The Alchemy of the Heavens: Searching for Meaning in the Milky Way, Paperback

The Alchemy Of The Heavens offers an exciting and accessible survey of what we know about our galaxy. The home of the earth, the sun, and countless other stars, the Milky Way has long been an object of human fascintation, but it's been in the last forty years that astromoners and astrophysicists have made the most startling discoveries about our galaxy. Author Ken Croswell reveals that the Milky Way formed as many earlier galaxies collopsed and smashed together; that may of the elements in the galaxy--including the iron and carbon that course through our bodies--were born in exploding supernovae; that in all likelihood there is a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy, with a million times more mass than the sun, and that the Milky Way's oldest stars preserve the elements created in the big bang, thereby serving as "fossils" of the universe's earliest days. A captivating journey through the modern astronomy of the Milky Way, Croswell shows us how a deeper understanding of the nature and working of the galaxy can offer larger clues into the origins of the universe itself.

Ken Croswell is a California-based astronomer and author. Since earning his PhD in astronomy from Harvard University, he has written nine books: The Alchemy of the Heavens, finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Planet Quest, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Magnificent Universe, See the Stars, The Universe at Midnight, Magnificent Mars, Ten Worlds, and The Lives of Stars. His writing has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, Smithsonian, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as on StarDate, an astronomy radio show.