Empire of the Stars by Arthur I. Miller, 0316725552, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

The blood on the carpet at the Royal Astronomical Society

Here's what you need to know about this book. It's a thrilling read. It's completely accurate. It is a superb account of how personal rivalries can sometimes intrude on the progress of science. And the science revealed here is truly amazing: neutron stars, black holes, the works. This book is much easier on the mind than A Brief History of Time.

Empire of the Stars, a very nice read!

This book concerns the discovery of S. Chandrasekar, that
white dwarfs have a maximum mass (1.4 times the mass of the
Sun) and how this was work was received by his fellow scientist,
in particular by Sir Arthur Eddington. The conclusions drawn
from Chandra's work was that more massive stars would continue
to collapse until nothing is left (i.e. black holes would
form; however, black holes were not yet discovered). It is
in particular this aspect which Eddington and other scientist
did not believe. Chandra's life in Cambridge and struggle(s)
(such as his fights against racism) is well described. In the
second part of the book, the author explains some aspects of
the physics involved.

Read this book and you will learn a lot about Chandra's life
(which is fascinating) and the consequences of his work.
The book is not meant to be about details of stellar evolution,
white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. Readers who want
to learn the physics in detail need to look elsewhere. However,
the book describes very nicely an important chapter in the
history of astrophysics. It will be of interest to everyone
who has interest in astronomy/astrophysics.

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