Whether entering a unit on space or satisfying an aspiring astronomer’s desire to learn, Kingfisher Space Encyclopedia is a wonderful resource. Each page presents a new topic to explore through numerous text boxes, timelines, full-color images, illustrations, diagrams, and more. Students will journey through many areas of study: Observing Space (including day and night, constellations, telescopes, and great astronomers); the Solar System (including the sun, planets, space rubble, and comets); Stars and Galaxies (including star birth and death, neutron stars, black holes, and the Milky Way); Space Exploration (including the space race, men on the moon, space suits, and space stations); and Space in the Future (including mission to mars, a theoretical moon base, space planes, and starships). At the end of the book is a section on unanswered questions about space, followed by a glossary and index.
This text is written from a secular viewpoint, so it references events that happened billions of years ago, includes a short section on the big bang, and praises science emphatically throughout. Additionally, there are some interesting theories about the end of the world presented, such as the idea that humans will need to figure out how to live on other planets before Earth is destroyed and that it may be possible to deep-freeze humans so they can survive the long space journey. 159 pages, hardcover.