Astronomy/Cosmology for the innocent.

[TVC]

I would say key concepts are phase transitions, quantum tunnelling, space-time geometry, false vacuum, bubble nucleation, spontaneous symmetry breaking etc.

But apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?

 

[Hitchington]

This is excellent:

This looks very good (recently published):

And this is my favourite read so far on cosmological biology:

This got me into space sciences all those years ago when I was 11 (if only I had paid more attention in maths at school I could be working in physics or cosmology now....), but if you can get a copy (out of print) it's a very entertaining read travelling from our moon to distant quasars and early galaxies on the edge of the known universe (it's a farking long way!):

And last but no means least:

 

[Hitchington]

I would also recommend listening to Radio 4 podcasts The Infinate Monkey Cage and The Life Scientific for accessible programmes on the subject.

 

[Drago]

Norton's Star Atlas. Very dry, but facts neatly presented in a half reference, half hobbyist format.

 

[Salty seadog]

Space is big. Really big. So big it's hard to imagine just how big space really is.

You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

Good old Dougie.....

 

[annedonnelly]

If you fancy an online course there are a couple of astronomy related ones on FutureLearn. I've done both Moons and In The Night Sky: Orion - both very enjoyable.

 

[marinyork]

But apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?

My point is if you do it at university for example you go to a lecture and it's presented as Goldstone's Theorem . I've read a lot of popular science books and think (already mentioned in some of the books on this thread) it is presented better in popular science books (if you spot it) - various analogies and then the pac man one.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I like this quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, on why the population of the universe is zero:

None. Although you might see people from time to time, they are most likely products of your imagination. Simple mathematics tells us that the population of the Universe must be zero. Why? Well given that the volume of the universe is infinite there must be an infinite number of worlds. But not all of them are populated; therefore only a finite number are. Any finite number divided by infinity is as close to zero as makes no odds, therefore we can round the average population of the Universe to zero, and so the total population must be zero.

So, feel free to get a book on the universe, but just remember that you don't really exist.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Thanks for the recommendations, particularly to Hitch for putting so much effort in.

I'm going to go with Prof Pointy's recommendation at first,with Marin's duly logged (it is bloody expensive!) and with Hitch's also logged.

 

[Surlydave]

Check out Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, apparently space is really big.

 

[marinyork]

Thanks for the recommendations, particularly to Hitch for putting so much effort in.

I'm going to go with Prof Pointy's recommendation at first,with Marin's duly logged (it is bloody expensive!) and with Hitch's also logged.

It is disappointingly expensive. Hmmm not sure why that is these days. Wonder whether the price has got jacked up with OU cuts.

There are loads of really good popular science books. I would recommend one of Paul Davies's other ones in particular, just it's not about Cosmology per se, many of the above books aren't. For example The Hidden Reality by Briane Greene is a book more about Cosmology than his others, but I haven't read it. That's not to put you off, the others are good books. Depends which direction you are coming from you were saying stars/galaxies structure with cosmology and that was why I recommended the OU book as half is on galaxies and half on cosmology.

Anne makes a good suggestion above. I've known a few people to do MOOCs (not necessarily through FutureLearn) on the area.

 

[Andy in Sig]

If you fancy an online course there are a couple of astronomy related ones on FutureLearn. I've done both Moons and In The Night Sky: Orion - both very enjoyable.

There are two moons? Jesus! I really do need to catch up with my reading!!!

 

[MontyVeda]

Careful now... I think she got cautioned for one them.

 

[Chris S]

If the universe is exanding then what's it expanding into?

 

[midlife]

Quite outdated but a good read and covers some history, "The God Particle" by Leon Lederman.

Shaun