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Starting with our place in the solar system, this book examines the nature of other planets and the Sun before journeying to the furthest reaches of the observable universe billions of light years away. It explains the different types of stars, the formation of galaxies, black holes and the discovery of exoplanets.

Presenting examples ranging from ancient Egyptian tomb paintings, through medieval cosmic spheres and 18th-century celestial atlases to images of nebulae captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, this richly illustrated book traces the history of astronomy through the various ways in which the heavens and their mysteries have been observed, imagined and depicted, exploring both the scientific and mythological elements in the development of celestial maps.

From the birth of the sun and the formation of our moon (likely from a planetary collision) to the James Webb Space Telescope and the latest Mars rover, this review of space research and our knowledge of the universe identifies 250 events, discoveries and theories that have shaped our understanding. Each entry provides a succinct illustrated overview of topics including Mayan astronomy, Newton's laws and gravitational waves.

Chris Baker works from his astro observatory in the mountains of Spain and here presents images of space within and beyond the solar system, including spectacular nebulae and far distant galaxy clusters. The book also serves as an introduction to astro photography as a hobby, with guidance on techniques and equipment and how to get started.

Data scientist Alexander Boxer is fascinated by astrology, which he calls ‘the ancient world’s most ambitious applied mathematics problem’. Tracing its history from the age of the pharaohs to the modern newspaper horoscope, he introduces exponents including Ptolemy, Kepler and al-Kindi; explains and tests astrological techniques; and shows how ‘the arch-pseudoscience’ still appeals to our tendency to seek patterns in random events and objects and our desire to predict the future.

With a talent for distilling complex facts into simple and easy-to-digest articles, astrophysicist Jillian Scudder authors the successful blog Astroquizzical, in which she answers readers’ questions about all things cosmological. This book collects the finest and most informative blog posts and offers a complete picture of the Earth, its cosmological family and its place in the universe.

Each NASA space flight, from the early 1960s to the present day, has had a logo designed specifically for the mission, often with input from the astronauts. This catalogue of the artworks is also a record of all 167 voyages, from Project Mercury and Apollo to the Space Shuttle, with portraits of the crews and details about each flight.

After happening upon an old – and still restricted – Cold War rocket testing site in the Outer Hebrides, Fraser MacDonald began to research the technology being tested, the ‘Corporal’ guided missile, and the mystery of the designer Frank J Malina. This book tells the long-buried story of this pioneering rocket scientist, his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the birth of the space rocket – and how its inventor was written out of history during the McCarthy witch-hunts.

Beginning with an image of a pale blue dot – Earth – obtained by Voyager 1 at a distance of around six billion kilometres from home, this book presents some of the most spectacular astrophotography gathered by robotic space explorers and ground-based telescopes. Dr Evans explains the technology used to capture these images and the celestial objects depicted, travelling from our own Solar System, via the Milky Way and the Local Group to the edges of the Universe.

Considering famous UFO sightings as well as the coordinated efforts to listen for alien communications since the 1980s, this introduction to the search for extra-terrestrial life explains how our increasing knowledge about the solar system and theories of how and where intelligent life might evolve is improving our chances of contact.

The story of the moon landings begins with the wartime work of German rocket scientists including Wernher von Braun, nascent computer technology and the imagination of post-war science fiction writers such as Arthur C Clarke. Using eyewitness reports and NASA archive material this account of the achievement describes how it all came together, accelerated by the pressure of the technological race with Soviet Russia.

Charting the Northern, Southern and Equatorial night skies, this set of three maps shows all the stars visible to the naked eye and the fainter clusters and nebulae for stargazers using binoculars or telescopes. With a brief introduction, notes on how to use the charts and tables of magnitude.

Joanne Baker begins this ‘tour of astrophysics’ by tracing the great leaps in our understanding of the universe, from observation of the planets to the recognition, in 1920, that our Milky Way is not unique, but one among billions of galaxies. She goes on to discuss theoretical issues, such as Special Relativity and String Theory, and our knowledge of the galaxies and stars, explaining objects such as quasars, supermassive black holes, exoplanets and the Sun.

John Henry discusses how the 16th-century astronomer Copernicus not only disproved the ‘common-sense’ view that the Earth was stationary but also showed what mathematics can reveal about the material world, setting in motion the development of a completely new physics.

In 1948, Fred Hoyle predicted that a photograph of the Earth, taken from space, would let loose ‘a new idea as powerful as any in history’: taken by the Apollo astronauts between 1968 and 1972, images such as ‘Earthrise’ and ‘The Blue Marble’ were to prove him right. After tracing the course of human efforts first to fly, then to travel in space, Christopher Potter reflects on the impact of seeing our planet from afar.

Exploring our fascination with Earth’s only natural satellite, this collection of illustrated essays discusses lunar themes including how the Moon has been observed and charted throughout history; how it has influenced human culture from ancient mythologies to space-age fashion; and how scientific knowledge and our attitude to the Moon have developed since the end of the Apollo programme in 1972. Slightly off-mint.

