What do you think?
Rate this book
Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmos
The James Webb Space Telescope is transforming the universe right before our eyes—and here, for the first time, is the inside account of how the mission originated, how it performs its miracles of science, and what its revolutionary images are revealing.
Pillars of Creation tells the story of one of the greatest scientific achievements in the history of civilization, a $10 billion instrument with a staggeringly ambitious goal: unlocking the secrets of the cosmos. Award-winning science writer Richard Panek stands us shoulder to shoulder with senior scientists as they conceive the mission, meet decades-long challenges to bring it to fruition, and, now, use its unprecedented technology to yield new discoveries about the origins of our solar system, to search for life on planets around other suns, and to trace the growth of hundreds of billions of galaxies all the way back to the birth of the first stars. The Webb telescope has captured the world’s imagination, and Pillars of Creation shows how and why—including through sixteen pages of awe-inspiring, full-color photos.
At once a testament to human ingenuity and a celebration of mankind’s biggest leap yet into the cosmos, Panek’s eye-opening book reveals our universe as we’ve never seen it before—through the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel that is itself a pillar of creation.
Pillars of Creation tells the story of one of the greatest scientific achievements in the history of civilization, a $10 billion instrument with a staggeringly ambitious goal: unlocking the secrets of the cosmos. Award-winning science writer Richard Panek stands us shoulder to shoulder with senior scientists as they conceive the mission, meet decades-long challenges to bring it to fruition, and, now, use its unprecedented technology to yield new discoveries about the origins of our solar system, to search for life on planets around other suns, and to trace the growth of hundreds of billions of galaxies all the way back to the birth of the first stars. The Webb telescope has captured the world’s imagination, and Pillars of Creation shows how and why—including through sixteen pages of awe-inspiring, full-color photos.
At once a testament to human ingenuity and a celebration of mankind’s biggest leap yet into the cosmos, Panek’s eye-opening book reveals our universe as we’ve never seen it before—through the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel that is itself a pillar of creation.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 22, 2024
About the author
Richard Panek
15 books79 followersRichard Panek, a Guggenheim Fellow in science writing, is the author of The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, which won the American Institute of Physics communication award in 2012, and the co-author with Temple Grandin of The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 21, 2024
If you, like me, have grown up reading books on physics, on cosmology and the Big Bang, you may have experienced, in more recent years, a sense of deja-vu. The new science books don't say anything new, they just rewrite the same old history of relativity vs quantum mechanics, some hand-waving about time, and then perhaps one chapter on new stuff. Don't get me wrong, physics is hard and progress is slow, I know that. But the book treatment doesn't seem to be the best way to convey this progress.
Which is why I found Pillars of Creation to be fantastic. Here's a book that reads like an extended Scientific American article on the history of recent discovery through the James Webb Telescope. And it does a brilliant job because it puts together both the thrill of success in getting an incredible feat of technology into space, and then the many bits and pieces of research being done through it. It's this smorgasbord of research topics that is so appealing. They touch on better understanding our solar system, studies of exoplanets, all the way to understanding how the universe evolved in its earliest (cosmologically speaking) époque. The first few chapters are about the telescope's history, now storied in the way it went above-budget and beyond any initial deadline. (A word of gratitude for deadline extensions!) Many mind-blowing details emerge in this fast-paced account -- planning for this telescope began before the Hubble project was even completed, for example!
I enjoyed the book a lot and recommend it.
Personal: got it from The Corner Bookstore and read it on the flight to Houston.
Which is why I found Pillars of Creation to be fantastic. Here's a book that reads like an extended Scientific American article on the history of recent discovery through the James Webb Telescope. And it does a brilliant job because it puts together both the thrill of success in getting an incredible feat of technology into space, and then the many bits and pieces of research being done through it. It's this smorgasbord of research topics that is so appealing. They touch on better understanding our solar system, studies of exoplanets, all the way to understanding how the universe evolved in its earliest (cosmologically speaking) époque. The first few chapters are about the telescope's history, now storied in the way it went above-budget and beyond any initial deadline. (A word of gratitude for deadline extensions!) Many mind-blowing details emerge in this fast-paced account -- planning for this telescope began before the Hubble project was even completed, for example!
I enjoyed the book a lot and recommend it.
Personal: got it from The Corner Bookstore and read it on the flight to Houston.
