Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Having played a leading role in helping us to shape our current understanding of the universe, the Hubble Space Telescope has far exceeded its original mission parameters and is currently running strictly on borrowed time. As a fitting memento, Scott offers an array of the instrument's breathtaking deep-space photos, paired with a description of the telescope's components, an account of space shuttle Atlantis's final scheduled repair/maintenance mission in mid-2009, and overviews of the history of astronomy, the Big Bang, black holes, dark matter and dark energy, stellar life cycles, and planetary formation. Though the author's fact-checking could have been better-Kepler correctly described planetary orbits as elliptical before, not after, Galileo published a claim that they were circular-her prose is, as always, clear, cogent, and imbued with a sense of wonder proper to the awesome scale and beauty of the phenomena she describes. Closing with a probably optimistic hope that the Hubble will continue to function for another decade and a reference to its most prominent successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014, Scott's tribute tribute will leave readers with both stars in their eyes and a real appreciation for one of the most significant technological wonders of the past century.-John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In 2009, the last approved repair mission for the Hubble Telescope marked the beginning of the end for this remarkable astronomical tool. Scott covers this mission (also one of the last for another NASA achievement, the Space Shuttle) as well as the highlights of the Hubble-supported science and technology advancements of the past two decades. The book is filled with the amazingly clear, color-enhanced images of planets, stars, and nebulae that we've become accustomed to, but Scott also explains the less showy but significant science made possible by the Hubble's instruments: calculations of the age of the universe and evidence for dark energy and black holes. Scott carefully traces the history of ideas that led to each of these discoveries and includes profiles of prominent astronomers and sidebars filled with additional information and definitions. Though many questions have been answered by the Hubble data, Scott shows that many more questions remain for the ten years of functionality left in the Hubble telescope. danielle j. ford (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
