Showing titles in Cosmology

Bloomsbury presents A Crack in Everything by Marcus Chown, read by Clive Mantle. What is space? What is time? Where did the universe come from? The answers to mankind’s most enduring questions may lie in science’s greatest enigma: black holes. A black hole is a region of space where gravity...

What's going on in the sky? Astronomy For Dummies takes you through the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and all the way to the outer reaches of the universe. You'll have stars in your eyes as you discover the basics of skywatching, planets, asteroids, black holes, and dark matter. Ponder the deep questions that keep humanity guessing, like, is there anybody out there? Two NASA-award-winning astronomers take you on a tour of outer space that will fascinate you—and, if you're a student, help you through your intro astronomy course.

The universe is a vast, mysterious, and incredibly cool place. It’s filled with things so strange and wonderful they can make your head spin. From the tiniest particles buzzing around beneath the surface of reality to the largest structures stretching across billions of light-years, the cosmos is packed with surprises. And the more we learn, the more we realize just how much we don’t know. When you glance up at the night sky, you’re not just looking at stars. You’re peering into the deep past, through millions or even billions of years.

For half a century, cosmology has relied on two invisible ingredients to explain the universe: dark matter, a substance that has never been detected despite decades of experimental search, and dark energy, a repulsive force whose physical nature remains entirely unknown. Together, they are said to constitute ninety-five percent of the cosmos. The remaining five percent—ordinary atoms, light, everything we have ever touched or measured—is treated as a minor addendum to a universe made mostly of darkness. This textbook presents a different cosmology. It is not speculative.

Our true origins are not only human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins illuminates the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. This newly revised and updated edition features such startling discoveries as the more than 5,000 newly detected exoplanets that shed light on the origins of and possibilities for life in the cosmos.

The hunt for the Higgs particle has involved the biggest, most expensive experiment ever. So exactly what is this particle? Why does it matter so much? What does it tell us about the universe? Was finding it really worth all the effort? The short answer is yes. The Higgs field is proposed as the way in which particles gain mass - a fundamental property of matter. It's the strongest indicator yet that the Standard Model of physics really does reflect the basic building blocks of our universe. Little wonder the hunt and discovery of this new particle produced such intense media interest.

Carl Sagan, writer and scientist, returns from the frontier to tell us about how the world works. In his delightfully down-to-earth style, he explores and explains a mind-boggling future of intelligent robots, extraterrestrial life and its consequences, and other provocative, fascinating quandaries of the future that we want to see today.

Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of spacetime. But as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, today new scientific tools are giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and test our theories about what is there. Her groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and whose topography holds the secret to the origins of existence itself.

This audiobook explores how the discoveries within the Solar System and of exoplanets far beyond it come together to help us understand the habitability of Earth, and how these findings guide the search for exoplanets that could support life. The author highlights how, within two decades of the discovery of the first planets outside the Solar System in the 1990s, scientists concluded that planets are so common that most stars are orbited by them. The lives of exoplanets and their stars are inextricably interwoven.

Stargazing has shaped the entire course of human civilization. The rhythm of our ancestors' lives revolved around the stars, from cycles of agriculture to patterns of birth. How radically different would humanity be if our ancestors had looked up to the night sky and seen...nothing? In lyrical yet evidence-grounded meditations, Trotta imagines a world without stars, a dramatic alternate history in which we wouldn't understand gravity, where couldn't navigate or have much sense of time, and where our sense of the profound - of art and of the divine - was altered beyond recognition.

Prepare to journey beyond our world and embark on an unforgettable adventure through the cosmos with The Abyss Above: Mind-Blowing Facts About Astronomy, the Cosmos, and Outer Space. This captivating book opens up the universe in a way you've never imagined, transcending the ordinary and taking you on an extraordinary exploration of the outer space.

The ordinary atoms that make up the known universe - from our bodies and the air we breathe to the planets and stars - constitute only 5 percent of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The rest is known as dark matter and dark energy, because their precise identities are unknown. The Cosmic Cocktail is the inside story of the epic quest to solve one of the most compelling enigmas of modern science - what is the universe made of? - told by one of today’s foremost pioneers in the study of dark matter.

Brian Clegg's acclaimed popular science book Inflight Science explored the science experienced on a plane flight. Interstellar Tours takes that concept and goes large. It takes the listener on a tour of our galaxy on the starship Endurance.

Cosmic Convergence invites you to expand your horizons and question your assumptions. For in the presence of walk-ins, starseeds, and hybrids, we may unlock the mysteries of the universe and find the seeds of our awakening.

The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.

Who are we, and how did we get here? These are two of the most fundamental and far-reaching questions facing scientists and cosmologists alike and have rested at the center of human intellectual endeavor since its beginning. They are questions that stretch across numerous disciplines. Philosophy, theology, evolutionary biology, and mathematics are just some of the fields looking to explain the emergence of human life.

Where do you go to let your curiosity fly? The backyard, of course. The setting for this audio original program is the backyard of William Shatner’s Los Angeles home, where he and Neil deGrasse Tyson enjoy a powerful, open-hearted conversation steeped in wonder. Having become fast friends and verbal sparring partners, the two men discuss the quest for knowledge that has driven human exploration and discovery over centuries, drawing from historical and contemporary examples.

Scientists tell us that ninety-six percent of the universe is unexplained dark matter and dark energy. Also, they admit that no unifying “theory of everything” exists in physics. This shaky foundation is the basis of modern thinking about the cosmos and Earth’s place in it. Something big seems to be missing. Thus, we’re left with no choice but to question the “consensus” cosmological model. Are we really flying through space on a spinning ball within an expanding universe, while free-falling around the Sun—all as a consequence of a “Big Bang” that supposedly occurred 13.8 billion years ago?

Why are we here? Human beings have asked themselves this question for centuries. Modern science largely argues that human beings are chance products of a purposeless universe, but other traditions believe humanity has an essential role and responsibility in creation. Lachman brings together many strands of esoteric, spiritual and philosophical thought to form a counter-argument to the nihilism that permeates the twenty-first century.

According to the prevailing scientific paradigm, the universe tends toward randomness; it functions according to laws without purpose, and life is an accident devoid of meaning. Thanks to a new understanding of evolution, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the phenomenon known as emergence, a new cosmic narrative is taking shape: Nature’s simplest “parts” come together to form ever-greater “wholes” in a process that has no end in sight. Bobby Azarian explains the science behind this new view of reality and explores what it means for all of us.