Button Books £12.99ISBN 978-1-78708-135-2
If you are going to explore something then there isn’t a bigger topic than space – it’s huge and has two trillion galaxies and so this fun fact filled book starts off with the big bang before getting into something a little more amangeable in size – like the solar system. Is there a ninth planet? What is the sun made of? What is the Kuiper belt? When will Mars get it’s own ring?
Moving on we look at the Milky Way, of which the Earth is a pretty insignificant part. Our solar system is one of just 200 billion. Our sun takes 200 million years to complete its orbit around the centre. Black holes and dark matter are introduced as well as the life cycle of a star. Space rockets and exploration are introduced and we find out what is thew most expensive man made obect (150 billion dollars worth). How do you scratch a nose in a space suit? Read on!
Towards the end there is a ‘Big Space quiz’ with a few hints about key pages in the questions, but it will certainly see if you have gained an overall grasp of the topic. How wide is the observable universe – 93 billion light years!
Naturally there is a glossary and apparently Pluto (not even a planet anymore) still gets four mentions.Spread over nearly 100 pages and with colour diagrams, drawing and photographs this dips into many topics that you may have heard and explains them without getting too texty and heavy. That’s the beauty of this series of books – they are punchy and not too serious and designed to instill more questions into inquisitive minds.