An illustrated exploration of the principles, laws, and wonders that rule our universe, our solar system, our world, and our daily lives from the bestselling creator of Lost in Translation

From Galileo's telescope to the International Space Station - a stunningly photo-filled tour through the milestones of space exploration, examining iconic objects from Sputnik to Skylab and their effect on what we know and how we think about space

Inviting readers to go behind the scenes of his public fame by unveiling his candid correspondence with people across the globe, this hand-picked collection of 100 letters draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto.

One of the most controversial, cutting-edge ideas in cosmology--the possibility that there exist multiple parallel universes--in fact has a long history. Tom Siegfried reminds us that the size and number of the heavens have been contested since ancient times. His story offers deep lessons about the nature of science and the quest for understanding

A near-novelistic account that's part quantum science, part biography, and part history, this story of 16th-century polymath Jerome Cardano delivers enjoyment on every level. In a postmodern turn, science writer Brooks inserts himself into the narrative as a sympathetic interviewer and "unreliable narrator," chatting with the 69-year-old Cardano in 1570 in an Inquisition prison.

One of these days, warns Gordon Dillow, the Earth will be hit by a comet or asteroid of potentially catastrophic size. The only question is when. In the meantime, we need to get much better at finding objects hurtling our way, and if they're large enough to penetrate the atmosphere without burning up, figure out what to do about them.
We owe many of science's most important discoveries to the famed Meteor Crater, a mile-wide dimple on the Colorado Plateau created by an asteroid hit 50,000 years ago. In his masterfully researched Fire in the Sky, Dillow unpacks what the Crater has to tell us. Prior to the early 1900s, the world believed that all craters--on the Earth and Moon--were formed by volcanic activity. Not so. The revelation that Meteor Crater and others like it were formed by impacts with space objects has led to a now accepted theory about what killed off the dinosaurs, and it has opened up a new field of asteroid observation, which has recently brimmed with urgency. Dillow looks at great asteroid hits of the past and spends time with modern-day asteroid hunters and defense planning experts, including America's first Planetary Defense Officer.
Satellite sensors confirm that a Hiroshima-scale blast occurs in the atmosphere every year, and a smaller, one-kiloton blast every month. While Dillow makes clear that the objects above can be deadly, he consistently inspires awe with his descriptions of their size, makeup, and origins. At once a riveting work of popular science and a warning to not take for granted the space objects hurtling overhead, Fire in the Sky is, above all, a testament to our universe's celestial wonders.