The Cosmos: A Historical PerspectiveEveryone knows that the universe is extremely old and extremely large. But how did scientists determine just how old and how large? How do astronomers know that there are upwards of 100 billion galaxies in the universe if the nearest one is over 40,000 light-years away? How do we know what the stars are made of? The answer is that our current knowledge of the universe has arisen from the work and ideas of scientists and philosophers over hundreds of years. While it's only been during the last several decades that scientists have had the technology and theories to really understand how the universe works, humans have thought about such issues for millennia. And the scientists who today are attempting to understand the most complex issues of the universe build upon the work and thought of the thinkers of the last hundreds of years. "The Cosmos: A Historical Perspective" provides an accessible introduction to the many ways humans have conceived of the universe throughout history and what ideas have led to our current understanding of the cosmos. The book examines: the Scientific Revolution and the new ideas of the Earth's place in the cosmos; the importance of nineteenth-century physics and chemistry in determining the compositions of stars; Einstein's Theory of Relativity and how it altered how scientists thought about gravity; and new, cutting-edge science that may alter, yet again, our conceptions of the cosmos, such as the inflationary universe and the possibility of dark energy. Jargon and mathematics is kept to a minimum, and the volume includes an annotated bibliography and a timeline. "The Cosmos" is an ideal introduction for students studying space science and the history and nature of the scientific understanding of the universe. |
What people are saying - Write a review
Contents
1 Introduction | 1 |
2 Babylonian and Chinese Astronomy and Cosmology | 5 |
3 Greek Astronomy and Cosmology | 13 |
Figure 31 Retrograde motion of a superior planet | 15 |
Figure 32 Eudoxuss model for retrograde motion | 16 |
Figure 33 Hipparchuss solar model | 19 |
Figure 34 Ptolemys model for the planets | 21 |
Figure 35 The equant | 22 |
Figure 62 Leonard Diggess universe 1576 | 76 |
Figure 63 Herschels 20foot reflector completed in 1783 | 79 |
a Modern photograph and b Herschels original sketch | 81 |
The Triumph of the IslandUniverse Theory | 87 |
Figure 71 Messier nebula M 51 the Whirlpool nebula a Lord Rosses sketch | 89 |
Figure 71 Messier nebula M 51 the Whirlpool nebulab Modern photo | 90 |
Figure 72 The Hooker 100inch telescope at Mount Wilson | 96 |
Figure 73 Andromeda nebula M 31 | 97 |
Figure 36 Model for solar motion using secondary epicycle | 24 |
Figure 37 Equivalence of geocentric and heliocentric models for planetary motion | 28 |
Figure 38 The Tychonic system | 29 |
4 Cosmology from Islam to Copernicus | 35 |
Figure 41 The alTusi couple | 39 |
Figure 42 AlShatirs model of the motion of the Moon | 40 |
Figure 43 Dantes universe | 43 |
Figure 44 The Copernican system | 48 |
5 Cosmology from Brahe to Newton | 55 |
Figure 51 The Tychonic system | 59 |
Figure 52 Figure from Schofield 1981 plate 16 | 60 |
Figure 53 Keplers heliocentric system 1596 | 62 |
The Universe Beyond the Solar System | 73 |
Figure 61 A drawing of stars from Galileos Starry Messenger 1610 | 75 |
8 The Expansion of the Universe | 101 |
Figure 81 Hubbles historic red shiftdistance graph 1929 | 115 |
Figure 82 Lemaîtres universe 1932 | 116 |
Figure 83 Eddingtons universe 1933 | 117 |
9 From Universal Expansion to the Big Bang | 123 |
Figure 91 Wilson and and the Holmden microwave receiver | 134 |
From 1965 to the TwentyFirst Century | 137 |
Figure 101 The Hubble Space Telescope | 138 |
Figure 102 Einsteins Cross a gravitationally lensed quasar | 143 |
Timeline | 155 |
Glossary | 159 |
Bibliography | 167 |
| 173 | |
Common terms and phrases
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Cosmos: A Historical Perspective Greenwood guides to great ideas in science, ISSN 1559-5374 |
| Author | Craig G. Fraser |
| Edition | illustrated, annotated |
| Publisher | Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 |
| ISBN | 0313332185, 9780313332180 |
| Length | 179 pages |
| Subjects | › Science / Astronomy Science / Cosmology |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |