The Amazing Unity of the Universe: And Its Origin in the Big Bang

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Our Strange Universe....Pages 1-4
The Sun’s Backyard: Our Solar System....Pages 5-29
How Distant Are the Stars?....Pages 31-45
The Discovery of the Structure of Our Milky Way Galaxy....Pages 47-65
The Chemical Composition of the Sun and Stars....Pages 67-77
Other Galaxies and the Discovery of the Expansion of the Universe....Pages 79-96
Gravity According to Galilei, Newton, Einstein and Mach....Pages 97-116
Einstein, de Sitter, Friedmann, Lemaître and the Evolution of the Universe....Pages 117-136
The Big Bang as Origin of the Universe....Pages 137-160
The Origin of the Matter in the Universe....Pages 161-170
We Are Made of Stardust; Timescales of the Universe and of Life....Pages 171-187
Is the Universe Open, Closed or Flat? The Horizon Problem, the Flatness Problem and Inflation....Pages 189-196
Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Our Strange Universe....Pages 197-214
Ripples in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation....Pages 215-226
Time in the Universe....Pages 227-236
From Universe to Multiverse....Pages 237-252
Intelligent Life Elsewhere in the Universe....Pages 253-269
Epilogue....Pages 271-276
Back Matter....Pages 277-315