COSMIC COLLISIONS

Another feverish contest between astronomical biggies.

While an asteroid vs. comet matchup resulted in a major impact in the first title in this series, the contenders in this companion volume are the real heavies. A pair of red supergiants, “hundreds of times the size of our Sun” and both formidable opponents (both described with feminine pronouns), prepare to collide. Astrophysicist Kuchner describes the “battle zone” (trillions of miles and hundreds of light-years away from Earth) and the red giants’ origins, explaining nuclear fusion along the way. A discussion of helium’s role in inflating and heating these stars, turning them into “big red fluffy mammer jammers,” serves as a prematch warm-up as they accumulate massive, superheated iron balls in their centers. Suddenly…“WHOMP!” One of the stellar contenders explodes into a neutron star, or supernova. Now the contest enters its final form, and the narrator is afire: “Great galactic gobstoppers.” Kuchner devotes two pages to describing the incredible temperature of the neutron star, followed by reports of these stars’ speed, gravitational pull, mass, composition, and density. Pausing at the kinetic climax, he asks readers, “What’s your hypothesis?” before the big reveal. Schu’s bold, colorful, appropriately dramatic illustrations are strikingly beautiful, clarifying the rich explanations of astrophysics and stunning in their own right.

A spectacular celestial confrontation explodes with a lot of serious science.