| Description |
x, 204 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Series |
Astronomer's universe, 1614-659X |
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Astronomers' universe.
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| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Contents |
1. At the centre of creation? -- Ptolemy's universe -- Copernicus' revolution -- The man with the metal nose -- Dancing moons and crescent planets -- On the shoulders of giants -- The relative size of the Solar System -- Edmund Halley, le Gentil, Captain Cook and sex for iron nails -- Do the stars move? -- Mapping the Milky Way and nebulae -- Stellar fingerprints -- Cepheid variables and standard candles -- References -- 2. Universe of galaxies -- Kapteyn's universe -- Galaxies rushing away -- Herber Curtis, Harlowe Shapley, and the great debate -- Blinking stars in the Andromeda nebula -- Hubble, Humanson and an expanding universe -- References-- 3. Cosmic microwave background -- The primordial atom -- Fred Hoyle and the steady state theory -- Modern alchemy -- The origin of the chemical elements -- The hot surfaces of stars -- Cooking helium in the early universe -- Cosmological model predictions -- The first prediction of the cosmic microwave background -- From where does this microwave background come? -- A new window on the heavens -- Missed opportunities -- Clearing out the pigeon droppings -- Was it really a blackbody? -- References -- 4. Cosmic background explorer (COBE) -- The Earth, Sun and Milky Way's motions in space -- Invisible matter -- Filaments and voids -- Cosmic inflation -- Studying the CMB from space -- Waiting for COBE -- A perfect blackbody -- The "scientific discovery of the century" -- References -- 5. To the ends of the earth -- Primordial sound waves -- Looking for the first acoustic peak -- The most southerly continent -- "Great God! This is an awful place" -- The Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica -- The universe is flat! -- Polarisation in the cosmic microwave background -- References -- 6. The evidence comes together -- Back into space -- The cosmic web -- A new standard candle -- The most surprising astronomical finding of the century? -- MAP's detailed image of the baby universe -- References -- 7. Up to the present and beyond -- Europe looks back to the dawn of time -- Searching for gravitational waves -- Neutrino astrophysics -- Can we learn much more from studying the CMB? -- What is dark matter? -- What is dark energy? -- The moment of creation -- The cosmic onion -- Concluding remarks -- References -- Glossary. |
| Summary |
"Rhodri Evans tells the story of what we know about the universe, from Jacobus Kapteyn's Island universe at the turn of the 20th Century, and the discovery by Hubble that the nebulae were external to our own galaxy, through Gamow's early work on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and its subsequent discovery by Penzias and Wilson, to modern day satellite-lead CMB research. Research results from the ground-based experiments DASI, BOOMERANG, and satellite missions COBE, WMAP and Planck are explained and interpreted to show how our current picture of the universe was arrived at, and the author looks at the future of CMB research and what we still need to learn." -- Publisher's description. |
| Subject |
Cosmic background radiation.
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Cosmology -- History.
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Astrophysics.
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Cosmology.
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Astrophysics. (OCoLC)fst00819797
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Cosmic background radiation. (OCoLC)fst00880546
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Cosmology. (OCoLC)fst00880600
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| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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| ISBN |
9783319099279 (paperback : acid-free paper) |
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3319099272 (paperback : acid-free paper) |
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3319099280 (ebook) |
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9783319099286 (ebook) |
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