Take a look through the lens and discover the beauty and science of the magnificent night sky - and beyond!

This stunningly-illustrated space book is split into eight sections that cover every aspect of astronomy. Learn about the history of discoveries in the field and astronomical phenomena, from the earliest human civilizations to the present day, and then take a lavish visual tour of the Solar System, complete with the most spectacular photographs of the planets.

A magnificent month-by-month guide to the night sky, with profiles of all 88 constellations, over 100 star charts covering both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and an almanac of astronomical events over the next decade, Astronomy: A Visual Guide will help you to navigate your way around the night sky, and locate stars, galaxies, and other objects.

Soar into the pages of this spectacular space book to reveal:

• All 88 constellations with over 100 star charts and a guide to the latest space-observing equipment.
• Groundbreaking discoveries and the most awe-inspiring images of the universe.
• Written by Ian Ridpath, the editor of Norton's Star Atlas.
• Includes a 10-year calendar of celestial events such as eclipses and comet appearances.

Also featuring no-nonsense advice on how to observe the skies using the naked eye, binoculars, and telescopes, Astronomy: A Visual Guide is the perfect guide for keen amateur astronomers, as well as a great reference book for the whole family.

Award-winning University of Oxford researcher Dr Becky Smethurst charts five hundred years of scientific breakthroughs in astronomy and astrophysics.

Right now, you are orbiting a black hole.

The Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun orbits the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive black hole, the strangest and most misunderstood phenomenon in the galaxy.

In this cosmic tale of discovery, Dr Becky Smethurst takes us from the earliest observations of the universe and the collapse of massive stars, to the iconic first photographs of a black hole and her own published findings.

A cosmic tale of discovery, Becky explains why black holes aren’t really ‘black’, that you never ever want to be ‘spaghettified’, how black holes are more like sofa cushions than hoovers and why, beyond the event horizon, the future is a direction in space rather than in time. Told with humour and wisdom, this captivating book describes the secrets behind the most profound questions about our universe, all hidden inside black holes.

A brilliant takedown and exposé of the great con job of the twenty-first century—the metaverse, crypto, space travel, transhumanism—being sold by four billionaires (Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, Elon Musk), leading to the degeneration and bankruptcy of our society.

At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme—the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism—is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms.

In The End of Reality¸ Jonathan Taplin provides perceptive insight into the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen (“The Four”) —and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be funneled into the dystopian ventures of "The Four," the benefits of which will accrue to billionaires, exacerbate these disturbing trends.

The End of Reality is both scathing critique and reform agenda that replaces the warped worldview of "The Four" with a vision of regenerative economics that seeks to build a sustainable society with healthy growth and full employment.

Moving to Mars may sound like science fiction but the truth is that today, scant decades since our first space missions, humanity is on the verge of becoming multiplanetary. SpaceX is building a Starship transport system; China successfully demonstrated crop growth on the Moon; and, in a space mining milestone, Japan's recent asteroid missions have returned samples to Earth.

Adriana Marais has dedicated her life to preparing for extraplanetary settlement, considering not just the scientific and technological possibilities but also the ethical responsibilities of our species as we explore new frontiers. In 2019, she launched the Proudly Human: Off-World Project, a series of extreme habitation experiments investigating the capabilities necessary for life beyond our home planet.

In this extraordinary era of rapid technological development, Marais explores the scientific and ethical questions that stands at the heart of scientific endeavour: How did we get here - and where are we going next?

The Universal Force conveys the excitement of science and nature's mysteries. It describes gravitation as seen by examining the achievements of those great scientists who have struggled with the seemingly simple facts and managed to extract some truth about the nature of gravity, its origins, and its effects. Gravity is intimately tied up with motion, and therefore with time and space, and is responsible for planetary systems, the evolution of stars and the existence of black holes and the very beginning of the Universe. It is the universal force and to look at gravity is to look at the deepest aspects of nature.
The historical context from Aristotle's teleology through Galileo's conflict with the Church, to Newton's law, and Einstein's curved space, displays the evolution of the science of gravity as one of the greatest and most fascinating human achievements.
Contrary to popular opinion, all important science can be understood by anyone, with or without a scientific background! This book shows that the beauty and mysteries of science can be shared with everyone.

