Waiting for the Fourth of July fireworks gives us a chance to look up at the "fireworks" that are in our sky every night. If you want to know about our universe, the library has resources for both children and adults to learn about what meets our gaze and what is beyond it.
From the mysteries of our own solar system to those that surround unexplored galaxies, history and science collide in The Universe. This History Channel series on DVD employs cutting-edge computer-generated imagery to bring distant planets and faraway stars up close, allowing viewers to gaze at black holes and comets, and witness the births and deaths of galaxies and solar systems. The library has seasons 1-5 in the DVD section.
Ann Finkbeiner brings the excitement and extraordinary potential of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in A Grand and Bold Thing. Visionary astronomer Jim Gunn brought together hundreds of astronomers in a massive survey of the sky that stitched together images of deep space taken over the course of five years providing a detailed, three-dimensional map of a vast territory of the universe, all digitized and downloadable for easy searching on a personal computer, and available not only to professional astronomers but to the public as well.
"What if?" questions stimulate us to think in new ways. Neil F Comins leads us on a fascinating ten-world journey as we explore What if the Earth Had Two Moons? And Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations on the Solar System.
While gazing at the evening sky, we've all wondered if there are other inhabited planets. Soon astronomers expect to find alien Earths by the dozens in orbit around distant suns. Before the decade is out, telltale signs that they harbor life may be found. If they are, the ramifications for all areas of human thought and endeavor-from religion and philosophy to art and biology - will be breathtaking. In Strange New Worlds: the Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System, Ray Jayawardhana brings news from the front lines of the epic quest to find planets and alien life beyond our solar system.
Through the Wormhole hosted by Morgan Freeman explores the deepest mysteries of existence, the questions that have puzzled mankind for eternity. Who or what are we? Are we alone? How did life begin? What happened before? This Science Channel DVD series brings together the brightest minds and best ideas from the very edges of science to reveal the extraordinary truth of our universe. Includes 8 episodes.
Dava Sobel, author of the best-selling "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter," brings Copernicus and his intellectually and religiously tumultuous time alive in A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. Nicolaus Copernicus, himself a Catholic Church canon, feared the Church's response to his radical notion that Earth revolved around the Sun. His thesis, of course, altered nothing less than our view of our place in the cosmos.
-Caroline Jordan
Collection Development