Authors: Kitty Ferguson
Chapter 5: Upscale Architecture, 1750-1958
Information about Thomas Wright and his 1750 book
An Original Theory or New Hypotheses of the Universe
: Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper,
The Guide to the Galaxy,
Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 8.
Immanuel Kant’s pamphlet was
General Natural History and Celestial Theory, or Research into the Constitution and Mechanical Origins of the Whole World Structure Based on Newton’s Law.
He published it anonymously and the publisher went bankrupt.
Carolyn Herschel quotation, “My brother began . . .”: Quoted in Henry C. King,
The History of the Telescope,
Mineoloa, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 1955, p. 128. King was quoting from Mrs. J. Herschel,
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel,
1876, p. 54.
Information about William Parsons: Patrick Moore,
The Astronomy of Birr Castle,
London: Mitchell Beazley, 1971; Charles Parsons, ed.,
The Scientific Papers of William Parsons, Third Earl of Rosse, 1800-1867,
London: Self-published, 1926.
William Parsons quotation, “The weather here . . .”: Quoted in Henry C. King,
The History of the Telescope,
Mineoloa, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 1955, p. 215.
John Herschel quotation, “21 MARCH—Alpha Hydrae . . .”: Patrick Moore,
Fireside Astronomy
, New York: John Wiley, 1992, p. 141.
Early telescopes at Harvard: Solon Bailey,
The History and Work of Harvard Observatory, 1839-1927,
Boston: Harvard University Press, 1931.
Biographical information about Harlow Shapley: Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper,
The Guide to the Galaxy,
Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 14-15.
Harlow Shapley quotation, “all dressed up . . .”: Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper,
The Guide to the Galaxy,
Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 14.
Harlow Shapley: Harlow Shapley, in 1929, wrote a delightful popular introduction to his research and discoveries: Harlow Shapley, “Measuring the Universe,’ in Timothy Ferris, ed.,
The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics,
Boston, Toronto, London: Little Brown, 1991, pp. 292-98.
The debate between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis: Rocky Kolb,
Blind Watchers of the Sky,
New York: Helix Books, 1996, pp. 187-194; and Robert W. Smith,
The expanding Universe: Astronomy’s “Great Debate,’
Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
John Miller quotation, “Something happened . . .”: Quoted in Robert Jastrow,
God and the Astronomers
, London: W W. Norton & Col, 1978, reprinted 1992, p. 18. The story was told to Jastrow by John Hall, at one time Director of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, who heard it from John Miller.
Biographical information about Edwin Hubble: Rocky Kolb,
Blind Watchers of the Sky,
New York: Helix Books, 1996, p. 213ff; and Gale E. Christianson,
Edwin Hubble,
New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1995.
Edwin Hubble quotation, “All I want . . .”: Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper,
The Guide to the Galaxy,
Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 19.
Further reading and sources: Michael J. Crowe (see reference for Chapter 4). About William Herschel: J. L. E. Dreyer,
A Short Account of Sir William Herschel’s Life and Work,
1912; J. L .E. Dreyer,
The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel,
Royal Astronomical Society, 1912; and Owen Gingerich, “The 1784 Autobiography of William Herschel,” in
The Great Copernicus Chase
,” Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Gingerich quotes at length from the autobiography.
Chapter 6: The Demise of Constancy and Stability, 1929-1992
Kant quotation, “The character . . .”: Immanuel Kant,
Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens,
1755. Available in translation by Ian Johnston, Richer Resources Publications, 2009.
Stalin’s purge of Soviet scientists who thought the universe is expanding: Patrick Moore, “Astronomers and Joseph Stalin,” in
Fireside Astronomy,
New York: John Wiley, 1992.
Robert Jastro quotation, “This is an exceedingly strange development . . .”: Robert Jastrow,
God and the Astronomers,
London: W. W. Norton & Co., 1978, reprinted 1992, p. 9.
Jesse Greenstein quotation, “the ideal American inventor . . .”: Kip Thorne,
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy
, New York: Norton, 1994, p. 327.
Further reading and sources: A comprehensive history of cosmology in the first half of the 20th century: J.D. North,
The Measure of the Universe: A History of Modern Cosmology
(Oxford University Press, 1965; Dover, 1990). About Albert Einstein: Abraham Pais,
Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein
(Oxford University Press, 1982). About Edwin Hubble: Gale E. Christianson,
Edwin Hubble
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1995). Some of the original articles of Hubble, Einstein, Lemaître, and Friedmann reprinted and annotated: Jeremy Bernstein and Gerald Feinberg,
Cosmological Constant
(Columbia University Press, 1986). George Smoot’s discovery: George Smoot and Kay Davidson,
Wrinkles in Time
(Morrow, 1993). The Big Bang Theory and religious belief: Kitty Ferguson,
The Fire in the Equations: Science, Religion and the Search for God
(Templeton, 2004). Roger Penrose’s ideas: Roger Penrose,
The Emperor’s New Mind
(Oxford University Press, 1989).
Chapter 7: Deciphering Ancient Light, 1946-1999
Profile of Allan Sandage: Frederic Golden, “Astronomy’s Feisty Old Man,” in
Astronomy Magazine,
December 1997.
