A few years ago, I found 3 books that hap-
pened to include, via the web, some pages
from the books, in full color. However, since
then, their U.S. bookstore links were closed,
so I recently went through and updated all
of the links to the still active United Kingdom
version of the books (consolidated in 1 book).
The links in the following series provide an over-
view of some of the key features of modern-day
views on the universe, as of 1998.
Of course, the theories and expositions on the
universe have been broadened since then, but
the following remains a great primer regarding
the origins of our universe, the nature of black
holes, and the possibilities/search for life apart
from our planet.
---
http://fire.prohosting.com/prohuman/endless_universe1_big_bang.htm
---
The book, loaded with graphics, details, tables, and
unique perspectives - "Endless Universe", by Heather
Couper & Nigel Henbest. It was published in 1999
but I haven't been able to locate it at any of the online
bookstores (ISBN 0-7894-4384-8) ...
However, it is available in the United Kingdom under
an alternate title, "To the Ends of the Universe":
http://uk.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,11_0751358258,00.html
- - -
Also of note, it's available in the U.S. as 3 separate
books, as follows:
Big Bang, Black Holes, Is Anybody Out There?
- - -
Links and excerpts to 40 images/text from the books
follow (jpeg book images, most over 200k in size),
along with titles-excerpts of chapters for which images
are unavailable ...
- - -
Big Bang
-----
Introduction 1
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH10S.jpg
Excerpt: "In the 4th century BC, Eudoxus of Cnidus
suggested that the planets were not circling the sky
under the control of willful gods, but instead were
carried on rotating spheres of crystal. The 'mysteries'
of the cosmos were not accessible solely by divine
revelation; they could be solved by rational human
thought. ..."
Introduction 2
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH11S.jpg
Excerpt: "... The Ultimate Journey - And, in the past
few decades, astronomers have solved the biggest
mysteries of all. How did everything begin? Until
this century, the question -- let alone the answer --
was the prerogative of theologians and philosophers.
Scientists trod as warily on this territory as they
did in discussing the nature of the human soul. ..."
Big Bang
-----
Excerpt: "How did the Universe begin? Once the
ultimate mystery, all the evidence now points to
the birth of our Universe in circumstances of
unimaginable power and fury. We call it the Big
Bang: an event that not only created the Universe,
but also the whole of space and time. ..."
T equals zero
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH10S.jpg
Excerpt: "From nothing, a tiny speck of brilliant light
appeared. It was almost infinitely hot. Inside this
fireball was all of space. With the creation of space
came the birth of time ..."
The raging inferno
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH11S.jpg
Excerpt: "The infant universe was searingly hot,
brimming with the energy of intense radiation. Albert
Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2 says that mass
and energy are interchangeable: one can be turned
into the other. In the early universe, the energy of
radiation was so intense that it could spontaneously
turn into 'lumps' of matter. ..."
Blow-up
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH18S.jpg
Excerpt: "Suddenly, the universe blew up! In
practically no time at all, it grew a hundred trillion
trillion trillion trillion times. And its once searing
temperature dropped to almost zero. This
phenomenal growth is called 'cosmic inflation'. ..."
The force behind inflation
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH19S.jpg
Excerpt: "Before inflation, the Universe had only
two forces -- gravity and a unified 'superforce'.
This superforce permeated the regions of vacuum
that lay between the jostling particles and anti-
particles. ..."
Particle soup
-----
Excerpt: "Hot on the heels of its dramatic inflation,
the Universe embarked on the most frenetic period
in its entire history. Fueled by the tremendous
surge of energy released, it launched itself into an
orgy of matter creation. ..."
Creation of matter
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH22S.jpg
Excerpt: "The universe became a battleground as
it entered its next phase. Thronged with subatomic
particles of all kinds fighting for supremacy, there
was also constant warfare between equally matched
battalions of matter and antimatter. ..."
Annihilation and decay
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH23S.jpg
Excerpt: "Particles were constantly disappearing;
they either annihilated on meeting their antiparticles
or they decayed into lighter particles. Meanwhile,
particle-antiparticle pairs were being regenerated
from the intense radiation all around. ..."
First elements
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH18S.jpg
Excerpt: "Compared with an instant before, the
one-second-old Universe was a model of restraint.
Nevertheless, it seethed with activity - busier than
it would be at any period in the next few hundred
thousand years. ..."
Mopping up the neutrons
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH19S.jpg
Excerpt: "The creation of the elements (nucleo-
synthesis) had the effect of mopping up all the neu-
trons and tying them up in nuclei, almost entirely
helium. This also stabilized the neutrons, prevent-
ing them from decaying into protons. ..."
