Elephants in space: the past, present and future of life and the universe

193 Pages·2014·2.606 MB·English

by  Moore, Ben

Ben Moore
Elephants
in Space
The Past, Present and Future
of Life and the Universe
Astronomers’ Universe
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Ben Moore
Elephants in Space
The Past, Present and Future
of Life and the Universe
BenMoore
CentreforTheoreticalAstrophysicsand
Cosmology
InstituteforComputationalScience
UniversityofZurich
Zurich,Switzerland
ISSN1614-659X ISSN2197-6651(electronic)
ISBN978-3-319-05671-5 ISBN978-3-319-05672-2(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-05672-2
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014940552
TranslationfromtheGermanlanguageedition:ElefantenimAll–UnserPlatzimUniversumbyBen
Moore,©Kein&AberAGZu¨rich–Berlin2012.Allrightsreserved
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014
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In the memory of my father
For Mariana and Joe
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Foreword
The Romance of the Universe
Itishardtothinkofamoreromanticstorythanthestoryofouruniverseitself.
Irealisethatmanywillfindthisstatementincredulous.Afterall,whereisthesex
andviolence?
On a superficial level one could respond to this question quite simply: The
history of life on Earth provides more examples of quirky sex than most people
couldimagineontheirown,andnothinghumanshaveeverinventedcancompare
with the violence and explosive power of a supernova, the most brilliant cosmic
fireworksinthesky.
ButwhenIusedthewordromancehere,Iwasreferringmoretotheromanceof
scienceitself.Itisperhapsnotproperlyappreciatedthatwhatdrivesmostscientists
to spend the better part of their intellectual lives pursuing sometimes seemingly
esotericquestionsisnottothedesiretosavehumanity,oreventhenaturalhuman
capacityself-aggrandisement.Itisinsteadaloveaffairwiththeuniverse:thedesire
to understand something that no one before has understood; to push the frontiers
forwardsothatnewquestionscanbeaskedaboutphenomenathatmayhavebeen
previouslyinvisible;tounderstandhowitisthatwecametowhereweare;andto
comprehendrealisticallywhatthefuturemightbring.
ItisthisloveaffairthatBenMoorecapturesinthisbookaboutthehistoryofthe
universe. Ben has spent the better part of his career exploring the incredibly
complex gravitational interplay of objects to form the structures that we know
andloveaswelookoutwithourtelescopes,fromgalaxiesandclustersofgalaxies,
to stars and planets. When the resources didn’t exist, he built his own super-
computer to help carry out the complicated numerical algorithms necessary to
explorequestionsthataresimplytoocomplextohandleanalyticallywithstandard
mathematical formulations. What has characterised his theoretical efforts, in my
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experience asacollaborator, observer,andfriend, isasense ofadventureandfun
thatpermeatesmuchofwhathedoesinhislife,andthatpermeatesthisenjoyable
volume.Iencourageyoutojumpinheadfirst.Don’tbeafraid.Youwillbedelighted
andenlightened.
Tempe,AZ LawrenceM.Krauss
2014
Preface
Myfatherwasaforesterandspentmuchofhislifeimmersedinnaturefromsunrise
tosunset.DuringtheschoolholidaysIwouldjoinhimasheworkedtirelesslyand
thoughtconstantly.Heinstilledinmehisloveofthenaturalworldandhiswonder
initsorigins.Whatareallthoseantsthinking?Howdotreesdefygravityandsuck
waterfromtheirrootsintosuchhighcanopies?WhydoestheEarthspinandorbit
theSunlikesomekindofmechanisedclock?Whatisthenatureoflight?Canblack
holesreallyexist?Arewealoneinthisvastuniverseorisitfilledwithlife?
This book is written in the memory of my father, who encouraged me to go to
universitytofindsomeoftheanswerstothequestionswediscussed.Itisforanyone
whowondersabouttheworldaroundthemandwhoisinterestedinitsorigins.Itis
formychildrentoread,toinspiretheminthesamewayasmyfatherinspiredme.
ItissomethingIwouldliketoleavebehindinthisshortbutincrediblelife.
Iwanttotellthestoryofthehistoryandfutureoflifeandtheuniverseatalevel
that anybody who is interested in it can understand and enjoy. I will start at the
beginningandendattheend,describingourplaceintimeandspace,howwegot
here and where we are going. I will take you on a journey from the beginning of
timetotheendoftheuniversetouncoverouroriginsandglimpseatourdestiny.
Itisajourneyofsciencefictionproportionsbutbasedon3,000yearsofscientific
findings.Iwillexplainhowweacquiredthisknowledge,beginningwiththeancient
Greekswhopioneeredtheartofscientificinvestigation.Thistakesusonaremark-
ablepathofdiscoveryfromtheoriginofatomstodarkmatteranddarkenergy,from
antsandelephantstospacetravelandlifebeyondoursolarsystem.
Thefollowingisatruestorybasedonactualeventsthattookplace.It’sagood
time to tell it, since in the last decade astrophysicists have collected new obser-
vational data that allow us to understand in detail the history of our universe and
howallofitscontentsemerged.Ihavespentthelast25yearscarryingoutresearch
onmanyofthesetopicsandIwouldliketoexplaintoyouallofthesedevelopments
using simple and friendly non-technical language. You may encounter some con-
cepts that are difficult to understand—don’t worry, some are rather tricky to
explain. There is still a lot to learn and in Chap. 10 I will be honest about what
wedon’tunderstand.
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