Our universe : the thrill of extragalactic exploration as told by leading experts / / edited by S. Alan Stern [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910783387703321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2001
• ISBN: 1-107-12092-6; 1-280-43268-3; 9786610432684; 0-511-17720-8; 0-511-04102-0; 0-511-15814-9; 0-511-32362-X; 0-511-53638-0; 0-511-04642-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (viii, 152 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 523.1
• Soggetti: Astronomy; Cosmology; Universe
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: Mapmaker, mapmaker make me a map: probing the universe's large-scale structure / John Huchra -- Looking back in time: searching for the most distant galaxies / Esther Hu -- So we've lost the mission? The Big Bang and the cosmic background explorer / John Mather -- Computational adventures in cosmology / Nick Gnedin -- The search for very massive black holes / Doug Richstone -- Gamma-ray bursts: the most spectacular fireworks / Bohdan Paczyński -- Clusters of galaxies and the fate of the universe (or how to be a cosmologist without really trying) / Megan Donahue -- Dark matter and the discovery of galactic halos / Jeremiah Ostriker -- Hunting the elusive invisible galaxy / Gregory Bothun.
• Sommario/riassunto: The Universe in which we live is unimaginably vast and ancient, with ; countless star-systems, galaxies and extraordinary phenomena as different and strange as blackholes, dark-matter, gamma-ray bursts and nearly-invisible galaxies. From our earliest days humankind has looked to these heavens in awe. Our Universe is a fascinating collection of articles on extra-galactic astronomy and cosmology at the dawn of the 21st century. This accessible, wonderfully illustrated book has been written by some of the world's foremost astrophysicists. Some are theorists, some computational modellers, some observers, but all provide deep insight into the most cutting-edge, difficult, and bizarre topics of astrophysics. These highly personal perspectives, however, reveal more than the wonders and achievements of modern astronomy, more than its techniques and state of knowledge. Our Universe also describes what drives these extraordinary scientists and how their careers and very lives have been shaped by a burning desire to understand our Universe.