The Elephant in the Universe
Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter
1 of 3 copies available
In The Elephant in the Universe, Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also suggestive: they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature. Physicists have devised huge, sensitive instruments to search for dark matter, which may be unlike anything else in the cosmos—some unknown elementary particle. Yet so far dark matter has escaped every experiment. Indeed, dark matter is so elusive that some scientists are beginning to suspect there might be something wrong with our theories about gravity or with the current paradigms of cosmology. Schilling interviews both believers and heretics and paints a colorful picture of the history and current status of dark matter research, with astronomers and physicists alike trying to make sense of theory and observation.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 18, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9798765041659
- File size: 330929 KB
- Duration: 11:29:26
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 14, 2022
Journalist Schilling (Ripples in Spacetime) chronicles the decades-long search for dark matter in this fascinating history. Sophisticated experiments are being conducted to document the existence of dark matter, which Schilling describes as “one of the biggest enigmas of modern science”: though it is believed to hold “the universe together,” he writes, its “true nature” remains a mystery. The author outlines the work of key players in the field: there’s Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, who “was the first to come up with a description of the shape and size of the Milky Way, a description that included a role for dark matter” in the 1920s; Phillip James Edwin Peebles, “godfather of the theory of cold dark matter,” who was prominent in the 1970s and ’80s when “dark matter burst onto the scene”; and Vera Rubin, whose 1980 paper on “missing mass” revolutionized the field. Along the way, Schilling convincingly argues that even without proof of its existence, dark matter has increased people’s understanding of the world—the search for it has led to greater knowledge of galaxies, gravity, and the big bang, among other phenomena. It makes for a solid introduction to an elusive topic.
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