The Violent Universe: Joyrides through the X-ray Cosmos.

THE VIOLENT UNIVERSE: Joyrides through the x-ray Cosmos

KIMBERLY WEAVER

Our universe is filled with enormous cataclysms-supernova explosions, galactic collisions, and stellar implosions--but until recently, many of these events went unseen, with the launch of X-ray-discerning satellites in the late 20th century, many of these events became available for study and interpretation. This book is filled with spectacular full-color X-ray images collected by these satellites, especially the Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched by NASA in 1999. Chandra, which orbits Earth at a distance more than a third of the way to the moon, collects data without interference. Earth's atmosphere and most telescope-mirror surfaces absorb and thus obscure X rays. Author Weaver, an adjunct professor of astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, explains how X-ray astronomy works and describes what its practitioners have discovered about the universe. She starts with the development of the technique in the 1950s and in subsequent chapters describes and shows what X rays reveal of stars, galaxies, black holes, supernovas, and more. Many of the book's X-ray images appear side by side with visible-light images collected by the Hubble Space Telescope and other powerful observatories. The comparisons show the wealth of information available to modern astronomers. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, 200 p., color photos and illus., hardcover, $35.00.