Product Description

The latest photos from Hubble's recent discoveries, with fascinating new and updated information.

After 17 years, 25,000 astronomical targets and more than 700,000 images, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) continues to return images and data that amaze astronomers. Within the past few months alone, the Hubble has revealed a gold mine of just-formed star systems in the newborn Universe, provided detailed views of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter, and confirmed that monster black holes lurk at the center of galaxies.

This brand new and updated edition features:

• 80 new full-color images
• A new introduction that reveals Hubble's future
• The data behind Pluto's recent demotion to non-planetary status
• Hubble's most important and fascinating new discoveries
• Explanations of how these new discoveries are revising scientific understanding of the Universe.

New photographs reveal astonishing and previously unseen details of what once appeared only as gray blurs or dots on a star map. Examples include the Eagle Nebula and the birth of a star; newly formed stars blowing a cavity in the center of the Small Magellanic Cloud; colliding Antennae galaxies; and a massive galaxy just under assembly.

Hubble transports readers beyond our solar system to galaxies millions -- even billions -- of light years away. These dramatic, unforgettable new images bring into sharp focus the ways in which the Universe is unfolding in new and astonishing ways.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177042 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781554073160
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From Publishers Weekly
To the naked eye, the heavens may look monochrome and still-blue during the day, black at night, dotted with little sparkles of starlight. But the universe as shown to us by the Hubble Space Telescope-as shown extravagantly in the photos in this volume-is full of color, as well as movement and drama. Kerrod, an astronomer and author, explains the heavenly phenomena captured by the HST: the smoky Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra; the birth of stars; Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 headed for a fiery impact with Jupiter. She also provides a history of the use of telescopes in astronomy and of the HST in particular, from its launch in 1990 and the emergency repair of a flawed mirror, to the later servicings of what Kerrod calls "one of the most amazing scientific instruments ever made."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Astronomer Kerrod is not exaggerating when he writes that the Hubble Space Telescope is "one of the most amazing scientific instruments ever made," and no science collection is complete without at least one book devoted to the unprecedented and universe-defining images Hubble has amassed. Kerrod provides an excellent overview of Hubble's accomplishments (along with a history of the evolution of the telescope), thoughtfully organizing the spellbinding images from space, and clearly and avidly explaining exactly which phenomena they depict. One of the most dramatic series showcases the death of a star, a red giant, in which molten matter is shot out into space from a superhot core to form expanding, baroquely chimerical shells. Hubble has "revolutionized" the study of these dynamic "stellar ghosts," just as it has recorded another fascinating, never before seen process, the transformation of dusty protoplanetary disks into planets. As Kerrod classifies galaxies by shape and discusses how difficult it is to spot extrasolar planets, he can't help but express his belief that the universe contains "other planetary systems like our own." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
A helpful perspective of the vast realm astronomers are dealing with. -- Rob Lowman, Los Angeles Daily News 12/17/2003

An intelligently organized book... fascinating and informative, I recommend Hubble for young and older readers alike. -- Olga Stein, Books in Canada 12/2003

Breathtaking images... text is helpful, as jargon-free as a subject like this can be... appropriate for adults and older children. -- Mimi Diamond, Los Angeles Times 11/01/2003

Glorious photographs from the Hubble space telescope... some of the most important taken by the telescope. -- Kim Covert, Canadian Press 12/03/2003

Spectacular images... these are beautiful immensities to contemplate. -- L.K. Hanson, Minneapolis Star Tribune 11/30/2003

The most images published in a single volume... clear concise text explaining the fascinating history of astronomy and... the HST. -- Mercury Magazine [Astronomical Society of the Pacific] 01/2004

Who knew the heavens were this beautiful?... thoroughly accessible primer on 21st-century astronomy... worth the price for the images alone. -- Globe and Mail 12/13/2003

Customer Reviews

Poorly Executed
I just received the book and was fairly disappointed by the overall quality. Except for the cover jacket and the first three double-page photos, the majority of the image reproductions are of poor quality. First, many of the photos look like they were scanned from prints rather than digitally reproduced directly from the original data and show defects like scratches. The photos suffer from a poor selection of dithering pattern used to reproduce the many colors. This gives the overall impression of a grainy photo. Quite a few of the images are displayed at too large a size and have excessive pixellation. A few pages of text were marred with stains or bleed through from the printing process. Finally, about half of the images at the end of the book dealing with the planets are not from Hubble at all. Having seen most of the images in this book in either their native FITS or tif formats I do know what the quality of these should be - and this book ain't it!

