Heart of Darkness : Unraveling the Mysteries of the Invisible Universe

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Humanity's ongoing quest to unlock the secrets of dark matter and dark energy

Heart of Darkness describes the incredible saga of humankind's quest to unravel the deepest secrets of the universe. Over the past forty years, scientists have learned that two little-understood components--dark matter and dark energy--comprise most of the known cosmos, explain the growth of all cosmic structure, and hold the key to the universe's fate. The story of how evidence for the so-called "Lambda-Cold Dark Matter" model of cosmology has been gathered by generations of scientists throughout the world is told here by one of the pioneers of the field, Jeremiah Ostriker, and his coauthor Simon Mitton.

From humankind's early attempts to comprehend Earth's place in the solar system, to astronomers' exploration of the Milky Way galaxy and the realm of the nebulae beyond, to the detection of the primordial fluctuations of energy from which all subsequent structure developed, this book explains the physics and the history of how the current model of our universe arose and has passed every test hurled at it by the skeptics. Throughout this rich story, an essential theme is emphasized: how three aspects of rational inquiry--the application of direct measurement and observation, the introduction of mathematical modeling, and the requirement that hypotheses should be testable and verifiable--guide scientific progress and underpin our modern cosmological paradigm.

This monumental puzzle is far from complete, however, as scientists confront the mysteries of the ultimate causes of cosmic structure formation and the real nature and origin of dark matter and dark energy.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Preface (p. xiii)
• Cosmology Becomes Data-driven Science (p. xiii)
• Outline of the Journey We Will Take (p. xix)
• Prologue From Myth to Reality (p. 1)
• Astronomy: The Endless Frontier (p. 1)
• Charting and Modeling the Heavens (p. 3)
• Copernicus: "The Last of the Greek Cosmologists" (p. 6)
• Galileo: A New Approach to Mechanics and Cosmology (p. 9)
• The Impact of Copernicus: Kepler's Laws (p. 13)
• Isaac Newton and Gravity (p. 15)
• William Herschel Discovers the Universe (p. 20)
• Understanding the Universe Becomes a New Kind of Science (p. 24)
• 1 Einstein's Toolkit, and How to Use It (p. 27)
• Overconfidence among the Cognoscenti at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (p. 27)
• Revolution in Physics: The Inception of Quantum Theory and Relativity (p. 30)
• Special Relativity (p. 33)
• General Relativity (p. 36)
• General Relativity Is Tested, Passes the Test, and Is a Sensation (p. 41)
• Cosmological Solutions to Einstein's Equations (p. 47)
• 2 The Realm of the Nebulae (p. 52)
• New Instruments in a Better Climate Unveil a New World (p. 52)
• A Universe of Galaxies Is Confirmed (p. 63)
• A Cosmological Model to Fit the New Data: Enter, Georges Lemaître (p. 66)
• Physical Cosmology and the Expanding Universe (p. 70)
• Lemaître's Synthesis Model Foretells the Contribution of Dark Energy (p. 75)
• Hubble's Achievements (p. 79)
• Big Science to Attack the Big Problem (p. 81)
• The Steady State Model Universe and the Big Bang (p. 84)
• 3 Let's Do Cosmology! (p. 89)
• The Big Bang: A Starting Point That Cannot Be Escaped (p. 89)
• Observational Cosmology, the Biggest Puzzle to Be Solved with the Biggest Telescope (p. 93)
• The Grand Project Was Initially Too Difficult (p. 97)
• 4 Discovering the Big Bang (p. 102)
• Did Our Universe Have an Explosive Birth? (p. 102)
• What Makes the Stars Shine? (p. 104)
• Nuclear Astrophysics Moves to the Cosmos (p. 109)
• The Fireball in Which the First Chemical Elements Were Made (p. 114)
• Direct Radio Observations of the Big Bang Fireball (p. 118)
• Understanding the Big Bang (p. 125)
• 5 The Origin of Structure in the Universe (p. 130)
• "In the Beginning"-Why an Explanation Is Needed (p. 130)
• Structure within the Expanding Universe (p. 136)
• The Elusive Standard Candle: Beatrice Tinsley Changes the Game (p. 139)
• Real Cosmic Structure Found and Cataloged by Fritz Zwicky (p. 146)
• Understanding the Origin of Structure Becomes Serious Science (p. 149)
• Cosmic Inflation (p. 155)
• The Seeds of Cosmic Structure Are Discovered (p. 162)
• Closing the Loop: How Do Seeds Grow to Galaxies? (p. 168)
• 6 Dark Matter-or Fritz Zwicky's Greatest Invention (p. 174)
• How the Earth Was Weighed (p. 174)
• Finding the Mass of the Andromeda Galaxy (p. 181)
• Zwicky Finds Dark Matter in Clusters of Galaxies in the 1930s (p. 184)
• The Rediscovery of Dark Matter in the 1970s (p. 187)
• Rotation Curves Confirm the Case for Dark Matter (p. 193)
• More Recent Multiple Lines of Evidence for Dark Matter (p. 197)
• 7 Dark Energy-or Einstein's Greatest Blunder (p. 202)
• A Curious Situation (p. 202)
• Will Gravity Lead to a Collapse of the Solar System? (p. 203)
• Expected and Unexpected Motions of Thrown Stones and Hubble's Universe (p. 205)
• The Invention of the Cosmological Constant or Dark Energy: 1915 (p. 209)
• The Revival of Dark Energy in the 1970s (p. 215)
• New Arguments and New Evidence-Dark Energy Confirmed in the 1990s (p. 220)
• Dark Energy Fills the Gap, Allowing the Flat, "Just Right" Universe (p. 222)
• 8 The Modern Paradigm and the Limits of Our Knowledge (p. 229)
• We Have Come a Long Way (p. 229)
• The Matter and Energy Content of the Universe (p. 231)
• The Global Cosmological Solution and the Cosmic Triangle (p. 238)
• In the Beginning (p. 244)
• Structure in the Universe (p. 245)
• The Supercomputer Approach (p. 248)
• 9 The Frontier: Major Mysteries That Remain (p. 253)
• Dark Matter (p. 253)
• Dark Energy (p. 255)
• Inflation (p. 257)
• Giant Black Holes (p. 260)
• Fine-Tuning (p. 261)
• Summing Up (p. 262)
• Appendixes (p. 263)
• Glossary (p. 281)
• Bibliography (p. 291)
• Index (p. 295)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

