Afterglow of Creation: From the Fireball to the Discovery of Cosmic Ripples

by Marcus Chown (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1993

  $3.25

  The discovery in 1992 of cosmic ripples - slight variations in the temperature of ancient radiation left over from the big bang - resulted in sensational headlines. This book goes behind the hype and hysteria to offer a straightforward explanation and a history of the search. Obscure smudges in the satellite photographs show how matter was forming into clumps early in the history of the universe, and give clues to the way in which our own galaxies came into being. The search for radiation that might tell something about the origins of the universe began in the 1920s. Rivalries, accidental discoveries and near misses marked the search; scientists sent up balloons that got lost; and the instruments sometimes measured the temperature of the balloons and not the sky. With the coming of space travel, the vehicles grew more sophisticated, but the experiments were basically very simple, and they are explained in the book. The story culminates in the flight of the COBE satellite and what it found.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.25

  Stephen Hawking described it as 'the discovery of the century, if not of all time', yet the scientists who first detected the cosmic radiation that was identified as the afterglow of the big bang had to admit that it was more by accident than intention. At first its discoverers mistook the readings for the disruption caused by the droppings of pigeons that had nested in their telescope, and yet they went on to win the Nobel prize. In the mid-1990s, New Scientist writer Marcus Chown drove across America to interview the key scientists who had made this astonishing discovery. Their account and Chown's description of their achievement was published to much acclaim. But now, over a decade later, in this new and fully revised edition, he goes behind the hype and the hysteria to provide a clear and lively explanation of one of the biggest discoveries in modern science - and a brilliant picture of what happened next.