Echoes of the Big Bang
-----
Excerpt: "After its busy first three minutes, when
particles came and went and the first elements were
forged, the Universe settled down in a much calmer
period that lasted more than a quarter of a million
years. ..."
Ripples in space
-----
Excerpt: "After the cosmic fog cleared, at an age of
300,000 years, the stage was set for a major change.
Radiation was still around in vast abundance, but it
was no longer boss. ..."
Birth of the Milky Way
-----
Excerpt: "Astronomers can date when the Big Bang
took place, but can only guess that the galaxies formed
about half a billion years later. Their instruments cannot
record the subtle coming together of gas clouds that
resulted in the creation of billions of galaxies. Fortunately,
youthful galaxies undergo violent outbursts that can be
witnessed halfway across the Universe -- but after that,
they settle down. ..."
Creation myths
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH32S.jpg
Excerpt: "Theory replaces myth - In the 20th century,
discoveries of the expanding Universe, a background
of heat radiation, and the amount of hydrogen and
helium in the cosmos have given us a theory -- not
a myth -- of the origin of the Universe ..."
Creation Myths 2
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/075135/0751358258/0751358258_SH33S.jpg
Excerpt: "The Chinese Universe began with a huge
cosmic egg, containing yin-yang. ... Central to the
Australian Aboriginal culture is 'Dreamtime': an era
when their ancestors went on journeys, creating
'dreamings' that became people, sacred sites, and
traditions. ... Several of the creation myths in the
Hindu culture feature gods coming into being by
uttering their names. Others describe great oceans,
and a few involve cosmic eggs. ... The Aztecs of
Mexico had many creation legends. ..."
Unfolding universe
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH28S.jpg
Excerpt: "Here is truly a brief history of time. These
four pages cover the entire story of our universe,
from creation to doomsday. New technologies,
telescopes, and advances in particle physics have
all played their part in unraveling the mystery. But
there are still huge blanks to fill in. ..."
Unfolding universe 2
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH29S.jpg
Excerpt: "Creation of Matter - The massed forces of
particles now started to fight. Closely matched armies
of matter and antimatter annihilated each other in
floods of radiation. ..."
Scale of space
-----
Excerpt: "... From planets to the remotest galaxies,
astronomers can measure the distance to any object.
They use a 'ladder' of methods -- planetary speeds,
parallax, Cepheid stars, and whole galaxies. Each
depends on the previous step, so distances grow
increasingly uncertain: the farthest galaxies my be
30 percent nearer or farther than estimated. ..."
Galaxies on the move
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH34S.jpg
Excerpt: "Two breakthroughs in our understanding
of the Universe came in the 1920s thanks to American
astronomer Edwin Hubble. For centuries, astronomers
believed the Milky Way comprised the entire Universe.
Hubble was among the first to realize that some of the
fuzzy patches, or 'nebulae', in the sky were galaxies far
beyond our own.
His second breakthrough came in 1929. By spreading
out the light from each galaxy into a spectrum, he could
determine what it was made of and how fast it was mov-
ing. To his surprise, most of the galaxies were moving
away from ours. There was nothing repulsive about our
Galaxy: it was just that the Universe itself was expand-
ing. ..."
Winding the film backward
http://ukstore.dk.com/assets/product_images/078941/0789414848/0789414848_SH35S.jpg
Excerpt: "After Hubble discovered the expansion of
space in 1929, astronomers were prompted to 'wind
the film backward' : if the process of expansion is
reversed, it leads to the conclusion that the Universe
began in an explosion. ..."
How old is the Universe?
-----
Excerpt: "Today, the vast majority of astronomers agree
on the origin of the Universe: all the evidence points
toward a hot Big Bang. ... several different methods of
measuring the date of the Big Bang are coming to a
surprisingly close agreement given the difficulty of
dating something that happened billions of years ago.
.... Astronomers can measure the age of the Universe
in three ways ..."
Curved cosmos
-----
Excerpt: "Where is the center of the Universe? And is
there an edge? These two simple questions are among
the most difficult to answer. ..."
Far future
-----
Excerpt: "It may appear bold, if not downright audacious,
to predict the far future of the Universe. Yet this crystal-
ball gazing is not as presumptuous as it seems, for the
fate of the Universe was sealed at the time of the Big
Bang. ..."
Other big bangs
-----
Excerpt: "We think of our Universe as being the totality
of everything that exists. But if our Universe came into
being, why not other universes? ..."
- - -
¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤ - ¤
~~~
Pro-Humanist FREELOVER
http://fire.prohosting.com/prohuman
Freethinking Realist Exploring
Expressive Liberty, Openness,
Verity, Enlightenment, & Rationality
~~~
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