Showing titles in Astronomy & Space Science

Bestselling author of Death Is Fiction, Fear an Illusion, Stephen Hawley Martin, writes that of the two worldviews prevalent today, neither coincides with what is now known by a handful of individuals to be true. In this book he reveals for the first time a clear picture of reality based on the findings of consciousness researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the outcomes of a series of quantum mechanics experiments that have been verified in laboratories across the globe. It’s no wonder, he says, that most people sleepwalk through life. They have no idea who and ...

Buckle up for a joy ride through physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. Drawing on conversations with hundreds of the world's top scientists and her own work as an award-winning science writer, Natalie Angier does the impossible: she makes science fascinating and seriously fun, even for those of us who, in Angier's words, "still can't tell the difference between a proton, a photon, and a moron".

Stung by the pioneering space successes of the Soviet Union - in particular, Gagarin being the first man in space - the United States gathered the best of its engineers and set itself the goal of reaching the moon within a decade. In an expanded second edition of How Apollo Flew to the Moon, David Woods tells the exciting story of how the resulting Apollo flights were conducted by following a virtual flight to the moon and its exploration of the surface.

In the Shadow of the Moon tells the story of the most exciting and challenging years in spaceflight, with two superpowers engaged in a titanic struggle to land one of their own people on the moon. Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as rarely seen Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure.

In August 1968 NASA made a bold decision: In just 16 weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken.

Our understanding of the Universe is about to transform at all levels, from the Planck scale to the vast reaches of space. Recent scientific discoveries show that the information that upholds all of our modern technologies is exactly the same as the universal in-formation that underpins, pervades, and is all we call physical reality. Exploring how information is more fundamental than energy, matter, space, or time, Jude Currivan examines the latest research across many fields of study and many scales of existence to show how our Universe is in-formed and holographically manifested.

With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight. Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science.

What's going on in the sky? Astronomy For Dummies takes you through the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and all the way to the outer reaches of the universe. You'll have stars in your eyes as you discover the basics of skywatching, planets, asteroids, black holes, and dark matter. Ponder the deep questions that keep humanity guessing, like, is there anybody out there? Two NASA-award-winning astronomers take you on a tour of outer space that will fascinate you—and, if you're a student, help you through your intro astronomy course.

In The Elephant in the Universe, Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also suggestive: they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature.

Sara Seager has always been in love with the stars: so many lights in the sky, so much possibility. Now a pioneering planetary scientist, she searches for exoplanets - especially that distant, elusive world that sustains life. But with the unexpected death of Seager’s husband, the purpose of her own life becomes hard for her to see. Suddenly, at 40, she is a widow and the single mother of two young boys. For the first time, she feels alone in the universe.

From blanket fairs to night kings, curfews to crime, At Day's Close is an intriguing and captivating investigation into the night. Until now, this rich and complex universe in which we spend nearly half of our lives was a world long-lost to historians. Here, Ekirch explores how the night was lived in the past, through travel accounts, memoirs, letters, folklore, poems, court records and coroner's reports. More than this, it is a passionate argument in the case for less artificial light in an increasingly bright world.

In this one-of-a-kind memoir, Jack Clemons - a former lead engineer in support of NASA - takes listeners behind the scenes and into the inner workings of the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs during their most exciting years. Discover the people, the events, and the risks involved in one of the most important parts of space missions: bringing the astronauts back home to Earth. Clemons joined Project Apollo in 1968, a young engineer inspired by science fiction and electrified by John F. Kennedy's challenge to the nation to put a man on the moon.

What's it like to travel at more than 850 MPH, riding in a supersonic T-38 twin turbojet engine airplane? What happens when the space station toilet breaks? How do astronauts "take out the trash" on a spacewalk, tightly encapsulated in a space suit with just a few layers of fabric and Kevlar between them and the unforgiving vacuum of outer space?

At first glance, it looks like just another auditorium in just another government building. But among the talented men (and later women) who worked in mission control, the room located on the third floor of Building 30—at what is now Johnson Space Center—would become known by many as "the Cathedral." These members of the space program were the brightest of their generations, making split-second decisions that determined the success or failure of a mission.

A compelling look inside the Space Shuttle missions that helped lay the groundwork for the Space Age, Shuttle, Houston explores the determined personalities, technological miracles, and 11th-hour saves that have given us human spaceflight. Relaying stories of missions (and their grueling training) in vivid detail, Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director, examines the split-second decisions that the directors and astronauts were forced to make in a field where mistakes are unthinkable and errors led to the loss of national resources - and more importantly one's crew.

Scientists have just announced an historic discovery on a par with the splitting of the atom: The Higgs boson, the key to understanding why mass exists has been found. In The Particle at the End of the Universe, Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll takes readers behind the scenes of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to meet the scientists and explain this landmark event.

In the 1940s and '50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.

In January 1987, Robert Alan Krakower had a mystical encounter on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza that lasted eight days and eight nights. During this time he did not eat, drink, or sleep. He was told that the universe is an unborn living entity and given a story about “the Crystals of Consciousness”, which are responsible for co-ordinating all life. It began with the Big Bang and lasts 200 million years into the future, with a violent event in about 1000 years destroying all life on Earth. He received information that makes it possible to see how the “Program” is influencing us, ...

Prepare to learn everything we still don’t know about our strange and mysterious Universe. Humanity's understanding of the physical world is full of gaps. Not tiny little gaps you can safely ignore - there are huge yawning voids in our basic notions of how the world works. PHD Comics creator Jorge Cham and particle physicist Daniel Whiteson have teamed up to explore everything we don't know about the Universe: The enormous holes in our knowledge of the cosmos. Armed with entertaining and lucid explanations of science, they give us the best answers currently available.

Are you up for a trip through the ultimate neighborhood? Join astrophysicist Hugh Ross for an insider’s look at our cosmic neighborhood, where you’ll see everything from the largest-scale structure of the universe to Earth’s innermost layers. In Designed to the Core, Ross explains how the most sophisticated scientific instruments reveal exquisite “interior designs” throughout the universe that are ideally suited for human habitation here on Earth right now.