Writing a book is a little like being imprisoned. There’s you, your laptop, your bedroom, a whole lotta time, and maybe an occasional football game. I’m pleased to report that I’m a few writing sessions away from finishing a very large book project I’ve been working on for a year. Titled
The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions, the book will be published by Cambridge University Press in late 2015.
The book covers a variety of big topics in astronomy, cosmology, and planetary science that scientists have made huge strides in understanding over the past decade or so. The 16 big science topics include the latest on how the Sun will die, how life on Earth will end, water on Mars, the planethood of Pluto, the future Milky Way-Andromeda collision, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, life in the universe, and others.
Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing bits of the book with you as the time of publication approaches. I’m grateful to my friend Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley, for contributing a great foreword to the book and to my colleague Eric Betz at
Astronomy magazine who is doing a great job of assembling graphics for the book.
Also, a big thank you to many colleagues who have read and commented on certain specialized sections: Bruce Balick, Robert Benjamin, Debra Fischer, Jay Gallagher, Jim Head, Dan Hooper, John Kormendy, Avi Loeb, Alfred McEwen, Rocky Kolb, Mike Rampino, Martin Rees, Adam Riess, Seth Shostak, Paul Spudis, and Alan Stern.
Big thanks for their careful and fine contributions to making this book as strong as it can be!
I’ll share some content from the book soon. For now, I am celebrating my imminent release from prison!
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