Enjoy Our Universe is a guide for an enjoyable visit to the Universe. The "Universe" refers to all "observable things," ranging in size from the entire cosmos to elementary particles. This small tome on fundamental physics, cosmology, Higgs bosons, time travel and all that, is unlike any other analogous book. Its scientific statements are correct or, at least, they coincide with the opinions held by the vast majority of experts. It establishes clear distinctions between things we know for sure - in the sense of having strong observational support for them - and things that we know that we do not know, or we do not understand. In this sense, it is scientifically honest. In descriptions of our Universe and of the way it functions, beauty is a recurring word. In an attempt to portray its beauty from the eyes of the beholder, the book is profusely illustrated. Its offbeat, tongue-in-cheek illustrations greatly enhance its readability, particularly in those chapters whose understanding, admittedly, requires a little extra effort. This book's idiosyncracies remind us of our own smallness and eccentricities even as we read about the logic, function and magnificence of the Universe.

What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later. Chapter by chapter, it sets out the current state of scientific knowledge: the origins of space and time; energy, mass, and light; galaxies, stars, and our sun; the habitable earth, and complex life itself. Drawing together the physical and biological sciences, Baggott recounts what we currently know of our history, highlighting the questions science has yet to answer.

The Great Silence explores the multifaceted problem named after the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and his legendary 1950 lunchtime question "Where is everybody?" In many respects, Fermi's paradox is the richest and the most challenging problem for the entire field of astrobiology and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) studies. This book shows how Fermi's paradox is intricately connected with many fields of learning, technology, arts, and even everyday life. It aims to establish the strongest possible version of the problem, to dispel many related confusions, obfuscations, and prejudices, as well as to offer a novel point of entry to the many solutions proposed in existing literature. Cirkovic argues that any evolutionary worldview cannot avoid resolving the Great Silence problem in one guise or another.

The marvellous complexity of the Universe emerges from several deep laws and a handful of fundamental constants that fix its shape, scale, and destiny. There is a deep structure to the world which at the same time is simple, elegant, and beautiful. Where did these laws and these constants come from? And why are the laws so fruitful when written in the language of mathematics? Peter Atkins considers the minimum effort needed to equip the Universe with its laws and its constants. He explores the origin of the conservation of energy, of electromagnetism, of classical and quantum mechanics, and of thermodynamics, showing how all these laws spring from deep symmetries. The revolutionary result is a short but immensely rich weaving together of the fundamental ideas of physics. With his characteristic wit, erudition, and economy, Atkins sketches out how the laws of Nature can spring from very little. Or arguably from nothing at all.

Recent cosmological observations have posed a challenge for traditional theories of gravity: what is the force driving the accelerated expansion of the universe? What if dark energy or dark matter do not exist and what we observe is a modification of the gravitational interaction that dominates the universe at large scales? Various extensions to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity have been proposed, and this book presents a detailed theoretical and phenomenological analysis of several leading, modified theories of gravity. Theories with generalised curvature-matter couplings are first explored, followed by hybrid metric-Palatini gravity. This timely book first discusses key motivations behind the development of these modified gravitational theories, before presenting a detailed overview of their subsequent development, mathematical structure, and cosmological and astrophysical implications. Covering recent developments and with an emphasis on astrophysical and cosmological applications, this is the perfect text for graduate students and researchers.

David H. Levy, the science columnist for PARADE magazine, who took over Carl Sagan's post, is one of the world's foremost astronomers and a contributor to ASTRONOMY magazine. He has discovered 22 comets, including Shoemaker-Levy 9, which collided with Jupiter and made news around the world. In this easily understood book, he takes the armchair reader around the cosmos, introducing the major subjects studied by astronomy students in a manner non-students, and ageing ex-students can understand. Accompanied by b&w illustrations and a color section of important discoveries and maps, this book is the place to start for anybody who wants an introductory course or refresher course in a subject of extraordinary scope.

Opinions on the large-scale structure of the early universe range widely from primeval chaos to a well-ordered mass distribution. P.J.E. Peebles argues that the evolution proceeded from a nearly uniform initial state to a progressively more irregular and clumpy universe. The discussion centers on the largest known structures, the clusters of galaxies, the empirical evidence of the nature of the clustering, and the theories of how the clustering evolves in an expanding universe.

In Chapter One the author provides an historical introduction to the subject. Chapter Two contains a survey of methods used to deal with the Newtonian approximation to the theory of the evolution of the mass distribution. Recent progress in the use of statistical measures of the clustering is described in Chapter Three. Chapters Four and Five return to techniques for dealing with cosmic evolution, in the statistical measures of clustering and under general relativity theory. Lastly, in Chapter Six Professor Peebles assesses the progress in attempts to link theory and observation to arrive at a well established physical picture of the nature and evolution of the universe.

This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations of scientific knowledge in the early modern period. It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco's Tractatus de sphaera, by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring Sacrobosco's treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650, represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.

In Chown's most ambitious book to date he sets out to answer some of the most provocative questions of today: - Is Elvis alive and kicking in another space domain? - Will we ever find ET? - What's beyond the edge of the Universe? - Did aliens build the stars? - Can we live forever?

Tensors, Relativity, and Cosmology, Second Edition, combines relativity, astrophysics, and cosmology in a single volume, providing a simplified introduction to each subject that is followed by detailed mathematical derivations. The book includes a section on general relativity that gives the case for a curved space-time, presents the mathematical background (tensor calculus, Riemannian geometry), discusses the Einstein equation and its solutions (including black holes and Penrose processes), and considers the energy-momentum tensor for various solutions. In addition, a section on relativistic astrophysics discusses stellar contraction and collapse, neutron stars and their equations of state, black holes, and accretion onto collapsed objects, with a final section on cosmology discussing cosmological models, observational tests, and scenarios for the early universe. This fully revised and updated second edition includes new material on relativistic effects, such as the behavior of clocks and measuring rods in motion, relativistic addition of velocities, and the twin paradox, as well as new material on gravitational waves, amongst other topics.

This advanced undergraduate text introduces Einstein's general theory of relativity. The topics covered include geometric formulation of special relativity, the principle of equivalence, Einstein's field equation and its spherical-symmetric solution, as well as cosmology. An emphasis is placed on physical examples and simple applications without the full tensor apparatus. It begins by examining the physics of the equivalence principle and looks at how it inspired Einstein's idea of curved spacetime as the gravitational field. At a more mathematically accessible level, it provides a metric description of a warped space, allowing the reader to study many interesting phenomena such as gravitational time dilation, GPS operation, light deflection, precession of Mercury's perihelion, and black holes. Numerous modern topics in cosmology are discussed from primordial inflation and cosmic microwave background to the dark energy that propels an accelerating universe. Building on Cheng's previous book, 'Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology: A Basic Introduction', this text has been tailored to the advanced student. It concentrates on the core elements of the subject making it suitable for a one-semester course at the undergraduate level. It can also serve as an accessible introduction of general relativity and cosmology for those readers who want to study the subject on their own. The proper tensor formulation of Einstein's field equation is presented in an appendix chapter for those wishing to glimpse further at the mathematical details.

Addressing a variety of theoretical cosmological problems, and emphasizing a mathematical approach, this volume nicely complements Peebles' Physical Cosmology (Princeton Series in Physics, 1971). Ryan and Shepley have concentrated on the structure of models of the universe. By using a modern terminology that emphasizes the operator nature of vectors and tensors, as opposed to their components in a particular coordinate system, the authors develop modern tensor analysis to the point where it can be applied to general relativistic cosmology. They then use it to describe homogeneous cosmologies in considerable detail. Both students and researchers are likely to find these techniques especially useful. Among their subjects are: spaces with groups of motions; singularities; Taub-NUT-Misner space; Bianchitype models; Hamiltonian cosmology; and perturbations in anisotropic models. A brief section on observations is also included, as is a complete bibliography. A final section presents graded exercises that underscore the potential yet unrealized in this area of study. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

'Great characters, fine writing, totally engrossing' STEPHEN KING It might have been the end of days. Instead it was the beginning of something shockingly new. They called the comet Cain, after the astronomer who discovered it. It passed 500,000 miles from Earth. We were spared planetary destruction and granted a light show like no other. But, one year later, Earth span into the debris field left by the comet and a meteor storm struck. Roads, buildings and even a small town were annihilated. The meteors impacted heavily around the dying mining town of Northfall, Minnesota. It was the night of a mysterious double murder, the deed overshadowed by the discovery that the burning remains of the rock contained an unknown substance more precious than gold: the Ninth Metal. And with that discovery, everything changed. Benjamin Percy is an award-winning novelist, celebrated comic books writer and author of the Wolverine podcast. The Ninth Metal is the first of a cycle of novels set in a shared universe. Praise for The Ninth Metal: 'Whether you choose to think of him as the Elmore Leonard of rural Minnesota or the Stephen King of Science Fiction, Percy - with his extraordinary and unrelenting eye - dishes up humanity like some kind of otherworldly blue plate special, at once deeply familiar and wildly new' Margaret Stohl, No. 1 New York Times Bestselling Author 'Take one part dystopia, one part sci-fi, two parts apocalypse, then ride them roughshod through a bleak and bloody western, and it still wouldn't get close to what Ben Percy does here, which is blow open the core of humanity's dark heart' Marlon James, Booker Prize winning author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf 'The Ninth Metal continues his streak of thrilling, incisive genre bending goodness. It's a sci-fi novel, a crime novel and a super-hero novel, too. Audacious and intelligent and exactly what I was dying to read' Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

Is there such a thing as a fundamental reality, something which was around before our universe came into existence and which will still remain when all matter, time, and space itself ultimately disappear? Something fundamental which, in turn, can make space and time and matter arise from seemingly nothing? Under most cosmological and physical models, the last known remnants of reality are the disembodied laws of mathematics -- beyond which it is extremely difficult to probe further. Using contemporary physics, narrated at popular science level, Chris Ransford shows why full nothingness -- a nothingness within which even the disembodied laws of mathematics would not exist -- cannot possibly exist, and what most likely underpins and enables reality. This leads the author to a few thoughts as to how such knowledge may be verified, and then deployed to achieve a better alignment with reality.

This book is about how big is the universe and how small are quarks, and what are the sizes of dozens of things between these two extremes. It describes the sizes of atoms and planets, quarks and galaxies, cells and sequoias. It is a romp through forty-five orders of magnitude from the smallest sub-nuclear particles we have measured, to the edge of the observed universe. It also looks at time, from the epic age of the cosmos to the fleeting lifetimes of ethereal particles. It is a narrative that trips its way from stellar magnitudes to the clocks on GPS satellites, from the nearly logarithmic scales of a piano keyboard through a system of numbers invented by Archimedes and on to the measurement of the size of an atom. Why do some things happen at certain scales? Why are cells a hundred thousandths of a meter across? Why are stars never smaller than about 100 million meters in diameter? Why are trees limited to about 120 meters in height? Why are planets spherical, but asteroids not? Often the size of an object is determined by something simple but quite unexpected. The size of a cell and a star depend in part on the ratio of surface area to volume. The divide between the size of a spherical planet and an irregular asteroid is the balance point between the gravitational forces and the chemical forces in nature. Most importantly, with a very few basic principles, it all makes sense. The world really is a most reasonable place.

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.

Providing a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of observational cosmology, this advanced undergraduate textbook enables students to use quantitative physical methods to understand the Universe. The textbook covers recent developments such as precision cosmology and the concordance cosmological model, inflation, gravitational lensing, the extragalactic far-infrared and X-ray backgrounds, downsizing and baryon wiggles. It also explores the future missions and facilities likely to dominate cosmological research in the future, including radio, X-ray, submillimetre-wave and gravitational wave astronomy. Each chapter contains full-colour figures, worked examples and exercises with complete solutions. Clearly identified key facts and equations help students easily locate important information. Suggestions for further reading provide jumping-off points for students aiming to further their studies. Reflecting decades of Open University experience in undergraduate teaching, this textbook brings students to the forefront of the rapidly developing field of observational cosmology. Accompanying resources to this textbook are available at: http://www.cambridge.org/features/astrophysics.

The topic of the CVIII session of the Ecole de Physique des Houches, held in July 2017, was Effective Field Theory in Particle Physics and Cosmology. Effective Field Theory (EFT) is a general method for describing quantum systems with multiple length scales in a tractable fashion. It allows to perform precise calculations in established models (such as the Standard Models of particle physics and cosmology), as well as to concisely parametrise possible effects from physics beyond the Standard Models. The goal of this school was to offer a broad introduction to the foundations and modern applications of Effective Field Theory in many of its incarnations. This is all the more important as there are preciously few textbooks covering the subject, none of them in a complete way. In this book, the lecturers present the concepts in a pedagogical way so that readers can adapt some of the latest developments to their own problems. The chapters cover almost all the lectures given at the school and will serve as an introduction to the topic and as a reference manual to students and researchers.

The standard starting point in cosmology is the cosmological principle; the assumption that the universe is spatially homogeneous and isotropic. After imposing this assumption, the only freedom left, as far as the geometry is concerned, is the choice of one out of three permissible spatial geometries, and one scalar function of time. Combining the cosmological principle with an appropriate description of the matter leads to the standard models. It is worth noting that these models yield quite a successful description of our universe. However, even though the universe may, or may not, be almost spatially homogeneous and isotropic, it is clear that the cosmological principle is not exactly satisfied. This leads to several questions. The most natural one concerns stability: given initial data corresponding to an expanding model of the standard type, do small perturbations give rise to solutions that are similar to the future? Another question concerns the shape of the universe: what are the restrictions if we only assume the universe to appear almost spatially homogeneous and isotropic to every observer? The main purpose of the book is to address these questions. However, to begin with, it is necessary to develop the general theory of the Cauchy problem for the Einstein-Vlasov equations. In order to to make the results accessible to researchers who are not mathematicians, but who are familiar with general relativity, the book contains an extensive prologue putting the results into a more general context.

One of our great contemporary scientists reveals the ten profound insights that illuminate what everyone should know about the physical world In Fundamentals, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek offers the reader a simple yet profound exploration of reality based on the deep revelations of modern science. With clarity and an infectious sense of joy, he guides us through the essential concepts that form our understanding of what the world is and how it works. Through these pages, we come to see our reality in a new way--bigger, fuller, and stranger than it looked before. Synthesizing basic questions, facts, and dazzling speculations, Wilczek investigates the ideas that form our understanding of the universe: time, space, matter, energy, complexity, and complementarity. He excavates the history of fundamental science, exploring what we know and how we know it, while journeying to the horizons of the scientific world to give us a glimpse of what we may soon discover. Brilliant, lucid, and accessible, this celebration of human ingenuity and imagination will expand your world and your mind.

This volume, the proceedings of IAU Symposium 363, addresses the astrophysical implications of gravitational wave and electromagnetic observations of neutron stars. It covers the state of the art understanding of mergers of binary neutron stars producing short gamma-ray bursts, and the most powerfully magnetic varieties of neutron stars, magnetars. Encapsulating both observations and modelling, the contributions address extreme transient events including kilonovae, afterglows, magnetar giant flares, and fast radio bursts. By exploring the intersection of studies of isolated neutron stars and binary system synthesis and merging, this collection sets the scene for interpreting exciting results pertaining to powerful x-ray, gamma-ray, and gravitational wave transients to be acquired in the next decade and beyond. IAU S363 will be an asset for astronomers seeking a broad and interdisciplinary overview of neutron stars, their gravitational waves and electromagnetic emission.