Our Universe. The Thrill of Extragalactic Exploration

Half-title......Page 3
Dedication......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 9
The frontier Universe: At the edge of the night......Page 11
PART I Revealing a Universe......Page 15
1 Mapmaker, mapmaker make me a map......Page 17
On being an astronomer......Page 21
What to do after graduate school......Page 22
Redshift surveys......Page 24
The second CfA Survey......Page 28
The next maps—more to come......Page 31
2 Looking back in time: Searching for the most distant galaxies......Page 33
The siren call of distant galaxies......Page 35
Taking different tacks—deep surveys with infrared detectors......Page 37
We try higher......Page 39
Down the rabbithole—the Keck 10-m telescope comes on line......Page 41
Building our better mousetrap......Page 42
Looking back…and looking ahead......Page 45
Suggested reading......Page 46
3 So we’ve lost the mission? The Big Bang and the Cosmic Background Explorer......Page 47
Growing up nerdish......Page 49
College and graduate school......Page 51
Going to work for NASA......Page 53
Building a team......Page 55
Recovering from disaster......Page 56
Launch!......Page 58
Parties, champagne, crises, and science......Page 59
Suggested reading......Page 63
4 Computational adventures in cosmology......Page 65
The beginning......Page 66
Two cosmologies......Page 76
My kitchen......Page 78
Managing the available resources......Page 82
Making travel plans......Page 86
The road ahead......Page 87
Suggested reading......Page 88
PART II Denizens of the Deep......Page 89
5 The search for very massive black holes......Page 91
Black holes in astrophysics......Page 92
Weighing invisible matter......Page 94
The ‘‘Nuker’’ team forms and grows......Page 97
The Space Telescope era......Page 99
The subject matures......Page 103
Connections......Page 104
Suggested reading......Page 106
6 Gamma-ray bursts—the most spectacular fireworks......Page 111
Perplexed......Page 112
Journey......Page 114
Compton’s wine......Page 119
Of supernovae and hypernovae......Page 121
Suggested reading......Page 128
7 Clusters of galaxies and the fate of the Universe (Or how to be a cosmologist without really trying)......Page 129
Losing my religion and heeding a call......Page 132
Summoned to the mountains......Page 134
To a cluster very very far away......Page 139
Is the Universe dense? Clusters say no......Page 142
Suggested reading......Page 146
8 Dark matter and the discovery of galactic halos......Page 149
What gravity reveals......Page 150
Greater puzzles......Page 155
Introduction......Page 157
The initial quest......Page 160
Alone in the wilderness?......Page 163
Commencing the hunt......Page 166
Intensifying the hunt......Page 167
Bagging the big one......Page 169
The rest is history......Page 172
Suggested reading......Page 174