The Universe is a very extreme place.
Thu, 3. November 2011
Book Review - Extreme Cosmos
Just when you think you have learned most of what you need to know about astronomy, along comes a book like Extreme Cosmos! I knew there was a black hole at the Milky Way Centre - and I had a pretty good idea that it was not a good place to be - but I had no concept that it was capable of ejecting stars right out of the galaxy and that astronomers have actually located one of those stars, moving at 2.5 million kilometres per hour!
One could argue that not only is the Cosmos extreme but so, too, is the author himself. Bryan Gaensler is a youthfull scientist, packed with extreme experience at the cutting edge of modern astronomy. Yet, very little reference to Bryan's personal successes as an astronomer have been included in Extreme Cosmos, which says much for his modesty but also says much about his book. I was in an extreme hurry to buy it. I had been impressed (extremely) by the author on his visits to MAS and I was aware of his (extreme) achievements and his growing reputation as an elite astronomer, so I was very keen to read this, his first book.
Currently Professor of Astronomy at Sydney Institute for Astronomy; Chair of the SKA Coordinating Committee; Director of CAASTRO; and Patron of Macarthur Astronomical Society - it's an impressive CV and his research includes ground-breaking work on Magnetars (Neutron Stars with unimaginably large magnetic fields); mapping the magnetic fields of remote galaxies; and very recently he was the first to image the 'snake-like' structure of inter-steller space.
Yet he has not used his book as a vehicle to promote the astonishing results of his own research - maybe that will come next time. Instead, he has used it to catalogue the extremes which have been discovered mainly by other astronomers, a kind of up-to-the-minute Guiness Book of Records for astronomy; a broad statement of our understanding of the properties of celestial objects at this point in time. Want to know the hottest and coolest places in the Universe? The brightest gamma-ray burst or the fastest spinning neutron star? The biggest/fastest/heaviest/densest objects? The smallest? The extremes of gravity and magnetism? It's in the book.
Bryan Gaensler's speaking style in his talks at MAS - and in recordings of public lectures and media interviews that I have heard - are consistently authoritative, informative, factual, yet easy-going. His writing style in Extreme Cosmos complements that. He is one of those people with a knack for patiently communicating science to anyone interested enough to listen. Good science communicators have been in short supply since the passing of Carl Sagan - and Bryan Gaensler goes a considerable way to filling that gap.
What is the mass of the Universe? What is the fastest star? What is the life expectancy of a red dwarf star? How bright is a supenova? Extreme Cosmos answers all these questions. It is not just for life-long astronomy enthusiasts, it is also eminently suitable for newcomers to astronomy - but whatever your level of interest in astronomy, this book will teach you many things about the Universe that you didn't know!
The Universe is a very extreme place. How do we know? Bryan told us so!
Bryan Gaensler - Keynote Speaker at Macarthur Astronomical Society, November 2010, he will be back on 21st November 2011.
FOOTNOTES:
This article was written for submission to Prime Focus, the monthly Journal of Macarthr Astronomical Society and was published in the November 2011 edition.
Disclosure: The author of this review is Secretary of Macarthur Astronomical Society. The author of "Extreme Cosmos" is Patron of Macarthur Astronomical Society.
Extreme Cosmos is available from > Here < (hard copy) or > Here < (electronic copy)