Cosmic Horizons
Part of Curriculum Collections.
Excerpts from Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge.
Cosmic Horizons illuminates the most recent discoveries of modern astrophysics with essays by leading astronomers, including NASA scientists. The book also features profiles of astronomers such as Carl Sagan and Georges Lemaître (father of the Big Bang theory), case studies that cover the controversial evidence for the possibility of life on Mars, and stunning four-color photographs throughout.
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Case Study: Friedrich Bessel and the Companion of Sirius
Discovering Sirius B long before technology allowed us to see it, or quantum mechanics explained the nature of white dwarfs.
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Case Study: Gerard Kuiper and the Trans-Neptunian Comet Belt
A dusty snowball orbiting the Sun, trailing gas and dust as it melts: find out how these solar snowballs came to be.
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Case Study: John Michell and Black Holes
When a country parson first described black holes in 1783, the concept was so ahead of its time it was mostly ignored.
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Case Study: Fossil Microbes on Mars?
A meteorite that escaped from Mars 16 million years ago was found in Antarctica. Is it evidence of life on the red planet?
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Case Study: Neutrino Observatories
How do scientists detect neutrinos? Today they're more likely to stare at a screen than peer through a telescope.
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Case Study: The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
See how scientists detected a faint remnant glow that supports the Big Bang theory.
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Profile: Ernst Chladni and Rocks from the Sky
The notion that enormous rocks exist within our solar system—and that some fall to Earth—once garnered ridicule.
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Profile: Georges Lemaître, Father of the Big Bang
When a Catholic priest and cosmologist first proposed that the universe began as a "primeval atom," it seemed preposterous.
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Profile: Cecilia Payne and the Composition of the Stars
What are the stars made of? At 25, Cecilia Payne answered this fundamental question in her Ph.D. thesis.
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Profile: Ole Roemer and the Speed of Light
Before Ole Roemer's 1676 discovery, scientists assumed that light could not be measured.
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Profile: Vera Rubin and Dark Matter
Vera Rubin proposed that for every visible star in the observable universe, there are nine other invisible masses.
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Profile: Carl Sagan and the Quest for Life in the Universe
From television and films to professional journals and best-selling books, Carl Sagan's influence was legendary.
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Profile: Lyman Spitzer and the Space Telescope
The idea of launching a telescope into orbit was first suggested in 1923, but the idea wasn't realized until nearly 70 years later.
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Profile: Fritz Zwicky's Extraordinary Vision
Fritz Zwicky was the first to conceive of supernovas, dark matter, and gravitational lenses. So why do so few know his name?
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Profile: Harold C. Urey
This Nobel Prize–winning scientist contributed to several fields: chemistry, geochemistry, lunar science, and astrochemistry.