Einstein's general theory of relativity is introduced in this advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level textbook. Topics include special relativity, in the formalism of Minkowski's four-dimensional space-time, the principle of equivalence, Riemannian geometry and tensor analysis, Einstein field equation, as well as many modern cosmological subjects, from primordial inflation and cosmic microwave anisotropy to the dark energy that propels an accelerating universe.
The author presents the subject with an emphasis on physical examples and simple applications without the full tensor apparatus. The reader first learns how to describe curved spacetime. At this mathematically more accessible level, the reader can already study the many interesting phenomena such as gravitational lensing, precession of Mercury's perihelion, black holes, and cosmology. The full tensor formulation is presented later, when the Einstein equation is solved for a few symmetric cases. Many modern topics in cosmology are discussed in this book: from inflation, cosmic microwave anisotropy to the "dark energy" that propels an accelerating universe.
Mathematical accessibility, together with the various pedagogical devices (e.g., worked-out solutions of chapter-end problems), make it practical for interested readers to use the book to study general relativity and cosmology on their own.

General Relativity is a beautiful geometric theory, simple in its mathematical formulation but leading to numerous consequences with striking physical interpretations: gravitational waves, black holes, cosmological models, and so on. This introductory textbook is written for mathematics students interested in physics and physics students interested in exact mathematical formulations (or for anyone with a scientific mind who is curious to know more of the world we live in), recent remarkable experimental and observational results which confirm the theory are clearly described and no specialised physics knowledge is required. The mathematical level of Part A is aimed at undergraduate students and could be the basis for a course on General Relativity. Part B is more advanced, but still does not require sophisticated mathematics. Based on Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat's more advanced text, General Relativity and the Einstein Equations, the aim of this book is to give with precision, but as simply as possible, the foundations and main consequences of General Relativity. The first five chapters from General Relativity and the Einstein Equations have been updated with new sections and chapters on black holes, gravitational waves, singularities, and the Reissner-Nordstroem and interior Schwarzchild solutions. The rigour behind this book will provide readers with the perfect preparation to follow the great mathematical progress in the actual development, as well as the ability to model, the latest astrophysical and cosmological observations. The book presents basic General Relativity and provides a basis for understanding and using the fundamental theory.

For thousands of years, one scientific puzzle has fascinated and perplexed the greatest philosophers, mathematicians, physicists, and psychologists - why do the moon and sun appear so much larger on the horizon than when high up in the sky? Now, two leading psychologists have provided a compelling account of this fascinating illusion. Taking us through the history, the characters involved, the attempts made to explain the illusion, through to modern day studies of visual perception, the book is the most comprehensive account of this puzzle so far. This is a work which will remain, for some time to come, the definitive book on a mystery that has fascinated and tested the greatest minds throughout the ages. Accessibly written, it will appeal to readers of popular science, along with those within the disciplines of psychology, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy, from undergraduate upwards.

The emphasis of Planetary Atmospheres is on comparative aspects of planetary atmospheres, generally meaning comparison with the Earth, including atmospheric composition, thermal structure, cloud properties, dynamics, weather and climate, and aeronomy. The goal is to look for common processes at work under different boundary conditions in order to reach a fundamental understanding of the physics of atmospheres. As part of a general Physics course, the material is chosen to emphasise certain aspects that will be of broad topical interest:
- evolutionary processes, setting the Earth in its context as a planet and a member of the Solar System
- the properties of atmospheres that affect the climate near the surface of each planet
- measurement techniques and models, where the same experimental and theoretical physics is applied under different conditions to investigate and explain atmospheric behaviour.
These might be thought of as the astronomical, environmental, and technical sides of the discipline respectively.
The book covers the basic physics of planetary atmospheres in a single text for students or anyone interested in this area of science. The approach is the same as in the author's previous book Elementary Climate Physics: an overview, followed by more detailed discussion of key topics arranged by physical phenomenon and not planet by planet as usually found in this field. There is an emphasis on acquiring and interpreting measurements, and the basic physics of instruments and models, with key definitions and some historical background in footnotes and in the glossary at the end of the book.

Understand the phases of the moon, learn to navigate by the North Star and discover how to travel through space and time from your own window in this book which uncovers how humankind has its history woven into the constellations that light up our skies. Written by NASA science writer Noelia González and fully illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows, this is the perfect introduction to the night sky for families everywhere.

