The Cosmic Mystery Tour

Description

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. 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......Page 75 Could There Be Some Mistake?......Page 76 The Big Mystery......Page 77 Cosmic Relics......Page 78 Detector Experiments......Page 79 Other Explanations......Page 80 Biting the Bullet......Page 81 Part II: The History, Geography and Architecture of the Cosmos ......Page 84 The Island Universe......Page 86 The Ring Cycle......Page 87 Einstein’s Static Universe......Page 88 The Cosmic Egg......Page 89 Red Shift......Page 90 The Distance to the Stars......Page 92 Living in an Expanding Universe......Page 94 The Steady State Theory......Page 95 The A, B, C of Cosmology......Page 98 The Hot Big Bang......Page 99 Forging Atoms in the Stars......Page 100 The Background Noise of the Universe......Page 102 Alchemical Furnaces of the Cosmos......Page 104 Feeding the Stellar Furnace......Page 105 Undoubtedly Brilliant......Page 106 Keeping the Lights On......Page 109 Cosmic Destiny......Page 110 Stellar Alchemy......Page 111 Alvan Clark & Sons......Page 112 The Dog Star......Page 115 Logic is the Beginning, Not the End of Wisdom!......Page 116 A Golden Ring......Page 117 The Diamond in the Ring......Page 118 An Alternative Star Trek......Page 120 The Leviathan......Page 121 Fast Forward to Today......Page 123 Adaptive Optics......Page 124 The Behemoth......Page 125 The Crab and the Jellyfish......Page 127 Guest Stars......Page 128 The Vastness of the Universe......Page 130 Cosmic Fireworks......Page 131 The Ultimate Heavy Metal Space Rock......Page 134 Cosmic Lighthouses......Page 136 Exotic Materials......Page 139 A Cultural Icon......Page 141 Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster......Page 143 Shrinking Orbits......Page 145 A Blast from the Past......Page 146 Staring down the Barrel of a Ray-gun......Page 147 Last Tango in Deep Space......Page 148 Cosmic Spacequakes......Page 149 From Earthquakes to Spacequakes......Page 150 Neutron Star Collisions......Page 151 The Birth of Heavy Metal......Page 153 Interstellar Gold Rush......Page 154 Tightening the Net......Page 155 Your Gold Ring......Page 156 On Continued Gravitational Attraction......Page 157 Cygnus X-1......Page 158 Quasars......Page 160 Supermassive Black Holes......Page 162 The Innermost Heart of the Galaxy......Page 163 The Mystery Object......Page 164 Bigger and Bigger......Page 165 Photographing a Black Hole......Page 167 Part III: The Biology of the Cosmos......Page 170 The Gorgon’s Head!......Page 172 The Gorgon’s Head......Page 174 John Goodricke......Page 175 A Spectacular Discovery......Page 176 The Kepler Space Telescope......Page 178 A Toast to the Stars!......Page 179 Life, But Not as We Know It!......Page 183 Here Be Dragons......Page 184 Is There Life Out There?......Page 185 The God of War......Page 186 Europa......Page 187 Enceladus......Page 188 Titan......Page 189 To Boldly Go …......Page 191 Breakthrough Starshot......Page 193 Follow the Yellow Brick Road......Page 197 Finding Your Very Own Alien......Page 200 Is There Anybody Out There?......Page 201 Where Is Everybody?......Page 202 The Fermi Paradox......Page 204 Self-destruction......Page 206 We Really Are the First!......Page 207 Lovely LISA......Page 208 From the Leviathan to the Behemoth......Page 209 Raise Your Glasses to the Skies!......Page 210 Where Is Everybody?......Page 211 Illustration Credits......Page 212 Index......Page 214