''Guide to Earth and Space'' () is a non-fiction work by American writer
Isaac Asimov
yi, יצחק אזימאװ
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR
, spouse =
, relatives =
, children = 2
, death_date =
, death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
, nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...
and published by
Random House in 1991. The book differs somewhat in structure from typical literature by presenting its information in the form of answers to a series of questions, presumably posed by the reader. Like many of Asimov's non-fiction pieces, this "Guide" starts with the basics, answering relatively simple (to the modern reader) questions about the Earth - is it
flat
Flat or flats may refer to:
Architecture
* Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries
Arts and entertainment
* Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch
* Flat (soldier), ...
, does it spin, is it the
center of the universe, etc...
From there, the questions progress roughly through the evolution of
astronomy and discovery to introduce more complex topics, from the orbits of the planets to the formation of stars and the characteristics of
quasars and
black holes
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...
.
Many of the concepts discussed in the latter sections of the books can be compared with those presented in Asimov's 1966 work ''The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar''; furthermore, they serve in several cases to update the state of the art from the intervening 25 years between publications.
1991 non-fiction books
Astronomy books
Books by Isaac Asimov
Random House books
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