Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge

Leading experts explain the discoveries of modern astrophysics in an illustrated companion to the American Museum of Natural History’s newly renovated Rose Center for Earth and Space. Cosmic Horizons illuminates the most recent discoveries of modern astrophysics with essays by leading astronomers, including NASA scientists. The book also features profiles of astronomers such as Carl Sagan and Georges Lemaître (father of the Big Bang theory), case studies that cover the controversial evidence for the possibility of life on Mars, and stunning four-color photographs throughout. Written for the general reader, Cosmic Horizons makes the complex, abstract areas of astronomy and astrophysics—from the Big Bang to black holes—accessible and comprehensible to the public. Complementing the museum’s acclaimed new Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center exhibition, the book investigates how the universe expands to produce galaxies, stars, and planets, and, perhaps, life on other worlds. It also examines some of the emerging technologies that make these discoveries possible. With more than eighty full-color images and a resource section that includes a bibliography and an extensive glossary, Cosmic Horizons offers a new appreciation of the complexities of time and space and a greater understanding of our fragile planet and the universe beyond. Four-color illustrations throughout. The New Press is pleased to announce the publication of this new title with the American Museum of Natural History, a collaboration that began with the publication of Epidemic! in 2000. Founded in 1869, the American Museum of Natural History in New YorkCity is one of the world’s preeminent institutions for scientific research and education, visited by more than four million people annually. Three new titles, Earth, The Biodiversity Crisis, and Cosmic Horizons, are companion volumes to three major new permanent exhibitions at the museum: the David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, the Hall of Biodiversity, and the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. Author Biography: Steven Soter is a member of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. He was a cowriter, with Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, of the Cosmos television series, and co-author with Ann Druyan of the new Hayden Planetarium’s inaugural sky show. Neil de Grasse Tyson is director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium. He has authored five books on the universe, including The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist. He is also a monthly columnist for Natural History magazine and was the project scientist for the Hall of the Universe in the Rose Center for Earth and Space.