The Cosmic Mystery Tour

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E-Book Overview

The Cosmic Mystery Tour takes us on a lightning tour of the mysteries of the universe enlivened by brief stories of the colourful characters who created modern science. It explores hot topics in physics and astronomy, including the recent discovery of gravitational waves; the quest for the origin of dark matter; the study of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy; the ongoing search for Earth-like exoplanets; the search for signals from extraterrestrials; and the development of technologies to send spacecraft to the stars. The first part of the book explores the laws that govern the universe. Physics is a spiritual quest to find deep meaning in the cosmos. Its goal is to provide a concise, but accurate description of the world that accounts for all the amazing features that it contains. The second part takes a look at the history of the cosmos, studies its geography and explores some of its architectural highlights such as red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars and the ultimate cosmic mysteries-supermassive black holes. The last part considers the possibility that life might exist elsewhere in the universe, and explores the cosmos from the outer fringes of science fiction to the ongoing search for alien civilizations.

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E-Book Information

• Year: 2,019

• Pages: 218

• Pages In File: 218

• Language: English

• Topic: 181

• Library: PQR

• Identifier: 0198831862, 978-0198831860

• Org File Size: 59,645,895

• Extension: pdf

• Toc: Cover......Page 1The Cosmic Mystery Tour: A High-Speed Journey Through Space & Time......Page 4Copyright......Page 5Preface......Page 6Acknowledgements......Page 8Contents......Page 10Part I: The Laws of the Cosmos......Page 12The Path to Immortality......Page 14A Visit to the Underworld......Page 15The Scientific Revolution......Page 18Warping Space and Time......Page 19Sir Isaac Newton......Page 20The Rosetta Stone and Quantum Waves......Page 22Waves in a Sea of Light......Page 23The Language of Quantum Waves......Page 24Seeing with Electron Waves......Page 26The Crazy World of Quantum Mechanics......Page 28We’re Having a Field Day!......Page 29Faraday’s Fields......Page 30Radio Ripples......Page 33Quantum Waves......Page 35Einstein Solves Newton’s Puzzle......Page 37Cosmic Ripples......Page 38The Gravitational Field......Page 39Detecting the Ripples......Page 40Extreme Violence in the Depths of Space......Page 42What’s in a Name?......Page 44Triangulating Space......Page 45Paving the Way for LISA......Page 46What Will We See?......Page 47Supermassive Black Holes......Page 48Animated Atom Boy......Page 50The World’s Sharpest Needle......Page 51Entering a New World in a Grain of Sand......Page 52Onwards and Inwards......Page 54Deeper and Deeper......Page 56The Chemical Fingerprint......Page 57Cosmic Barcode......Page 58The Mighty Atom......Page 60Don’t Park Your Electrons in My Space......Page 61Spin and Statistics!......Page 63Four Forces......Page 65A Modern Alchemist......Page 66QED......Page 68Unification......Page 69A Triumph of Modern Physics......Page 71Where Do We Go from Here?......Page 73Dark Matter......Pa