Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence

Cosmologist Sutter, creator of the podcast “Ask a Spaceman!” and contributing editor for Space.com, relates complex ideas with humor and clarity in his enthusiastic look at “all the gory physics on scales small and great” across the universe. Each topic receives a delightfully irreverent—but thoroughly accessible—treatment, from Ptolemy’s early “eye-rollingly wrong” Earth-centered model of the universe, through Tycho Brahe’s work in “his own private fortress of science,” in Danish Uraniborg, to the “frightfully messy” universe of papal “frenemy” Galileo, “the astronomer’s astronomer and the curmudgeon’s curmudgeon.” Sutter shows readers how improved observations and progressive advances in physics and astrophysics have afforded humankind a glimpse of the earliest moments after the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago. From antimatter and black holes to dark matter, dark energy, and the Cosmic Web—the amazing weave of voids and strings of galaxies shaped by gravity and time that make up the universe—this excellent resource celebrates the wonders of space. Sutter’s brisk, often humorous writing and gift for clear explanations make this the perfect choice for readers looking to understand the universe on scales both human and cosmic. Agent: Lane Heymont, the Tobias Literary Agency. (Nov.)