Journeys to the Ends of the Universe: A guided tour of the beginnings and endings of planets, stars, galaxies and the universe

ISBN-13: 9780750300377 / Angielski / Twarda / 1990 / 198 str.

C.R. Kitchin

Opis

This book explores the limits of knowledge in modern science, where scientific fact overtakes and merges with the wilder speculations of science fiction. It provides a linked series of essays, suitable for the general reader as well as more specialist scientists, summarizing the topics currently developing apace with astronomy and physics and which are pressing outwards on the interfaces of science with belief.

Journeys to the Ends of the Universe presents a tour through the universe from the big bang onward. The book explores the limits of knowledge where scientific fact overtakes and merges with the wilder speculations of science fiction. The beginnings of galaxies, stars, planets, and even life itself are related back to the raveled turmoil of the first few seconds and years of life in the cosmos. The journey continues past the ultimate fate of the solar system to probe the nature of supernovae. The future of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, super-clusters of clusters of galaxies, and so on leads toward the finale, where the author provides some bizarre musings of physicists and astronomers, suggesting possible destinies for the universe stretching its present age billions of times into the future.

Recenzje

"This book takes the reader on a guided tour of the new and exciting concepts which are now shaping our view of the cosmos."
-Spaceflight, Dec. 1990

"This book is one of the best accounts of modern views of cosmology to appear in recent years."
-Aslib, vol. 56, no. 1, January 1991

"The book is written in an entertaining way."
-Paul Murdin, (Royal Greenwich Observatory, UK), Times Higher Educational Supplement, no. 956, March 1, 1991

"I originally expected this book to be just another run-of-the-mill jaunt into popular science. However, the style and depth of information covered sets it apart from similar publications … a comprehensive insight into modern astrophysical theories…"
-Alister Hillman, The British Astronomical Association, 1991

"… has the great skill to get it right with few words … very nicely written yet precise…"
-R. Kippenhahn, Physikalische, June 1991

"…this book, once started, cannot be put down…"
-Heinz Tiersch, Astronomische Nachrichten, no. 312, 1991

"Writing in an entertaining and undemanding style … This is a journey to be followed by any reader with an enquiring mind who has ever wondered about the true nature of the universe."
-Europe and Astronomy, Winter 1992

Spis treści

An Inflated Idea of Ourselves
Strings to Tie a Universe Together
Phoenix Rising
The Nearest Star
A Study in Contrasts
Thar She Blows!
The Hottest Spots in the Universe
Cosmic Dustbins
To the Hub!
The Enigma Machines
She Was the Universe
Bibliography
Index

O autorze

Kitchin\, C.R.