September 28, 2024
Did you know that even before Hubble launched, scientists were already planning the next generation’s space telescope? The James Webb Telescope has changed the game when it comes to viewing the universe around us. With its infrared capabilities, we’re able to see further than ever.
When the JWST deep field images were released to the public, I played the live stream on my phone during a staff meeting at work. With the volume off, and only able to glance at the screen under the conference table, I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. The deep field image from JWST was more than I ever could dream of. When my colleagues asked me what I was looking at, I said “Galaxies. Countless galaxies.” I’m sure I sounded crazy.
Since then, I’ve done my best to appreciate more of what Webb does, since the images the public sees may create awe, it’s the data and charts that may be harder to understand that are the true source of meaning. JWST can see exoplanets, and determine markers for different chemical signatures using spectroscopy. Will we one day determine that life exists on another planet with Webb? Maybe!
This book takes that excitement and puts a story around it. We learn about the telescopes of the past, and the people that did everything they could to see further and clearer into the universe. Countless advancements have brought us JWST, and I never really understood just how many! This book was able to describe complex concepts in an approchable and fun to read story format.
I’ve read a lot of nonfiction space science books, and this may be one of the most compelling books I’ve read in a long time.
Webb may still be doing science out there in the void, but scientists here on Earth are already working on the next group of groundbreaking telescopes. This is to ensure the progress of astronomy and our understanding of the universe, but also, it’s a gift to a future generation! How lucky we are to be alive today, in the Webb Generation!
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is now on my list of books to give to my space friends! Pillars of Creation comes out on October 22, 2024.
When the JWST deep field images were released to the public, I played the live stream on my phone during a staff meeting at work. With the volume off, and only able to glance at the screen under the conference table, I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. The deep field image from JWST was more than I ever could dream of. When my colleagues asked me what I was looking at, I said “Galaxies. Countless galaxies.” I’m sure I sounded crazy.
Since then, I’ve done my best to appreciate more of what Webb does, since the images the public sees may create awe, it’s the data and charts that may be harder to understand that are the true source of meaning. JWST can see exoplanets, and determine markers for different chemical signatures using spectroscopy. Will we one day determine that life exists on another planet with Webb? Maybe!
This book takes that excitement and puts a story around it. We learn about the telescopes of the past, and the people that did everything they could to see further and clearer into the universe. Countless advancements have brought us JWST, and I never really understood just how many! This book was able to describe complex concepts in an approchable and fun to read story format.
I’ve read a lot of nonfiction space science books, and this may be one of the most compelling books I’ve read in a long time.
Webb may still be doing science out there in the void, but scientists here on Earth are already working on the next group of groundbreaking telescopes. This is to ensure the progress of astronomy and our understanding of the universe, but also, it’s a gift to a future generation! How lucky we are to be alive today, in the Webb Generation!
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is now on my list of books to give to my space friends! Pillars of Creation comes out on October 22, 2024.
December 1, 2024
4.5/5.
History of JWST and the early results of it. Told in a compelling narrative that all science books should strive for.
History of JWST and the early results of it. Told in a compelling narrative that all science books should strive for.
December 25, 2024
Summary: The development of the James Webb Telescope and what scientists have discovered about the cosmos in its first years.
Perhaps it is fitting that this review posts on Christmas Day. Heavenly events feature in the accounts of the birth of Christ. For millenia, human beings have been peering into the night skies, trying to understand our place in the cosmos. When telescopes extended what we could see, we saw further and more detail, beginning with Galileo’s instruments. Large earth based reflector telescopes saw further. The Hubble, and now the James Webb telescopes see further yet. Each generation of telescopes have extended and expanded the horizons of our knowledge of the cosmos. Each has allowed us to see further back in time toward the beginning of everything. And each has revealed new details of the composition and physics of both near and distant objects.
In Pillars of Creation (a reference to one of the most spectacular images created by both the Hubble and Webb telescopes, a region that is a “star factory”), Richard Panek traces this history of our observational studies of the cosmos. He describes the twenty-five year process, beginning shortly after the Hubble launched, to plan for the next telescope. And it was decided that this would not only see deeper into the past, but to see spectra of light in the infrared region not previously observed. But this posed a tremendous engineering problem that involved separating the array that gathered sunlight to power the platform from instruments that needed to operate at close to absolute zero. Panek offers an account that gives one appreciation of the talent of scientists and engineers that built the Webb and planned its deployment–all of which worked!
On July 12, 2022, the Webb officially went into “science mode.” What Panek offers us is a preliminary report of what scientists have already discovered in the first two years. The most frequent comment of the scientists themselves seems to be “Wow.” Panek recounts some of the “wows” in terms of four horizons.
First Horizon: Close to Home: For Heidi Hammel, who first detected a ring around Neptune in Voyager’s 1989 flyby, it was an image of that ring captured thirty years later by the Webb. But the big deal was spectroscopy that could detect water within the solar system, including a giant plume being emitted by a moon of Saturn affecting the atmosphere of Saturn itself.
Second Horizon: Close to Homes. The Webb allows spectrographic observation of exoplanets outside our solar system. One of the most intriguing was the detection of possible evidence of dimethyl sulfide, a molecule that is a biomarker of life (at least on Earth). This was on K2-18 b, a planet 124 light years from earth. The search is for water on planets within habitable zones of stars. But Webb also explores the question of how, from the formation of stars onward, it got there.
Third Horizon: Across the Universe. One of the enigmas in cosmology is how much dust there is in the universe. Panek describes how a team of scientists studying the dust ejected by a supernova were detecting huge amounts. Some of the team didn’t believe it–an interesting study in the relentless pursuit of accuracy. After more data, comparisons with other supernovae, and more analysis, these scientist agreed–and found themselves closer to an explanation of all that dust.
Final Horizon: In the Beginning. Rebecca Larson was studying data looking far back in the universe and thought she detected spectra lines amid the ‘noise” of early elements where they should be on the electromagnetic spectrum. As others reviewed the data, it became increasingly clear that she had discovered the most distant object ever observed, from when the universe was 400 to 500 million years old.
And these are but beginnings. Scientists are sifting through mountains of data. Each new discovery brings with it new questions and more to investigate. And the Epilogue tantalizes us with discussions of the next telescope. How close to the beginning of the cosmos will it get us? And how much more will we learn about everything in between? What Panek does with both text and illustrations is to translate for the public what an amazing time it is for those who work in astrophysics. Wow.
_____________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Perhaps it is fitting that this review posts on Christmas Day. Heavenly events feature in the accounts of the birth of Christ. For millenia, human beings have been peering into the night skies, trying to understand our place in the cosmos. When telescopes extended what we could see, we saw further and more detail, beginning with Galileo’s instruments. Large earth based reflector telescopes saw further. The Hubble, and now the James Webb telescopes see further yet. Each generation of telescopes have extended and expanded the horizons of our knowledge of the cosmos. Each has allowed us to see further back in time toward the beginning of everything. And each has revealed new details of the composition and physics of both near and distant objects.
In Pillars of Creation (a reference to one of the most spectacular images created by both the Hubble and Webb telescopes, a region that is a “star factory”), Richard Panek traces this history of our observational studies of the cosmos. He describes the twenty-five year process, beginning shortly after the Hubble launched, to plan for the next telescope. And it was decided that this would not only see deeper into the past, but to see spectra of light in the infrared region not previously observed. But this posed a tremendous engineering problem that involved separating the array that gathered sunlight to power the platform from instruments that needed to operate at close to absolute zero. Panek offers an account that gives one appreciation of the talent of scientists and engineers that built the Webb and planned its deployment–all of which worked!
On July 12, 2022, the Webb officially went into “science mode.” What Panek offers us is a preliminary report of what scientists have already discovered in the first two years. The most frequent comment of the scientists themselves seems to be “Wow.” Panek recounts some of the “wows” in terms of four horizons.
First Horizon: Close to Home: For Heidi Hammel, who first detected a ring around Neptune in Voyager’s 1989 flyby, it was an image of that ring captured thirty years later by the Webb. But the big deal was spectroscopy that could detect water within the solar system, including a giant plume being emitted by a moon of Saturn affecting the atmosphere of Saturn itself.
Second Horizon: Close to Homes. The Webb allows spectrographic observation of exoplanets outside our solar system. One of the most intriguing was the detection of possible evidence of dimethyl sulfide, a molecule that is a biomarker of life (at least on Earth). This was on K2-18 b, a planet 124 light years from earth. The search is for water on planets within habitable zones of stars. But Webb also explores the question of how, from the formation of stars onward, it got there.
Third Horizon: Across the Universe. One of the enigmas in cosmology is how much dust there is in the universe. Panek describes how a team of scientists studying the dust ejected by a supernova were detecting huge amounts. Some of the team didn’t believe it–an interesting study in the relentless pursuit of accuracy. After more data, comparisons with other supernovae, and more analysis, these scientist agreed–and found themselves closer to an explanation of all that dust.
Final Horizon: In the Beginning. Rebecca Larson was studying data looking far back in the universe and thought she detected spectra lines amid the ‘noise” of early elements where they should be on the electromagnetic spectrum. As others reviewed the data, it became increasingly clear that she had discovered the most distant object ever observed, from when the universe was 400 to 500 million years old.
And these are but beginnings. Scientists are sifting through mountains of data. Each new discovery brings with it new questions and more to investigate. And the Epilogue tantalizes us with discussions of the next telescope. How close to the beginning of the cosmos will it get us? And how much more will we learn about everything in between? What Panek does with both text and illustrations is to translate for the public what an amazing time it is for those who work in astrophysics. Wow.
_____________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
October 13, 2024
Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmos by Richard Panek is a very highly recommended overview of some of the known advances to science and future potential discoveries due to the James Webb Space Telescope.
"For the past four hundred years, each new generation of astronomers has inhabited a new universe." As each generation makes advances more of the universe is revealed and the Webb Space Telescope is transforming the universe right before our eyes. It was launched in 2021 as a successor to the long-serving Hubble Telescope but the planning for it began even before the Hubble was launched. This is the inside account of how the mission originated, how it performs its miracles of science, and what its revolutionary images are revealing.
All the new images capture the imagination and interest of many amateur astronomers around the world who anticipate even more incredible. For those who follow the pictures released, many of us marveled at seeing the rings of Neptune. The new Pillars of Creation and deep space images showing innumerable galaxies.
This is not a comprehensive collection of all the known discoveries to date, but instead is an overview making the material comprehensible and digestible for the more casual reader who is interested. The chapters are composed of three components: personal experiences of scientist or scientists, a sampling of the scientific breakthroughs Webb has achieved, and the inclusion of a historical context. Included are notes, an appendix, charts explaining the science and technology, and sixteen pages of awe-inspiring, full-color photos.
Pillars of Creation is a great choice for those interested in the potential scientific discoveries of the Webb Space Telescope as well as a brief history of astronomy. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/1...
"For the past four hundred years, each new generation of astronomers has inhabited a new universe." As each generation makes advances more of the universe is revealed and the Webb Space Telescope is transforming the universe right before our eyes. It was launched in 2021 as a successor to the long-serving Hubble Telescope but the planning for it began even before the Hubble was launched. This is the inside account of how the mission originated, how it performs its miracles of science, and what its revolutionary images are revealing.
All the new images capture the imagination and interest of many amateur astronomers around the world who anticipate even more incredible. For those who follow the pictures released, many of us marveled at seeing the rings of Neptune. The new Pillars of Creation and deep space images showing innumerable galaxies.
This is not a comprehensive collection of all the known discoveries to date, but instead is an overview making the material comprehensible and digestible for the more casual reader who is interested. The chapters are composed of three components: personal experiences of scientist or scientists, a sampling of the scientific breakthroughs Webb has achieved, and the inclusion of a historical context. Included are notes, an appendix, charts explaining the science and technology, and sixteen pages of awe-inspiring, full-color photos.
Pillars of Creation is a great choice for those interested in the potential scientific discoveries of the Webb Space Telescope as well as a brief history of astronomy. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/1...
October 28, 2024
The long arc of science has illuminated two realities. 1) The need for the supernatural is evaporating. Indeed the world has become simpler because of science. The force that keeps you on the ground is exactly the same as the force that keeps planets going around the sun. No need for unique gods, each with their own superpower. 2) Man’s place in the universe is not special. Man may be very special, but earth is not unique, it’s just an average rock in orbit around an average sun, in an average galaxy among trillions. No longer is earth the center of the world. Its telescopes , microscopes and their cousins that have made these observations clear.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a massive and expensive undertaking. Nearly 20,000 people and millions of man hours of work, it certainly deserves a book. It is a Time Machine that can view the universe just after the Bing Bang. It has validated many theories, and brought others into question. The book concentrates on a few discoveries, and the people involved.
I was hoping for more of a coffee table book with each page showing photographs of the machine, graphs, the people, or the universe. That book needs to be written. This was more of a history book, with just a few seminal photographs.
History will determine if the $10 Billion price tag was worth it. That $ could have gone to countless immediate human needs. We must remember not all was perfect on the East coast when Lewis and Clark explored a path to the West coast.
In the words of Moana, “We were voyagers!”. Indeed we are curious explorers. I by default love books that discuss this passion.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a massive and expensive undertaking. Nearly 20,000 people and millions of man hours of work, it certainly deserves a book. It is a Time Machine that can view the universe just after the Bing Bang. It has validated many theories, and brought others into question. The book concentrates on a few discoveries, and the people involved.
I was hoping for more of a coffee table book with each page showing photographs of the machine, graphs, the people, or the universe. That book needs to be written. This was more of a history book, with just a few seminal photographs.
History will determine if the $10 Billion price tag was worth it. That $ could have gone to countless immediate human needs. We must remember not all was perfect on the East coast when Lewis and Clark explored a path to the West coast.
In the words of Moana, “We were voyagers!”. Indeed we are curious explorers. I by default love books that discuss this passion.
November 3, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for an eARC of Pillars of Creation by Richard Panek.
I want to start off with the fact that I'd been following the creation of the James Webb Telescope for a long time and I had so much excitement when it launched. Just to see the photos it started sending back made me feel so giddy, especially when they were compared to Hubble's (not bashing Hubble, that was the og). So, I was excited to see that someone wrote about the James Webb Telescope.
Richard Panek certainly delivers a riveting account of the JWST, a groundbreaking instrument that is reshaping the understanding of the universe. It is extremely clear that Richard Panek meticulously researched the origins of the JWST, the formidable challenges faced during its development, and the extraordinary discoveries that are emerging from its observations. The writing is engaging and informative, using accessible language appealing to both seasoned astronomy enthusiasts and curious newcomers (which makes all the difference compared to other books). There is also this wonderful behind the scenes of the scientists and engineers, adding in their stories which makes the development of this telescope deeply human. But, let's not forget there is sixteen pages of full-color photographs which showcase the views that JWST has provided and will have
I want to start off with the fact that I'd been following the creation of the James Webb Telescope for a long time and I had so much excitement when it launched. Just to see the photos it started sending back made me feel so giddy, especially when they were compared to Hubble's (not bashing Hubble, that was the og). So, I was excited to see that someone wrote about the James Webb Telescope.
Richard Panek certainly delivers a riveting account of the JWST, a groundbreaking instrument that is reshaping the understanding of the universe. It is extremely clear that Richard Panek meticulously researched the origins of the JWST, the formidable challenges faced during its development, and the extraordinary discoveries that are emerging from its observations. The writing is engaging and informative, using accessible language appealing to both seasoned astronomy enthusiasts and curious newcomers (which makes all the difference compared to other books). There is also this wonderful behind the scenes of the scientists and engineers, adding in their stories which makes the development of this telescope deeply human. But, let's not forget there is sixteen pages of full-color photographs which showcase the views that JWST has provided and will have
December 7, 2024
For this non-scientist, whose experience with astronomy has been limited to peering at the moon through a set of binoculars, author Richard Panek did a great job of explaining the amazing discoveries of both the Hubble and more recently the James Webb telescopes. It's fair to say that he considers these technologies and the science they have produced as far greater value than the other major endeavor of NASA - i.e. putting humans in Space. Thanks to this book, I have a basic understanding the electromagnetic spectrum and the science of spectroscopy. I am in awe of what the Webb telescope has seen and what we now understand about the universe: for example, that there is lots of water, lots of dust, and billions, if not trillions of galaxies, as well as countless planets that likely nurture life.
This is my favorite sentence, explaining the universe: "Cosmologists conceive of the history of the universe, not as an expansion INTO SPACE but as the expansion OF space, and they further conceive of the expansion of space as the thing we call time" Thank you, Richard Plank. now I can worry less and less about the day to day foibles of mortal man.
