Hitchhiking in the universe

The book has a doct. physical. sciences, professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Popov two names: short and long. Short - “universe” - of course, attractive and unambiguous. It describes not only the content of the book, but also the emotional state of the author, who decided to write a book with that name, and the emotions of the reader, who took the book in his hands, where we are talking about all that things, for the universe is our everything.

The book also has a long name that determines what exactly the author intends to tell about: “A short guide over space and time: from the solar system to the most distant galaxies and from a large explosion to the future universe.”

The reader’s journey through the universe begins, of course, from the house: from the sun. "Look to the right!" - And before the reader the solar subsoil opens: that which is not visible to the eye, even an armed dark glass or telescope. Careful traveler in the universe open locks and castles: the author talks about the nuclear reactions of the synthesis that occur in the sun and forcing him to “always shine, shine everywhere ...”.

"Look left!" - And the traveler learns how the sun was formed, how, when and why planets, planetoids, asteroids, comets appeared.

And further - the path lies in the star farm, in the depths of the galaxy and beyond. The universe is revealed to the traveler gradually in all its extraordinary beauty and greatness. In my opinion, this is the most important in the book. Sergei Popov managed to write it so that the feeling of beauty and greatness of the universe arises in the reader on the very first page and does not disappear to the last. I'm talking about myself, of course. Perhaps another reader, not inclined to romance the world, will read the book with a different look and find the text with dry, and the descriptions and explanations are excessively brief. They would be dry and too short, if it were not for the very sensation (first of all, the author) of the greatness and beauty of science called ... What is the name of the science that today studies the Universe: from the sunlight to fundamentally invisible galaxies located beyond the light horizon? Astrophysics, what does the author call it? Yes, but only in some (possibly-large) degree. Not the physics of the one is alive cosmos. Cosmogony? Cosmology? Modern science that studies the universe includes cosmogony, cosmology, and also space applications of biology, chemistry ... Even the humanities in the study of space have a place - how to do without psychology, for example, if we talk about possible contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations? We do not know whether they exist in the universe, but we study them (possibly not existing), using all the achievements of science, the name of which has yet to be invented. Universology? Half a century ago, such a name could be discussed and possibly accept. But now, when the inflationary model of a large explosion (as well as string models and Evettic quantum structures) predicts the existence of many universes, the universities, the name "Universology" does not look neither correct nor convincing.

So, the purpose of the trip is the universe. The traveler will visit all places and all times. But I warn, and the reader of the “Universe” should be ready for this: there will be no easy journey. "Look right, look left!" - Yes, sure. As it should be in the guidebook, the explanations here are brief, but at the same time amazingly full. The author managed to describe the complex processes that occur in the bowels of the stars in a few words on the surface of the comets, inside the dust clouds and the clusters of the galaxies. But the completeness of descriptions, their accuracy requires at least basic knowledge in those sciences that are now included in the science of the universe by the necessary components. Knowledge is required not only to school, but in some cases more “advanced” physics. Sometimes this leads to distortions: for an isotopic analysis, for example, the author writes as a certain reader about something and suddenly begins to explain in detail what the Doppler effect is-it would seem that this is a reader with a school (at least) education as his own fingers.

However, there are very few such “shortcomings” in the book. These are not the drawbacks of even, but rather the costs of popularization: it is difficult (sometimes impossible) to observe the proportion and determine the unified level of knowledge required for reading.

By the way, I do not advise reading the “Universe” from beginning to end, as a regular book. On the one hand, the “Universe” is not an encyclopedia, although it is close to it in structure, and you can, of course, read this book as a fascinating “scientific novel” with unexpected plot turns and adventures in the star worlds. On the other hand, if you read it, then you can get tired of “Look to the left, look right!”, From a huge array of knowledge that falls on the reader like a waterfall. Read the “Universe” should be the same as drinking tart, tasty wine: in small sips, taking breaks and savoring every sip, pondering every grain of new knowledge. I am sure that for any reader, even the most professional, in the "Universe" there is a new knowledge that he had not previously suspected. After all, the universe is an infinitely diverse object, and the most professional professional cannot embrace the immense. I guarantee: in the "Universe" he will find something that he did not know before.

And this, of course, is also one of the main merits of the author.

It was interesting for me to read the “Universe” from beginning to end, then individual chapters, then - separate paragraphs and phrases. And then re -read from the beginning to the end, so that the picture of the Universe disassembled into pieces is again formed in memory and imagination.

And yet - also very important. Sergei Popov talks about the universe not as they usually write in encyclopedias, reference books, guidebooks. The author of almost every phrase makes it clear that the science of the universe is on the way. We know a lot for sure, much-approximately, but very, very, very much we do not know much at all. And the path of knowledge is still long. Despite thousands of years of development of astronomy and century - astrophysics, we are still at the beginning of the journey. And in the future guidebook on the universe (possibly the next edition of the current guide) there will be descriptions of such objects, events, laws, which we are not even suspected of now.

The science of the universe is very young, and the journey is just beginning ...

Pavel Amnuel