OUR ACCIDENTAL UNIVERSE

An astonishing tour of the key astronomical events of the past century and of all the accidents and human error involved in our pursuit of asteroids radio waves new stars and alien life Now updated to include a new Afterword A riveting real life Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy Telegraph An enjoyable tour of astronomical discoveries His excellent book is a layman s guide to the surprises Daily Mail Lintott s boundless enthusiasm for everything cosmic makes it hard to put this book away once you start reading BBC Sky at Night Magazine Entertaining and enlightening The Idler The BBC presenter of Sky at Night and Gresham Professor of Astronomy Chris Lintott takes us on an astonishing tour of bizarre accidents big characters and human error to tell the story of some of the most important astronomical events of the past hundred years Our first views of the earliest galaxies were brought to us by the Hubble Space Telescope when it was pointed at absolutely nothing The ice covered Enceladus one of Saturn s nearly one hundred moons was revealed as a