This book contains a selection of refereed papers presented at the 6 Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment held in Florence, Italy on March 15-18, 1999.
Over the last two decades, passive microwave remote sensing has made considerable progress, and has achieved significant results in the study of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Many years of observations with ground-based and satellite-borne sensors have made an important contribution to improving our knowledge of many geophysical processes of the Earth's environment and of global changes. The evolution in microwave radiometers aboard satellites has increased steadily over recent years. At the same time, many investigations have been carried out both to improve the algorithms for the retrieval of geophysical parameters and to develop new technologies.
The book is divided into four main sections: three of these are devoted to the observation of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, and the fourth, to future missions and new technologies. The first section deals with the study of sea and land surfaces, and reports recent advances in remote sensing of ocean wind, sea ice, soil moisture and vegetation biomass, including electromagnetic modelling and the assimilation of radiometric data in models of land surface processes. The following two sections are devoted to the measurement of atmospheric quantities which are of fundamental importance in climatology and meteorology, and, since they influence radio-wave propagation, they also impact on several other fields, including geodesy, navigational satellite and radioastronomy. The last section presents an overview of new technologies and plansfor future missions.

Building on a long tradition of effective pedagogy and comprehensive coverage, The Cosmic Perspective, Seventh Edition provides a thoroughly engaging and up-to-date introduction to astronomy for non-science majors. The text provides a wealth of features that enhance student skill-building, including new group work exercises that engage students in active learning, helping them retain concepts longer and build communication skills for the future. The Seventh Edition has also been fully updated to include the latest astronomical observations, results from recent space missions, and new theoretical developments that inform our understanding of the early universe. This text is also available in two volumes, which can be purchased separately: * The Cosmic Perspective: The Solar System, Seventh Edition (includes Chapters 1-13, 24) * The Cosmic Perspective: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology, Seventh Edition (includes Chapters 1-6, S2-S4, 14-24)

Ultimate quick reference guide for any earthling's questions about our solar system, whether a student, lover of all things space, or stargazing and night sky enthusiasts. Beautifully designed with images from NASA and expertly written by science author, consultant and professor John Roch, PhD who includes more facts per page than any book or website. This 6 page laminated guide will last a lifetime so you will always know what the surface temperature of Mercury is, how many known satellites Neptune has, what the Kuiper Belt is, or what other dwarf planets there are besides Pluto? 6-page laminated guide includes: Solar System Breakdown Essential Terms Space Missions Listed for Each Object & Planet Below Sun Mercury Venus Earth Moon Mars Asteroid Belt Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Kuiper Belt Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris More Solar System Facts

From the winner of the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize, a thrilling and thought-provoking account of the rise and fall of humankind.

For the first time in over ten millennia, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. The global population is forecast to begin declining in the second half of this century, and in 10,000 years’ time, our species will likely be extinct.

In The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, Henry Gee shows how we arrived at this crucial moment in our history, beginning his story deep in the palaeolithic past and charting our dramatic rise from one species of human among many – teetering on the edge of extinction for more than a hundred millennia – to the most dominant animal to ever live on Earth.

But rapid climate change, a stagnating global economy, falling birth rates and an unexplainable decline in average human sperm count are combining to make our chances for longevity increasingly slim. There could be a way forward, but the launch window is narrow.

Gee argues that unless Homo sapiens establishes successful colonies in space within the next two centuries, our species is likely to stay earthbound and will have vanished entirely within another 10,000 years, bringing the seven-million-year story of the human lineage to an end.

Drawing on a dazzling array of the latest scientific research, Gee tells the extraordinary story of humanity with characteristic warmth and wit, and suggests how our exceptional species might avoid its tragic fate.

Stonehenge was not an observatory used by druidical astronomer-priests. It was, instead, a monument in which the moon and the sun and the dead were joined together. In this book the author explains how people in the British Isles, four thousand or more years ago, identified life and death with the cycle of midwinter and midsummer and with the risings and settings of the sun and moon. This is why so many megalithic monuments have astronomical sightlines built into them. This book describes how astronomical customs developed in the British Isles. Unlike other works about 'megalithic astronomy' technical explanations about azimuths and declinations are kept to their simplest. The emphasis here is upon people rather than pertrubations and eclipses.

Beat the boredom and take time out from screens with this pocket-sized book packed with facts, photos and fantastic spots for hours of fun! Kids will have fun collecting points in the night sky with more than 140 things to find. From stars and constellations to the moon and eclipses, they'll learn all about our galaxy and the sky at night. And once they've scored 1000 points, super-spotters can claim their official i-SPY certificate and badge. With more than 30 i-SPY books to collect, there's something for everyone! For even more fun outdoors check out i-SPY Nature (ISBN 9780008386467).