| Description |
xxi, 299 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm. |
| Series |
Science essentials |
|
Science essentials (National Academy of Sciences (U.S.))
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-293) and index. |
| Contents |
From myth to reality. Astronomy : the endless frontier ; Charting and modeling the heavens ; Copernicus : "the last of the Greek cosmologists" ; Galileo : a new approach to mechanics and cosmology ; The impact of Copernicus : Kepler's Laws ; Isaac Newton and gravity ; William Herschel discovers the universe ; Understanding the universe becomes a new kind of science -- Einstein's toolkit, and how to use it. Overconfidence among the cognoscenti at the dawn of the twentieth century ; Revolution in physics : the inception of quantum theory and relativity ; Special relativity ; General relativity ; General relativity is tested, passes the test, and is a sensation ; Cosmological solutions to Einstein's equations -- The realm of the nebulae. New instruments in a better climate unveil a new world ; A universe of galaxies is confirmed ; A cosmological model to fit the new data : enter, Georges Lemaître ; Physical cosmology and the expanding universe ; Lemaître's synthesis model foretells the contribution of dark energy ; Hubble's achievements ; Big science to attack the big problem ; The steady state model universe and the big bang -- Let's do cosmology! The big bang : a starting point that cannot be escaped ; Observational cosmology, the biggest puzzle to be solved with the biggest telescope ; The grand project was initially too difficult -- Discovering the Big Bang. Did our universe have an explosive birth? ; What makes the stars shine? ; Nuclear astrophysics moves to the cosmos ; The fireball in which the first chemical elements were made ; Direct radio observations of the big bang fireball ; Understanding the big bang -- The origin of structure in the universe. "In the beginning"--why an explanation is needed ; Structure within the expanding universe ; The elusive standard candle : Beatrice Tinsley changes the game ; Real cosmic structure found and cataloged by Fritz Zwicky ; Understanding the origin of structure becomes serious science ; Cosmic inflation ; The seeds of cosmic structure are discovered ; Closing the loop : how do seeds grow to galaxies? -- Dark matter, or, Fritz Zwicky's greatest invention. How the earth was weighed ; Finding the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy ; Zwicky finds dark matter in clusters of galaxies in the 1930s ; The rediscovery of dark matter in the 1970s ; Rotation curves confirm the case for dark matter ; More recent multiple lines of evidence for dark matter -- Dark energy, or, Einstein's greatest blunder. A curious situation ; Will gravity lead to a collapse of the solar system? ; Expected and unexpected motions of thrown stones and Hubble's universe ; The invention of the cosmological constant or dark energy : 1915 ; The revival of dark energy in the 1970s ; New arguments and new evidence--dark energy confirmed in the 1990s ; Dark energy fills the gap, allowing the flat, "just right" universe -- The modern paradigm and the limits of our knowledge. We have come a long way ; The matter and energy content of the universe ; The global cosmological solution and the cosmic triangle ; In the beginning ; Structure in the universe ; The supercomputer approach -- The frontier : major mysteries that remain. Dark matter ; Dark energy ; Inflation ; Giant black holes ; Fine-tuning ; Summing up. |
| Subject |
Cosmology -- Popular works.
|
|
Dark energy (Astronomy) -- Popular works.
|
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Dark matter (Astronomy) -- Popular works.
|
| Added Author |
Mitton, Simon, 1946-
|
| ISBN |
9780691134307: $27.95 |
|
0691134308 |
|
