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My book, Catching Stardust, is out TODAY, for those of you lucky UK people anyway!!! I’m obviously very excited about this and if you’re interested in ordering a copy then check out the various places you can get it below (this is just a selection, there are others).

It’s available in Hardback/ebook/audiobook.

Bloomsbury publisher

Amazon

Waterstones

WHSmith

For those of you in the US you can pre-order on the links below (or with any other bookseller you usually use) and it’ll be with you around June 5th. But I have a feeling that Kindle versions will be out this week, even in the US.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

I was absolutely delighted when I discovered that the release date for Catching Stardust coincided with International Women’s Day. This day is all about progressing gender parity and motivating your friends, colleagues, family and community to be more gender inclusive. As a scientist I know I work in a male-dominated world, but I also know that I’m surrounded by many amazing female scientists too. I’ve been lucky enough to work some very inspiring male and female scientists and what I’ve found most inspirational about these people is how supportive they’ve been to me.

The British Science Association have done a little Q&A with me about Catching Stardust, you can check it out here.

 

Please let me know what you thought of my book

I’ll be saying this a lot now, if you read Catching Stardust then please can you let me know what you thought. I’m working on a second popular science book (details of which will be announced soon) so feedback is super important and useful right now. What did you like? What didn’t you like? You can use my Contact Form to email me, write an Amazon or Goodreads review, or catch me on Twitter.

I’m so happy to say that there have now been a few early reviews of Catching Stardust published and they have all been very complimentary. Phew!

You can see a short review of Catching Stardust in the Books & Art section of the journal Nature here.

About MK wrote a lovely review here.

The Sky At Night magazine have also published a review. You can download this month’s magazine on this link…also the app is great, it’s what I use to read it.

I also see that some people in the UK have started to receive their pre-ordered copies, a week ahead of release, which is hugely exciting.

If you’re planning to read Catching Stardust then please get in touch to let me know what you thought. Use the Contact Form on this site to email me, fill out an Amazon review or even Goodreads review as I’ve just claimed my book on there. I’m officially a ‘Goodreads Author‘ now 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advance copies of Catching Stardust have landed in California. My lovely pup, Charlie, took one to bed to read and the rest are sitting rather beautifully on my shelf.

Everyone else can get a copy from March 8th 2018 (in the UK) and June 5th 2018 (in the US). Pre-order available here.

I can’t believe that the UK release of my popular science book Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids, and the Birth of the Solar System, is just two months away (and less than 5 months to the US release). It’s available for pre-order here with Bloomsbury or you can check-out your usual bookseller of choice. Initially there’ll be a hardback, e-book and audiobook.

It’s now been read by a few scientists who I approached for comments and reviews and they have all been so kind about it (see below). Once I sent out the book proofs I was so nervous when awaiting for replies to find out their opinions on what they’d read. It’s a strange feeling, I was probably more nervous about this than I was when awaiting my PhD viva exam. Catching Stardust was a huge project for me, one on which I worked alone for many, many months. It is a weird feeling to send it out to people to review…what if they said horrible things? I think part of my fear was because I am too used to the world of academic peer-review which can be a very nasty and massively demoralising experience. Ultimately, it is there to improve a piece of scientific work but the process to reach an agreement for publication can be lengthy and upsetting. I’ve found the book peer-review system to be much kinder, thank goodness. Here’s the comments I’ve received so far:

“Natalie Starkey has packed this book full of information on the minor bodies of our solar system, which are key to understanding how things got the way they are today – a must-have for anyone interested in where we came from.” –  Matt Taylor, ESA Rosetta Project Scientist. 

“A fast-paced journey through time and space, under the enthusiastic guidance of space geologist Natalie Starkey. Highly recommended.” Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary Sciences, The Open University.

“Catching Stardust describes humanity’s place in the universe, laying out the pivotal role asteroids and comets play in our origin. Dr. Starkey combines her breadth of knowledge and a keen ability to present and interconnect concepts including Earth’s geology, planetary exploration, and the compositional insights hidden in samples of small bodies. Catching Stardust builds a strong case why continuing to explore small bodies is so important to understanding our past and in shaping our future.” Jessica Sunshine, Professor of Astronomy, University of Maryland.

