Secrets of the Universe. How We Discovered the Cosmos

How did our universe come to exist? Why do stars shine? Is there life beyond the Earth?

For millennia, humans have looked to the celestial sphere to explain the cosmos,first recording the movements of the Moon 25,000 years ago. Since the Enlightenmentand the dawn of the space age, scientists have been unravelling cosmic mysteries, andraising astonishing new questions for future generations to answer. Today we live inan age of unprecedented astronomical revelation, from the discovery of water on Marsto the detection of gravitational waves and the first photograph of a black hole.

World-renowned astronomer Paul Murdin explains the science behind these discoveries, along with the passions, strugglesand quirks of fate that made them some of the most intriguing dramas of their times,demonstrating how human ingenuity and technological innovation have expandedour knowledge of the Universe beyond anything our ancestors even as recently asa generation ago could ever have imagined.

Contents List

Introduction • Discoveries Before the Telescope • Discoveries in the Solar System Discoveries of the Dynamic Universe • Discoveries of Our Galaxy and Its Stars • Discoveries of the Universe and Its Galaxies Future Discoveries

About the Author

Paul Murdin, OBE, is the author of The Secret Lives of Planets. He has worked as an astronomer in the UK, the USA, Australia and Spain, and discovered the first stellar black hole, Cygnus X1. He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, former president of the European Astronomical Society and Senior Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge. In 2012 Asteroid 128562 was named 'Murdin' by the IAU in honour of his contributions to the field.