CAP Saucier - Explore the Cosmos like Neil deGrasse Tyson: A Space Science Journey

This book would not have happened without the help of Neil deGrasse Tyson. I give a special thank you to Neil for meeting with me and answering my many questions. Our meeting took place because of the helpful assistance of my dear friend Dr. Ian Tattersall at the American Museum of Natural History. Neil's executive assistant, Elizabeth Stachow, facilitated communicating with and procuring photographs from Neil.

Thank you to Dr. Henry Ferguson at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for reviewing the scientific information. Dr. Frank Summers, also at STScI, inspired me with his monthly space lectures at Johns Hopkins University and gave me advice about how to obtain the best-quality images from the Hubble Space Telescope gallery. The staff of the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona contributed to my research, and I thank them for showing me the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, my favorite planet.

My husband, Pete, accompanied me to the top of Kitt Peak, but I am most grateful for his editing of my manuscript. Pete, and our daughter, Megan Molitoris, read every word from start to finish. My favorite fifth-grade teacher, Jamie Nicholson, read the final version of the manuscript to make sure it was on a middle-school reading level. My good friend Frank Kollman helped me improve the quality of several photographs. Another dear friend, Dr. Donald Johanson, generously shared an excellent photograph of the Milky Way with the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Don is the subject of my first book The Lucy Man: The Scientist Who Found the Most Famous Fossil Ever!

I appreciate the suggestions regarding this book that were offered by these children's writersMary Bowman-Kruhm, Minnie Gallman, Sue Poduska, and Debra Shumakermembers of our nonfiction critique group under the aegis of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Neil deGrasse Tyson with the author.
Photo by the author.

CAP Saucier is a freelance writer and illustrator of nonfiction material for children. She is a former pediatric nurse who has always loved science. CAP has traveled around the world exploring the wonders of Europe, Central and South America, and several countries in Africa. She counts many scientists among her friends.

In her first book, The Lucy Man: The Scientist Who Found the Most Famous Fossil Ever!, CAP wrote about Dr. Donald Johanson, the noted paleoanthropologist who discovered our ancient human ancestor Australopithecus afarensis, known as Lucy. When Dr. Johanson received the Explorers Club Medal in 2010, CAP was fortunate to be introduced to Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson at the ceremony. The idea to write about Neil began at this meeting.

CAP serves on the board of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. Read about her adventures on her website, http://www.capsaucier.com.

BOOKS

Aldrin, Buzz. Mission to Mars. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2013.

Armstrong, Mabel. Women Astronomers: Reaching for the Stars. OR: Stone Pine Press, 2008.

Aronson, Marc. If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2010.

Asirvatham, Sandy. The History of the Blues. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2003.

Bernstein, Carl. A Woman in Charge. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.

Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

Brown, Mike. How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. New York: Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks, 2012.

Datnow, Claire. Edwin Hubble: Discoverer of Galaxies. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 2001.

Davidson, Keay. Carl Sagan: A Life. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Dickinson, Terence. The Universe and Beyond. 5th ed. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2010.

Ellis, Carol. Wrestling. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2011.

Galilei, Galileo. Sidereus Nuncius. Translated by Albert Van Helden. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1989.

Hawking, Stephen, ed. On the Shoulders of Giants. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2002.

Hoskin, Michael. Discoverers of the Universe: William and Caroline Herschel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Mandel, Howard, ed. The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2005.

Maran, S. P., and L. A. Marschall. Galileo's New Universe. Dallas: BenBella, 2009.

Newton, Isaac. Principia. Edited by Stephen Hawking. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2002.

Northrop Grumman. Space Primer. Northrop Grumman Space Technology, 2009.

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. New York: Random House, 1980.

Saint-Exupry, Antoine de. The Little Prince. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943.

Sobel, Dava. A More Perfect Heaven. New York: Walker & Co., 2011.

Steele, Philip. Isaac Newton: The Scientist Who Changed Everything. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2007.

Stowell, L., and P. Allen. The Story of Astronomy and Space. London: Usborne, 2009.

Trefil, James. Space Atlas. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2012.

Tyson, Neil deGrasse. Death by Black Hole. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007.

. Just Visiting This Planet. New York: Doubleday, 1998.

. Merlin's Tour of the Universe. New York: Doubleday, 1997.

. The Sky Is Not the Limit. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004.

. Space Chronicles. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012.

. Universe Down to Earth. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Tyson, Neil deGrasse, C. Liu, and R. Irion. One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2000.

Tyson, Neil deGrasse, and Donald Goldsmith. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.

Wittenstein, Vicki Oransky. Planet Hunter. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 2010.

Yeomans, Donald K. Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth, and Folklore. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991.

ARTICLES

Bakich, Michael E. Voyager's New Solar System. Astronomy 41, no. 1 (January 2003): 3035.

Carroll, Sean. Digging Up the Early Universe. Discover (July/August 2012): 7274.

Cowen, Ron. Galaxy Hunters. National Geographic (February 2003): 229.

Croswell, Ken. Heart of the Milky Way. National Geographic 218, no. 6 (December 2010): 9299.

Finkbeiner, Ann. Galaxy Formation: The New Milky Way. Nature 490 (October 2012): 2427.

Johnson, Rick, and Roen Kelly. Exoplanet Systems Illustrated. Astronomy 42, no. 12 (December 2014): 4445.

MEDIA

The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC, Public Radio. April 28, 2002.

Tyson, Neil deGrasse. My Favorite Universe. Chantilly, VA: Teaching Company, 2003. Film.

YouTube. A variety of interviews with and lectures by Neil deGrasse Tyson are available at http://www.youtube.com.

WEBSITES

American Meteor Society, www.amsmeteors.org

Ask an Astrophysicist, http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html