An updated classic that recounts the long hunt for Einstein's predicted gravitational waves – and celebrates their recent discovery. In February 2016, astronomers announced that they had verified the last remaining prediction of Einstein's general t...

An exploration of the changing conceptions of the iconic Space Shuttle and a call for a new vision of spaceflight. The thirty years of Space Shuttle flights saw contrary changes in American visions of space. Valerie Neal, who has spent much of her c...

This book provides a tour of the "greatest hits" of cosmological discoveries-the ideas that reshaped our universe over the past century. The cosmos, once understood as a stagnant place, filled with the ordinary, is now a universe that is expanding at...

In anticipation of solar eclipses visible in 2017 and 2024, an exploration of the scientific and cultural significance of this mesmerizing cosmic display. Since the first humans looked up and saw the sun swallowed by darkness, our species has been c...

An economic historian argues that privately funded space exploration is not a new development, but a trend beginning with the astronomical observatories of the nineteenth century. Over the last half-century there has been a rapid expansion in commer...

First published in 1928, this introduction to 'the study of the heavens' includes chapters on: 'The Celestial Sphere and its Motions';'The Sun and its Systems'; and 'The Universe of the Stars'. It also features an appendix of interesting astronomical...

Where would you look for alien life? An astronomer and science popularizer explains the basics of astrobiology to outline five plausible scenarios for finding extraterrestrials Long before space travel was possible, the idea of life beyond Earth tran...

Not for sale in Estonia! NASA's Apollo program landed the first humans on the moon in 1969. In the next three years, Apollo sent 10 more men to the moon in five subsequent missions. The first moon landing in particular is a legendarily well-documen...

With a fleet of telescopes in space and giant observatories on the ground, professional astronomers produce hundreds of spectacular images of space every year. These colorful pictures have become infused into popular culture and can found everywhere,...

In the years since the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and Rover first began transmitting images from the surface of Mars, we have become familiar with the harsh, rocky, rusty-red Martian landscape. But those images are much less straightforward than t...