After the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Phaenomena was the most widely read poem in the ancient world. Its fame was immediate. It was translated into Latin by Ovid and Cicero and quoted by St. Paul in the New Testament, and it was one of the few Greek poems translated into Arabic.Aratus’ Phaenomena is a didactic poem—a practical manual in verse that teaches the reader to identify constellations and predict weather. The poem also explains the relatio...

An ancient Greek guide to the heavens, translated in a new accessible modern English edition.A poetic guide to the heavens, the Phaenomena of Aratus—dating from around 270 BCE—was widely known across the ancient world, second only in fame to the works of Homer. Beginning with an invocation to Zeus, the poem describes the constellations of the northern and southern skies, the celestial sphere, and weather signs. Aratus's vivid work offered a complete handbo...

'Athena seized the writhing serpent and hurled it into the sky, and fixed it to the very pole of the heavens.' The constellations we recognize today were first mapped by the ancient Greeks, who arranged the stars into patterns for that purpose. In the third century BC Eratosthenes compiled a handbook of astral mythology in which the constellations were associated with figures from legend, and myths were provided to explain how each person, creature, or object came to be pl...

Aratus of Soli was a third century BC didactic poet at the court of Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia, where he wrote his famous astronomical poem ‘Phaenomena’ (Appearances). It describes the constellations and other celestial phenomena, while the latter section is chiefly concerned with weather lore. Aratus’ poem was extremely popular both in the Greek and Roman world, as demonstrated by the large number of commentaries and Latin translations. He enjoyed immense prestige among Hellenistic po...

Witty and thought provoking, two Vatican astronomers shed provocative light on some of the strange places where religion and science meet.“Imagine if a Martian showed up, all big ears and big nose like a child’s drawing, and he asked to be baptized. How would you react?” —Pope Francis, May, 2014Pope Francis posed that question—without insisting on an answer!—to provoke deeper reflection about inclusiveness and diversity in the Church. But ...

A mesmerizing challenge to orthodox cosmology with powerful implications not only for cosmology itself but also for our notions of time, God, and human nature -- with a new Preface addressing the latest developments in the field.Far-ranging and provocative, The Big Bang Never Happened is more than a critique of one of the primary theories of astronomy -- that the universe appeared out of nothingness in a single cataclysmic explosion ten to twenty billion years ago. Drawing on new d...

The acclaimed science writer presents "an exceedingly vivid history of modern astronomy and cosmology, told in entertainingly biographical terms" ( The New York Times).Hailed as "the best science writer of his generation," Timothy Ferriss is renowned for his ability to discuss the complexities of outer space in ways that are lively, illuminating, and accessible. In The Red Limit, he takes readers on a journey of discovery as a variety of scientific...

Lee Smolin offers a new theory of the universe that is at once elegant, comprehensive, and radically different from anything proposed before. Smolin posits that a process of self organization like that of biological evolution shapes the universe, as it develops and eventually reproduces through black holes, each of which may result in a new big bang and a new universe. Natural selection may guide the appearance of the laws of physics, favoring those universes which best reproduce. The resu...

This second edition of Introduction to Cosmology is an exciting update of an award-winning textbook. It is aimed primarily at advanced undergraduate students in physics and astronomy, but is also useful as a supplementary text at higher levels. It explains modern cosmological concepts, such as dark energy, in the context of the Big Bang theory. Its clear, lucid writing style, with a wealth of useful everyday analogies, makes it exceptionally engaging. Emphasis is placed on the links betwee...

This classic star atlas is ideal for both beginning astronomers and more experienced observers worldwide. The clear, full-color maps show stars, clusters and galaxies visible with binoculars or a small telescope. The atlas also features constellation boundaries and the Milky Way, and lists objects that are interesting to observe. This new edition features a clearer map of the Moon's surface, showing craters and features; a second Moon map, mirror reversed for users of telescopes with star ...

All humans share three origins: the beginning of our individual lives, the appearance of life on Earth, and the formation of our planetary home. Life through Time and Space brings together the latest discoveries in both biology and astronomy to examine our deepest questions about where we came from, where we are going, and whether we are alone in the cosmos.A distinctive voice in the growing field of astrobiology, Wallace Arthur combines embryological, evolutionary, and co...

The Extravagant Universe tells the story of a remarkable adventure of scientific discovery. One of the world's leading astronomers, Robert Kirshner, takes readers inside a lively research team on the quest that led them to an extraordinary cosmological discovery: the expansion of the universe is accelerating under the influence of a dark energy that makes space itself expand. In addition to sharing the story of this exciting discovery, Kirshner also brings the science up-to-date i...