Many Skies

Many Skies
Author :
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Total Pages : 212
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780813553566
ISBN-13 : 0813553563
Rating : 4/5 (66 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Many Skies by : Arthur Upgren

Download or read book Many Skies written by Arthur Upgren and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-18 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if Earth had several moons or massive rings like Saturn? What if the Sun were but one star in a double-star or triple-star system? What if Earth were the only planet circling the Sun? These and other imaginative scenarios are the subject of Arthur Upgren's inventive book Many Skies: Alternative Histories of the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars. Although the night sky as we know it seems eternal and inevitable, Upgren reminds us that, just as easily, it could have been very different. Had the solar sytem happened to be in the midst of a star cluster, we might have many more bright stars in the sky. Yet had it been located beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, we might have no stars at all. If Venus or Mars had a moon as large as ours, we would be able to view it easily with the unaided eye. Given these or other alternative skies, what might Ptolemy or Copernicus have concluded about the center of the solar sytem and the Sun? This book not only examines the changes in science that these alternative solar, stellar, and galactic arrangements would have brought, it also explores the different theologies, astrologies, and methods of tracking time that would have developed to reflect them. Our perception of our surroundings, the number of gods we worship, the symbols we use in art and literature, even the way we form nations and empires are all closely tied to our particular (and accidental) placement in the universe. Many Skies, however, is not merely a fanciful play on what might have been. Upgren also explores the actual ways that human interferences such as light pollution are changing the night sky. Our atmosphere, he warns, will appear very different if we have belt of debris circling the globe and blotting out the stars, as will happen if advertisers one day pollute space with brilliant satellites displaying their products. From fanciful to foreboding, the scenarios in Many Skies will both delight and inspire reflection, reminding us that ours is but one of many worldviews based on our experience of a universe that is as much a product of accident as it is of intention.


Many Skies Related Books

Many Skies
Language: en
Pages: 212
Authors: Arthur Upgren
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-01-18 - Publisher: Rutgers University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What if Earth had several moons or massive rings like Saturn? What if the Sun were but one star in a double-star or triple-star system? What if Earth were the o
How Many Stars in the Sky?
Language: en
Pages: 36
Authors: Lenny Hort
Categories: Juvenile Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 1997-01-20 - Publisher: Harper Collins

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mama's away one night, and her son can't sleep. He tries to relax by counting stars, but the more of them he sees, the more determined he is to count every sing
Seas and Skies in Many Latitudes
Language: en
Pages: 518
Authors: Ralph Abercromby
Categories: Climatology
Type: BOOK - Published: 1888 - Publisher: London : E. Stanford

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

David Bellamy's Skies, Light and Atmosphere in Watercolour
Language: en
Pages: 43
Authors: David Bellamy
Categories: Art
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-05-15 - Publisher: Search Press Limited

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this second book in a series covering elements of the landscape, renowned watercolourist, David Bellamy shows how to paint skies, light and atmosphere and ho
The Nature Book
Language: en
Pages: 281
Authors: Tom Comitta
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-03-14 - Publisher: Coffee House Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Part sweeping evocation of Earth’s rhythms, part literary archive, part post-human novel, The Nature Book collages descriptions of the natural world into a si