We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,770,936.83 | Books Available: 722,248 | Members Online: 183

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Ripples in the Cosmos: A View Behind the Scenes of the New Cosmology

Ripples in the Cosmos A View Behind the Scenes of the New Cosmology
Author: Michael Rowan-Robinson

On 23 April 1992 a major science story appeared in newspaper headlines around the world. The announcement of the discovery of small-scale fluctuations in the cosmic microwave radiation, ripples in the cosmos, was a bolt from the blue, taking most of the world's cosmologists by surprise. Then came the first reactions: 'the discovery of th... more »e century, perhaps of all time' (Stephen Hawking), 'the Holy Grail of cosmology', 'English does not have enough superlatives', and 'a certain Nobel Prize'.

What are the ripples? Why are they of such fundamental importance? What do they tell us about the beginning of the universe? And was the hype reported in the media justified? In this immensely readable book, distinguished cosmologist Michael Rowan-Robinson sets the discovery in its wider context, that of the search for an explanation of how galaxies, cluster of galaxies and even larger structures formed in a universe which was initially of almost perfect uniformity. This puzzle has been at the heart of the cosmological debate for the past decade. Using telescopes in orbit around the earth, working at wavelengths invisible to the human eye, astronomers have recently taken two enormous steps forward in their search for an explanation of the evolution of structure, their discoveries making front-page news stories. The first was the mapping of the distribution of galaxies by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS); the second the detection of the ripples by the Cosmic Background Explorers (COBE).

Here is an insider's account of these momentous discoveries: Michael Rowan-Robinson was a leading participant with IRAS, one of the most successful space astronomy missions of all time. It is a story packed with anecdote and drama, culminating in a series of spectacular cosmological discoveries. These include the explanation of the rapid motion of our Galaxy through space; the demise of the hypothetical 'Great Attractor'; the demonstration that the universe is filled with an exotic form of dark matter, and the detection - by the author and his colleagues - of the most luminous galaxy in the universe. Professor Rowan- Robinson goes on to describe how the IRAS discoveries and the COBE ripples are connected together, and how this has helped to solve the problem of how structure, and hence we ourselves, evolved in the universe.

Ripples in the Cosmos is far more than an exciting - and a personal - story of modern cosmology. Michael Rowan- Robinson asks fundamental questions about the very nature of science, and how it works. His surprising answers to these questions will provoke general readers and scientist alike.