A scientist's inspiring vision of our return to the Moon as humanity's next thrilling step in space exploration Just over half a century since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the lunar surface, a new space race to the Moon is well underway and rapidly gaining momentum. Laying out a vision for the next fifty years, Back to the Moon is astrophysicist Joseph Silk's persuasive and impassioned case for putting scientific discovery at the forefront of lunar exploration. The Moon offers opportunities beyond our wildest imaginings, and plans to return are rapidly gaining momentum around the world. NASA aims to build a habitable orbiting space station to coordinate lunar development and exploration, while European and Chinese space agencies are planning lunar villages and the mining of precious resources dwindling here on Earth. Powerful international and commercial interests are driving the race to revisit the Moon, but lunar infrastructures could also open breathtaking vistas onto the cosmos. Silk describes how the colonization of the Moon could usher in a thrilling new age of scientific exploration, and lays out what the next fifty years of lunar science might look like. With lunar telescopes of unprecedented size situated in permanently dark polar craters and on the far side of the Moon, we could finally be poised to answer some of the most profound questions confronting humankind, including whether we are alone in the Universe and what our cosmic origins are. Addressing both the daunting challenges and the immense promise of lunar exploration and exploitation, Back to the Moon reveals how prioritizing science, and in particular lunar astronomy, will enable us to address the deepest cosmic mysteries.

During the past decade, convincing evidence has been accumulated concerning the effect of active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity on the internal and external environment of their host galaxies. Featuring contributions from well-respected researchers in the field, and bringing together work by specialists in both galaxy formation and AGN, this volume addresses a number of key questions about AGN feedback in the context of galaxy formation. The topics covered include downsizing and star-formation time scales in massive elliptical galaxies, the connection between the epochs of supermassive black hole growth and galaxy formation and the question of whether AGN and star formation coexist. Authors also discuss key challenging computational problems, including jet-interstellar/intergalactic medium interactions, and both jet- and merging-induced star formation. Suitable for researchers and graduate students in astrophysics, this volume reflects the engaging and lively discussions taking place in this emerging field of research.

Following a long-term international collaboration between leaders in cosmology and the philosophy of science, this volume addresses foundational questions at the limit of science across these disciplines, questions raised by observational and theoretical progress in modern cosmology. Space missions have mapped the Universe up to its early instants, opening up questions on what came before the Big Bang, the nature of space and time, and the quantum origin of the Universe. As the foundational volume of an emerging academic discipline, experts from relevant fields lay out the fundamental problems of contemporary cosmology and explore the routes toward finding possible solutions. Written for graduates and researchers in physics and philosophy, particular efforts are made to inform academics from other fields, as well as the educated public, who wish to understand our modern vision of the Universe, related philosophical questions, and the significant impacts on scientific methodology.

Astronomer Joseph Silk explores the Universe from its beginnings to its ultimate fate. He demonstrates how cosmologists study cosmic fossils and relics from the distant past to construct theories of the birth, evolution and future of the Universe. Stars, galaxies, dark matter and dark energy are described, as successive chapters detail the evolution of the Universe from a fraction of a microsecond after the Big Bang. Silk describes how physicists apply theories of subatomic particles to recreate the first moments of the Big Bang, and how astronomers chart the vast depths of space to glimpse how the most distant galaxies formed. He gives an account of the search for dark matter and the dark energy that will determine the ultimate fate of the Universe. Joseph Silk is the Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Head of the Astrophysics Department at the University of Oxford. He was previously Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Clare College, Cambridge, and a PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University. Silk is the author, or co-author, of many books, including The Left Hand of Creation (Basic Books, 1994) and A Short History of the Universe (WH Freeman, 1997). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Der Urknall ist die moderne Form der Schopfungsgeschichte, ein seit dem Beginn der Menschheit faszinierendes Thema. Ais Inspirationsquelle fiir den Weltanfang ist die Mystik durch die Wissenschaft ersetzt worden. Zweck meines Buches ist es, in verstiindlicher Form die wissenschaftlichen Ansatze zu beschreiben, die den Ursprung der Strukturen in unserer Welt zu erklaren suchen. Die GroBe dieser Strukturen reicht von Planeten und Sternen iiber Galaxien, groBe Galaxienhaufen bis hin zur Gesamtheit des beobachtbaren Universums. Die Urknalltheorie liefert die Grundlage mei- ner Diskussion. Diese Theorie stiitzt sich auf astronomische Daten, die mit groBem Aufwand an den Sternwarten der Welt zusammengetragen wur- den. Sie griindet sich weiterhin auf neuere Fortschritte der Teilchenphysik im Verstandnis der grundlegenden Natur der Materie. Die Forschung ist langst nicht am Ende angelangt, und die Theorie ist noch unvollstiindig. Jetzt ist jedoch der Augenblick gekommen, zu beschreiben, wo wir in der Forschung stehen und welche Richtung wir einschlagen sollen. Ich habe die Mathematik aus dem Text ausgeklammert, jedoch versucht, viele der grundlegenden Ideen getreu darzustellen. Meine Hoffnung ist, daB ich die Faszination des nach der endgiiltigen Wahrheit strebenden Kosmo- logen iibermitteln kann, ohne daB ich die grundlegenden Gedanken grob verwassere oder zu sehr zu vereinfache. Leser, die nach mehr Einzelheiten und einem tieferen Verstandnis suchen, seien auf die im Literaturverzeichnis erwahnten weiterfiihrenden Werke verwiesen.

From time immemorial, poets and philosophers have looked in awe and wonder at the Universe. Such awe is shared by astrophysicists, too, as they seek to understand its nature, and whether it has any limits. In The Infinite Cosmos, Joseph Silk, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University, cosmologist and well-known science writer, brings together the modern understanding of the Universe, its structure, its evolution, and its possible fate, combining the latest from theory and observation. The narrative is peppered with quotations from literature and philosophy, and reflects, too, on the process of scientific discovery, and the implications of our discoveries.