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Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour

Neil deGrasse Tyson (Goodreads Author),

Michael A. Strauss

J. Richard Gott III

4.27 · Rating details · 1,538 ratings · 173 reviews

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all--from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, ...more

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Hardcover, 480 pages

Published September 29th 2016 by Princeton University Press

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Oct 24, 2016 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, history-and-biography, well-i-think-its-funny, parody-homage, received-free-copy

Let's look at this book. What can we say about it? It's got nearly 500 pages, it's nicely produced, it's got some famous names on the cover. The blurb says it's based on a popular introductory astronomy course the authors gave at Princeton. Well, that tells us something, but it doesn't tell us what we want to know. Is it any good? So let's stop for a moment and think about how we might answer the question. It doesn't really make any sense unless we have something to compare it with. What other ...more

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Nov 04, 2018 Max rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physics

Tyson, Strauss and Gott team up to give us a tutorial on our universe based on an introductory course they taught at Princeton for non-science students. The authors are more than descriptive in their discussions of the stars, planets, galaxies, other objects and phenomena. Using mostly straightforward algebra they show how things such as orbit trajectories, gravitational forces, luminosity and energy levels are calculated. I appreciate their care in explaining the meaning of the various Greek Tyson, Strauss and Gott team up to give us a tutorial on our universe based on an introductory course they taught at Princeton for non-science students. The authors are more than descriptive in their discussions of the stars, planets, galaxies, other objects and phenomena. Using mostly straightforward algebra they show how things such as orbit trajectories, gravitational forces, luminosity and energy levels are calculated. I appreciate their care in explaining the meaning of the various Greek letters they put into their equations. As someone who doesn’t always quickly distinguish a v from a ν (the Greek letter Nu), this was very helpful. This book is more demanding than Tyson’s and Goldsmith’s book Origins which I had read previously and covers much of the same ground. But if you want to understand, at least a little, how scientists figure these things out, this denser version is well worth it. Actually the book still has a lot to offer even if you skim over the equations.

Tyson takes us from the very big to the very small. How big is a billion. He puts it into hamburgers. McDonald’s quit reporting at 99 billion, but Tyson lays out 100 billion end to end. His are four inches wide and two inches high. First put one next to the other and go around the earth 216 times, then with the leftovers stack them to the moon and back to earth again. We eat a lot of burgers. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has 300 billion stars. The universe we can see has 100 billion galaxies and ten sextillion stars and the universe we can’t see is likely much, much bigger. Tyson does similar explanations of the very small which goes just as incredibly far in the opposite direction.

To understand stars we need to understand how they generate energy. This leads to particle physics and quantum mechanics so the relevant topics in these areas are also covered. Scientists can tell what stars and gases in the universe are composed of based on their spectra. The spectra tell us what wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are being absorbed and emitted. Different atoms have different spectra, thus we know if we are witnessing hydrogen, helium or some other atom or molecule. The distribution of elements in stars or their debris and their temperatures tell us a lot about their structure and life cycle. Thus the scientists piece together the ongoing celestial process of star generation, decay and death. But the authors don’t leave it there. They go to the structure of the atom to show why and how light waves are absorbed and emitted to create spectral signatures.

Along the way the authors cover all the hot topics: black holes, the big bang, dark energy and dark matter, eternal inflation, the multiverse and the fate of the one we live in. They even try to get us to understand special and general relativity. They introduce us to string theory and ten-dimensional space-time and explore the possibilities for time travel. There is something for everyone. The book itself is very nicely done with many illustrations, charts graphs and pictures printed on good quality paper. Recommended for those who enjoy popular physics books as well as the general reader who wants a crash course in astrophysics and isn’t put off by equations. ...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Carlos rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction-btr

Wow, what a read, to be honest this has been the be longest it has taken me to read a nonfiction book (I started it before the date I checked in Goodreads) , also I have to recognize that this book is beyond my capabilities to properly review , all I will say is that this is not an introductory book, this is a very complex and well detailed book about everything encompassing astrophysics. If you are into the subject you will love it , but if you want to read a book about astrophysics because you ...more

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Nov 17, 2016 muthuvel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite, astronomy-physics, arcs-giveaway

Yeah! Welcome to the Universe!

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The work about the cosmos done by a combo package of renowned astrophysicists.

