The Universe in Your Pocket: Ten Cosmic Maps That Explain Everything

Astrophysicist Lucie Green takes us on a brilliant tour of the most important cosmic maps in human history—visualizations of the cosmos that show us what we’ve discovered, and what we could know, about the universe and its invisible wonders.

We think of space as merely the empty distance between objects, but in reality, it’s a topography of magnetic fields, dark matter, wrinkles, contours, and wells of gravitational gradients that cannot be seen even with the most powerful telescopes. But not being able to see has never stopped us from imagining. Our undeniable curiosity about explaining the universe has led us to conceive of theories of gravity, magnetism, and relativity.

As an astrophysicist who studies dark matter, Lucie Green looks at this hidden space and knows there’s something there to be discovered. In The Universe in Your Pocket, she charts the creation of the most revelatory celestial maps that we humans have ever drawn, those that show us what we do—and do not—know, about the larger cosmic world, and what we might need to understand in order to see the unknown more clearly. Chapter by chapter, Green reveals how a star distribution map helped us understand how the galaxy formed, how a highly abstract mathematical theory like gravity was first made visible, and how we’ve charted the gravitational field of the Solar System to guide spacecraft to other planets.

As we learn how to read the maps of all the visionary explorers who came before us, we understand a little more about our place in the Universe and how our thinking has evolved. A story of space, science, history, and limitless human curiosity, The Universe in Your Pocket reminds us that these celestial maps represent the limits of our current knowledge, which will continue to change and expand as long as there are people to gaze at—and explore—the stars.

The Universe in Your Pocket features 10 original, illustrated cosmic maps.