Don't Know Much About Space

Don't Know Much About

by Kenneth C. Davis, Sergio Ruzzier (Illustrator)

Using the popular style that has won millions of readers, best-selling author Kenneth C. Davis blasts off for the stars! With an entertaining question-and-answer format, amusing anecdotes, and fact-filled sidebars, he sets his sights on the mysteries of space. Humorous illustrations, along with NASA photographs, add fun and excitement to this fascinating and comprehensive book. Davis takes you back to the time when the Babylonians first charted the stars -- over three thousand years ago! You'll uncover amazing facts about the planets and stars, read how people were once convinced that Earth was the center of the universe, and discover how the experience of moonwalking astronauts may someday lead us to become pioneers on other planets. This book is the perfect companion to Don't Know Much About® The Universe -- and all the other books in the New York Times best-selling Don't Know Much About® series.

Genres: Science, Space, Astronomy, Nonfiction, Science Nature

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2001

About the author

Kenneth C. Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of the Don't Know Much About® series of books and audios for adults and children. Don't Know Much About® History, the first title in the series, became a New York Times bestseller in 1991 and remained on the paperback list for 35 consecutive weeks. It has since been revised several times and now has more than 1.6 million copies in print. The 30th anniversary edition of the book was published with a new preface, "From an Era of Broken Trust to an Era of Broken Democracy."

Davis is, according to Publishers Weekly, "a go-to guy for historical insight and analysis."

AMERICA'S HIDDEN HISTORY also became a New York Times bestseller. A NATION RISING also uses dramatic narratives to tell the "stories your textbooks left out." His book, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR (May 5, 2015) was called "searing" analysis by Publishers Weekly.

Kenneth C. Davis’s success aptly makes the case that Americans don’t hate history, just the dull version they slept through in class. Davis’s approach is to refresh us on the subjects we should have learned in school. He does it by busting myths, setting the record straight, and always remembering that fun is not a four-word letter word.

His IN THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF SLAVERY, FOUR PRESIDENTS, AND FIVE BLACK LIVES looks at the lives of five people enslaved by four of America's most famous Presidents and the role of slavery in American history and the presidency. In May 2018, MORE DEADLY THAN WAR: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War was published.

STRONGMAN: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy was published by Holt. It was named among the best books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews and the Washington Post.

In November 2022 GREAT SHORT BOOKS: A Year of Reading--Briefly was published by SCribner. A compendium of 58 great short works Davis read during the pandemic lock down, it is a joyous celebration of reading.

Coming in October 2024 is THE WORLD IN BOOKS: 52 WORKS OF GREAT SHORT NONFICTION. It is an accessible and comprehensive guide to some of the most influential and important works of nonfiction, from the earliest days of writing to contemporary times. Each entry includes information about the writers behind these consequential books and the time in which they lived.

Reviews

[Mao Mao · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the don't know much about series. It has questions and answers. The questions are simple, but the answers are complicated. This book reveals a lot of info that I had never known. Some stars look like they are twins, but they are not binary stars! It's just like three dots almost on the same line, but the dots are very far apart. After the Hubble telescope was sent out, some scientists discovered that the main mirror had a tiny but serious error. A fraction of the width of a hair! It caused blurry vision. So in 1993, some astronauts flew to the ISS and repaired the telescope. But why do the scientists want two extra pieces of space trash after 2020------Voyager 1 and 2? Even though the spacecrafts are useful for finding aliens, after 2020, there will be two pieces of trash in space if the spacecrafts don't return.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

fine primer.

[Budd Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for learning/teaching space science and having not taken any astronomy courses in college.