“Kudos for Catching Stardust, an enjoyably engaging recount of the role that comets and  asteroids play in teaching us how our Solar System formed and evolved over more than 4.5 billion years. The focus is on advances in the past 25 years and includes current thinking and unanswered questions that is both expertly and accurately written.  It reads like an adventure tale.” Lucy McFadden, Emerita at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

And here’s the summary that’ll be included on the jacket cover:

Icy, rocky, sometimes dusty, always mysterious – comets and asteroids are among the Solar System’s very oldest inhabitants, formed within a swirling cloud of gas and dust in the area of space that eventually hosted the Sun and its planets. Locked within each of these extra-terrestrial objects is the 4.6-billion-year wisdom of Solar System events, and by studying them at close quarters using spacecraft we can coerce them into revealing their closely-guarded secrets. This offers us the chance to answer some fundamental questions about our planet and its inhabitants.

Exploring comets and asteroids also allows us to shape the story of Earth’s future, enabling us to protect our precious planet from the threat of a catastrophic impact from space, and maybe to even recover valuable raw materials from them. This cosmic bounty could be as useful in space as it is on Earth, providing the necessary fuel and supplies for humans as they voyage into deep space to explore more distant locations within the Solar System. 

Catching Stardust tells the story of these enigmatic celestial objects, revealing how scientists are using them to help understand a crucial time in our history – the birth of the Solar System, and everything contained within it.

Here it is, the gorgeous book cover for my popular science book ‘Catching Stardust’. It’s even available for pre-order on the Bloomsbury website (see here).

It’s International Asteroid Day. The June 30^th date was chosen to mark the anniversary of the Tunguska air blast over Siberia in 1908. This event occurred when an incoming meteor exploded in spectacular fashion as it met the Earth’s atmosphere. The resultant blast was so large that it would have registered 5.0 on the Richter scale! The UN decided to designate this day in the hope that we (as humans) would start to appreciate the threat that asteroids may play in our future. It is a certainty that an asteroid (or comet) is heading our way and unless we study them now – to work out what they’re made of and how they behave on their orbits around the Sun – we won’t know how to prevent one hitting us. It’s not just science fiction and Hollywood that has to deal with such scenarios (reference Armageddon and Deep Impact). Planetary Defence is becoming an increasingly important field of scientific research with aims to either divert or destroy space objects that might be heading our way in the future.  OK, so we probably won’t need the likes of Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck playing ‘would-be’ space miners, but the chances are that we’ll send robotic spacecraft to do their job.

But I just want to point out how awesome asteroids are. They are some of the oldest objects in the Solar System and they hold many secrets about the formation of the planets. They even have the potential to tell us how Earth became the life-giving planet that it is today. The funny thing is that they are all different, taking on a multitude of shapes, sizes and compositions. We can’t just study one to find out about all of them. This is why we must go to look at more of them in space, otherwise we won’t be very well equipped to work out what to do if one is heading our way. At the same time, we’ll tease them into revealing some of their 4.5 billion year old secrets.

Anyway, it just so happens that June 30^th coincides with me submitting the manuscript for my popular science book Catching Stardust. I hadn’t planned it this way, honest, the serendipity only occurred to me this morning. The final chapter of Catching Stardust deals with ‘Saving Planet Earth’; looking in detail at the various ways we plan to deal with space objects heading our way in the future. For now though, fear not, it looks like we’re safe for at least the next 100 years so there’s plenty of time to read my book and find out more before the big event!

I’ve realised that an update about my popular science book ‘Catching Stardust: comets, asteroids and the birth of the Solar System’ is long overdue and now that I’ve hit the required word target I felt it was a good time to write a little blog about my progress. For more info about the scope of the book see below for the list of chapters or please refer back to my original blog about the book that is here.

The main writing part of the book has gone really well and I’ve enjoyed it so much, honestly, I never thought it would be such fun. I began writing in earnest around February 2016 and took a ‘pregnant’ pause around June 2016. The reason being, I was literally growing a tiny human at the same time as I was (metaphorically) growing the pages of my book. I got to around 60,000 words by the time my baby was due, having been aiming for around 45,000 by that stage so I was happy to have surpassed my own little goal. This was helped somewhat by the fact that I was on bedrest for some of my pregnancy which rather focussed my mind on my laptop because there’s only so much Netflix one person can watch! I had a few months of rest from my book whilst I adapted to motherhood but I was raring to go again (if just a little sleep-deprived) in October 2016 when my writing time became very focussed into short bursts of activity and I never knew how efficient I could be. I had two chapters left to research and write (Space Mining and Saving Planet Earth) and they came together quite quickly.

