The Milky Way

An Autobiography of Our Galaxy

De: Moiya McTier

Narrado por: Moiya McTier

In this approachable and fascinating biography of the galaxy, an astrophysicist and folklorist details everything humans have discovered—from the Milky Way's formation to its eventual death, and what else there is to learn about the universe we call home.

After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, The Milky Way would like a chance to speak for itself. All one hundred billion stars and fifty undecillion tons of gas of it.

It all began some thirteen billion years ago, when clouds of gas scattered through the universe's primordial plasma just could not keep their metaphorical hands off each other. They succumbed to their gravitational attraction, and the galaxy we know as the Milky Way was born. Since then, the galaxy has watched as dark energy pushed away its first friends, as humans mythologized its name and purpose, and as galactic archaeologists have worked to determine its true age (rude). The Milky Way has absorbed supermassive (an actual technical term) black holes, made enemies of a few galactic neighbors, and mourned the deaths of countless stars. Our home galaxy has even fallen in love.

After all this time, the Milky Way finally feels that it's amassed enough experience for the juicy tell-all we've all been waiting for. Its fascinating autobiography recounts the history and future of the universe in accessible but scientific detail, presenting a summary of human astronomical knowledge thus far that is unquestionably out of this world.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND SCIENCENET
NAMED A BEST AUDIOBOOK OF 2022 BY BOOKPAGE

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Astrophysicist McTier delivers in her debut a delightful report on the Milky Way’s inner workings. . . McTier writes that her goal is to help people 'understand how ephemeral [our] existence is.' She succeeds smashingly. The result is truly stellar."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"McTier sprinkles humor throughout her whimsical look at the cosmos. . . [T]he author clearly knows her subject and delivers enough fascinating information to keep the pages turning."—Kirkus Reviews

"It's about time we heard the story of the Milky Way in its own words. The good news is that our galaxy is not only ancient and majestic; it's also whimsical, amusing, and downright chatty. Moiya McTier's book is an entertaining introduction to some of the most profound features of our astrophysical neighborhood."—Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of Something Deeply Hidden

"If you want to learn about the Milky Way, who better to go to than the source? Well, up until now, the Galaxy hasn’t been talking – but all of that has changed! Turns out, the Milky Way has a sense of humor, an attitude, and, frankly, isn’t super impressed with us as of late. If you’re looking for a fun and unique way to learn about astrophysics – this is the book for you! "—Kelly Weinersmith, New York Times bestselling author of Soonish

"A direct, fun, and charming mix of the science, folklore, and history of our Milky Way galaxy. And since that galaxy is technically composed at least in part by ME, I cannot help but take some of the credit."—Ryan North, New York Times bestselling author of How to Invent Everything

“With The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy, Moiya McTier gives us an exciting romp through the universe from the perspective of a most unexpected guide: our local sentient collection of stars, gas, dark matter, planets, and its wayward humans. What an exciting way to learn about everything in the universe, from its earliest moments to star births and deaths. Only here will you learn what the Milky Way thinks of its neighbors. McTier invents the genre of cosmic gossip -- what fun it is!”—Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

"McTier's sharp wit and sharper intellect strike the perfect tone for this breezy take on the history of our galaxy. Truly the biggest tell-all story in the universe!"—Paul M. Sutter, PhD, astrophysicists and author of Your Place in the Universe

What Fun!

What a fun little read! The author cleverly presented a book from an unbelievable point of view which made understanding easier I think for most people. I feel like it clarified a lot of things I didn’t understand, and every now and then it gave me a good laugh. I think this book would be particularly good for young people interested in the stars and science, it may help lead to a calling in science.

POV Milky Way makes learning fun

Moiya McTier's enthusiasm for the Milky Way and it's neighbors (including us) is infectious. She totally disarms the academic journey into space. Her approach to the subject is like saying... you can understand all this and it's going to be fun. It gets a little tedious after a bit and sometimes you have to reverse engineer the message but this is a rare take on the subject and all ages will enjoy this wonderful story and her playful read.

Personifying the Milky Way- Brill!

What a unique approach to science. I can see this book being a stepping stone for so many who aren't sure that a STEM education or career is the right way to go. If I were teaching a course to curious minds, I would definitely grab this book as a starting point. McTier's incorporation of science, math, mythology, religion and some subtle social commentary, makes is a book worth reading.

Decent but distracting

I was excited for this book because of the authors voice and tone..but it ended up being hard to follow and some topics were way above the average person’s understanding of math and science. It seemed disorganized almost.

This was fun

This was fun, light, and informative. And, above all, entertaining. As an engineer and nerd I can appreciate sarcasm in all of its forms and would expect the Milky Way to be fairly flippant.

Loved this!

This book was both refreshing and enlightening. Big fan of your work. Keep it up!!

the sentient galaxy sassiness

It was a real presentation of astronomy and presented in an interesting way. It made a previously uninteresting subject interesting.

A great first dive into our awesome galaxy!

A grand tour of our home galaxy! She might be a tad uppity but she is a grand collection of 300,000,000,000 stars along with countless black holes, unimaginabley massive clouds of hydrogen forming new stars and most importantly to us meat sacks, planets!
She has done us the grand kindness of forming a stable place for life to flourish and seems to be on our side.
A fun, clever listen! Moyia is a treat as both author and narrator and an obvious adherent to old notion "if your not careful, you might just learn something!!"
There is a ton in here to learn and you won't get it all at first, but is a fantastic launching pad for curiosity and lists many
subjects of study from the big bang to dark matter that today's fifth graders will be cracking in 20 years!

At times irritating

The information was good. The character of the Milky Way got old after a couple of chapters

All these negative reviews, don’t get it.

The only reason I am writing a review for this book is all the negative reviews that I just read. It was comedy. Satirical. Adding human cultural perspective to something that does not have self-awareness was hilarious. I hope Moiya writes more books with this perspective.