Customer Reviews

Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun

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Many books that popularize certain scientific topics for a broad readership tend to be rather chatty and include several historical and biographical snipets. Not this book; it's densely packed with scientific information on its subject matter. From theories on the what happens in the sun's interior to the observed effects that solar activity has here on earth, this book covers most of it in fair detail. It is written clearly and the topics are well organized. Several colour plates, charts and diagrams do much to illustrate the ideas presented. Complete with a glossary, a list of references and an index, this book is well put together. It can serve as a springboard for readers who would like more details on certain specialized aspects of the workings of our nearest star. An excellent read!!

Popular science books have to walk a difficult line between scientific detail and an accessible level of simplification. Golub and Pasaschoff do an admirable job here of elucidating what is a highly technical and intricate field. I was reading from only a high-school level of physics knowledge but found most of the book to be comprehensible. Some points left me wondering but sometime I would like to reread and try to work these out. The authors writing style is commendably clear and delineates well what is known, what is likely and what is yet to be discovered using a set of great diagrams and also some beautiful colour slides. Frequently, you may find yourself wondering, "how can they possibly know in such detail about such a distant object?" Fortunately the authors provide excellent and entertaining histories of how our understanding of the sun has developed over the millenia and these are often the most interesting part. The best thing about the book overall though has to be the authors' enthusiasm for the subject which truly imparts to the reader a sense of awe and wonder for our nearest star. Although the subject matter is not as exotic as you might find in The Elegant Universe or Brief History of Time, this too is a highly entertaining and well written exposition of contemporary science for the layman.

I enjoyed reading this book. Sometimes it can be easy to forget just how fascinating our sun really is. This book helps in this regard. It describes the theories of what the sun was like 5 billion years ago, compared with what it is like today. It discusses the visible part of the sun, as well as the interior of the sun. It also discusses the process of what makes the sun shine, as well as affects on earth, as well as space weather. All is very fascinating, though very complex. At times it is difficult to follow, and at times it gets slightly off the topic. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about our sun.

This is a remarkably wide-ranging overview of topics relating to the Sun. It is, in fact, probably rather more wide-ranging than it needs to be. Rather than focusing on the subtitle, it includes chapters on eclipses and earth's climate as well as seemingly rather pointless asides on topics like carbon dating.

The core, however, is quite good, covering the history of solar science as well as our current understanding. A standout chapter covers planned space missions that will investigate the Sun, something I found particularly interesting since I am currently working on one of them (STEREO) and have worked on others in the past.

In summary, when it's good it's very good, but it tries to cover more than it needs to and disappoints in that respect.

This is a great introduction to the sun and various elements of its physics and its effects on the earth. It is written in straightforward, non-technical language, and is just a great read for scientist and non-scientist alike.

Nearest Star is a very well put together descritption of Solar features and physics aimed at the layman to the moderately experienced observer. I strongly recommend this book. Stephen Ramsden. [...]