The Best Images of the Universe at your Fingertips!!!
+++++

The author, Robin Kerrod, an astronomer and accomplished astronomy writer, states in this book's preface the following:

"This book reveals the wonderful, mysterious, and awesome universe of ours...You don't have to be an astronomer to appreciate the...breathtakingly, hauntingly beautiful [colour] images [or pictures], which chronicle frozen moments in the life of the cosmos [or universe]--from the Martian dust storms to...planetary systems [other than our own]; from the birth pangs of young stars to the death throes of ancient ones; from [a very high rate of star formation] in neighbouring galaxies to catastrophic collisions in remote [galaxies]."

Thus, it is the visually stunning and dramatic images that grace all of the 190 pages of this book (published in October 2003) that make it so remarkable. I counted approximately 300 images. Note that of these, about 25 are non-space pictures. My favourite non-space picture is a cutaway diagram of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) that shows its essential features. Each image or picture is accompanied by an excellent description of what's going on in the picture.

This book's title implies that all the space images have come from the HST (named after the foremost U.S. astronomer Edwin Hubble, 1889-1953). Actually, as the picture credits section reveals, the majority of this book's space images do come from the HST but a small minority of them come from other sources such as Earth-based observatories, artificial satellites (for example, the COsmic Background Explorer or COBE), and space probes (such as Voyager 2).

This book is divided into six chapters that deal respectively with star birth, star death, galaxies, the expanding universe, solar systems, and our solar system's planets. The appropriate pictures are put into each chapter. For example, the first chapter on star birth contains about 35 pictures that deal with star birth.

This is not only a picture book! This book also gives an overview of astronomy. That is, each chapter is accompanied by text that is concise, comprehensive, and well-written. I learned much from the combination of Kerrod's lucid text and the magnificant pictures.

This book also has a seventh section that is divided into two parts. The first part explains details about telescopes in general while the second part discusses details about the HST in particular. Both parts include informative pictures.

What significant space event occurred in 1957? When was the HST put into orbit? The answers to these and other similar questions can be found in the section called "Landmarks in Astronomy." This section lists major astronomical landmarks that occurred between 585 BC and 2010 AD.

Need to find the definition of an astronomical/space/telescope term in a hurry? Then use this book's "Glossary of Terms." Such recent terms as "COSTAR", "proplyd", and "WIMP" are given excellent, concise definitions.

There are two obvious problems I found with this book. First, the text on page 162 is duplicated on page 168. Second, there are no references/notes for the book's text. Some of this text information is very recent and very factual. Thus, it seems to me that this information should be properly referenced. All of the pictures, however, do give credit to their sources.

In conclusion, if you want to learn about the universe and see its glorious wonders, then don't go out and buy an expensive telescope or pay the very large amount to be a tourist on the next Space Shuttle flight. Instead, get this relatively inexpensive book and have the universe at your fingertips!!!

+++++

Good Coffee Table Material
This book is worth a spot on the coffee table (or bookshelf even). It is more than a "pretty face" in that it goes into depth in quite a few areas considered very current research in Astronomy such as MACHOS, WIMPS, and galactic cannibalization (with illustrations, of course). Other than a few glaring mistakes they missed in the editing (like saying the Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies is only 100 light years across - pg. 105) it does a good job. Just keep in mind it is long on great photos and a little brief on some topics. Excellent layout that will please both deep sky explorers and planetary "nuts" alike. Divided into 6 chapters each with its focus on one area (ie. Galaxies, Solar System, Cosmology) and the afterwards about the Hubble Space Telescope history was very interesting and replete with pictures also. What I liked best was how the text with the pictures added rather than detracted from the whole reading experience. The text allowed me to stare at the picture even longer and say "wow" more often when I knew more about what I was looking at.