There's a whole universe out there ... and this book is your journey into space.

Imagine you had a spacecraft capable of travelling through interstellar space. You climb in, blast into orbit, fly out of the solar system and keep going. Where do you end up, and what do you see along the way?

The answer is: mostly nothing. Space is astonishingly, mind-blowingly empty. As you travel through the void between galaxies your spaceship encounters nothing more exciting than the odd hydrogen molecule. But when it does come across something more exotic: wow!

First and most obviously, stars and planets. Some are familiar from our own backyard: yellow suns, rocky planets like Mars, gas and ice giants like Jupiter and Neptune. But there are many more: giant stars, red and white dwarfs, super-earths and hot Jupiters.

Elsewhere are swirling clouds of dust giving birth to stars, and infinitely dense regions of space-time called black holes. These clump together in the star clusters we call galaxies, and the clusters of galaxies we call... galaxy clusters.

And that is just the start. As we travel further we encounter ever more weird, wonderful and dangerous entities: supernovas, supermassive black holes, quasars, pulsars, neutron stars, black dwarfs, quark stars, gamma ray bursts and cosmic strings.

A Journey Through The Universe is a grand tour of the most amazing celestial objects and how they fit together to build the cosmos.

As for the end of the journey - nobody knows. But getting there will be fun.


Author: New Scientist
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Published: 11/01/2022
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 7.72h x 5.04w x 0.71d
ISBN: 9781529381979

About the Author

Since 1956, New Scientist has established a world-beating reputation for exploring and uncovering the latest developments and discoveries in science and technology, placing them in context and exploring what they mean for the future. Each week through a variety of different channels, including print, online, social media and more, New Scientist reaches over 5 million highly engaged readers around the world.

Follow New Scientist on Twitter: @newscientist