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.

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

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