Measuring the Cosmos: How Scientists Discovered the Dimensions of the Universe

216 Pages·2004·7.415 MB·English

by  David H. Clark, Matthew D.H. Clark

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MEASURING
THE COSMOS
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PREVIOUS BOOKS BY DAVID H. CLARK
The Historical Supernovae(with F. R. Stephenson)
Applications of Historical Astronomical Records
(with F. R. Stephenson)
Superstars
The Quest for SS433
The Cosmos from Space
Aliens: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
(with Andrew J. H. Clark)
Newton’s Tyranny(with Stephen P. H. Clark)
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MEASURING
THE COSMOS
How Scientists Discovered
the Dimensions of the Universe
DAVID H. CLARK and
MATTHEW D. H. CLARK
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Brunswick, New Jersey,
and London
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Measuring the cosmos : how scientists discovered the dimensions of the
universe / David H. Clark and Matthew D.H. Clark.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8135-3404-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Cosmology—Research. I. Clark, David H.
II. Clark, Matthew D. H., 1970–
QB981.M385 2004
523.1—dc22
2003020096
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2004 by David H. Clark and Matthew D. H. Clark
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue,
Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition
is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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To David Samuel, Marcus Alexander, and Peter James
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CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Prologue
A Rapid Journey through Time and Space 1
Chapter 1
Ingenious Visions 9
Chapter 2
Serious Measurements 36
Chapter 3
The Great Debate 62
Chapter 4
Seeing Red 91
Chapter 5
The Nature of Creation 123
Chapter 6
Living with Inflation 156
Glossary 183
Bibliography 195
Index 197
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PREFACE AND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book tells the stories of “heroes” and “heroines,” both well
known and unsung, behind the present understanding of the ori-
gin, size, and age of the cosmos. Edwin Hubble, Albert Einstein,
Fred Hoyle—these are household names. But how many people,
other than professional astronomers, have heard of scientists like
Heber Curtis, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon, Mil-
ton Humason, or Vesto Slipher? Our current understanding of
the nature of the universe depends on all of them, not just the fa-
mous few.
Nor was the path to contemporary knowledge a well-ordered
progression from ignorance to understanding. Along the way,
astronomers, mathematicians, and physicists made mistakes, faced
impenetrable uncertainties, and found plenty of time to fight
within their ranks. The stories of the scientists involved in measur-
ing the cosmos reveal ambitions, conflicts, failures, as well as suc-
cesses as the astonishing scale and age of the universe were finally
established. Few areas of scientific research have witnessed the likes
of the clashes of egos, the claims and counterclaims of priority of
thought, or the failed (or falsified) theories and observations that
resultedfromattemptstomeasuretheuniverse.TheancientGreeks
used the word cosmos to describe the observable heavens. The
word cosmos means order and hierarchy (and is the opposite of
chaos). Not only the universe, but also the emergence of a true un-
derstanding of its complexity, would prove to be more chaotic than
the Greek scholars could ever have imagined for a system they be-
lieved to be perfect and well ordered.
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