New Theories in Astronomy

"New Theories in Astronomy" by William Stirling is an early 20th-century science book where the author shares his own ideas and studies about space, like what stars and planets are made of, and how gravity works. Stirling questions what scientists already thought was true, offering different ways to think about how the universe functions. At the start, he talks about how important it is to really understand astronomy, pointing out that knowing too little or too much can cause problems. Stirling also looks back at how astronomers measured things like weight and size, and how hard it was to figure out the Earth's mass and density. He doesn't agree with some of the common ideas, especially about gravity, believing that the usual scientific explanations aren't good enough, preparing readers for his own new ideas.