Explore the curiosities of our galaxy with this comprehensive, digestible guide to astronomy!

Too often, textbooks obscure the beauty and wonder of outer space with tedious discourse that even Galileo would oppose. Astronomy 101 cuts out the boring details and lengthy explanations, and instead, gives you a lesson in astronomy that keeps you engaged as you discover what's hidden beyond our starry sky.

From the Big Bang and nebulae to the Milky Way and Sir Isaac Newton, this celestial primer is packed with hundreds of entertaining astronomy facts, charts, and photographs you won't be able to get anywhere else.

So whether you’re looking to unravel the mystery behind black holes, or just want to learn more about your favorite planets, Astronomy 101 has all the answers—even the ones you didn’t know you were looking for.

Table of Contents

ASTRONOMY LINGO

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

THE SUN

SPACE WEATHER

MERCURY

VENUS

EARTH

THE MOON

MARS

JUPITER

SATURN

URANUS

NEPTUNE

PLUTO

COMETS

METEORS AND METEORI TES

ASTEROIDS

THE STARS

STAR CLUSTERS

STAR BIRTH

STAR DEATH

BLACK HOLES

GALAXIES

GALAXY FORMATION

THE MILKY WAY

ACTIVE GALAXIES AND QUASARS

DARK MATTER

THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE

GRAVITATIONAL LENSES

THE BIG BANG

A SCIENCE-FICTION UNIVERSE

EXTRATERRESTRIAL L IFE

THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

GALILEO GALILEI

JOHANNES KEPLER

THE HERSCHELS

ISAAC NEWTON

HENRIETTA SWAN LEAVITT

EDWIN P. HUBBLE

ALBERT EINSTEIN

JOCELYN BELL BURNELL

VERA COOPER RUBIN

CLYDE TOMBAUGH

MIKE BROWN

ASTROPHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

ASTROBIOLOGY

PLANETARY SCIENCE

COSMIC TIME MACHINES

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

THE KEPLER MISSION

CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY

SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE

FERMI

THE FUTURE OF ASTRONOMY

YOU CAN DO ASTRONOMY

About the Author

Carolyn Petersen is an award-winning science writer, science documentary producer, and CEO of Loch Ness Productions. She has several astronomy and planetary science books to her credit. Her work has appeared in planetarium and fulldome theaters around the world, on Yahoo! News, MIT's Tech Talk, the Radcliffe Quarterly, Sky & Telescope magazine, Astronomy magazine, Astrocast.tv, and StarDate magazine. Her most recent project is a collaboration with the International Dark-Sky Association called Losing the Dark. In the past few years, she has worked on several high-profile astronomy outreach projects. She wrote and co-produced a podcast series titled Space Weather FX for a NASA-funded MIT Haystack Observatory project, served an exhibit writer for for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Visitor's Center,, authored an exhibit on climate change for the California Academy of Sciences, and was the senior exhibit writer for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.