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Space at the Speed of Light: The History of 14 Billion Years for People Short on Time
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About Space At The Speed Of Light: The History Of 14
Product Description From the big bang to black holes, this fast-paced illustrated tour of time and space for the astro-curious unlocks the science of the stars to reveal fascinating theories, surprising discoveries, and ongoing mysteries in modern astronomy and astrophysics. Before the big bang, time, space, and matter didn't exist. In the 14 billion years since, scientists have pointed their telescopes upward, peering outward in space and backward in time, developing and refining theories to explain the weird and wonderful phenomena they observed. Through these observations, we now understand concepts like the size of the universe (still expanding), the distance to the next-nearest star from earth (Alpha Centauri, 26 trillion miles) and what drives the formation of elements (nuclear fusion), planets and galaxies (gravity), and black holes (gravitational collapse). But are these cosmological questions definitively answered or is there more to discover? Oxford University astrophysicist and popular YouTube personality Dr. Becky Smethurst presents everything you need to know about the universe in ten accessible and engagingly illustrated lessons. In Space at the Speed of Light: The History of 14 Billion Years for People Short on Time, she guides you through fundamental questions, both answered and unanswered, posed by space scientists. Why does gravity matter? How do we know the big bang happened? What is dark matter? Do aliens exist? Why is the sky dark at night? If you have ever looked up at night and wondered how it all works, you will find answers--and many more questions--in this pocket-sized tour of the universe! About the Author Dr. Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist and research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her current research is focused on the question of how galaxies and black holes evolve together. Her weekly YouTube videos explain unsolved cosmological mysteries, weird objects found in space, and general space news. Dr. Smethurst also presents physics videos for the YouTube channel Sixty Symbols and astronomy videos for Deep Sky Videos. She was shortlisted for an Early Career Physics Communicator Award by the Institute of Physics and was named Audience Winner in the UK national finals of the FameLab competition. Justin Van Genderen is an illustrator and artist whose work is inspired by science, space, and imagination. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Preface The wondrous thing about science is that nobody knows the right answer. This is not how we are taught science as children, though. In the classroom, theories are presented as hard facts that have always been understood in that way. Fortunately, the reality is far more creative: being a scientist is like fitting in the pieces of an ever-changing jigsaw puzzle for which we’ve lost the lid. The work of so many people over decades, even centuries, slowly builds a picture of our current best understanding. Although some areas of science still have the odd piece missing, some others have giant gaps for which we currently don’t have the tools, mathematics, or data even to glimpse what shape the pieces are. Science is all about posing the questions to which nobody yet knows the answers. Convincing people there is a “right” answer—based on evidence and facts you, your colleagues, and your predecessors have collected to build a theory of the previously unexplained—is the crucial bit. This means that science moves quickly, with theories maturing and sometimes even boomeranging as more evidence comes to light. The theories and facts outlined in this book offer a history of ten big questions about space and how science currently answers them. They are all considered successes now, but who knows how they shall be perceived in fifty years. Perhaps our current theory of dark matter will be scoffed at by future generations, akin to our current disbelief that learned minds once thought the Earth was at the center of the universe or that
