The Alchemy of the Heavens: Searching for Meaning in the Milky Way (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780385472142)

The Alchemy Of The Heavens offers an exciting and accessible survey of what we know about our galaxy. The home of the earth, the sun, and countless other stars, the Milky Way has long been an object of human fascintation, but it's been in the last forty years that astromoners and astrophysicists have made the most startling discoveries about our galaxy. Author Ken Croswell reveals that the Milky Way formed as many earlier galaxies collopsed and smashed together; that may of the elements in the galaxy--including the iron and carbon that course through our bodies--were born in exploding supernovae; that in all likelihood there is a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy, with a million times more mass than the sun, and that the Milky Way's oldest stars preserve the elements created in the big bang, thereby serving as "fossils" of the universe's earliest days. A captivating journey through the modern astronomy of the Milky Way, Croswell shows us how a deeper understanding of the nature and working of the galaxy can offer larger clues into the origins of the universe itself.

Author: Ken Croswell
ISBN-10: 0385472145
ISBN-13: 9780385472142
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 02/01/1996
Pages: 358
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.68h x 6.00w x 0.88d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 08/25/1996 pg. 28