I hit my 85,000 words target in February 2017 and this was a major milestone; I had a book!! Quick, time for a celebratory trip to the beach (one of the many benefits of living in California right now). However, I knew all those words needed a bit of wrangling into order. So began the stage of reading back through everything I’d written from the start, what I’ll be calling the ‘1^st major phase of editing’ and I found that I was now massively re-arranging the content of the chapters and deleting hundreds of words, but don’t worry, there’s still plenty. The result is that I’m now really happy with what I’m reading, and a bit surprised that it sounds OK, having slightly forgotten what on Earth I’d written a year previously.

So this is where I am now. As part of this phase it’s time to get other people involved; sending my baby out for judgement (well, my book baby, not my actual baby). My lovely Dad was the first person to read any of my book and he will read the entire thing (which is the same as my PhD, sorry!), in fact, he’s only got two chapters to go now. At this stage I’ve begun to rope in friends to help too. My aim is to have at least one specialist and one non-specialist read each chapter. Lucky I know so many awesome people who have kindly offered to read chapters; I was inundated with offers.

First and foremost, I want my book to be scientifically accurate but, obviously, it has to be well-written and interesting to read at the same time, even for people with a non-science background. My natural style is conversational, as you can probably tell from my blog, so I’ve tried to maintain that throughout the book, quite different to an academic style of writing. The last thing I wanted was for my book to read like a textbook. I mean, I love a good textbook and I’ve read some that are so well-written that I’m happy to read them in bed. But a textbook can, quite rightly, be a bit dry since they are designed as a reference text. So, this is where I wanted to make sure there was something for my readers to enjoy whether they are reading on the train, on the beach, or in bed.

I am, of course, yet to see what the Bloomsbury editors think…but that is the next stage. At the end of April 2017 I will send a first draft of the entire book to my editor. She will get back to me prior to the ‘proper’ submission in June 2017 with anything she thinks needs work. It’ll be a nerve-wracking time. All the while, I’ll continue editing and incorporating the excellent suggestions from my proof-reader friends.

Below is a list of the chapters of my book as it currently stands. I’m so excited about it, especially as I’ve found out that the designers have started to think about the book cover design too. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. So, watch this space for more news. I’ll be able to update more once I’m done with this ‘1^st major phase of editing’. The timeline is still that the book will be published by Bloomsbury Sigma in the UK around March 2018, and in the US around June 2018.

1. Introduction
2. A 4.6-billion-year journey into the deep freeze
3. Comets and Asteroids on Earth
4. Space Dust
5. Water and life on Earth
6. Visiting space
7. Stardust mission
8. Rosetta mission
9. Space mining
10. Saving planet Earth

That’s it for now folks. Any questions: tweet me @StarkeyStardust

Here I am talking to the lovely StarTalk team about my favourite scientific breakthrough. I was rather put on the spot to come up with my favourite breakthrough with just a few minutes warning but it was an easy decision for me. Of course the NASA Stardust mission! The mission findings completely re-wrote the history of comet and asteroid formation, and  our understanding of the formation of the Solar System!

The video link needs a subscription to StarTalk All-Access content but I think it’s worth it as there’s loads of other cool stuff on the site that you can enjoy.

My new StarTalk All-Stars show is out now. I was lucky enough to persuade Dr Matt Taylor, Rosetta’s Project Scientist, to join me via Skype from London, England, to help me answer a whole bunch of awesome questions that had been sent in by StarTalk listeners from all over the world. So in this episode we talk all about the European Space Agency Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; what we’ve found out so far from the scientific experiments and what the future holds for the spacecraft (spoiler…it’s not a happy ending). To balance out the Britishness of Matt and I, we were joined by comic co-host Chuck Nice who was absolutely hilarious as usual. I had such fun recording this show and I think you’ll enjoy it too so sit down, relax and have a listen (and a laugh). More details here on the StarTalk website.

P.S. If you want to hear me talking more about Rosetta then I also recorded the following show last year for StarTalk Live at the Beacon Theatre so you can have a listen to that too.