Ever wonder what the stars look like up close? Or how long Earth can support life? Or what’s at the center of our galaxy? In “The Astronomy Cafe,” astronomer Sten Odenwald answers these questions and more, in a manner that is both informative and engaging.

The book is based on Odenwald’s “Ask the Astronomer” page at his award-winning website, “The Astronomy Cafe.” In the book, Odenwald takes on everything from wormholes to the big bang theory to general and special relativity. And he does it with wit and humor.

The book is divided into sections, ranging from basic topics like the Sun, the planets and the stars, to more advanced subjects like black holes, special and general relativity and space physics. Odenwald also addresses more offbeat topics, like UFOs, spook lights and the validity of some of the technology used in Star Trek. While Odenwald’s answers are thorough and provide technical information, he makes a great effort to tailor his explanations to laypeople. He includes pictures, charts and tables to illustrate his answers, and while he tries to bring the material down to the reader’s level, he never talks down to them. And, Odenwald’s answers are conversational and humorous, which makes the subject material seem more within the general reader’s reach. Just as important, Odenwald presents astronomy not as something full of data and mathematical equations that the general reader could never possibly understand, but as a subject that is both exciting and relevant to the reader’s everyday life.

Odenwald also provides a candid look at a career in astronomy, a career that, though exciting, he says, offers little job security and can be stressful. Astronomy as a career, he warns readers, is vastly from their experiences as amateur astronomers. Odenwald is very honest about his own experiences as an astronomer, admitting that he sometimes feels frustrated writing technical articles that will only be read by a handful of people in the field, when so much of the general population has very little understanding about the basics of astronomy and science.

While humor is a theme throughout the book, Odenwald doesn’t shy away from more serious topics, such as the lack of money and time spent on certain areas of astronomical research. For example, while it is possible that a comet or asteroid could collide with Earth, only a few million dollars have been invested in identifying objects that could impact the Earth, Odenwald writes. And, he says, there hasn’t been much of an effort to formulate a plan for intercepting anything on a collision course with Earth even though the likelihood of a person being affected by such an event is about the same as dying in an airplane accident, when an average is formulated based on Earth’s 6 million people over a 70-year period.

While the book is written for the layperson, it does include a fair amount of technical language, so many readers will want to refer to the glossary Odenwald provides at the back of the book. Overall, the book provides a basic introduction to astronomy for the novice, and helpful insights for the more advanced student.