Richard J Gott, a person widely famous for his terrific works on time travel research and applied solution of various longevity predictions using Copernican Principles.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the well known astrophysicists in the planet and also as a widely served public science educator.

Michael Strauss, an uber explorer in the field of extra galactic astronomy and ...more

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Dec 07, 2016 Brian Clegg rated it liked it

One of the first things a writer is encouraged to do is to be aware of his or her audience. I think it's interesting that this book, like many written by physicists, mostly has comments on the back from physicists, because the book is written as if they were the audience. Not as serious reading - more the equivalent of a heavy literary fiction reader indulging in a bit of Agatha Christie for light relief. The trouble is that this isn't the audience it's supposed to be for. To make things worse, One of the first things a writer is encouraged to do is to be aware of his or her audience. I think it's interesting that this book, like many written by physicists, mostly has comments on the back from physicists, because the book is written as if they were the audience. Not as serious reading - more the equivalent of a heavy literary fiction reader indulging in a bit of Agatha Christie for light relief. The trouble is that this isn't the audience it's supposed to be for. To make things worse, each of the three authors pitches their writing differently.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is his usual ebullient self, using a style that mixes the shouty with a touch of condescension. However, his content is more detailed than usual with a strong smattering of equations - enough that this sometimes feels like an introductory textbook. The opening has something of the manic 'space is really big' approach of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but then settles down to a quick rattle through '3,000 years of astronomy.' However, to ensure it's not too interesting he also tells us that he is not going to include details of people and discoveries. To be fair, this may be because Tyson has been slated in the past for poor history of science.

Despite the style, Tyson manages a reasonable balance of general observation and introduction of physical concepts. There is one odd chapter, about the demotion of Pluto from a planet which doesn't fit with the rest at all - it seems a bit of a vanity project for Tyson - but the rest fits together quite well. We've already come across Michael Strauss in this first section on 'stars, planets and life' as he interposes a few chapters amongst Tyson's, but he comes into his own in the second, shortest section, 'galaxies'. This is probably the least technical section of the book, being mostly descriptive. In a dry, but generally accessible fashion, Strauss takes us from the interstellar medium to quasars and supermassive black holes.

Finally we get to Richard Gott's section, 'Einstein and the Universe'. This the heaviest section of a literally heavy book (1.35 kilograms - get the Kindle version), but in some ways the most satisfying. Gott is not a great explainer, and does perpetuate the myth that Wheeler named the black hole (a common enough misunderstanding 10 years ago, but generally done away with by now), however he gives us a brisk introduction to special and general relativity (John Gribbin would not be impressed that he refers to 'the theory of special relativity'), going on to the implications of these theories for astrophysics and even time travel. Reading Gott is hard work, but it is rewarding. However, this section feels like a completely different book - the first two parts very much fit with the subtitle, 'an astrophysical tour', but the final part is very much physics with astrophysical applications.

Overall, there's a lot going on in this book, with more equations and working out than I've ever seen in a book from a mainstream publisher aimed at a popular science audience. I think it will work well for a segment of that audience - high school students who are already specialising in physics, and regular popular science physics readers who want more depth (provided they can get through the Tyson section). But the book's inconsistent approach and heavy content won't be for everyone. ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 MystaryPi rated it it was amazing

IT WAS LIKE REALLY REALLY GOOD.
I WANT TO BECOME AN ASTROPHYSICIST, AND THIS WAS *ZE* BOOK!!
IT COMPLETELY TRIGGERED MY INNER HUNGER AND I ALMOST ATE THE BOOK - THIS IS A *MUST* READ!!! A *MUST*!!!

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Dec 02, 2016 Leah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, 2016

From 2+2 to Superstring Theory and beyond...

The preface explains that this book arises from a course run by the three authors at Princeton University – a course on the universe for non-science majors; indeed, for students who perhaps had never taken a science course before. My knowledge of science is pretty basic and my maths is, if anything, even dodgier. So although the idea of the book intrigued me, I feared it might be way over my head.

The book is divided into three sections, each written From 2+2 to Superstring Theory and beyond...

The preface explains that this book arises from a course run by the three authors at Princeton University – a course on the universe for non-science majors; indeed, for students who perhaps had never taken a science course before. My knowledge of science is pretty basic and my maths is, if anything, even dodgier. So although the idea of the book intrigued me, I feared it might be way over my head.

