Beyond the Solar System: Exploring Galaxies, Black Holes, Alien Planets, and More; A History with 21 Activities
Introduction How Do We Know About the Stars he next time you look up at the 3 000 or so stars visible in the night sky put yourself in the place of a prehistoric person Looking up at all those little lights in the darkness imagine what you think they are Tiny faraway campfires that never burn out Flying creatures carrying torches What does what you think about the stars say about you your beliefs how the world works and what controls
The Carina Nebula as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope NASA Today we know what stars are But the journey of human understanding of what's out in space where it all came from and how far from us it all is has taken many centuries Who made all these discover ies What were these discoverers like and why did they care so much What inventions new tools and technology helped them How did we learn what we know about the universe How are we finding out more today and what is still unknown These ques tions are what this book is
Prehistory 1600 Stargazers to Scientists eople have been exploring the universe for thousands of years Even cavemen gazing up at the stars were investigating what lay beyond in their own way Early humans believed they lived on a flat world Each day a godlike sun crossed the sky overhead The night sky was filled with trav eling lights and a changing moon Ancient people were wrong about Earth’s pancake shape and they didn't have a clue about black holes But this didn't keep them from putting what they did know about the universe to very good
