Pål Brekke

Our Explosive Sun: A Visual Feast of our Source of Light and Life

Sola: Vår livgivende stjerne

Our Explosive Sun: A Visual Feast of our Source of Light and Life is a great introduction to the Sun for general readers as well as scientists who are not solar physicists. This book presents the basic properties of the Sun, describes how it has fascinated humans throughout history, and shows how it influences our current technologies.

Our Explosive Sun includes 143 color illustrations and photos of the Sun, several of which were made especially for the book and have never been published before. Additional material, available via Springer Extras, includes a large number of animations and video material. A PowerPoint presentation of the book is a useful resource for teachers.

Brekke sola. vår livgivende stjerne
Brekke, pål forskning.no
Photo: forskning.no

Pål Brekke (b. 1961) is a solar physicist with a PhD from the University of Oslo. He has participated in preparing the EUV spectrometers CDS and SUMER on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and also been part of the science operation team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as well as the European Space Agency (ESA).

He is now a Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Space Centre. He is a Norwegian delegate to the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC), Programme Board of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration (HEM) and Situational Awareness (SSA). He is also a delegate to the International Living With a Star (ILWS).