The book is divided into three sections, each written mainly by one of the authors with the occasional contribution from one of the others. The first section is Stars, Planets and Life with Tyson as the main author and a couple of chapters from Strauss. It starts brilliantly for the beginner, with an introduction to the very simplest stuff, like how long it takes for the Earth to revolve on its axis. At this early stage, Tyson assumes no prior knowledge and lays down some terminological groundwork for the more difficult stuff to come later. For example, he explains exactly what an Astronomical Unit is and that it is abbreviated to AU. He's very funny, so that these chapters are entertaining as well as informative.

Each section takes the history of scientific discovery as a template for explaining what scientists know about the universe today and how they know it. All through the book, the authors are careful to credit those who came before, even when subsequent discoveries may have proved them wrong in some aspect. They show how even disproven theories contributed to the advances made by later scientists. There are a couple of chapters in this first section that are very heavy on maths and, truthfully, lost me so badly that I wondered whether there was much point in continuing. But I decided to struggle on and happily discovered that most of the book is perfectly accessible even to those of us whose eyes glaze over at any equation more complex than 2+2=4. On the other hand, there's loads of very well explained maths in there for anyone whose mind works that way, or who wants to get a feel for whether they would like to study astrophysics at higher levels perhaps.

Tyson takes us through how scientists learned to measure distances between stars, how they work out their composition and age, and goes into considerable depth on the lifecycles of stars. It's fascinating stuff and made me realise how often popular science books just tell the reader something and expect us to accept it. Not this one – every statement is backed up with detail of how we know these things and what they mean in the broader context of the universe. Throughout, the book is superbly illustrated, not just with pretty pictures (though most of them are) but with clear, beautifully designed and explained diagrams and charts that are hugely helpful in understanding the text and visualising things like size comparisons. This section finishes with a chapter on the search for planets that could support life, explaining exactly what scientists are looking for and why, and how they're going about it.

Strauss takes over as the main author for the second section on Galaxies. He takes the reader through the history of how our own galaxy was first mapped and then the discoveries that led to scientists realising that the Milky Way is only a tiny part of the universe. This section has some fantastic images from the various exploratory missions like Hubble, but the really great thing is that Strauss explains in detail what we're actually seeing – how to interpret the images rather than just admiring them. He then goes on to explain the discovery that (almost) all galaxies are moving away from each other, proving that the universe is expanding and enabling scientists to estimate its age and speculate as to its future. There is a fair amount of maths again in this section, but I found it easy to ignore for the most part while still grasping the concepts Strauss describes.

The final section is by Richard Gott and takes us from Einstein's relativity back to the Big Bang and beyond. I hold my hands up – it's at Einstein that my brain always closes down and I find myself overwhelmed with an urgent desire to giggle, somewhat hysterically. However, Gott actually explained the whole E = mc2 thing well enough for me to more or less grasp, plus for the first time I now kinda understand why nuclear bombs work (not sure of the usefulness of that knowledge, but you never know when it might come in handy). His explanation of black holes and spaghettification is both humorous and clear.

He then takes us through all the stuff that sound more like Star Trek plots than science (to my limited mind) – cosmic strings, wormholes, time travel, superstring theory, inflation, etc. While I'll never fully grasp this stuff and retain a large degree of cynicism about a lot of it, Gott's explanations are great, and hugely enhanced by some of the best and clearest diagrams I've come across, including a spectacular six-page spread in full colour showing Gott's own map of the universe. He finishes with some speculation about the beginnings of the universe and even what may have come before the Big Bang, and shows how these (crazy-sounding) ideas arise out of the most recent science, while making very clear which bits have been confirmed by observation missions and which haven't yet. Fascinating stuff! His final plea is for Earth to look quickly at colonising Mars to increase our species' chances of longterm survival.

This is a great book, managing to be both hugely informative and entertaining – undoubtedly the best and most comprehensive of its kind that I've come across. It seems to me it is indeed suitable for a beginner so long as s/he has an enquiring mind and either the ability to understand the maths or the willingness to skim over those bits that are maths-heavy. Highly recommended, but do get the hardback rather than the Kindle – it's beautifully designed and produced, and the illustrations are an essential aid to understanding the text.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Princeton University Press.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com ...more

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Sep 08, 2017 Jafar rated it it was amazing

This is probably the best pop-physics book that I've read. A great summary of modern astrophysics (and physics in general) plus a lot of good history.

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Dec 28, 2016 Matt rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, cosmology

This book is an overview of modern cosmology, with explanations of things ranging from Newtonian physics to the Big Bang to string theory and the slow death of the universe. It is basically a distillation of the ideas the authors presented in an entry-level general course at Princeton. Much of it is familiar territory, but there are also in-depth explanations that are simultaneously challenging and accessible.

The ideas and concepts discussed are interesting, but the explanations are often ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 Dan Graser rated it it was amazing

This gorgeous introduction to several areas of physics and cosmology is perhaps the best of its kind to be published if there are even comparable works (in terms of scope, not subject matter). Richard Gott, Michael Strauss, and Neil deGrasse Tyson are all very engaging and informative writers and even though they each write their own individual chapters the book has a very even read to it, with Tyson perhaps being the most engaging of the three. You will leave this book with firmer grasp as to ...more

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Jan 16, 2017 Armen Grigoryan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: space

If you want to widen your imagination of the universe then you should read this mind-blowing book

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Feb 21, 2018 Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, science, space-travel-and-other-worlds, all-time-faves, loan, 2017-faves, ha-mount-tbr-challenge, 2018-faves

I’m always a fan of science books, and was equal part hesitant and excited when a friend of mine loaned me this book and told me I HAD to read it. Excited in hopes of discovering something new, apprehensive because I’ve read A LOT of science books over the years and when a book is called ‘Welcome to the Universe’, it leads me to believe it will be kind of a Universe 101 class. This ended up being correct. A great book for anyone who is looking into the science of our universe that has no ...more

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Feb 19, 2018 Menglong Youk rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-star, nonfiction, audiobook, science, physics, astronomy-cosmology

Welcome to the Universe is one of the best astrophysics books I've read so far. Not only it includes many equations more than many other science books, but it also gives readers a thorough explanations from the history to the frontiers of astrophysics. Most of the topics are familiar to me, but the last part on anthropic principle is quite impressive. I came across the concepts of the principle before, but the scenario to which it is applied is new to me, and that's exciting.

I'm looking forward ...more

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Dec 16, 2016 Helen Marquis rated it really liked it

A great book. This takes the really complex subject of astrophysics and turns into something anyone can appreciate and in a lot of cases, actually understand! The writing is superb - really engaging and takes us from a world that people once thought was flat, to the outer reaches of the cosmos! I'd say that this makes a great companion to "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, as it's equally mind-bending and mind-expanding! Recommended!

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Jan 10, 2017 Peter (Pete) Mcloughlin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1960-to-1989, astronomy, 1890-1959, mathematics, nature, general-science, general-history, physics, complexity, technology

This is a fairly good guide covers the important ideas in astronomy from earth's rotation, Heliocentrism, Newton's laws, planets, Star life cycle and burning, galaxies, black holes, Quasars, Big Bang, Cosmic Expansion, Inflation etc. Covers the main points. I have read much of this before but for someone new to the topic it is as good a place as any to pick up these ideas.

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Apr 13, 2017 Meg (fairy.bookmother) rated it really liked it

Some of this stuff went way over my head, but it was interesting! And definitely better read in sections as each chapter is essentially a lecture!

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Nov 07, 2016 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

“As a scientist, you must embrace the inconstancy of knowledge. You learn to love the questions themselves.”

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Sep 08, 2017 Kim rated it really liked it

This book covers a wide variety of topics around the core notion of astrophysics. Tyson, Strauss, and Gott each take chapters in turn and cover everything from gravity to photons to the infinite universe to why Pluto is no longer counted as a planet. (This last duplicates information already covered in Tyson'sThe Pluto Files.)

Unlike many popular books on science,Welcome to the Universe is brave enough to walk readers through the actual equations that helped develop our understanding of the ...more

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Aug 08, 2017 Jamie rated it liked it

Shelves: science

There was a lot of math to show how discoveries were made. I don't need multiple pages explaining the evolution of an equation, but would rather be told how things were related, and move on to the discussion of the idea. It probably seems childish to complain about the amount of math in a book on astrophysics, but I found it distracting and unnecessary for a book oriented toward the layperson.

