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Astronomical concepts can be truly hard to comprehend, especially those of planetary sizes and distances from Earth and from each other. These concepts are made more comprehensible by the group of illustrations in this book, which put scale extraterrestrial objects side by side with objects on Earth we can more easily relate to. For example, study the pictures of Earth floating above Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the asteroid Itokawa resting beside Toronto's CN Tower. These mind-bending images bring things better into perspective and will help you understand the size and scale of our Solar System.
In later chapters, you will be told how close the visionaries of the past came to guessing what today's explorers would find. Astronomer/painter Lucien Rudaux's masterpieces of Mars dust storms anticipated Viking and Mars rover images by nearly a century. Space artist Ludek Pesek envisioned astronauts setting up camp on the lunar surface in scenes hauntingly similar to photos taken by Apollo astronauts decades later. But the real benefit of this work is in better grasping the nature of our universe -- how big it is, now large it is, and how we fit into it.
List of contents
Preface: The Long and the Short of It.- Part One: Our Place in the Cosmos.- Chapter One: Asteroids, Comets, and Our Cosmic Landscape.- Chapter Two: Ice Dwarfs and Tiny Moons.- Chapter Three: The Weirdest Moons, Large and Small.- Chapter Four: A Tour of the Planets.- Chapter Five: Bright, Shining Stars.- Chapter Six: Nebulae, Galaxies, and the Edge of All Things.- Chapter Seven: Understanding Scale in the Universe.- Part Two: Our Place in Time.- Chapter Eight: The Worlds Around Us.- Chapter Nine: Space Travel.- Index.
About the author
Michael Carroll is a space artist and science writer. He has done commissioned work for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His art has appeared in several hundred magazines throughout the world, including National Geographic, Time, Asimov's Science Fiction, Smithsonian, Astronomy, and others. One of his paintings was flown aboard Russia's MIR space station in 1995. Recent murals include the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Fleet Science Center in San Diego, and Lockheed/Martin. Carroll is a Fellow of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts and has written articles and books on topics ranging from space to dinosaurs to biblical archaeology. His articles have appeared in Popular Science, Astronomy, Astronomy Now (UK), Sky & Telescope, and a host of children's magazines. In 2007, he was awarded the Lucien Rudaux Award for lifetime contribution to the astronomical arts. Carroll has authored three books already for Springer, entitled "The Seventh Landing" (2009), "Drifting in Alien Skies (2011)" and "Alien Seas" (2013).
Summary
Astronomical concepts can be truly hard to comprehend, especially those of planetary sizes and distances from Earth and from each other. These concepts are made more comprehensible by the group of illustrations in this book, which put scale extraterrestrial objects side by side with objects on Earth we can more easily relate to. For example, study the pictures of Earth floating above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and the asteroid Itokawa resting beside Toronto’s CN Tower. These mind-bending images bring things better into perspective and will help you understand the size and scale of our Solar System.
In later chapters, you will be told how close the visionaries of the past came to guessing what today’s explorers would find. Astronomer/painter Lucien Rudaux’s masterpieces of Mars dust storms anticipated Viking and Mars rover images by nearly a century. Space artist Ludek Pesek envisioned astronauts setting up camp on the lunar surface in scenes hauntingly similar to photos taken by Apollo astronauts decades later. But the real benefit of this work is in better grasping the nature of our universe -- how big it is, now large it is, and how we fit into it.
Report
"The premise of the book is to put the Universe to scale using more-easily-understood analogies. And where comparison pictures, like that on the cover, are used, this premise works well. ... Overall, this is a book packed with information and many good illustrations. ... it does present much of current astronomical knowledge in an original way." (Debra Holton, The Observatory, Vol. 137 (1257), April, 2017)
"It uses familiar objects or time frames to create a sense of scale that helps the reader visualize the sizes and the distances between extraterrestrial bodies and structures ranging from asteroids to galaxy clusters. ... Picture This! is well formatted. Its wide margins keep the text to an easy-to-read size and provide space for explanatory footnotes. The photographs are almost three-dimensional in their clarity." (Loretta Hall, National Space Society, nss.org, February, 2017)
"Carroll uses many original illustrations and is generally successful in the process, especially with figures that compare features on moons and planets with similar features on Earth. ... the book is recommended for persons interested in the solar system, rather than as a general introduction to modern astronomy. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and general readers." (D. E. Hogg, Choice, Vol. 54 (3), November, 2016)
"In Picture This! space artist and science writer Michael Carroll takes on astronomy. ... Carroll uses the scale drawings as a set-up for exciting astronomy stories. ... great for science enthusiasts and those interested in the general ideas of science without overwhelming the reader with the details. And as a scientist, I enjoyed ... the scale drawings in Picture This!" (Rhett Allain, Nature Physics, Vol. 12, June, 2016)
