The Echoing Universe

How Radio Astronomy Helps Us See the Invisible Cosmos

By: Emma Chapman Ph.D. Ph.D.

How learning to “listen” to the universe using radio waves has revolutionized our understanding of everything from gravity to little green men.

“Passionate and witty” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

In space, no one can hear you scream.

But the universe is far from silent. It’s been speaking all along, broadcasting its stories and secrets, for those who know how to listen.

In The Echoing Universe, Emma Chapman tunes us in to the universe and what it is trying to say, through the science of radio astronomy. Everything is sending out signals: the surface of the Moon, distant stars—maybe even extraterrestrials. With radio waves, we can uncover what visible light cannot show us and peer into realms that are otherwise unreachable. Even the hostile surface of Venus, where high temperatures, lethal acid rain, and crushing pressure rapidly annihilate even the hardiest robotic probes, yields its secrets through radio observations.

This exhilarating expedition is just the beginning as new and bigger radio telescopes come into play and propel our curiosity well beyond the edge of our galaxy.

Despite the seeming silence of space, The Echoing Universe reveals that the future of astronomy is loud and vibrant. When we turn our radio telescopes to the sky and simply listen, we’ll discover far more than what our eyes could ever see.

Critic reviews

“Passionate and witty. ... Readers will be dazzled by this superb example of popular science writing.”—Publishers Weekly

“OK – I’m biased; I’ve spent my career as a radio astronomer, but I wish I had had Emma’s book to accompany me on that journey. It would have been even more fun. What a romp! Starting with the introduction that takes us from the hospital where X-rays expose broken bones, to the hardware store where visible light overwhelms our senses choosing paint colors for the kitchen, through the infrared whose over-exposure sunburns our bodies, then to microwaves that jiggle the water molecules in our food enough to reheat dinner, and finally to radio waves that you cannot personally sense without a receiver and an electronic amplifier, but which let us explore the distant hearts of galaxies and quasars; the joy and energy with which this text is written are sure to generate an inspired crop of future scientific explorers who relish in the ability to observe day or night, rain or shine.”—Jill Tarter, founder of the SETI Institute

“A sparklingly eloquent tour of the universe, where you too will fall in love with the oft-neglected but nevertheless remarkable radio visions of our cosmos.”—Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland