Leading scientists offer a collection of essays that furnish illuminating explanations of recent discoveries in modern astrophysics--from the Big Bang to black holes--the possibility of life on other worlds, and the emerging technologies that make such research possible, accompanied by incisive profiles of such key figures as Carl Sagan and Georges Lemaetre. Original.

An accessible look at the mysteries that lurk at the edge of the known universe and beyond The observable universe, the part we can see with telescopes, is incredibly vast. Yet recent theories suggest that there is far more to the universe than what our instruments record—in fact, it could be infinite. Colossal flows of galaxies, large empty regions called voids, and other unexplained phenomena offer clues that our own "bubble universe" could be part of a greater realm called the multiverse. How big is the observable universe? What it is made of? What lies beyond it? Was there a time before the Big Bang? Could space have unseen dimensions? In this book, physicist and science writer Paul Halpern explains what we know?and what we hope to soon find out?about our extraordinary cosmos. Explains what we know about the Big Bang, the accelerating universe, dark energy, dark flow, and dark matter to examine some of the theories about the content of the universe and why its edge is getting farther away from us faster Explores the idea that the observable universe could be a hologram and that everything that happens within it might be written on its edge Written by physicist and popular science writer Paul Halpern, whose other books include Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles, and What's Science Ever Done For Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe

"On the Cosmic Horizon reaches wide across the cosmos to provide lucid explanations for many of the most compelling cosmic questions. Following a Top Ten countdown, the book explores with wit and clarity each mystery and how it may be resolved. Each enigma is made accessible through a story which draws upon history and everyday human experience. Along the way, we learn about our state-of-the-art understanding of the universe, future missions, and the potential impact of unravelling these cosmic conundrums. On the Cosmic Horizon is the perfect book for anyone who wants to understand astronomical headlines and why they are important."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book overviews the extensive literature on apparent cosmological and black hole horizons. In theoretical gravity, dynamical situations such as gravitational collapse, black hole evaporation, and black holes interacting with non-trivial environments, as well as the attempts to model gravitational waves occurring in highly dynamical astrophysical processes, require that the concept of event horizon be generalized. Inequivalent notions of horizon abound in the technical literature and are discussed in this manuscript. The book begins with a quick review of basic material in the first one and a half chapters, establishing a unified notation. Chapter 2 reminds the reader of the basic tools used in the analysis of horizons and reviews the various definitions of horizons appearing in the literature. Cosmological horizons are the playground in which one should take baby steps in understanding horizon physics. Chapter 3 analyzes cosmological horizons, their proposed thermodynamics, and several coordinate systems. The remaining chapters discuss analytical solutions of the field equations of General Relativity, scalar-tensor, and f(R) gravity which exhibit time-varying apparent horizons and horizons which appear and/or disappear in pairs. An extensive bibliography enriches the volume. The intended audience is master and PhD level students and researchers in theoretical physics with knowledge of standard gravity.

Frederik Pohl was on a streak when this Hugo Award–finalist novel was published in 1980. Now back in print after an absence of nearly a decade, this unique science fiction novel is as fresh and entertaining as ever. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth.... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

With the advent of global warming and the nuclear arms race, humans are rapidly approaching a moment of truth. Technologically supreme, they manifest their dreams and nightmares in the real world through science, art, adventures and brutal wars, a paradox symbolized by a candle lighting the dark yet burning away to extinction, as discussed in this book. As these lines are being written, fires are burning on several continents, the Earth’s ice sheets are melting and the oceans are rising, threatening to flood the planet’s coastal zones and river valleys, where civilization arose and humans live and grow food. With the exception of birds like hawks, black kites and fire raptors, humans are the only life form utilizing fire, creating developments they can hardly control. For more than a million years, gathered around campfires during the long nights, mesmerized by the flickering life-like dance of the flames, prehistoric humans acquired imagination, a yearning for omnipotence, premonitions of death, cravings for immortality and conceiving the supernatural. Humans live in realms of perceptions, dreams, myths and legends, in denial of critical facts, waking up for a brief moment to witness a world that is as beautiful as it is cruel. Existentialist philosophy offers a way of coping with the unthinkable. Looking into the future produces fear, an instinctive response that can obsess the human mind and create a conflict between the intuitive reptilian brain and the growing neocortex, with dire consequences. As contrasted with Stapledon’s Last and first Man, where an advanced human species mourns the fate of the Earth, Homo sapiens continues to transfer every extractable molecule of carbon from the Earth to the atmosphere, the lungs of the biosphere, ensuring the demise of the planetary life support system.”

2046 A.D.: Seven years ago an experimental space vessel disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Now the ship has been found orbiting Neptune. When a salvage team is sent to investigate, they encounter the ultimate horror that lurks behind the Event Horizon. Paramount's major motion picture will be released in August and stars Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan, Richard T. Jones and Joely Richardson.