A Journey through the UniverseProviding an in-depth understanding both for general readers and astronomy enthusiasts, this highly comprehensive book provides an up-to-date survey of our knowledge of the Universe beyond Earth. The book explores our Solar System, its planets and other bodies; examines the Sun and how it and other stars evolve through their lifetimes; discusses the search for planets beyond our Solar System and how we might detect life on them; and highlights interesting objects found within our galaxy, the Milky Way. It also looks at our current understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe, as well as many other intriguing topics, such as time, black holes and Einstein's theories, dark matter, dark energy and the Cosmic Microwave Background. The book is uniquely supported by video lectures given by the author, available online. It also includes the very latest astronomical observations, such as those made by the Planck and Kepler spacecraft. |
Contents
Watchers of the skies | 1 |
Our Sun | 12 |
Aspects of our Solar System | 26 |
The rocky planets | 38 |
The hunt for Planet X | 57 |
Voyages to the outer planets | 70 |
Harbingers of doom | 91 |
Impact | 100 |
Our island Universe | 192 |
Wonders of the southern sky | 209 |
Proving Einstein right | 226 |
no need to be afraid | 239 |
Its about time | 255 |
the astronomer and the telescope that honours his name | 267 |
The violent Universe | 285 |
dark matter and dark energy | 301 |
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Common terms and phrases
angular appear arcseconds asteroid astronomers atmosphere atoms Big Bang black hole bright called carbon centre Cepheid Cepheid variable clocks cloud comet core cosmic crater dark matter density detected detector diameter discovered discovery distance dust dwarf planets Earth effect Einstein’s electrons emission emitted energy Eta Carinae Figure further galactic gamma-ray giant give globular clusters gravitational helium Hubble Space Telescope Hubble’s hydrogen impact infrared Jodrell Bank Jodrell Bank Observatory Jupiter Jupiter’s km/s luminosity Mars massive measured Milky Way Galaxy million mirror mission Moon moving NASA Nebula Neptune neutrinos neutron star nuclear nucleus object Observatory observed optical orbit particles period planetary Pluto position predicted produced protons pulsar radiation region result ring rotation satellite Saturn seen showed signal solar masses Solar System spacecraft spectrum spiral star’s stellar Sun’s supernova surface temperature theory thought Universe Uranus velocity visible wavelengths whilst white dwarf WMAP