This book is a masterpiece! It presents excerpts from 100 seminal works from the ancient Greeks to Newton, to Einstein, and up to the last decade. Many of the excerpts are only a couple of pages long, and most or all of the math has been removed. Each group of excerpts are preceded by a short, concise piece written by the author that sets the stage for that series. Amazing! This book brings you into the discovery process. You can read pieces of the early papers on quasars, and sense the incredulity at these amazing objects. You can read Einstein work around the mass-energy equivalence, but not quite get to E=MC^^2. You'll read how Fred Hoyle, proponent of the Steady State Universe, inadvertently coined the term for the "other side" of the debate with "Big Bang." This book is full of gems. If you have any interest in astronomy or cosmology this book is simply a must read!

An unparalleled history of astronomy presented in the words of the scientists who made the discoveries. Here are the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, Hubble, and Einstein, as well as that of dozens of others who have significantly contributed to our picture of the universe.

From Aristotle's proof that the Earth is round to the 1998 paper that posited an accelerating universe, this book contains 100 entries spanning the history of astronomy. Award-winning science writer Marcia Bartusiak provides enormously entertaining introductions, putting the material in context and explaining its place in the literature. Archives of the Universe is essential reading for professional astronomers, science history buffs, and backyard stargazers alike.

1. THE ANCIENT SKY

 1 Mayan Venus Tables

 2 Proof That the Earth Is a Sphere

 3 Celestial Surveying

 4 Measuring the Earth's Circumference

 5 Precession of the Equinoxes

 6 Ptolemy's Almagest

2. REVOLUTIONS

 7 Copernicus and the Sun-Centered Universe

 8 Tycho Brahe and the Changing Heavens

 9 Johannes Kepler and Planetary Motion

 10 Galileo Initiates the Telescopic Era

 11 Newton's Universal Law of Gravity

 12 Halley's Comet

 13 Binary Stars

3. TAKING MEASURE

 14 The Speed of Light

 15 The Solar System's Origin

 16 Discovery of Uranus

 17 Stars Moving and Changing

 18 The First Asteroid

 19 Distance to a Star

 20 Discovery of Neptune

 21 The Shape of the MilkyWay

 22 Spiraling Nebulae

4. TOUCHING THE HEAVENS

 23 Spectral Lines

 24 Deciphering the Solar Spectrum

 25 Gaseous Nebulae

 26 Doppler Shifts and Spectroscopic Binaries

 27 Classification of the Stars

 28 Giant Stars and Dwarf Stars

 29 Hydrogen: The Prime Element

 30 Stellar Mass, Luminosity, and Stability

 31 Sunspot Cycle, Sun/Earth Connection, and Helium

 32 Origin of Meteors and Shooting Stars

 33 Cosmic Rays

 34 Discovery of Pluto

5. EINSTEINIAN COSMOS

 35 Special Relativity and E = mc2

 36 General Relativity and the Solar Eclipse Test

 37 Relativistic Models of the Universe

 38 Big Bang Versus Steady State

 39 White DwaffStars

 40 Beyond the White Dwarf

 41 Supernovae and Neutron Stars

 42 Black Holes

 43 Source of Stellar Power

 44 Creating Elements in the Big Bang

 45 Cosmic Microwave Background Predicted

 46 Creating Elements in the Stars

 47 A Star's Life Cycle

6. NEW EYES,NEW UNIVERSE

7. ACCELERATING OUTWARD

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index