Stars in the Making

An exciting book, in the great tradition of scientific writing for the general public for which Eddington and Jeans and “The Sea Around Us” are renowned. The reader is invited to follow the evolution of the stars as he would a play in which, their stage the universe, the stars in their variety of kinds and behavior and the atoms in stars and stellar dust play out their roles. Pairs and cliques and clusters and galaxies set the scenes. On a cosmic time scale against the vast horizons of the past and future the galaxies evolve, creating symmetry from disorder; the stars follow their destinies—getting born, spinning, shedding, and splitting, becoming rejuvenated. It is a tremendous drama, all the more exciting because it is all true: the author, a world-renowned astronomer, speaks with the authority of great learning as well as with the gift of tongues.