This is my favorite sentence, explaining the universe: "Cosmologists conceive of the history of the universe, not as an expansion INTO SPACE but as the expansion OF space, and they further conceive of the expansion of space as the thing we call time" Thank you, Richard Plank. now I can worry less and less about the day to day foibles of mortal man.
October 3, 2024
This is a book all about the development history of the JWST and some of the amazing finds that have been made as a result of the information it has provided. I picked this up because it sounded fascinating and it’s relatively short so I knew it would be a quick read.
This book was just as good as I was hoping it would be. I liked learning about the history of the telescope. I greatly enjoyed reading about all of the breakthroughs that have happened because of it. The book managed to successfully explain the concepts in a way that non-scientists can easily understand and absorb. The timeline seemed a little rushed with the explanation but like I said this is a very short book so it’s not like they could go too in depth into it.
Overall I very much liked this. I recommend this to non fiction fans, especially fans of books about science/space.
This book was just as good as I was hoping it would be. I liked learning about the history of the telescope. I greatly enjoyed reading about all of the breakthroughs that have happened because of it. The book managed to successfully explain the concepts in a way that non-scientists can easily understand and absorb. The timeline seemed a little rushed with the explanation but like I said this is a very short book so it’s not like they could go too in depth into it.
Overall I very much liked this. I recommend this to non fiction fans, especially fans of books about science/space.
October 10, 2024
This book chronicles the creation and groundbreaking discoveries of the JWST, a $10 billion space telescope unlocking the universe’s secrets. Through stunning images and firsthand accounts, it celebrates human ingenuity and the JWST’s unprecedented view of our cosmos, from the origins of our solar system to the birth of the first stars.
I enjoyed reading about the history of the JWST as well as the science. The book helped me understand a little more about how the JWST is an improvement over Hubble. There was a lot of hype in the leadup to the JWST launch, and I feel like we haven’t gotten our $10 billion worth yet (lol). My expectations are set a little better now, even if it’s hard to be patient. This book is a technological as well as a human story.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
I enjoyed reading about the history of the JWST as well as the science. The book helped me understand a little more about how the JWST is an improvement over Hubble. There was a lot of hype in the leadup to the JWST launch, and I feel like we haven’t gotten our $10 billion worth yet (lol). My expectations are set a little better now, even if it’s hard to be patient. This book is a technological as well as a human story.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
December 18, 2024
“For the past 400 years, each new generation of astronomers has inhabited a new and bigger universe, usually by a few moons or planets. Only twice has that occurred due to a new set of eyes — so to speak.”
“In the 1830s, French philosopher August Comte insisted that what was unknowable was unworthy of pursuing, citing the makeup of celestial bodies as impossible knowledge. Two years after his death, the means of acquiring that knowledge had been discerned.”
“Supernovas are the engines of evolution, both cosmic and human. Afterall, a supernova is just a burial, the ejection of self into the ether whence it came.”
“In the 1830s, French philosopher August Comte insisted that what was unknowable was unworthy of pursuing, citing the makeup of celestial bodies as impossible knowledge. Two years after his death, the means of acquiring that knowledge had been discerned.”
“Supernovas are the engines of evolution, both cosmic and human. Afterall, a supernova is just a burial, the ejection of self into the ether whence it came.”
December 18, 2024
I picked this up because I know little about space and have been so awed by the JWT photos. Safe to say that I learned a lot from this book, not only about what the photos are showing, but how the telescope came into existence in the first place. I recommend this book, even if you are only vaguely interested in space or science. Well written.
December 21, 2024
OMG! Picked it up from the library and couldn’t stop reading. Extremely compelling narrative of the science being done with this amazing instrument. Next I would love to read a book about the engineering of this telescope.
December 26, 2024
Great history lesson about space exploration. The book would be even better if you understood all of the science. If you are a space lover and who doesn’t have some interest, this is certainly worth reading.
December 8, 2024
A history of the funding of the JWST and its earliest findings.
December 14, 2024
Fascinating account written in layman’s terms of astronomical science’s advances primarily from the 1980’s to 2024 (including some prior history). Highly recommend.
December 16, 2024
Fascinating! Very informative.
Read
December 20, 2024great overview. hard to believe we are just over 2 years into data collection
December 24, 2024
I’m a CPA. This book was perfect for an amateur.
December 19, 2024
interesting but more about government trolling for money then science.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews