Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)
(written from a Production point of view)
Star Trek: The Official Guide to Our Universe, subtitled The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages is a reference book from National Geographic. Written by Andrew Fazekas and featuring a forward from William Shatner, it was released in June 2016.
Summary[]
- Blurb
- As Star Trek celebrates its 50th anniversary, this book reveals the real science behind its fantastic and beloved fictions, inviting readers to step outside, gaze up at the night sky, and observe some of the destinations the Starfleet has visited. Many of the galactic destinations featured in Star Trek over the years – multiple star systems, alien worlds, supernova explosions, emission nebulae, voracious black holes – are scientifically valid, so much so that one can step out and view them in the night sky. In this book astronomy educator Andrew Fazekas, "The Night Sky Guy," takes you on that journey, starting with specific Star Trek voyages, explaining the science behind them, and guiding you in observing and learning more about the real-universe corollaries of planets and places in the Star Trek universe.
- With a foreword from William Shatner and stunningly illustrated with hundreds of full-color images – some artists' interpretations and some real images generated by the most recent NASA missions – plus stills of favorite Star Trek scenes and characters, Star Trek: The Official Guide to Our Universe uses Star Trek to teach astronomy, taking every reader on a voyage of discovery. From Altair to Vega, from red giants to white dwarfs, from our solar system to exoplanets we are only beginning to imagine, the book visits dozens of celestial objects, spotlighting some 20 in careful scientific detail and offering easy-to-follow star-gazing instructions to find them in the night sky.
- No warp-driven starship, not even a telescope is required to go on these voyages: Most destinations are bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. For Star Trek fans and budding stargazers who are ready to launch their own space mission, this inventive book blends science and fiction, making learning fun and making Star Trek's 50th all the more worthy of celebration.
- Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.
Contents[]
- Forward by William Shatner
- Introduction
- Trekking the Night Sky
- About This Book
- Chapter 1: The Terran System
- Chapter 2: Strange New Worlds
- Earthlike Exoplanets
- Gas giants
- Dwarf and rogue planets
- Alien life
- Chapter 3: Sailing to the Stars
- Main Sequence Stars
- Red Giants
- Supergiants
- Supernovae
- Black Holes and Neutron Stars
- Chapter 4: Clouds Among the Stars
- Emission Nebulae
- Dark and Reflection Nebulae
- Planetary Nebulae
- Supernova Remnants
- Chapter 5: Clusters and Galaxies
- Open Star Clusters
- Globular Clusters
- Galaxies
- Quasars
- Navigating the Night Sky
- Night Sky Charts
- Acknowledgements
- Episode Index
- Index
- Credits
Background information[]
- Memory Alpha is acknowledged as serving as "a wonderful resource for background information to the franchise." (p. 228)
- The entry on dark nebulae (p. 159) appears to treat dark nebulae (real-world interstellar clouds that obscure visible light) and dark matter nebulae (in-universe nebulae with high concentrations of hypothetical dark matter) as one.
- The depiction of the USS Enterprise (XCV-330) on pp. 192-193 was first created for the Star Trek: Ships of the Line (2011) calendar by Mark Rademaker.
- StarTrek.com published an article promoting its release on 29 February 2016. [1]
- The book has seen at least one international edition in translation, when the Japanese-language edition became released later in 2016 by the local branch of National Geographic.