CIERA’s Aaron Geller has published a new astrophysics textbook, written together with collaborators Nathan Leigh and Taeho Ryu. The book, titled Dawn of the Stars, teaches undergraduate astrophysics through an engaging and sometimes comical narrative that follows the seven brightest stars of the Pleiades cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters, on a fictional journey through the Milky Way.
The Pleiades are visible to the naked eye near the constellations Orion and Taurus, and carry a rich history in Greek mythology. The authors use that familiar backdrop to introduce readers to real astrophysical concepts, including stellar evolution, star formation, binary interactions, and gravitational astrophysics, through the stars’ story.
The book is built around a tiered, color coded structure that lets readers explore each topic at different levels of depth, making it approachable for senior high school students as well as a useful conceptual primer for undergraduate and graduate students, educators, and anyone simply curious about the subject.
The project began many years ago and just came out at the end of July. Looking back on the process, Geller shared that it helped him and his coauthors stay in touch and make it through the COVID lockdown. Writing the book together became a wonderful excuse to have regular meetings, keep their relationships alive and active, and have something creative and fun to work on together during a difficult time.
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