many of you new to what he discusses.
A book which matched the thrill I got from the author’s lecture - 5*.

Note - I read the Kindle edition - other print versions just appearing (though hardback only in the USA it seems).

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent nonfiction book about the ever changing universe and the unexpected discoveries that have emerged over the years that astronomers (professional and amateur) have made by simply observing, using existing technology and new technologies. Final chapter describes the Vera Rubin telescope in the Chilean Atacama desert. Exciting to think about the possible new serendipitous discoveries to come. Recommend this book for anyone interested in the night sky or astronomy.

[AD · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you already know a little about the astronomical world, watched a couple of youtube videos, you’ll highly likely find this book boring.

Also a little note, although the name of the book is our accidental ‘universe’, more than half of the book is about the solar system.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like when professors write popular books; it's like getting to take their class without dry textbooks, exams, or having to pass calculus. This one puts forth the idea that some scientific discoveries are not discovered "scientifically", i.e., starting with a hypothesis, which is proved by a test, which results are then confirmed by being reproduced by others. And many things in astrophysics have been predicted and then proven more-likely-to-be-true, but other things were just stumbled upon. The examples are fun and enlightening, with interesting trivia-style asides. Some that I liked: the prize to be awarded to the first to communicate with beings on another celestial body being given to the Apollo 11 astronauts / the hundred tons of space dust that makes it to Earth's surface, which might end up in your gutters / NASA's clever acronyms (listed at the end) / there are no more visual sky surveys - computers do it all now / the coinage "meteowrongs" (sheep droppings, chocolate left behind) / the Just Wonderful Space Telescope / Grote Reber's mother hanging wash on the dish he built in the backyard / the GPS error reading the longitude while at Greenwich (England) / the Big Dipper group of stars traveling the Milky Way together through time and / the fact that a specialty called astroseismology exists. I felt compelled to look up the Park Forest, Ill., meteorite that bounced into a couple's laundry basket in their basement after smashing through the rest of the house, John Russell's 1795 portrait of the moon in the History of Science Museum in Oxford (this should have been in the book), and the flight through the Hubble Deep Field produced by Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio. My favorite chapter was the Hubble telescope that went into space broken (also the name of the chapter: Staring Into Space). I'm old enough to have been an adult when the image of that field was released, but Lintott explained the awe of it. Because of that, I was able to forgive the worst of Lintott's asterisked footnotes which ranged from the deeply interesting to asides bordering on a Dad Joke.

[Cami · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this audiobook for a couple of reasons. First, the copy that I borrowed from Libby was strangely formatted. Most of the audiobooks that I've borrowed have a directory that allows you to navigate easily between chapters or other clearly demarcated sections of the book. But there was only one section in this audiobook, titled something like "Introduction," which was listed as around 480 minutes long. This was confusing at first then inconvenient as I kept listening, because it meant that I couldn't gauge how long each chapter was, refer to titles and chapter headings, or easily jump back to previous sections.

My second trouble stemmed from the last audiobook that I listened to, which had a very different style of narration, much slower than this one. Chris Lintott is a perfectly fine narrator, and I enjoyed how you could hear the humor in his voice at certain points. But he spoke much faster than the narrator in the last book I listened to, and that, combined with the lack of a directory, made me feel a little overwhelmed while listening to this audiobook. Plus, there was something about Lintott's voice that made it easy to listen to the cadence of his sentences rather than the actual meaning of each word. This audiobook kept me company, in other words, but I wasn't as actively engaged in the material as I would have liked to have been.

What did catch my attention in this book was interesting, although a lot of it I had heard before: the potential for life on Enceladus, for example, and the Fermi paradox. Nevertheless, I wouldn't call this a bad book by any means; I just didn't have the best time with it personally, and a lot of my issues stemmed from the audio version specifically. I would recommend this title to folks interested in astronomy, but I would probably suggest the physical book rather than the audiobook.

[Bryant Macy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and enjoyable read

Accidental Astronomy by Chris Lintott is an engaging and accessible look at how many astronomical discoveries happen by chance. Lintott does a great job showing that science isn’t always a straight line from question to answer—it’s often full of surprises, mistakes, and unexpected turns.

What I appreciated most was how clearly he explains complex ideas without oversimplifying. The stories he shares—from amateur astronomers spotting something odd to professional scientists stumbling onto something new—show how important curiosity and persistence are in science.

The book is well-organized and moves at a good pace. Lintott’s writing is straightforward and often funny, which makes the book easy to follow even if you don’t have a background in astronomy. It’s also refreshing to read a science book that focuses not just on the big discoveries, but on how those discoveries actually happen.

