Welcome to the Universe

This is an interesting book, both in its content and in its concept. Three prominent astrophysicists have written a textbook on the subject of astrophysics for students at Princeton with little or no prior training in the physics and math upon which the subject is based. Based on the success of the course, the book is now being marketed to the general reading public, which is a noble experiment. I have a lifetime of prior experience in the type of math and physics upon which astrophysics is based, but no experience of applying that math and physics to the problems discussed in this book. I can imagine that a Princeton student, given some examples and some exercises (not included in the book), could work through most of the math at the level discussed, and the subject is sufficiently interesting to motivate them to do so (I found myself wanting to do this.) With my background, I could understand how it should be possible to work through the calculations that they described to “measure” the composition and temperatures of stars, the distances to distant galaxies, etc. However, I suspect that readers without at least a BS in Physics sort of background will feel that they are being asked to take a lot on faith, despite the authors’ efforts to the contrary. However, this is a breathtaking and profusely illustrated story of how stars and planets and galaxies are formed, evolve and die, of how the (perhaps multiple) universe is expanding, of the necessity of “dark” matter/energy, of the implications of relativity, the geometry of space-time and of how we have determined all of this.

I'm taking my time reading this book to make it last as long as possible. Dr Tyson is about the best astronomy teacher there is. I was already a huge fan and this book didn't disappoint me. I've watched all of his videos and I've been reading quite a bit, so I chose this astronomy text for deeper understanding. It's perfect for my current level of understanding. It's written in a way that is both entertaining and comprehensible. It's a rare talent to make complex topics easy to understand. Right away I knew I was in for a treat when he used McDonald's hamburgers to illustrate the reality of a number as large as 100 billion. I found that I can get even more out of the book by searching for videos on YouTube about the various topics. I had no idea that there were so many astronomers posting such excellent videos. Many thanks to Dr Tyson and his colleagues for giving me an invitation to the Universe and the wonderful people in it! It's a whole new reality for me!

I very much enjoyed this book, but with some caveats. The primary one is that there is quite a bit of math and much of it is advanced. What I think would be helpful is an easy way to read the book and skip the math - in the Kindle version this could be very easy - and I don't think the reader will lose anything substantial by doing so. Another caveat is regarding the chapter on the future of humanity: much (perhaps all) of what is said in speculative but it is not presented that way. I enjoyed the material but I did find it a little irritating that the author expressed such great confidence in his predictions and assumptions. Caveats aside, this is a fun book to read and I was eager to come back to it again and again. Neil's chapters are especially fun because of the humor, even if often corny. If a follow up book is published that updates this material I would want to read it.

This is a wonderfully written book for someone who is interested in astrophysics, but does not have the knowledge to understand more technical books that are written for physicists. Three authors have contributed to this book, all prominent astrophysicists. I just received my copy, with its beautiful dust jacket, and couldn’t wait to start reading it! The first section of the book is written by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who offers us a humorous approach to the vast subject of the universe. I only started reading the book yesterday, so I can’t as yet review the other authors, but from what I can tell by gleaning over the pages, it is impressive! I had originally been considering buying the audiobook version, but after reading comments that it was very difficult to understand “mathematical equations read out loud”, I decided to go for the printed version instead. I am so glad I did! As you can tell by my photos of a few sections of the book, there are color illustrations and diagrams, math equations, etc, that simply could not be relayed by words. Even if some pdf files are included with the audiobook version, I doubt that you would receive the quantity and quality of the illustrations in the actual physical book. I bought a “Used, Very Good” copy from Amazon Prime, but I would label it “Used, Like New.” It’s a pristine copy, dust jacket in mint condition! At $10.49, it was a bargain, considering that the book originally sold for $39.95, as shown on the inside of the cover! This book will offer you hours of fascinating information about the universe!

This is a very ambitious book: the Universe is an awesome and extremely interesting place. But how do you communicate this without piling on the math that shows how it works? I think the three co-authors have managed to balance the "wo - this is awesome!" part with at least passing references to the math that connects everything. This is entertaining but not extremely light reading. You can skip over the mathy parts and still learn a huge amount about the science that underlies our current understanding about the universe. But if you spend the time to read and try to understand the mathematical relationships, your understanding and appreciation will be that much greater. Keep in mind that this book is used as a textbook for non-science majors at Princeton, and is entertaining but by no means dumbed down to attract readers who think that anything beyond a few text messages is just too much. I wish this type of class was available when I went to college in the '70s. This is an ambitious and fantastic book.

This is an extremely well done book. The authors are to be particularly commended for excellent coordination between topics, referencing each other across chapters. Given the breadth of the topics, the effort to insure integration and coherence is notable. Starting with "astronomy 101", recounting history and discoveries to provide understanding of 'how we got to the present', the book moves from the solar system outward ... finally to the cosmology of the universe. At the start concepts are elemental, imparting knowledge many with interest in astronomy learned in early years. As the story grows more complicated, astronomy becomes astrophysics with authors incorporating necessary physics background. There are extensive discussions on aspects of galactic structure, star types, stellar evolution. Later, in the book there are select chapters on special relativity, general relativity, black holes, time travel. It is a seemingly whirlwind tour, but one well designed and described. The authors have taken great pains (and succeeded) in helping us understand what they have learned about the universe and associated complex physics. As a grade school child, I became fascinated with astronomy, encouraged by a Cal Tech aeronautical engineer neighbor who was similarly attracted. Not having joined the astrophysics family, reading this book rekindled the old interest. On a higher level anyone pondering the core existential questions lacks adequate knowledge without a grasp of the nature of our universe. This is a good volume from which to find that knowledge. Bravo!

Book is in Very good condition.

The material in this work is presented unevenly, as sections are divided according to the several contributing authors. The chapters by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, for example, are a pleasure to read - informative & entertaining - while those by J. Richard Gott are often loaded with cryptic math & verbal explanations which are equally unintelligible. Overall, this book is a classy acquisition for one's personal library. But just try to avoid Section III!