Time For The Stars: Astronomy in the 1990s (Signed First Edition)

Discusses new astronomical discoveries about the makeup of the universe, and predicts how they will change the study of astronomy in the next ten years

MIT professor Lightman ( Ancient Light ) delivers a short course in astrophysics for lay readers who wonder what astronomers are wondering about. Is the universe finite or endless? Are we alone? Digitized data from powerful radio telescopes have not changed the astronomer's questions: it is the answers that are getting strange. Lightman is the author of several astrophysics texts as well as previous cosmology manifestos, and was co-editor of Origins, the Lives and World of Modern Cosmologists. His latest book has slight touches of all those works, and readers will find the material helpful in interpreting tomorrow's astronomy headlines. Lightman's tone is that of an amiable observatory tour-guide, one who tells less than he knows because he wants visitors to absorb the grandeur first. Illustrations.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lightman (Physics; Science and Writing/MIT) departs from his usual lighthearted essays and popular discourses on science (A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court, 1986; Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe, 1984) to present a no-nonsense summary of prospects for astronomy in the decade ahead. ``Prospects'' seems the apposite word since Lightman is really offering a prospectus here, outlining what could be done to further knowledge of the universe if all the recommendations for new instrumentation and computer technology were implemented. Indeed, he bases his argument on a research plan prepared at the start of each decade (since the 1960's) by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey of the National Academy of Sciences with the hope that Congress will provide the funding. So while the chapters follow a logical sequence of what we do and don't know about the universe from planets to stars to galaxies to cosmology, the emphasis is on why we need bigger and better telescopes, interferometers, earth- bound or orbiting instruments, and the automation to back them up. Alas, the result is more alphabet soup than heavenly broth as we learn what can be done by GONG (Global Oscillations Network Group)- -measure seismic activity on the sun; or AXAF (Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility)--analyze X-rays emitted by supernovae. Lightman packages the plan with enough who, what, and why to be intelligible to curious readers, but primarily those who are already knowledgeable and interested. Let us hope the necessary congressmen are included. (Twenty-five b&w illustrations--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.