Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution

by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith

Overview

“Who can ask for better cosmic tour guides to the universe than Drs. Tyson and Goldsmith?” —Michio Kaku, author of Hyperspace and Parallel Worlds

Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and the current cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, ?Origins? explains the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. From the first image of a galaxy birth to Spirit Rover's exploration of Mars, to the discovery of water on one of Jupiter's moons, coauthors Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith conduct a galvanizing tour of the cosmos with clarity and exuberance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393345773
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/23/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Times best-selling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. He lives in New York City.
Donald Goldsmith is an astronomy writer in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction A Meditation on the Origins of Science and the Science of Origins 1

Part I The Origin of the Universe

1 In the Beginning 11

2 Antimatter Matters 25

3 Let the Light Shine 33

4 Let There Be Dark 47

5 Let There Be More Dark 62

6 Tension in the Cosmos! 85

7 One Universe or Many? 93

Part II The Origin of Galaxies and Cosmic Structure

8 Discovering Galaxies 107

9 The Origin of Structure 119

Part III The Origin of Stars and Planets

10 Dust to Dust 151

11 When Worlds Were Young 174

12 Planets beyond the Solar System 187

Part IV The Origin of Life

13 Life in the Universe 205

14 The Origin of Life on Earth 214

15 Searching for Life in the Solar System 233

16 Searching for Life in the Milky Way Galaxy 268

Coda The Search for Ourselves in the Cosmos 287

Acknowledgments 293

Glossary of Selected Terms 295

Further Reading 325

Image Credits 329

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

Because of recent scientific discoveries, our knowledge of the details of cosmic evolution continues to grow. As the director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson makes his living communicating what we know about the evolution of our universe to the widest possible audience. In Origins, he distills the complex breakthroughs of geology, biology, and astrophysics into clear and lively prose.

Companion volume to a PBS Nova special takes a look at the origins of life, the universe, and everything. Hayden Planetarium director Tyson and popular science writer Goldsmith (The Hunt for Life on Mars, 1997, etc.) begin with the earliest time science is capable of describing, milliseconds after the Big Bang. Essential features of our universe were laid down in that unique moment, some of which-e.g., the minuscule excess of matter over antimatter-science is still at a loss to explain. Others, including the prevalence of so-called dark matter and dark energy, have only recently come to notice. After a period of cooling, the debris began to resemble the universe we now see. Gravity, light, and matter became predominant, with galaxies and stars taking shape. The authors give clear explanations of the processes involved as far as they are understood; Tyson and Goldsmith are not afraid to admit ignorance. Within the stars, originally composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, the other elements of the periodic table have been synthesized by nuclear fusion and spread about the galaxies in supernova explosions. From these stellar ashes, planets and the other bodies that orbit stars have been formed. The authors give useful updates on the progress in discovery of extra-solar planets (over a hundred are currently known) and of possible abodes of life in our own solar system (Mars, Europa, and Titan are now considered the best candidates). They end with a look at current thinking on the origins of life, a question made more complex by the discovery of extremophiles, creatures that live comfortably in environments formerly considered hostile to life. An accessible and extremely well writtenexploration of the deep waters of cosmology, astrophysics, and exobiology.

Kirkus Reviews