Netsurfer Recommendations

Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun
Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff
Harvard Univ Pr; ISBN: 0674004671

As a culture, we're far too easily distracted from story and hoodwinked by special effects. It shouldn't surprise us, then, that when we think of astronomy, when we think of stars, we tend to turn our backs on the familiar and gaze out toward the mystery of the night sky's black holes, nebulae and event horizons. Golub and Pasachoff remind us that we shouldn't overlook the blindingly obvious. Right here, in our own neighborhood, just 93 million miles down the block, is our very own star, warming and scorching us, feeding and starving us, powering us and periodically bringing us to a halt with its 38¹⁹-megawatt presence. The authors are dazzled by their subject and their fascination shines through each page. Don't be put off by the fact that they're serious scientists writing about serious science. They 're writing for a smart audience, yes, but they're wise enough to understand that smart people haven't necessarily studied physics. Their discussion of helioseismology, for instance, begins with a short survey of earthbound seismology. They don't try to draw strained parallels with earthquakes, though. They're talking about the study of phenomena, not the phenomena themselves. Gelatin, it turns out, will illustrate their point about seismology better than an earthquake can. The graphs are indeed scientific, but the authors detail the meaning and significance of every one of them and how each fits into the story of the sun's origins, its life and, ultimately, its destiny. There are lovely, graceful allusions throughout the book, broached but never quite spoken, that leave our imaginations fired. In one seemingly simple sentence about telescopes, they remind us that peering into the universe is a matter of penetrating time, not distance. Yeah, we knew that; we'd just never savored the notion. We haven't looked at the sun quite the same way since we read this book.