The Wild but Dazzling Universe
Even in the 21st century, there are places on the planet where few people tread. Lonely mountain tops, desert interiors, Arctic ice floes, or the vast ice sheets of Antarctica. The Kerguelen Islands of Indian Ocean and Spitsbergen of Norway are good examples. Earth is a very tiny place in our universe that is made of spacetime fabric with matter and energy. They come in various forms; planets, stars, galaxies, and black holes. The observable universe is estimated to be 93 billion light-years in diameter.
Solar system is a well-studied system and a good deal of information is available here. The Sun and eight planets with about 170 known moons and countless asteroids, some with their own satellites; comets and other icy bodies; and vast reaches of highly tenuous gas and dust known as Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. There is also other information; physical and chemical characteristics of exoplanets, galaxies, nebulas and galactic clusters. There are many colored pictures to admire the wonders of our universe.
One of the surprises is that the Pillars of Creation taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula is prominently displayed on the cover but not documented in the book. This is about 6,500–7,000 light years from Earth and it is also known by other names like Messier 16 or M16, NGC 6611, the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire.
This is a good reference book that prepares you for exploring the universe. It provides a comprehensive review of cosmic structures in the observable universe. Lonely Planet offers a good guide for readers interested in astronomy.
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