With their best-selling astronomy textbook, UNIVERSE: SOLAR SYSTEM, STARS, AND GALAXIES, authors Mike Seeds and Dana Backman help you understand your place in the universe–not just your location in space but your role in the unfolding history of the physical universe. To achieve this goal, the authors focus on two central questions: “What Are We?” which highlights your place as a planet dweller in an evolving universe, guiding you to better understand where we came from and how we formed; and “How Do We Know?” which provides insights into how the process of science can teach us more about what we are.

Product Features

• The art program presents this visual science in a consistent and striking new style. Two key components to this new look are the redesigned H-R diagrams and reconceived Concept Art Spreads. H-R diagrams have been completely redesigned to help students understand the main idea at a glance. The Concept Art Spreads have been numbered and emphasized in the text narrative to make these two page visual summaries easier to analyze and synthesize.
• The Virtual Astronomy Labs are an online, interactive way for students to learn. Focusing on twenty of the most important concepts in astronomy, the labs offer students hands-on exercises that complement the topics in the text. Instructors can set up classes online and view student results, or students can print their lab reports for submission, making the Virtual Astronomy Labs ideal for homework assignments, lab exercises, or extra-credit work.
• Mike Seeds’s guided discovery approach can be easily seen in the enhanced art program. “Concept Figures” marry art and text to encourage students to synthesize information into one unified concept. “Guided Discovery Figures” lead students through several frames of art to demonstrate processes that occur over time, providing brief guiding comments as though the authors were explaining each frame to the student themselves. Enhanced “Concept Art Spreads” combine several ideas over two pages, providing an opportunity for students to process information visually and synthesize individual understanding.
• This text features Mike Seeds’ and Dana Backman’s conversational and student-friendly writing style, which has made them the best-selling authors in introductory astronomy. Students and professors find great clarity and accessibility in his presentation of astronomy. Students are able to acquire an understanding of the universe, instead of memorizing a set of facts that would quickly be forgotten.
• Now includes CourseMate with interactive eBook, quiz content with conceptual feedback, animations, flashcards, and more.