REVIEW: Space: The 10 Things You Should Know by Dr. Becky Smethurst

An out-of-this world guide to all things astronomy

SPACE: 10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW by Dr Becky Smethurst Published on 5th September 2019 by Orion

I've always been fascinated by the night sky and the mysteries of space - who hasn't? It's an ever present part of our lives, and it's only thanks to a Goldilocks-precise set of criteria that we, as humans on planet Earth in our solar system in the Milky Way, exist.

That said, I've always been slightly put off by some of the astronomy books I've seen, which feature complicated mathematical formula or incredibly difficult concepts that I struggle to get my head around and end up frustrated with. So when Space: 10 Things You Should Know popped up, I was delighted to see a concise book which endeavored to explain some of the core fundamentals and biggest mysteries of space in a user-friendly format that even I could understand.

Did the book succeed in being informative without sacrificing readability? I'm pleased to say that yes, it did.

The book features 10 chapters, each tackling a different aspect of space in concise, but packed, detail. There's chapter on gravity, why the night sky is dark, dark matter, the likelihood of aliens and the author's particular specialty, black holes. I came away not only with a better understanding of some of these concepts, but also some great nuggets of information. For instance, I never knew that seasons were caused by the Earth being on a tilted axis - Summer in your hemisphere is when the planet tilts you nearer to the sun, and Winter is when you're tilted further away.

The author also tackles well the question of how far we've really come in our understanding, and how far we are away from unlocking more mysteries of the universe. She's clear that we've come a long way since even 100 years ago, but that a lot of our understanding and computation of the universe has been shaken by the existence and significance of subatomic particles and dark matter. In some ways, she points out, we're still as in the dark as we've ever been. It's a sobering thought but important to ground our understanding - we are rather well known, as humans, for inflating our own successes, after all.

The writing is very pleasant - simple but with enough turns of phrase and metaphors to be pleasing to read. For instance, the axis that the Earth is on (23 degrees) is described as 'like a dog lovably cocking their head at you' and the writer numerous times explains our judgement of distance in space through the example of crossing a road at night and assessing the distance of a car by the brightness of its headlights. It all helps to add colour to a subject which, while fascinating, could also be very dry.

Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend this as an introduction to astronomy and space for an interested reader without much background. It's a short, accessible read but dense with content and perfect to broaden out the reader's knowledge base. On top of the fascinating content, it's also beautifully written, and I'd like to end the review with a quote that sums this up, but also illustrates some of the challenges of our understanding of space:

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I received a review copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Thanks to Orion for accepting my request.