000 04077nam a22005415i 4500
001 978-3-540-78728-0
003 DE-He213
005 20161121231053.0
007 cr nn 008mamaa
008 100301s2008 gw | s |||| 0|eng d
020 _a9783540787280
_9978-3-540-78728-0
024 7 _a10.1007/978-3-540-78728-0
_2doi
050 4 _aQB1-991
050 4 _aQB460-466
050 4 _aQB980-991
072 7 _aPGC
_2bicssc
072 7 _aSCI004000
_2bisacsh
072 7 _aSCI005000
_2bisacsh
082 0 4 _a520
_223
245 1 4 _aThe Music of the Big Bang
_h[electronic resource] :
_bThe Cosmic Microwave Background and the New Cosmology /
_cedited by Amedeo Balbi.
264 1 _aBerlin, Heidelberg :
_bSpringer Berlin Heidelberg,
_c2008.
300 _aXVI, 160 p. 41 illus.
_bonline resource.
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _atext file
_bPDF
_2rda
490 1 _aAstronomers’ Universe,
_x1614-659X
505 0 _aPrologue -- The framework (an introduction to the Big Bang model) -- First light (an introduction to the cosmic background radiation - CMB) -- Cosmic seeds (structure formation in the Universe and the CMB) -- Music of the spheres (acoustic oscillations in the primordial Universe) -- Finding harmony (the discovery of acoustic oscillations in the CMB power spectrum) -- The undiscovered country (some future prospects) -- Epilogue.
520 _aThe cosmic microwave background radiation is the afterglow of the big bang: a tenuous signal, more than 13 billion years old, which carries the answers to many of the questions about the nature of our Universe. It was serendipitously discovered in 1964, and thoroughly investigated in the last four decades by a large number of experiments. Two Nobel Prizes in Physics have already been awarded for research on the cosmic background radiation: one in 1978 to Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who first discovered it, the other in 2006, to George Smoot and John Mather, for the results of the COBE satellite. Most cosmological information is encoded in the cosmic background radiation by acoustic oscillations in the dense plasma that filled the primordial Universe: a "music" of the big bang, which cosmologists have long been trying to reconstruct and analyze, in order to distinguish different cosmological models, much like one can distinguish different musical instruments by their timbre and overtones. Only lately, this amazing cosmic sound has been unveiled by such experiments as BOOMERANG and MAXIMA and, more recently, by the WMAP satellite. This led to a giant leap in our understanding of the Universe, but the investigation is not ended yet. The book focuses on how the exploration of the cosmic background radiation has shaped our picture of the Universe, leading even the non-specialized readers towards the frontier of cosmological research, helping them to understand, using a simple language and captivating metaphors, the mechanisms behind the Universe in which we live. "This non-technical tour of the discovery and significance of the whispers of creation, the fossil radiation from the Big Bang, is a delight to read." Prof. Joe Silk, University of Oxford, a pioneering contributor to understanding the structure of the cosmic background radiation.
650 0 _aPhysics.
650 0 _aGravitation.
650 0 _aAstronomy.
650 0 _aAstrophysics.
650 0 _aCosmology.
650 1 4 _aPhysics.
650 2 4 _aAstronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology.
650 2 4 _aPopular Science in Astronomy.
650 2 4 _aAstrophysics and Astroparticles.
650 2 4 _aClassical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory.
700 1 _aBalbi, Amedeo.
_eeditor.
710 2 _aSpringerLink (Online service)
773 0 _tSpringer eBooks
776 0 8 _iPrinted edition:
_z9783540787266
830 0 _aAstronomers’ Universe,
_x1614-659X
856 4 0 _uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78728-0
912 _aZDB-2-PHA
950 _aPhysics and Astronomy (Springer-11651)
999 _c508112
_d508112