Our Universe
An Astronomer's Guide
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
A world-renowned astrophysicist takes us through the huge, unfolding history of the universe
The night sky is an endless source of wonder and mystery. For thousands of years it has been at the heart of scientific and philosophical inquiry, from the first star catalogues etched into ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets to the metres-wide telescopes constructed in Chile's Atacama Desert today. On a clear night it is hard not to look up and pick out familiar constellations, and to think of the visionary minds who pioneered our understanding of what lies beyond.
In this thrilling new guide to our Universe and how it works, Professor of Astrophysics Jo Dunkley reveals how it only becomes more beautiful and exciting the more we discover about it. With warmth and clarity, Dunkley takes us from the very basics - why the Earth orbits the Sun, and how our Moon works - right up to massive, strange phenomena like superclusters, quasars, and the geometry of spacetime. As she does so, Dunkley unfurls the history of humankind's heroic journey to understand the history and structure of the cosmos, revealing the extraordinary, little-known stories of astronomy pioneers including Williamina Fleming, Vera Rubin and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
Illuminating and uplifting, this is your essential guide to the biggest subject of all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Science journalist Dunkley offers a fascinating, accessible introduction to the universe, covering topics ranging from the Big Bang and the "cosmic dawn" of the first stars to the ongoing search for exoplanets and for dark matter and energy. Dunkley begins close to home, with the Earth and Moon, before moving outward from the solar system to the Milky Way, to the edge of the known universe. Along the way, she explains how stars fuse atoms to create energy, and how white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes form. The topic of black holes introduces a discussion of how scientists can search for and find things humans cannot see, by observing how their gravity affects the light around them. Similarly, a pr cis on Einstein's theory of general relativity leads into how the universe began and evolved into an ever-expanding, varied space, and not simply a "monotonously regular sea of atoms and dark matter." In a cosmos-spanning work that also offers a tantalizing glimpse of the possibility of realities beyond this one, Dunkley gives readers a commanding view onto the universe and the wonders to be found in it.