/It was my understanding there would be no math

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May 23, 2018 Liz rated it liked it

Shelves: unfinished, non-fiction, astronomy-astrophysics

5/23/18 I don't know if I'm just jaded but I'm starting to feel like all the astronomy I read keeps telling me the same facts and not wowing me with new ones. I'm already part of the Universe, where are the intermediate leaves?
2.5

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Apr 26, 2017 Lenny Ankireddi rated it it was amazing

True to the title, it is for the most part, an Astrophysical tour that takes you across solar systems, galaxies, quasars, black holes and other massive entities in the universe. However, it also deals a little bit with fundamental particles, their nature and interaction and the underlying physics that leads to the behavior of the infinitesimally small and the unimaginably large. Having read many books over the past year from Lawrence Krauss, Sean Carroll, Stephen Hawking, Max Tegmark and various True to the title, it is for the most part, an Astrophysical tour that takes you across solar systems, galaxies, quasars, black holes and other massive entities in the universe. However, it also deals a little bit with fundamental particles, their nature and interaction and the underlying physics that leads to the behavior of the infinitesimally small and the unimaginably large. Having read many books over the past year from Lawrence Krauss, Sean Carroll, Stephen Hawking, Max Tegmark and various other focused on similar topics, I was not so sure how much new knowledge I would gain from reading this one. I was pleasantly surprised that while it was enlightening to gather a different perspective on these topics from the likes of Neil Tyson and J. Richard Gott, this book also makes a very concerted attempt, at being more educational and trying to explain complex things in simpler ways, to those that are not as mathematically adept as it would take to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

It is simultaneously humbling and invigorating to realize how much there is to know that we do not know about the universe and at the same time being able to marvel how much , we an intelligent species, have been able to divine about the the 13.8 billion years of existence as we know it in the meager few last centuries we have spent working on these problems. The book builds up from small concepts that everyone knows and understands to bigger ones that you start to get a better appreciation for to really large hairy ones that you will consign to a second reading to get a better handle of. It is also replete with profound thought on various subjects as it attempts to construct understanding of complex constructs through thought experiments and analogies.

You shall not come away from a reading of this book, with a well-rounded understanding of everything there is to know about the universe. You will however gain a fair deal of understanding of how much there is to know that we do not know and how well we do know those things that we do. It establishes with more certitude through the derivation of some truths, some of those concepts that we have come to accept at their face value, by virtue of their having emanated from what we consider as greater minds than our own. It makes those constructs more relatable because we have followed the thought processes in the minds of those greats that led them to those conclusions, that we, through our own machinations, and as does so often happen with science, have inevitably arrived at ourselves. A great read for the enthusiasts and a definite second read for the dilettantes. ...more

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May 05, 2018 Alison rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

Reading this book was a bit nerve-wracking for me: my relationship with physics has been a tumultuous one over the years, involving a lot of feeling somewhat stupid. However, deGrasse Tyson's nice bite-sized Astrophysics for People in a Hurry was such an easy, interesting read that I got a burst of enthusiasm and decided to try something a bit deeper, with actual, y'know, equations and stuff. So I bought this.
I was immediately too terrified to open it. See, Amazon will do you a refund if you Reading this book was a bit nerve-wracking for me: my relationship with physics has been a tumultuous one over the years, involving a lot of feeling somewhat stupid. However, deGrasse Tyson's nice bite-sized Astrophysics for People in a Hurry was such an easy, interesting read that I got a burst of enthusiasm and decided to try something a bit deeper, with actual, y'know, equations and stuff. So I bought this.
I was immediately too terrified to open it. See, Amazon will do you a refund if you change your mind before opening a book, but once you've opened it, I think it is all yours. And it looked so very, very long. And y'know, equations.
Eventually, I did a deal with myself. Take it slow, read alongside some easy novels, tackle it only in my precious early morning reading time when I am alert and thinking. And I started. deGrasse Tyson eases you into it, chatting merrily about numbers and how to imagine them, and I slowly exhaled. This book is written by excellent educators, and it shows. Concepts are clearly introduced, Tyson teaches you to read formula as a way of expressing relationships, something I realised I had never done, always seeing them a problem-solving tool rather than the language they are. The first three-quarters of the book took me solidly deeper into astrophysics, with barely anything I felt the need to cross-check. The last quarter, when we hit relativity and the curved nature of spacetime, got a bit harder. This is partly because it is hard, and partly because while the book recovers lots of high school physics, it doesn't discuss magnetism at much depth, and these concepts come in very handy to follow the more detailed work. Gott isn't quite the educational wizz of Tyson either, and his mad enthusiasm for time travel fiction was more distracting than enlightening at times: although his use of examples was wonderful. Having said this, the book didn't lose me, it just slowed me down a bit. I also had to switch off the monochrome kindle to see the diagrams properly in colour, and found myself talking things through with the advanced-maths-degree person in the household.
In the end, this was a deeply satisfying read. I feel like I have much more solid understanding of everything from the Big Bang, through to multiverses and why physicists believe in them, and what time might be, really. I would unhesitatingly recommend this, and am toying with buying it for my fifteen-year-old niece. ...more

