Table of Contents
About the Author v
Acknowledgements vi
List of Illustrations vii
Introduction: The Most Important Fact xi
Part 0 Prologue 1
2.712 - Taking the temperature of the Universe 3
Part 1 How Do We Know the Ages of Stars? 21
1 2.898 - Prehistory: Spectra and the nature of stars 23
Locating lines 23
Hunting helium 26
Hunting hydrogen 28
The heat of the Sun 32
The heat of the stars 34
The heat inside 37
2 0.008 - At the heart of the Sun 41
A French connection 42
No free lunch 44
Seats of enormous energies 50
A hotter place? 58
A quantum of solace 62
3 7.65 - Making 'metals' 65
Cycles and chains of fusion 69
Rocks of ages 75
From the Bomb to the stars 79
The last should be first 82
Stardust 86
4 13.2 - The ages of stars 91
Hertzsprung, Russell and the diagram 91
Ashes to ashes 93
Globular cluster ages 96
White dwarf ages 100
Radiometric ages and the oldest known star 105
Part 2 How Do We Know the Age of the Universe? 113
5 31.415 - Prehistory: Galaxies and the Universe at large 115
The power of pure reason 116
One step forward, two steps back 118
Nebular spectroscopy 121
First steps 123
The long and winding road 128
An unresolved debate 131
A universe destroyed 135
6 575 - The discovery of the expanding Universe 139
Surprising speeds 139
Taking the credit 142
A Russian revolution 148
A Priestly intercession 154
7 75 - Sizing up the cosmic soufflé 161
Einstein's lost model 163
Keeping it simple 165
Across the Universe 169
Doubling the distances 169
Hubble's heir 177
Another Great Debate 184
8 13.8 - Surveys and satellites 189
The culmination of a tradition 189
Too perfect? 192
The dark side 197
Supernovae and superexpansion 206
Sounding out the Universe 210
Ultimate truth 214
Glossary 221
Sources and Further Reading 233
End Notes 235
Index 237
