Back to Astronomy Cafe

How fast does gravity travel? When will the sun go nova? Who invented the light year? Will we ever travel to the stars? These are just some of the unusual and popular questions NASA astronomer Sten Odenwald answers in Back to the Astronomy Café, based on his award-winning website "for the astronomically disadvantaged." Since his acclaimed earlier book The Astronomy Café published in 1998, the space community has been turned on its head with entirely new discoveries: ion propulsion, dark matter, gravity and magnetic reversals, the Cosmic Dark Ages, and over 100 new planets. In the all-new Back to the Astronomy Café, Odenwald answers the latest and most-asked questions relating to these recent discoveries. His highly personal and authoritative style makes understanding the cosmos less intimidating, exciting, and fun.Since he opened his website "The Astronomy Café" in 1995, Odenwald has answered over 50,000 e-mailed questions. His individual answers have been downloaded over 7.5 million times, making him the most sought-after "answer man" for astronomy in human history.

Sten Odenwald an award-winning astronomer with Raytheon ITSS, is currently the education and public outreach manager for the NASA IMAGE satellite program. The author of The Astronomy Cafe and The 23rd Cycle, Sten Odenwald writes a regular on-line question-and-answer column called “Ask the Space Scientist” for the Washington Post, and is a frequent contributor Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines. He is the recipient of the 1999 Goddard Space Flight Center Excellence in Outreach Award and the Popular Writing Award from the American Astronomical Society, Solar Physics Division. He lives in Kensington, MD.