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Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions about Everything under the Sun, Moon, and Stars
 
 
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Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions about Everything under the Sun, Moon, and Stars [Paperback]

Neil de Grasse Tyson (Author), Stephen J. Tyson (Illustrator)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Price: $19.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

July 13, 1998
In a companion volume to Merlin's Tour of the Universe, here is a completely new collection of questions and answers about the cosmos for stargazers of all ages.  Whether waxing about Earth and its environs, the Sun and its stellar siblings, the world of light, physical laws, or galaxies near and far, Merlin--a fictional visitor from Planet Omniscia--is easy to understand, often humorous, and always entertaining.

Merlin fields a wide range of questions from many curious mortals, and in so doing draws on his own vast knowledge as well as the expertise of many close friends, including Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, and Santa.

So far, Merlin has not been stumped, responding to questions on mysteries such as:

If aliens exploded our moon, what effect would it have on us?
What are your thoughts on the theory that a star named Nemesis is circling our solar system and was responsible for killing off the dinosaurs?
Is it true that if I leave a container on my roof for a period of time, I can actually collect space particles from outer space?

Delightfully illustrated throughout, Just Visiting This Planet is a skywatcher's book for lovers of the universe by one of its brightest lights.

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Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions about Everything under the Sun, Moon, and Stars + Merlin's Tour of the Universe + Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Merlin, a scholar visiting Earth from the planet Omniscia in the Andromeda galaxy, is familiar to readers of Star Date magazine, published by the McDonald Observatory. Just Visiting This Planet is the second collection of questions and answers written by Merlin's alter ego, Neil de Grasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium. (The first collection was Merlin's Tour of the Universe.) Merlin is supersmart, sort of sassy, and he'll answer almost any question about the universe and the curious things in it. He's also really old, having rubbed elbow equivalents with the likes of Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, and Santa Claus. In this volume, you can find Merlin's explanations for easy puzzlers such as "How many galaxies are visible to the naked eye?" and "Who discovered the planet Saturn?" The smarty-pants extraterrestrial also tackles toughies like "If aliens exploded our moon, what effect would it have on us?" and "What is the meaning of 'apparent magnitude'?" Amateur astronomers and weekend stargazers alike will find a wealth of trivia with which to astound dinner guests, and those who like their science in easily digestible chunks will be pleased--sometimes Merlin gives one-word answers! If you're looking for long explanatory essays, look for a more loquacious little green man. --Therese Littleton

Review

"Tyson has created a space-age Merlin. An astrophysicist and educator, Tyson weaves together imaginative with straightforward science." --USA Today

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Main Street Books; 1 edition (July 13, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385488378
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385488372
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #991,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, director of the world-famous Hayden Planetarium, a monthly columnist for Natural History, and an award-winning author. He lives in New York City.

 

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Q&A On Outer Space, October 10, 2000
This review is from: Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions about Everything under the Sun, Moon, and Stars (Paperback)
I love to ponder the mysteries of outer space, from planetary factoids to quasar theories. This book is chock full of all this and everything in between. The Q&A are taken from a monthly astronomy magazine and written from the perspective of "Merlin" who is from the Andromeda galaxy. Merlin offers a fun and lively way to discover outer space. I consider this book to be a nice, light read for all ages.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
It depends on the size of your kitchen. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Milky Way, Albert Einstein, Lord Kelvin, Isaac Newton, South Pole, Northern Hemisphere, Mount Palomar, Mount Wilson, North Star, Big Dipper, Crab Nebula, Harvest Moon, Southern Hemisphere
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