Space Discovery

Historian William Sheehan and astronomer and planetary scientist Jim Bell combine their talents to tell a unique story of what we've learned by studying Mars through evolving technologies. What the eye sees as a mysterious red dot wandering through the sky becomes a blurry mirage of apparent seas, continents, and canals as viewed through Earth-based telescopes.

When Mike Colby, a lonely mercenary, is hired by his ex-wife Gemini to meet with an old alien enemy for an unlikely alliance, he thinks the hardest thing ahead of him is preventing an alien invasion. Unfortunately, things get a whole lot worse when he is caught in the middle of a feud between Gemini and one of her ship captains, Tisch, when he joins her crew. The aliens become the least of his concerns when the obsolete class freighter Blue Eagle and her crew become the targets of mercenaries and hostile aliens in a galactic corporate war.

Black holes are one of the greatest mysteries of outer space. No visible light can escape the strong gravity of a black hole. This makes black holes invisible - and very difficult to study. But scientists make new discoveries and develop new theories about these mysterious objects every day. In 2015, astronomers were able to finally confirm a theory that Einstein had developed 100 years earlier! And in 2016, scientists found that black holes may form in a different way than they ever thought possible.

Did you know that Pluto has mountains, glaciers, and even blue skies? In July 2015, a spacecraft called New Horizons finally reached Pluto - almost 10 years after it had launched! The spacecraft flew by Pluto to take the first close-up photos of the dwarf planet. When it began sending those photos back to Earth, scientists were amazed by what they saw. Pluto was more fascinating than scientists ever imagined!

Did you know that astronauts work on Earth and in space to study places beyond our planet's atmosphere? But there's a lot more to space travel than just research. With no gravity, a wild schedule that includes 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every 24 hours, and no fresh food, it can be a challenge to stay healthy in orbit. Public and private space agencies are working to solve these problems as humans travel farther and more frequently into the depths of space. Learn more about the daily lives of astronauts and how they live, work, and prepare for the future in space.

Breaking All The Rules: The Inside Story of the New Race traces the origins of a second Space Race that began at the end of the original 1960s US-Soviet space race and eventually led to SpaceX and the explosive growth in commercial space being seen today. The story covers how this revolution began with a band of misfit engineers and scientists and the inside story of how this was eventually ignited with the money and vision of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson.

Have you ever dreamed of walking on Mars? Or maybe even living there? Ever since Mars was discovered, people have wondered if there could be life on this mysterious red planet. For years, astronomers at NASA and other space agencies have been exploring Mars. They've sent rovers to study the planet and search for water and signs of life. One day, NASA plans to send astronauts there, too. But first, they need to learn many things about Mars and how people might travel that deep into space.

In 1957 the Soviet Union sent Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into space. America took up the challenge to explore the next frontier. A dozen years, and 25 billion dollars later, the mission of Apollo 11 would yield man's finest hour. For that was the first time man's foot left prints on another heavenly body. And that was only the beginning. Apollo 11 is the incredible story of how a nation forged the technology during the turbulent 1960s to slip humanity from the bonds of its native planet. This inside look remembers those who made the great enterprise succeed.

Master storyteller Ben Bova continues his multi-volume "Grand Tour" saga chronicling humanity's exploration of near space with Titan, a fast-paced thriller focused on the first manned mission to the Solar System's most intriguing world. Skillfully blending high drama, passionate characters, and daring speculation with the latest discoveries from the current Cassini/Huygens probe of Saturn's moon, Bova has crafted a heart-stopping tale of epic adventure on mankind's next frontier.

If you learn about the scientific method, you learn that first we hypothesize about something we’ve experienced, and then we look for more of it. This works well enough—but what if you are interested in studying a heretofore unknown comet or supernova? That is the essential problem of the astronomer: the most important discoveries happen without notice! Indeed, as Chris Lintott argues in Accidental Astronomy, luck defines astronomy. Lintott explores the ways in which happenstance shapes how we investigate the sky.

No one in the history of histories has lost more than Philippa Georgiou, ruler of the Terran Empire. Forced to take refuge in the Federation’s universe, she bides her time until Section 31, a rogue spy force within Starfleet, offers her a chance to work as their agent. She has no intention of serving under anyone else, of course; her only interest is escape. But when a young Trill, Emony Dax, discovers a powerful interstellar menace, Georgiou recognizes it as a superweapon that escaped her grasp in her own universe.

On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the earth and the sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system - but only if they could compile data from many different points of the globe, all recorded during the short period of the transit. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs: eight years later, the scientists would have another opportunity to succeed.

Trained as a musician, amateur scientist William Herschel found international fame after discovering the planet Uranus in 1781. Though he is still best known for this finding, his partnership with his sister Caroline yielded groundbreaking work, including techniques that remain in use today. The duo pioneered comprehensive surveys of the night sky, carefully categorizing every visible object in the void. Caroline wrote an influential catalogue of nebulae, and William discovered infrared radiation.

A journey through the minds of some of the most creative people on the planet reveals that creativity is rarely a “lightbulb moment” and instead arrives through a process of making and self-understanding.

Arevolt on Calamaar; the long-awaited Weevil invasion, and a dangerous new weapon set the stage for an explosive ending to the Space Frontiers series. Will and Shanna risk all to save their people and end the Weevil threat that has plagued them for years. What price will they pay to bring peace to their kingdom and return to normal life as parents? This could be their last ride in a shocking end that sci-fi fans will never forget.

Astronomy for Beginners gives you a fantastic insight into our solar system, how it works, are we in future danger and whether we could live on any other planets. Astronomy is a huge subject that covers a multitude of astronomy related areas, in this book we touch on all the amazing-ness of our solar system.

‘It didn’t matter that they were now three miles beyond their target site, that communications were dropping out and that they were running low on fuel. All that mattered to Neil as he searched for a safe spot to land was that boulders littered the surface below. “Thirty seconds,” called mission control. In truth, the flight controllers were now no more than spectators, just like everybody else. No more needed to be said. It was down to Armstrong

Directing his polemics against the pedantry of his time, Galileo, as his own popularizer, addressed his writings to contemporary laymen. His support of Copernican cosmology, against the Church’s strong opposition, his development of a telescope, and his unorthodox opinions as a philosopher of science were the central concerns of his career and the subjects of four of his most important writings. Drake’s introductory essay place them in their biographical and historical context.

Little more than 100 years ago, maps of the world still boasted white space: places where no human had ever trod. Within a few short decades the most hostile of the world's environments had all been conquered. Likewise, in the 20th century, medicine transformed human life. Doctors took what was routinely fatal and made it survivable. As modernity brought us ever more into different kinds of extremes, doctors pushed the bounds of medical advances and human endurance. Extreme exploration challenged the body in ways that only the vanguard of science could answer.

On June 3, 1769, the planet Venus briefly passed across the face of the sun in a cosmic alignment that occurs twice per century. Anticipation of the rare celestial event sparked a worldwide competition among aspiring global superpowers, each sending their own scientific expeditions to far-flung destinations to time the planet’s trek.