Extreme Universe

By Nigel Henbest & Heather Couper
December 2001
Channel 4 Books / Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 0-7522-6163-0
192 pages, Illustrated
$35.00 hardcover

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Astronomers and space scientists have made some astonishing discoveries in the past few years, and Extreme Universe, a beautifully illustrated companion to the Channel 4 series, captures the sense of excitement. Propelled by the twin goals of finding life on other planets and preserving life on our own, spacecraft are exploring our solar system while telescopes peer into the most distant reaches of space and time. As biologists discover microbes capable of surviving in the depths of Earth's oceans or in hot, acidic springs, it seems increasingly possible that some form of life might exist on Mars or beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. But life is under constant threat. Massive solar flares, or a nearby supernova, could wipe out all higher life in a radiation storm; near-Earth asteroids sometimes collide with us, as is the case with the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs; and vast cosmic events far away across the galaxy can affect us. The authors, both trained scientists themselves, interview dozens of scientists working at the frontiers of knowledge, following their search for planets circling other stars, the race to track near-Earth asteroids and the ongoing attempts to uncover how the universe itself began. Extreme Universe is an excellent introduction to the subject.

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