Our Accidental Universe
Chris Lintott
Torva
£22 •HB
If you like Chris Lintott as co-host of the BBC's The Sky at Night, you're guaranteed to also like him as a writer. In this, his second book, he eloquently guides us through a wide range of fascinating astronomical topics, presenting his favourite examples of “the times when astronomers have stumbled on new truths about the cosmos, either through unexpected discoveries or by suddenly finding new ways to explore”.
Many scientific breakthroughs are accidental. Isaac Asimov once wrote: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That's funny…’.”
As Lintott recounts, no one was looking for interstellar visitors when the mysterious asteroid-like object ‘Oumuamua was discovered, and later found to have come from deep space. No one was searching for the afterglow of the Big Bang when the cosmic microwave background
