WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 51the solar system? In the Milky Way? In
other galaxies?”
We just don’t yet know. The numbers
are staggering. By taking very deep expo-
sures of small areas of sky with the
Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers
have estimated that something like 100
billion galaxies must exist in the uni-
verse. And that’s in the visible universe,
which may not represent the whole uni-
verse that exists. But for simplicity’s sake,
let’s say that it does. Let’s say that an
average galaxy contains 100 billion stars,
as many dwarfs are smaller than our gal-
axy. Multiplying that out gives us the
approximate number of stars in the uni-
verse as something like 10,000 billion
billion. That’s an awful lot of stars.
Is it possible that our little blue planet
Earth is the only place in the entire uni-
verse with life? Or with a civilization? It
would seem almost completely unbeliev-
able. Our whole heritage of discovery in
astronomy has com-
menced with Earth
being at the center of
everything, the most
special place there is,
and finding out how
disastrously wrong
that idea is. Now we
know that chemistry is uniform
throughout the cosmos, and that complex
organics, the stuff of life, exist in all
manner of places out in space.
And yet we know, thus far, of just one
planet in the cosmos that hosts life: ours.
The story of nebulae, these cosmic clouds,
can lead us on an exciting exploration of
all these questions, of why we’re here on a
watery little world, how we got to be where
we are, and what the universe holds at
large. After all, the very atoms that make
up our bodies were born in the Big Bang
and in the explosions of massive stars. We
are indeed children of the cosmos.COSMIC CLOUDS 3-D
IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT
http://www.MyScienceShop.comAstronomy Editor David J. Eicher is the
author of 25 books on science and history.
Brian May is an astronomer and founding
member and guitarist of the legendary rock
band Queen.This story is adapted from Cosmic Clouds
3-D: Where Stars Are Born, by David J. Eicher,
Creative Director Brian May, and 3D images
by J.-P. Metsävainio, © 2020 by London
Stereoscopic Co. and MIT Press, Boston.Cosmic Clouds 3-D: Where Stars Are Born
by David J. Eicher, Creative Director Brian
May, and 3D images by J.-P. Metsävainio,
presents a new and unique story of the
life cycles of stars and nebular clouds,
where they are born, and how they die.
This visually amazing volume, with text
and 3D images, takes readers inside the
birthplaces of stars — the cosmic clouds
called nebulae. Seen in the night sky,
they glow, energized by the new stars
within and around them. Cosmic Clouds
3-D offers hundreds of magnificent
images of nebulae captured by ground-
based and space telescopes. Along with
the high-resolution views of nebulae are
unique stereo views that show the
nebulae in three dimensions.
The story of elements in nature, of why
we are here, and of our cosmic roots, is
strongly tied to the story of stars in our
galaxy and universe. And that means
exploring the lives of stars, how stars
come to be, what happens during their
lifetimes, and how they, too — like
humans — eventually die. We may not
all know it, but we are part of the biggest
recycling program that exists — the birth,
life, and death of stars.
This is a detailed story, and we aim
to share it with you in this unique book.
You’ll learn about many aspects of
the universe as you travel
through the tale of cosmic
clouds. Our tale involves
detours of science, history,
and maybe even a bit of
philosophy.
A 3D viewer, designed
by astrophysicist (and lead
guitarist with the rock group
Queen) Brian May, is included
with the book.EXPLORE FROM HOME
NGC 6960 is the westernmost portion of the great Veil Nebula in Cygnus, one of
the sky’s best supernova remnants. Appearing to slice right through the bright star
52 Cygni, the nebula actually lies far behind the star. Sometimes called the Witch’s
Broom, this nebula sits some 1,470 light-years away and is expanding into the
surrounding medium, causing the ionized shock front that we see. DON GOLDMAN