Book Reviewed: Our Universe: An Astronomer’s Guide by Jo Dunkley

The smorgasbord view This book is targeted to a lay audience without prior scientific knowledge of the cosmos. But it is not structured well and written in a hurried fashion to give an overview of the universe. The book’s narratives are colloquial which focuses on space instead of spacetime. Some Figures that illustrate physical astronomy ideas are referred to cartoons. How can serious ideas be referred to caricatures that depicts humor? Figure 5.7 that tries to illustrate the expansion of the cosmos (space) and the distancing of galaxies is confusing and difficult to comprehend. The second chapter entitled “We are made of Stars” that purports to a discussion of stars and galaxies in the cosmos gravitate to a discussion of inner rocky planets and the gaseous Jupiter and Saturn of the outer solar system. The book lacks photographs of galaxies and stellar clusters in cosmic background. This is not what I expected from a book the universe.