Written and compiled by an art historian and an astronomer, this illuminating volume identifies the many ways in which the Moon has influenced physics, history, art and popular culture since antiquity. Using an enormous range of images, from a prehistoric ‘sky disk’ to a photograph taken by the Galileo spacecraft, the book explores a miscellany of topics including eclipses, lunar cycles and tides, Space Race propaganda, the Apollo missions and lunar rovers, ancient moon deities, werewolves, lunacy and supermoons. Slightly off-mint

Ronald Stoyan’s engrossing atlas gives full, richly illustrated accounts of 30 of the most important comets that have been witnessed and documented in modern times. For each appearance, from the Great Comet of 1471 (none has ever come closer to Earth) to Comet McNaught in 2007, there is astronomical data, a description of the comet’s orbit and visibility, the history of its discovery and observation, and its wider cultural and scientific impact.

Venus is too hot, Mars too cold, but Earth’s distance from the Sun makes it ‘just right’ for a thriving biosphere. As we search for other planets perfectly positioned to support living organisms, an astrobiologist explains what scientists can learn from research into the origins and evolution of life, as well as the study of ‘extremophile’ water bears, tiny aquatic creatures able to survive the harshest conditions on Earth.

During the 20th century it became clear that our traditional understanding of cosmology was too simplistic, since there must be not only some invisible material holding together galaxies but also an unknown phenomenon that is driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. Brian Clegg describes how the existence of this ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ was discovered and explains the different theories and experiments that researchers have been employing as they seek knowledge about this challenging aspect of modern science.

Developed from 1969, Skylab was launched in May 1973 and hosted three manned missions over the following year. With hundreds of diagrams and photographs, this analysis of the project gives a detailed breakdown of the design and construction of the space station as well as a report of the three periods of occupation, describing the challenges that the crews faced in repairing and maintaining Skylab and carrying out their research.

The Apollo 15 Commander David R Scott, who drove the Lunar Rover on the Moon, has written the foreword to this Haynes Owner’s Workshop Manual. The manual gives insights into the technology, history and development of NASA’s Lunar Roving Vehicle, with chapters on its structure, mobility, electrical and thermal control, navigation and communications, all illustrated with diagrams, cutaway views and photographs of the Rover on the Moon’s surface.

From the gargantuan distance of 1026 metres, the radius of the observable universe, down to the unimaginably small Planck scale of 10-35 metres, used for measurements inside a proton, this illustrated guide to the cosmos zooms in on matter one order of magnitude (power of ten) at a time, depicting and explaining a curated selection of entities, including galaxies, planets, the solar system, Earth, flora and fauna, cells, viruses, atoms and subatomic particles.

Colin Stuart rejects mathematical jargon in favour of concise explanations of the cosmos’s most fascinating astronomical features. Beginning with early astronomers, including Ptolemy and Newton, this accessible guide moves from the Earth, Sun and Moon ever further from home, covering the Solar System, stars and galaxies, eventually reaching the mysteries at the edge of the universe – the Big Bang, inflation and dark energy.

This highly illustrated guide focuses on space exploration – past, present and future – including the Apollo missions, the Space Shuttle years, the International Space Station and the future of commercial spaceflight. The book also explores the solar system, dedicating chapters to the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the asteroid belt, and concluding with a discussion of astronomy’s powerful telescopes, such as Hubble’s successor the James Webb Space Telescope, which facilitate a deeper understanding of the universe.

The inhospitable atmosphere and violent climate on Mars have not prevented numerous space probes and orbiters from visiting the planet over the last 50 years, their data-gathering abilities growing ever more sophisticated. From the successful Mariner and Viking programs of the 1960s and 1970s, to human missions being planned today, Rod Pyle charts the history of Martian exploration, lists the key scientific discoveries made and presents striking images of the Red Planet from space and from the surface.

At the heart of the Sun, a vast nuclear furnace casts out the warmth, light and magnetism that nurture life on Earth. Supported by data from laboratories, telescopes, probes and thousands of years of naked-eye observations, solar physicist Lucie Green’s authoritative guide to the science of the Sun provides answers to questions posed since the dawn of history: Why does the Sun shine? What is the source of its heat? How long will it shine?

Slightly off-mint.

As he sets off to conduct a journey through the universe, the astrophysicist Christophe Galfard aims to ‘not leave any readers behind’ and promises to use only one equation (E=mc²). In a widely acclaimed, non-scientists’ introduction to modern physics and cosmology, Galfard uses humour, storytelling and thought experiments to make concepts such as electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, general relativity and black holes intelligible to all of us.

Here the astronomer and broadcaster Mark Thompson describes what a journey through the solar system might be like, from the preparations for take-off on Earth to arrival at the edge of interstellar space many years later. On the way he discusses what we know about the origins of the planets and their moons, describes physical features that would be visible and reflects on the challenges of navigation, weightlessness and living in a confined spaceship.