Jane Hesling reviews Astroquizzical: a Curious Journey Through Our Cosmic Family Tree by Jillian Scudder
Jillian Scudder tells the story of our universe’s history in Astroquizzical: a Curious Journey Through Our Cosmic Family Tree. Starting with the human race, she explores our perception of space and how we have been trying to explore and understand it from our “parent”, Earth. Along the way we are taken through several thought experiments and get to enjoy some beautiful images from space. She moves on to our “cosmic companion”, the Moon, briefly exploring its creation and effect on the Earth. Included here is a thought experiment about putting a wormhole between the Earth and Moon – which doesn’t seem like a good idea.
The next step is Earth’s immediate family, or “siblings”, in the form of the other planets in our solar system. We learn how the planets were formed from the leftover dust and gas as our Sun was forming. Scudder then starts considering exoplanets, with a thought experiment about the possibility of life on other worlds, and the weird places we may find it. Next along this family tree, at the level of “grandparent”, are stars, starting with our Sun. There is an entire chapter on stellar deaths. If they’re large enough, these stars will collapse into black holes, but there are plenty of other beautiful and violent ends to be explored. Extending the family tree even further, Scudder moves outwards to galaxies. These are a diverse bunch, with many different categories to choose from, and there is an all-too-brief look into my own favourite: supermassive black holes.
How to answer cosmic queries
On the whole, Astroquizzical is a good read for those who want to know more about the universe, how we got to be here and how we fit in to the history of the cosmos. But ultimately, it is aimed at the astro-interested, not the astro-educated. The book ends with a look at the universe as a whole: how it is still expanding, and how the further away we are able to look, the further back in time we are able to see. Scudder does well in showing how little of this universe we know even today, and how tiny our place in it is.
- 2018 Icon Books 224pp £13.88hb
- Enjoy the rest of the August 2018 issue of Physics World in our digital magazine or via the Physics World app for any iOS or Android smartphone or tablet. Membership of the Institute of Physics required
