Customer Reviews

Chasing Hubble's Shadows: The Search for Galaxies at the Edge of Time

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When we look out into space we look back in time. When we have the Hubble Space Telescope working for us we look very deep into space and very far back in time, so far back that some of the galaxies that Hubble can see are as they were billions of years ago when the universe was young, when there were few heavy metals, long before the sun came to life, long before (presumably) the birth of our galaxy.

What was the universe like then and what can we learn about the properties of the universe and about its evolution from the dim light given off by those very distant galaxies?

What science journalist Jeff Kanipe is trying to do in this book is bring the general reader up to date on the latest discoveries and understandings in astronomy and how these discoveries are leading to a better understanding of cosmology. Do galaxies look different as we go back in time? Clearly the very first galaxies consisted of stars containing only hydrogen and helium. How were these stars different from the stars we see around us, from our own sun? And what about the shape and characteristics of the first galaxies? Were they spirals, barred or normal, ellipticals or irregulars? And what role does dark energy and dark matter play in their formation?

Kanipe gives up-to-date answers to these questions, and this is one of the strengths of this readable book. Events in astronomy and cosmology move quickly. Books that are even a few years old will be out of date in certain respects. I am always interested in what is, for example, the latest estimate of the age of the universe. Kanipe gives a age of about 14 billion years, which means that light from the most primordial event comes to us from a distance of about 14 billion light years. Actually it is a little less than this since there was a so called "dark age" that lasted until about 13.66 billion years ago at a red shift of (gulp!) 1000. Kanipe typically uses red shift measurements instead of light years to express both distance and time. For example an object 7.3 light years away has a red shift of 0.9. If we look back a mere 70 million years the red shift is a tiny 0.005.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is on Kanipe's visit to Mauna Kea, Hawaii where the two great Keck telescopes are housed. He makes vivid the experience of being with the astronomers at their camp at 9,000 feet and atop the mountain in the cold, still air at nearly 14,000 feet. Kanipe's story integrates knowledge from telescopes around the world, including that from infrared, radio and other telescopes.

One of the things I like best about the book is that there isn't a lot of repetitive history. Instead, the book is devoted to what is happening now in astronomy. The only difficulty is that there is a lot of information to absorb and some of the ideas are unusual. The terminology also requires some effort to get used to, but Kanipe eschews most jargon and uses almost no mathematics.

There are some nice color prints in the middle of the book, an index and a bibliography.

I am going to have to dissent with some of the previous reviews. I think there is a definite audience for this book, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it to just anyone interested in popular books on astronomy. The book is best suited for someone who is already familiar with the basic concepts of galactic astronomy and cosmology, and who is interested in hearing about what type of research is currently on-going in these areas.

The book is not technical, so it is easy to assume, (mistakenly), that the book is suitable for anyone interested in the subject. The problem is that even though the writing is non-technical, Kanipe explains very few concepts. For example, Kanipe talks a lot about redshift and reionization in a non-technical way, but he never really provides a clear introductory explanation of them. You don't need a degree in astronomy to read this book, but you should be familiar with the basic concepts if you want to get the most from it.

Interestingly Kanipe does explain a few basic concepts, but this is sporadic at best. I had to wonder who Kanipe's intended audience was. For example, within the first few pages Kanipe talks about astronomers looking for galaxies with redshifts in the range of 3 to 5 without ever explaining what it means for a galaxy to have such a redshift. Okay, no problem with that. Perhaps Kanipe is writing for an audience he expects would know what a redshift of 5 means, yet only a few pages later Kanipe seems to assume his audience will not know what a spectrum is as he explains how the purpose of a certain telescope is to "separate the light of a very faint galaxy into its component colors, or wavelengths, the result being a narrow band of bright and dark lines called a spectrum." Huh? What audience does not need an explanation high redshift galaxies, but does need an explanation of a spectrum? I expect that Kanipe was trying to make the book accessible to as wide an audience as possible, but unfortunately he only provided a few gratuitous explanations of basic concepts. My concern is that if you scan through the book and see something like the above quote, it is easy to mistakenly assume the book is accessible to anyone, when in truth the basic concepts explained are too random and too few to effectively make the book accessible and enjoyable to those not already reasonably familiar with the subject.

Another aspect of Kanipe's writing to be aware of is his choice of words. It reminded me of reading "Lord of the Flies". Here are a few examples of what I mean:

"the protean objects stippling deep surveys"
"dark matter, the chimeric material"
"when expansion was clearly more allegro"
"the very skin of this alluvial structure"
"the microwave photons broke free from an effluvium of electrons and protons"
"perhaps dark energy and dark matter are hermaphroditic in nature"
"a feathery swirl of diaphanous light wrapped like a watch spring around a bright central sprocket"
"the beautiful cochlear appearance of many normal spiral galaxies"
"perhaps halos are a kind of palimpsest of galactic evolutionary history"
"some of the pithy remnants of these tidally stripped dwarf galaxies"
"it's worth providing some record, however mercurial, of the impressive gains"
"in the study of this empyrean armature we call the universe"

Some people will enjoy Kanipe's choice of descriptive words, but for me he went overboard. Just be aware of this style because I don't think it is for everyone.