For Conrad, it was the Congo; for Ostriker (Formation of Structure in the Universe) and Mitton (The Young Oxford Book of Astronomy), it's deep space, dark matter, and dark energy. In this stimulating study, the Princeton astrophysics professor and University of Cambridge scholar offer a compelling insider's take on how astronomers have worked to reveal the mystery that is our universe. After a quick review of the long history of astronomy, the duo dive headlong into the 20th century and Einstein's paradigm-crushing work on relativity, gravity, and time, which-coupled with technological improvements-laid the foundations for a modern cosmology based on "expansion-of vision, mind-set, and of the physical universe itself." Indeed, the Big Bang sent galaxies racing outward, and the resulting universe is a "quantum soup" riddled with " 'holes,' 'filaments,' and 'walls.' " Here the authors prove their scientific mettle, exploring current research into the structure of the universe, including dark matter that holds galaxies together, and mind-boggling dark energy, whose strength uniquely increases in proportion to expanding intergalactic distances. Ostriker and Mitton's knowledge is vast, and while they acknowledge that our understanding of the universe is far from complete, this thought-provoking presentation is as accessible as it is exciting. Photos & illus. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

As the title suggests, Heart of Darkness is a mystery story. Ostriker (Princeton Univ.), a pioneer in cosmology, and Mitton (Univ. of Cambridge, UK), an astronomer and an exceptionally talented science writer, sleuth out the clues and witnesses to nothing less than the darkest secrets of the universe. The current quest to determine the nature of dark matter and dark energy has its roots in Copernicus's early notion that the Earth need not be at the center of the solar system. From this foundation, the authors introduce the reader to a host of witnesses and suspects throughout history, many of whom have received less appreciation than they deserve in other books on cosmology. Here is a new and welcome perspective on modern cosmology that any reader can easily grasp and appreciate. Excellent archival photos and a very useful appendix that clearly and simply explains some of the essential mathematical concepts add to the pleasure of reading this book. Written with authority and flair, this is one of the very best books on the topic. Recommended reading for any science buff! Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. T. D. Oswalt Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Kirkus Book Review

A lucid history of cosmology. Ostriker (Astrophysical Sciences/Princeton Univ.; Development of Large Scale Structure in the Universe, 1992, etc.) and British science historian Mitton (Fred Hoyle: A Life in Science, 2005, etc.) illustrate J.B.S. Haldane's famous quote that "the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." The Greeks proved that the Earth was round and determined its circumference. Copernicus placed the sun at the center of the solar system, and Kepler described planetary movements. Newton founded cosmology by asserting that his laws applied everywhere. Einstein showed how gravity rules the universe, and Hubble proved that it was expanding. By 1970, scientists agreed that everything (matter, energy, space, even time) began with the Big Bang 14 billion years ago. Having delivered the history, the authors pose obvious questions: Will the universe expand forever, or will gravity reverse matters? Since the Big Bang produced a uniform soup of energy and simple elements, how did stars, galaxies and planets form? Where did heavier elements come from? Where did we come from? Astrophysicists can explain how galaxies formed and how exploding stars produced heavier elements and eventually us. The universe's future seemed comprehensible until two discoveries muddied the waters. By 1980, it was clear that most matter in the universe is "dark"--literally invisible, detectable only because of gravitational effects. By the 1990s, researchers realized that most energy is also "dark," permeating space, opposing gravity and accelerating expansion. With infectious enthusiasm, diagrams and even a little high school math, the authors deliver the available answers along with the increasing confusion. A fine introduction to cosmology but rich enough to inform readers familiar with other introductions.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.