If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered what would happen to your body—and to time itself—if you were to take a plunge into the heart of a black hole?
- What if the laws of physics actually allow for time travel, and what are the mind-bending requirements needed to build a machine that could take you to the past?
- Did you know that the entire observable universe was once smaller than an atom, and are you curious about what triggered the explosive growth that created everything we see today?
Listen to Welcome to the Universe — Free Audiobook
Key Takeaways from Welcome to the Universe
- Grasp the immense scale of the universe by understanding that all of human history fits into the width of a single hair on a cosmic timeline spanning 13.8 billion years.
- Discover why Earth's constant 23.5-degree tilt dictates everything from the constellations we see to the surprising fact that our planet is always exactly 50 percent illuminated.
- Understand the counterintuitive relationship between a star's color and its lifespan, where cooler, red stars outlive their hotter, blue counterparts by billions of years.
- Learn how the thermonuclear furnace at the center of our sun creates new elements, and why its eventual depletion will turn our star into an expanding red giant.
- Explore the distinct families of our solar system—rocky terrestrials and low-density gas giants—to finally understand exactly why Pluto doesn't fit the planetary mold.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Welcome to the Universe
Mind Map
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Welcome to the Universe — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Getting our bearings.
Chapter 3: The sun.
Chapter 4: Our solar system.
Chapter 5: Light and distance.
Chapter 6: Nebulas, galaxies, and dark matter.
Chapter 7: Black holes.
Chapter 8: The shape of the universe.
Chapter 9: Time travel and wormholes.
Chapter 10: Life beyond our solar system.
Welcome to the Universe Summary & Overview
Welcome to the Universe (2016) is a mind-blowing and breathtaking introduction to astrophysics, based on the popular course the three authors cotaught at Princeton University. It takes everyone – even the nonscience-minded – on a trip through the known universe, stopping to examine stars, galaxies, black holes, and more, all while presenting fascinating theories regarding time travel, the big bang, and the prospect of life in other galaxies.
Who Should Listen to Welcome to the Universe?
- Star-gazers who want to explore the far reaches of the universe
- Budding astrophysicists and astronomers
- Anyone curious about space, physics, and time
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