The Milky Way An insider's Guide by William H.Waller

The Milky Way An insider's Guide by  William H.Waller is a  cosmic travel in our Milky Way trying to discover its secrets.

When I read the introduction of the author, he fell in love for the Milky Way and he believed that maybe we are not alone in this Universe  when he was in his teenage age I understood something: that this book would have been great and would have made the difference. An open mind is precious. Not all astronomers believe that there are other worlds similar to the one where we are living in.

At first the author explains mythologically the born of the Milky Way. Men were interested in the past to give a legendary interpretation of our galaxy where we live into.

Old Greeks, their religion was polytheist, thought that the Milky Way was born when Hera, upset to seeing that she was breast-feeding another bastard son of her husband Zeus, Heracles, removed abruptly the baby. The milk flown away became the Milky Way.

During most recent centuries mr.Barnard proved the existence of comets (and not only) and other remarkable astronomers the role and existence of supernovae distant millions of light-years from our Milky Way.

Another important chapter that fascinated with the time scientists was the presence of the so-called Dark Matter in the Universe. In general dark matter is present where there is a massive presence of hydrogen.

In 1992 a supposition: that maybe we are not alone. Scientists discovered another extra-solar system. Astronomers discovered more than 800 planets beyond the solar system.

A special chapter involves the case of the so-called Black Hole Lair, Sagittarius A studied with attention.

In this book by Waller, if you are a passionate astronomer, you will find all that you want for reckoning stellar distances, luminosities, temperatures, size.

At the end you will find the astronomic historyof the Milky Way, born with the Big Bang 14 billion years ago. I found interesting what happened to the Universe. We must consider the Universe as a creature, so with a birth and changes during the phases of its existence. Not only: the author will reveal why it was possible the creation of life in our Planet.

The book contains a glossary and a bibliography.

I found the book interesting if compared to the ones I read in the past.
Modern, captivating, it will let you think a lot about the mystery of the Universe, what we understood and what men must still discover. It will be the best guide for most of your discoveries.

The message for us launched by the nocturnal sky speaks a language of past, a language of symbiosis with us. Stars, Planets, guardians of all of us, little fragments of a story long billion of years.





Anna Maria Polidori