The Amazing Space Almanac

The Amazing Space Almanac
Justin Segal, author, designer & illustrator

Lowell House Juvenile, publisher
coming in Fall 1998!

The Amazing Space Almanac is a fun collection of facts and mysteries about the universe, exploring topics such as:

· The origin of the universe
· Extraterrestrial life
· Time travel
· Living in space
· Mission disasters
· Human junk in orbit
· How you can become an astronaut . . .
· and much, much more!

Book excerpt:

"Alien Astronauts?"
Have alien astronauts visited Earth in the past, and met with ancient humans? One space mystery, about a West African tribe called the Dogon, suggests it may be so.

The Dogon who live today are descended from people who lived in Egypt, North Africa, many centuries ago. They have a long history, passed down from generation to generation through storytelling. In the 1940s, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, two French scientists, visited the Dogon people to hear some these ancient stories. The Dogon told them that the star Sirius, 8.6 lightyears away from Earth, has an invisible companion star, which is smaller but heavier than Sirius itself. The Dogon also explained that this companion orbited Sirius once every fifty years.

Many years later, in 1970, astronomers discovered that Sirius did have a white-dwarf companion star, smaller and heavier than Sirius itself -- with a 50-year orbit. Everything the Dogon had said was true! aliens illustration But how could they have known about Sirius' companion (called Sirius B) in the 1940s, even if they had access to the telescopes or astronomy books of that time? The story of Sirius had been told in Dogon mythology for many centuries.

Some people believe this is proof that the Dogon people had been visited by extraterrestrials far in the past, and told of Sirius at that time. Note: the Dogon also believe that a third star exists in the Sirius system, larger than Sirius B but lighter, with a planet in its orbit. Until Sirius C is discovered, however, we may never know whether this planet is home to an intelligent, space-traveling civilization.