As I said, I believe this book will appeal most to those who are already reasonably familiar with the subject, and who are interested in hearing about on-going research. I certainly did walk away with a feeling of having glimpsed into the lives and work of galactic observational astronomers. In this Kanipe succeeds quite well. He passionately describes numerous observational projects and provides extensive quotes from the astronomers doing the research. He also indirectly, though not so subtly, argues for the continued funding of the Hubble Space Telescope and other projects. Certainly I would have no argument with him there.

In the end I gave the book three stars. This was not my kind of book, but I believe it has an audience. It is not a technically difficult book by any means, and it does give a pretty nice review of ongoing research, but to really enjoy the book, it will be helpful if you are reasonably familiar with basic concepts in galactic astronomy and cosmology. For such a person, and especially someone who enjoys descriptive, almost poetic language, this could be a very enjoyable read. Kanipe obviously put a lot into the book, and he does give a feel for the work astronomers are doing. It has its place, but in the end it didn't make my list of favorites.

In less than 200 pages of friendly, engaging prose, the author succeeds in bringing the reader up-to-date on work in the field of cosmology, in particular, galaxies of the early universe. The views of theorists, as well as those of observational astronomers, are presented clearly. Although some ideas that have been proposed to explain certain observations may seem to be a bit far-fetched and difficult to understand by the non-specialist, once the author has discussed them, he has the kindness of going back to the nuts and bolts of the issue at hand and placing the reader's feet back on familiar ground. This very interesting book will be of particular interest to science buffs with a penchant for astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology.

I enjoyed this book because it moves beyond the usual arm-waving of many cosmology books. Kanipe is a journalist, not a scientist, and it helps the book immensely. He explains concepts such as redshift and reionization in clear and understandable terms, and seasons his prose with amusing observations (one cosmologist is described as Keith Richards with a killer Powerpoint presentation).

Chasing Hubble's Shadows is also mainly about the frontiers of cosmology - discoveries that are being made now, not rehashes of old science as so many astronomy books can be. I felt as if I were traveling along with the researchers as they pushed the boundaries of knowledge ever-farther.

Highly recommended for anyone who wonders how the universe came to be - and isn't that everyone?

I found this book to be a very good report on the current state of the fields of astronomy and cosmology, particularly as to how they are concerned with investigations into the early development of the universe. It is very well balanced for a wide potential audience, neither too technical (with the danger of tuning out those with inadequate scientific knowledge), nor written so simply as to fail to add to our education as we read. I also thought the length of the book was about right, so that I never felt that the book dragged at any point. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the "universe around us", quite literally.

The "Red Hot Chili Peppers" once said, "space is the final frontier built in a Hollywood basement." They got the first part right, the latter not so much.

Space is a continuum that allows us to look back in time from the moment this universe was created to now. And one of the main reasons we can look into this frontier is because of the Hubble Space Telescope. With this fragile instrument hovering in space, we can see planets, solar systems, and galaxies billions of light years away that were formed in the aftermath of the Big Bang. We can attribute our knowledge of space to Edwin Hubble, creator of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Chasing Hubble's Shadows is a very well written book by science journalist Jeff Kanipe. Just under two hundred pages, Kanipe covers the importance of the Hubble Space Telescope and teaches the reader about the latest findings in astronomy and how these discoveries are leading to a better understanding of the cosmos. He also puts the Hubble Space Telescope's vast discoveries and heap of service to the field of cosmology into perspective by comparing it to its new successor and the LHC at CERN.

Even though the book was written in 2006, Chasing Hubble's Shadows has transcended time and does not feel antiquated by a reader in 2010. Events in astronomy and cosmology move quickly. Books that are even a few years old will be out of date in certain respects.

Another admirable thing is Kanipe's work is how he doesn't dwell too much on the history of the Hubble Space Telescope but focuses on the new and cool gadgets in astronomy. He also goes in-depth in explaining these new technologies.

When I read Chasing Hubble's Shadows I felt as if I was there when scientists were making these discoveries and finding more mysterious of the universe from dark matter to dark energy to reionization of stars.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants learn about the universe and the place we call home - don't YOU want to learn?

--
VB

This book is very readable, and makes no mathematical demands, but does tend to assume readers have a rough idea of some concepts used in cosmology, such as red shift, arcsecond, etc. But even if you don't, the dramatic impact is not lost as you are confronted by the amazing insights that astronomers have been able to gain about the universe, in particular as a result of the data collected by the Hubble telescope.

If your humility needs a refresher course, this is a good book to read! One human being is a mighty small part of the whole shebang.

Readers interested in Hubble's promise and achievements will be fascinated to learn more about telescope searches in CHASING HUBBLE'S SHADOWS: THE SEARCH FOR GALAXIES AT THE EDGE OF TIME. History and science blend in a lively dialogue that is a perfect pick for collections catering to lay readers already interested in basic astronomy and Hubble achievements in particular.