Overall, this is a great read for anyone interested in space, science, or how research works in the real world. It makes astronomy feel approachable and shows that big discoveries can come from unexpected places.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A romp through the astronomical discoveries, mostly from the last 100 years, in which serendipity played a large part. Amateur astronomers will especially appreciate and understand the stories told, but lay persons made find it harder going. They should persist so that they can understand how puny, insignificant, and vain human exploits are in the grand scheme of things.

I couldn't give it 5 stars because it reads more like an academic essay in parts, with overlong and complex sentences littered throughout the text.

Having said that, give it a go - it might make you realise that you should always be peaceful, kind and considerate to others, and to the environment around you if you wish to survive on this planet (warmongers be warned)!

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written, easy to read and pretty informative overview of modern astronomy. The opening chapters did a good job discussing how random discoveries shape the science of space (y'know, the book's subtitle) but as it went along it felt less about randomness and discoveries and more about how we know what we know. The main knock on my book I'd have is that is sometimes felt a bit formless.

But it has good information, even if some of the more science-y talk went over my head at times. It's wild reading about an object from no one knows where that slipped entirely through out solar system several y ears ago. Hey - maybe there's bacteria in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Boyaijan's Star probably wasn't aliens, but dust (pity).

Decent book.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and practical book that will appeal to amateur astronomers. I particularly liked the chapters "The Scout from Really, Really Far Away", "Staring into Space", and "The Oldest Light of All". Also, the author ends the book (written in late 2023 or early 2024) discussing the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, then in the final stages of construction, and how it will transform our view of the universe. As I write this review, just yesterday (June 23, 2025), the first images from the Observatory were released to the public, and they are indeed spectacular.

[Andrea Wenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This inspiring and fun-to-read book explores the role of luck in astronomical discoveries. The most significant breakthroughs often happen unexpectedly, requiring us to be in the right place at the right time. From catching a glimpse of a comet to searching for signs of alien life, astronomers rely on a combination of professional expertise and amateur enthusiasm to seize fleeting opportunities.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Gillian Sutliff]

Again not rating because it is a Basic Book.

Can definitely appreciate but also some of the science is beyond me (big bang chapter I was kinda confused)

He’s also cracking all sorts of jokes in the footnotes (who said the Brits don’t have a sense of humor?)

Feel like I understand more of the tone of our sciency books now (lots of physics)

[Kalyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tone of the book was light and fun. It’s contemporary, and the narrator had a British accent, which I prefer over American accents. The book is nicely organized and contains no unnecessary filler—just pure, sincere storytelling. I enjoyed it and would love to read such books over coffee, at the beach, or on a long flight.

Read this book if contemporary astronomy is your thing.

[Austin Milner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought this was a pretty good book that was entertaining and fun to read. My only real complaints are, sometimes the author gives a little too much history or backstory on a particular subject, and I wish there were more pictures (the author does a good job of describing, but nothing substitutes for a photo). Overall, if you like space, this should be on your list to read.

[Stan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eminently readable, well written book about various topics in astronomy & astrophysics, from the initial thought process/idea and the unexpected results that occurred when the data acquired were examined or other viewpoints were considered.

[Cook Memorial Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 2024 Staff Nonfiction Favorite for Elyas! For readers of Space Oddities by Harry Cliff and Black Hole by Marcia Bartusiak.

Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore...

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written, easy read about some of the weird discoveries in astronomy made completely by accident. Linott's writing style is casual with enough technical detail balanced out with clear narrative and witty footnotes on almost every page. I enjoyed this book immensely.

[Ralph_Boulton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gift, but probably a book that I would have bought for myself
A real romp through disparate astronomic
themes and topics. Entertaining, readable and full of interesting asides.
I found the footnotes too flippant and distracting but this won’t be a detraction for everyone.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bravo

A tour de force! The only bad thing about the book is that it had to end. Great content and wonderful style.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book made me want to become an astronomer.

[Mustafa Abbas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent - this may push me down the hobbyist astronomer path

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highlights of modern astronomy, spiced up with bits of insight into the personality of the people involved, humor, and colorful description.

[Aiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

🤯

Full review on StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/d...

[Steven Beningo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book showing how accidents can lead to major astronomical discoveries!

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and witty with some Douglas Adams like humor thrown in.

[Beverly Hallfrisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me forever to read, but was an easy read where I could read a couple of pages, set it down and rinse and repeat days later.
Enjoyed it. Pretty typical book for the genre/topic.

[Melinda Baustian]

Super interesting

[Niko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for all who are curious about the world of astronomy and the universe