This is a book review of Our Accidental Universe: Stories of Discovery from Asteroids to Aliens by Chris Lintott.
Our Accidental Universe: Stories of Discovery from Asteroids to Aliens*, by Chris Lintott (Torva), 2024. Pp. 265, 24 × 16 cm. Price £22 (hardbound, ISBN 978 1 911709 18 3).
This is a book about actual (e.g., pulsars) and potential (e.g. extraterrestrial life) discoveries, many of them accidental. Many interesting facts are mentioned, some familiar, some less familiar ((e.g.,fascinating details in the life of Grote Reber). This is not an attempt to systematically survey astronomy as a whole or even a part of it; rather than the definitive collection, it's more a `best of', highlighting topics of interest to the author and probably the reader, providing more details than is usually the case on many of them. Despite my minor qualms, the book is enjoyable read, presenting some topics not often encountered in popular-astronomy books and other more common ones from a new perspective.