Eating the Sun

THE MOST LUMINOUS OBJECTS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

Your luminosity is intrinsic, but your brightness will depend on who is looking at you. In astronomy, the luminosity of an object is the total amount of energy that it emits across all wavelengths, measured over time. It is often used when referring to stars, whose luminosity will depend on their size, and mass, and temperature. Brightness (formally known as apparent brightness), although related to luminosity, varies wildly depending on the location, positioning, or proximity of the observer. Something with great luminosity might, to us, seem nothing more than a fleck of dust, only because it s sitting and burning and minding its own business unthinkably far away. For a human standing on the surface of the planet, the brightest object is the nighttime star Sirius, primarily because it is a mere 8.6 light-years away. It is by no means the most luminous star, though, and even within the constellation containing Sirius, Canis Major, at least three other stars are thousands of times more luminous; they only appear fainter as they are so much farther away. Even the most ordinary of stars seem noteworthy from where we are, and so we point at those pins of ancient light, nod at the brightness, assign them names and neighbors. In February 1963, a Dutch astronomer named Maarten Schmidt was analyzing an unusually bright speck in the sky, slowly realizing that while he had thought it might be a nearby star, it actually was something entirely different: not close at all, but rather 2 billion light-years away, and in order for it to still be so bright at that distance it would have to be more than anything known at the time. Schmidt named this object a quasar, which is short for quasi-stellar object, or QSO. Named 3C 273, it is located in the constellation Virgo, and optically speaking is the brightest of the bunch. In the fifty or so years since this discovery, hundreds of thousands of quasars have been observed. They

Ella Frances Sanders

Praise for Eating the Sun

[A] lyrical and luminous celebration of science and our consanguinity with the universe. . . . Playful and poignant.   Brain Pickings

Sanders elucidates many of the wonders of our world . . . Each inspiring snapshot feeds the curiosity of anyone interested in exploring the universe that we exist in and that exists in us.   Scientific American

With this pairing of witty illustrations and an open-weave narrative strong on science but just this side of poetry Ella Frances Sanders has penned a pocket-sized book vast in ambition.   Nature

Ella Frances Sanders uses intricate illustration and thoughtful articulation to ask and answer the big questions about the universe, the solar system, and the world, marveling at the way nature works in a way that s both visually and intellectually powerful.   Food52

If you re looking for a book to ignite passion in science, and a reminder that despite the misery shown daily in the news the universe is in actual fact quite beautiful, then you should read this book.   Chemistry World 

Sanders beautifully personifies the universe with lyrical prose and whimsical color illustrations . . . poetic yet scientifically illuminating . . . Sanders renders [scientific] language both accessible and appealing to her audience. Even more importantly, she consistently captures a sense of awe and wonder at the universe, and ignites (or reignites) that same sense in the reader. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A wonder-filled excursion into the sometimes-baffling and formidable world of science. . . . Presenting information in a charming, conversational style, the author seeks to demystify science with panache. . . . A fun, accessible introduction to a variety of scientific topics that readers can explore further. Kirkus Reviews

In this sweet and optimistic new book, author-illustrator Sanders explores the sweeping science of the universe and then