The Sun: A Biography

Imagine writing the biography of a subject you can't look at without going blind. Astronomer and BBC science editor David Whitehouse has done just that in The Sun. Taking an unusual tack, he writes about the Sun as if it were a fascinating neighbor to be observed with the utmost care. After all, there is no celestial body more important to us than the Sun; all life on Earth depends upon its energy, and humans have been waking up with the dawn and sleeping with the dusk for millennia. Whitehouse provides an entertaining and comprehensive survey of ancient peoples' solar rituals and beliefs, leading finally to the birth of science and the painful (at least for the Church) acknowledgment that the Sun, and not the Earth, is the center of our solar system. The second half of the book is devoted to modern solar research, from the patterns and schedules of sunspots to the interior anatomy of our local star. Finally, Whitehouse imagines what it will be like 7.5 billion years from now, when the Sun dies, baking Earth into a lifeless husk in the process. The Sun is a delightfully readable account of the solar engine, a biography of the strange hot character that rules life itself. --Therese Littleton