Books for Adults

By Joshua Winn.For centuries, people have speculated about the possibility of planets orbiting distant stars, but only sine the 1990s has the technology allowed astronomers to detect them. At this point, more that five thousand such exoplanets have been identified, with the pace of discovery accelerating after the launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the Webb Space Telescope. In "The Little Book of Exoplanets", Princeton astrophysicist Joshua Winn offers a brief and engaging introduction to the search for exoplanets and the cutting-edge science behing recent findings.

By Chris Impey.This vibrant, eye-opening tour of the history of the universe takes us out in space and back in time from the familiar sights of the night sky to the dazzling strange aftermath of the Big Bang. Traveling to the brink of modern cosmology, Chris Impey illuminates such mind-bending concepts as invisible dimensions, timelessness, and multiple universes. In the process, he brilliantly describes the astronomical clues that scientist have used to solve mysteries about the origins and development of our universe.

by Stephen Hawking with Leonard MlodinowStephen Hawking's worldwide bestseller "A Brief History of Time" remains a landmark volume in scientific writing. But for years readers have asked for a more accessible formulation of its key concepts--the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, and the history and future of the universe. "A Briefer History of Time is Professor Hawking's response. Although "briefer," this book is much more than a mere explanation of Hawking's earlier work.

by Stephen Hawking and Leonard MlodinowWhen and how did the universe begin? Why are we hear? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent "grand design" of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion - or does science offer another explanation? In this startling and lavishly illustrated book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about these and other abiding mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by brilliance and simplicity.

Written by William Tyler OlcottMyths, Legends, and FactsGenerations of readers, stargazers, and fireside dreamers have delighted in this guide to the myths and legends surrounding the stars and constellations.

The Nature of Space and Time by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose. With an afterword by the authors.Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united into a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined?