Discovering the Essential Universe

Neil Comins’ Discovering the Universe confronts the challenges of the one-term astronomy course by heightening student curiosities about the cosmos, by using the context of astronomy to teach the process of science, and by highlighting common misconceptions and showing students how to think their way past them. With its signature combination of vivid writing and spectacular images, the new edition offers new findings, new study help, and an expanded new media/supplements package centered on W.H. Freeman’s breakthrough online course space, LaunchPad.

Neil F. Comins is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Maine and author of popular scientific books, articles, and textbooks. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from University College, Cardiff, Wales. He is the author of What If the Earth Had Two Moons?

1. Discovering the Night Sky
2. Gravitation and the Waltz of the Planets
3. Light and Telescopes
4. Formation of the Solar System
5. Exoplanets
6. The Terrestrial Planets and Their Moons
7. The Outer Planets and their Moons
8. Vagabonds of the Solar System
9. The Sun. Our Extraordinary, Ordinary Star
10. Characterizing Stars
11. The Lives of Stars from Birth Through Middle Age
12. The Deaths and Remnants of Stars
13. The Galaxies
14. Cosmology
15. Astrobiology