Story about the Reverend Robert Evans’ search for supernovae: Timothy Ferris,
The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 59.
Margaret Geller, John Huchra, and Valerie de Lapparent: Margaret Geller writes about the Geller-Huchra Wedge and related measurements of the large-scale structure of the universe in her article “Mapping the Universe: Slices and Bubbles,” in James Cornell, ed.,
Bubbles, Voids, and Bumps in Time: The New Cosmology,
Cambridge, UK, and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Hubble Deep Field: Web site is http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Web site is http://www.sddss.org
Further reading: Malcolm Longair,
Our Evolving Universe,
(Cambridge University Press, 1996), a spectacularly illustratedaccount of late twentieth century astronomy that also traces the history of the concept of a “grand design” and discusses sizes and distances in the universe.
Chapter 8: The Quest for Omega, 1930-1999
Kamioka Neutrino Observatory and Yoji Tkotsuka: The website is www-sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sk/index-e.html (accessed June 2011) Information about Wendy Freedman and her work: Wendy Freedman, “The Expansion Rate and Size of the Universe, Scientific American, 1998 Website http://www.sciam.com/1998/0398cosmos/0398freedman.html (accessed July 1998); and conversations and correspondence with the author.
The debate between Wendy Freedman and Allan Sandage: Timothy Ferris,
The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report,
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997, p. 63-66; and personal conversations and correspondence (with both Freedman and Sandage) with the author.
John Noble Wilford comment: John Noble Wilford, “New Surveys of the Universe Confound Theorists,”
The New York Times,
January 15, 1991; http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/15/science/new-surveys-of-the- universe-confound-theorists.html?src=pm (accessed Feb. 1997)
Carlos S. Frenk: For information about the computer simulations being carried out by Carlos Frenk’s team: http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~frazerp/virgo/virgo.html (accessed July 1998)
James Peebles quotation, “No one . . .”: P.J.E. Peebles, “Evolution of the Cosmological Constant,”
Nature 398,
March 4, 1999, p. 26. Saul Perlmutter and the Supernova Cosmology Project: Saul Perlmutter, “Distant Exploding Stars Foretell Fate of the Universe,” Press Release, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, January 8, 1998; https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/whowhatwhen/Perlmutter_ Press.pdf (accessed June 2011) Perlmutter quotation “all the indications . . . “: Saul Perlmutter, “Distant Exploding Stars Foretell Fate of the Universe,” Press Release, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, January 8, 1998; https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/whowhatwhen/Perlmutter_ Press.pdf (accessed June 2011)
Michael Turner quotation, “If it’s true . . .”: John Noble Wilford, “Wary Astronomers Ponder an Accelerating Universe,”
The New York Times
, March 3, 1998; http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/whowhatwhen/Wary_AstronomersNYT3Ma.pdf (accessed June, 2011)
Brian Schmidt quotation, “Somewhere between amazement . . . “: John Noble Wilford, “Wary Astronomers Ponder an Accelerating Universe,”
The New York Times,
March 3, 1998; http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/whowhatwhen/Wary_AstronomersNYT3Ma.pdf (accessed June, 2011)
Adam Reiss quotation, “We are trying . . .”: John Noble Wilford, “Wary Astronomers Ponder an Accelerating Universe,”
The New York Times,
March 3, 1998; http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/whowhatwhen/Wary_AstronomersNYT3Ma.pdf (accessed June, 2011)
Further reading and sources:
Martin Rees,
Before the Beginning
(Addison-Wesley, 1997); Malcolm Longair (see reference for Chapter 7).
Chapter 9: Lost Horizons
Stephen Hawking quotation “if general relativity is correct . . .”: Stephen Hawking, “The Origin of the Universe,” lecture delivered at the Three Hundred Years of Gravity Conference in Cambridge, U.K., June 1987; reprinted in Stephen W. Hawking,
Black Holes and Baby Universes, and other Essays,
London: Bantam Press, 1993, p. 91.
Andrei Linde quotation, “The universe is . . .”: Andrei Linde, ‘The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe,’
Scientific American
, November, 1994, p. 48.
Further reading and sources: Stephen Hawking,
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
(Bantam, 1988); Kitty Ferguson,
Stephen Hawking
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Wormhole theory: Kip Thorne,
Black Holes and Time warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy
(Norton, 1994); Kitty Ferguson,
Prisons of Light
(Cambridge University Press, 1996). John Barrow,
The Origin of the Universe
(Basic Books, 1994) and
The Book of Universes
(Bodley Head, 2011).
Epilogue: Magnificent Enigma
The description of the Hale-Bopp comet as seen from the Lofoten Islands: Judy Anderson.
Addendum (2011)
WMAP first year results: NASA/WMAP Science Team, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ‘First Year Results on the Oldest Light in the Universe,’ February 11, 2003.
John Barrow quotation, “The growing observational evidence . . . “:Barrow, John.
The Book of Universes.
London: The Bodley Head, 2011 p. 212.
WMAP 2008 results: NASA/WMAP Science Team, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ‘Fifth Year Results on the Oldest Light in the Universe,’ March 7, 2008
Charles Bennett quotation, “that bold predictions . .’: NASA/WMAP Science Team, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ‘Fifth Year Results on the Oldest Light in the Universe,’ March 7, 2008. http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/5yr_release.html (accessed Feb. 13, 2011).
WMAP 1210 results summary: NASA/WMAP Science Team, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ‘WMAP Produces New Results,’ January 26, 2010. http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/ (accessed February 13, 2011)
Issues WMAP did not resolve: Sarah L. Bridle, Ofer Lahav, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Paul J. Steinhardt, [‘Precision Cosmology? Not Just Yet...’, March 10, 2003.
Information about the Planck Satellite: ‘Planck’s New View of the Cosmic Theatre,’
ESA Planck Website
, http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/SEMK4D3SNIG_0.html (accessed March 2011)
INDEX
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
aberration 130–1
Adams, John Couch 137
Al Fargani 42–3, 44, 55
Aldebaran 124, 128
Alexander the Great 3–4, 10
Alexandria 4–5, 6, 8–9, 17, 32
Alpha Centauri 135, 136
Alpha Hydrae 158
Alpha Lyrae (Vega) 135, 136
Alpher, Ralph 196, 198, 199
Alphonsine Tables 45
Andromeda galaxy 154, 157, 158–9, 169, 170, 172, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 194, 218, 228, 233, 244–5
Anglo Australian Observatory 239
annual stellar parallax 129, 131–2, 135, 152
Antennae galaxies 268
Archimedes 12–13, 23
arcseconds 131, 132, 146
Arcturus 124
Aristarchus of Samos 17–22, 23–5, 26, 36, 55, 61, 117
Aristippos 8
Aristotle 2–3, 4, 8, 13, 26, 36, 39, 43, 44, 58, 59, 76–7, 93
Arp, Halton C. 214
Artcurus 128
astrophysics 251, 254, 262, 277, 284
Athens 4, 8
Auzout, Adrien 104
Baade, Walter 178–9, 180, 263
Barberini, Cardinal Maffeo 91, 92, 94–5, 96
Bell Labs 192, 195, 216
Bellarmine, Cardinal Roberto 90, 96
benders 257
Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm 129, 133, 135, 142, 210
Big Bang theory 181, 186, 187, 190, 191, 192, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199–201, 203, 205, 241, 256, 258, 262, 281, 288, 289
Big Crunch 200, 254, 287
binaries 154–5
BL-Lac objects 228
black holes 153, 207, 227, 258, 285
blazars 228
blue shifts 144, 145, 147, 172, 230
Bondi, Hermann 191, 293
Bradley, James 130–1, 132
Brahe, Tycho 58, 59, 65, 66, 68–9, 88, 97, 114–15, 220, 222
Broadhurst, T.J. 235
Bronowski, Jacob 1
Brooke, John Hedley 58
Bruno, Giordano 87
Bunsen, Robert 143
Buonamici, Giovanfrancesco 91
Burbidge, Geoffrey 214
Burke, Bernard 197
Calvin, John 60, 62
Campani, Giuseppe 105
Carina galaxy 244
Cassini, Gian Domenico 104–5, 106, 111–14, 115, 126, 128
Castelli, Benedetto 84, 90
Catholic Church 49, 53, 60, 62, 87, 88–92, 93–6
Cepheids 148, 164, 165, 166, 167–8, 169, 175, 176, 177, 179, 210–11, 218, 245, 261, 264, 266, 269
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 263, 265
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan 207, 220
Chandrasekhar limit 220–1
chaos theory 202, 241
Charles II of England 116
Cleanthes 24
closed universe 252, 253
Colberg, Joerg 274
Colbert, Jean Baptiste 105, 111, 115
Coleman, Sidney 290
Coma Berenices 256
Coma cluster 264, 266
complexity theory 241
Comte, Auguste 138
Copernican astronomy 57–62, 66, 68, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94–5, 96, 97, 98, 99
Copernicus, Nicolaus 29, 36, 44, 45–62, 87, 98, 100, 114, 192, 295
Commentariolus
47–8
De revolutionibus
42, 52, 53–4, 55, 57–8, 60, 61, 84
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) 204, 233, 236
cosmic ‘solids’ 66, 67
cosmological constant 184, 253, 255, 269–71, 272–3, 274, 279, 280, 281
Cowan, Clyde 258
Crab 157
critical density 272, 279
Curtis, Heber 169, 170
61 Cygni 135, 136
Daguerre, Louis Jacques 157
Dante 44
dark matter 256, 257–8, 276
D’Auteroche, Jean 127
De Lapparent, Valerie 234
De Vaucouleurs, Gerard 263, 267
deceleration parameter 253, 254–5, 281
Delta Cephei 164
Dicaearchus of Messene 11
Dicke, Robert 197, 199
distance calibrators 177, 210, 237
see also
standard candles
diurnal parallax 114
Dixon, Jeremiah 127
Donne, John 60
Doppler, Christian 144, 145, 172
Doppler effect 144, 145
Doppler shift 144, 145, 172, 173, 212, 222, 231, 232
double stars 136, 154
Dressler, Alan 250
Earth