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Jan 16, 2018 Suncerae rated it really liked it

Based on the introductory astronomy course co-taught by the authors, Welcome to the Universe is a one-volume summary of modern astronomy, from our solar system and beyond—including planets, stars, galaxies, and black holes.

I've read a lot of popular science books, and this one stands apart. I find it's content entertaining, approachable, and scientific, extremely broad in scope, but detailed enough to keep my interest. The history of astronomy and its contributors represent a significant portion ...more

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Mar 21, 2017 Claudia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, audiobook, astrophysics

This was such an entertaining and interesting book, I greatly enjoyed reading it. With Neil deGrasse Tyson, J. Richard Gott and Michael A. Strauss you not only get three of today's heavyweights in astrophysics as authors, but also three people who write interestingly, with humour and great passion about their subject.
The book aims to adress the interested layman, and while I would certainly call myself that and have read many books on the subject, I do have to say: it was still waaaay over my ...more

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Jan 11, 2017 Mac rated it really liked it

To say I read all of Welcome to the Universe would be inaccurate. To say I understood all of what I read would be misleading. To say I thoroughly enjoyed the book would be true.

Welcome to the Universe is an entertaining, enlightening, challenging book full of fascinating information about the universe. The book is divided into three parts each tackled primarily by one of the three authors: Tyson's Part I. Stars, Planets, and Life. Strauss's Part II. Galaxies. And Gott's Part III. Einstein and ...more

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Mar 05, 2017 Noah rated it it was amazing

Welcome to the Universe is a comprehensive guide into Astrophysics. It is a very well written book that is very factual, yet includes an occasional joke; making the book more enjoyable. Welcome to the Universe covers many territories that range all the way from the physics of time travel and wormholes to the interstellar medium and life on other planets. This is a book not for people looking for an easy read, as there are explanations involving physical formulae and other such things. The book ...more

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Dec 16, 2017 Tyler Horken rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Everything I was looking for. How orbits work, life cycles of stars, the Big Bang, scale of the universe, relativity, etc. All there and covered fairly accessibly but probably quite a bit more than most everyday joes with a garden variety interest in space are looking for. It gets progressively more difficult to grasp the concepts in each chapter, and by the end I was pretty well lost, but in a way that makes me want to keep at it - you can tell there are some mind blowing epiphanies in there, ...more

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May 14, 2018 Nathan Robillard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. Personally, I think that this book is much better than the newer one that Neil Tyson wrote. This one goes more in depth with some of the topics. This book is much more advanced and I find it to be more interesting. Every time I read a book of his I find myself learning more and more each time. This book is very good for people who enjoy astrophysics, and why the universe does the things it does.

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May 23, 2018 Ramon van Dam rated it really liked it

A very impressive work about astrophysics that is both broad and comprehensible. The examples given by the three authors are all very relevant and the math (which plays a huge role in several chapters) is explained clearly. Highly recommended as a companion to widely known books such as A Brief History of Time.

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Aug 04, 2017 Ali Schultz rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, 2017

Very good. I learned quite a lot and have developed a renewed sense of fawning excitement about all that has been discovered and is yet to be discovered in our universe. Michael Strauss was definitely the strongest and clearest of the contributors, but it was excellent in general.

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About Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson

261,418 followers

Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.

Tyson's professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.

Tyson's professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile.

In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.

In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the Moon, Mars, and Beyond commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget.

In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. He is a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson's eight books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS-NOVA 4-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson serves as on-camera host. The program premiered on September 28 and 29, 2004. And beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appears as the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA's spinoff program NOVA ScienceNow, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.

Tyson's latest two books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto's planetary status.

Tyson is the recipient of nine honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid 13123 Tyson. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive by People Magazine in 2000.

Tyson is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium. Tyson lives in New York City with his wife and two children. ...more