13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything

233 Pages·2016·4.25 MB·English

by  Gribbin J.

13.8
THE QUEST TO FIND THE TRUE
AGE OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE
THEORY OF EVERYTHING
JOHN GRIBBIN
First published in the United States in 2016 by Yale University Press.
First published in the United Kingdom in 2015 by Icon Books Ltd.
Text copyright © 2015 John and Mary Gribbin.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in
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Typeset in Dante by Marie Doherty.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015951744
ISBN: 978-0-300-21827-5 (hardcover: alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction: The Most Important Fact
Part Zero: Prologue
2.712 – Taking the temperature of the Universe
Part One: How Do We Know the Ages of Stars?
2.898 – Prehistory: Spectra and the nature of stars
Locating lines
Hunting helium
Hunting hydrogen
The heat of the Sun
The heat of the stars
The heat inside
0.008 – At the heart of the Sun
A French connection
No free lunch
Seats of enormous energies
A hotter place?
A quantum of solace
7.65 – Making ‘metals’
Cycles and chains of fusion
Rocks of ages
From the Bomb to the stars
The last should be first
Stardust
13.2 – The ages of stars
Hertzsprung, Russell and the diagram
Ashes to ashes
Globular cluster ages
White dwarf ages
Radiometric ages and the oldest known star
Part Two: How Do We Know the Age of the Universe?
31.415 – Prehistory: Galaxies and the Universe at large
The power of pure reason
One step forward, two steps back
Nebular spectroscopy
First steps
The long and winding road
An unresolved debate
A universe destroyed
575 – The discovery of the expanding Universe
Surprising speeds
Taking the credit
A Russian revolution
A Priestly intercession
75 – Sizing up the cosmic soufflé
Einstein’s lost model
Keeping it simple
Across the Universe
Doubling the distances
Hubble’s heir
Another Great Debate
13.8 – Surveys and satellites
The culmination of a tradition
Too perfect?
The dark side
Supernovae and superexpansion
Sounding out the Universe
Ultimate truth
Glossary
Sources and Further Reading
End Notes
Index
About the Author
JOHN GRIBBIN was born in 1946 in Maidstone, Kent. He studied physics at the
University of Sussex and went on to complete an MSc in astronomy at the same
university before moving to the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, to work
for his PhD.
After working for the journals Nature and New Scientist, he has concentrated
chiefly on writing books on everything from the Universe and the Multiverse to
the history of science. His books have received science-writing awards in the
UK and the US. His biographical subjects include Albert Einstein, Erwin
Schrodinger, Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, Galileo, Buddy Holly and
James Lovelock.
Since 1993, Gribbin has been a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the
University of Sussex.
Acknowledgements
The University of Sussex provided me with a base to work from, and the
astronomy group there provided many stimulating discussions on various
aspects of astronomy. Beyond Sussex, Virginia Trimble of the University of
California, Irvine kept us straight on history, and François Boucher of the Institut
d’Astrophysique Paris kept us up to date on the Planck satellite discoveries. I am
also grateful to the Alfred C. Munger Foundation for continued financial
support.
List of Illustrations
1. Robert Wilson (left) and Arno Penzias (right) in 1978 in front of the Crawford
Hill Antenna, which revealed the existence of the cosmic background radiation
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
2. George Gamow
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
3. Georges Lemaître
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Locanthi Collection
4. Henrietta Swan and Annie Jump Canon outside Harvard Observatory
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Shapley Collection
5. Ejnar Hertzsprung
Photo by Hans Petersen, Novdisk Pressefoto A/S, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre
Visual Archives, gift of Kaj Aage Strand
6. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
7. Henry Norris Russell
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, W.F. Meggers Collection
8. Ernest Rutherford, 1926
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, William G. Myers Collection
9. Arthur Eddington
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Segre Collection
10. Fred Hoyle
Photo by Ramsey and Muspratt, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives,
Physics Today Collection
11. Hermann Bondi
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
12. Solvay Conference, June 1958
Seated l–r: W.H. McCrea, J.H. Oort, G. Lemaître, C.J. Gorter, W. Pauli, Sir
W.L. Bragg, J.R. Oppenheimer, C. Moller, H. Shapley, O. Heckmann; Standing,
l–r: O.B. Klein, W.W. Morgan, F. Hoyle (back), B.V. Kukaskin, V.A.
Ambarzumian (front), H.C. van de Hulst (back), M. Fierz, A.R. Sandage (back),
W. Baade, E. Schatzman (front), J.A. Wheeler (back), H. Bondi, T. Gold, H.
Zanstra (back), L. Rosenfeld, P. Ledoux (back), A.C.B. Lovell, J. Geheniau
Photograph by G. Coopmans, Institut International de Physique Solvay, courtesy
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Leon Brillouin
13. Alexander Friedmann, near Moscow
Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual
Archives
14. Willem de Sitter
Science Photo Library
15. Albert Einstein with Hendrik Lorentz, circa 1920
Museum Boerhaave, Leiden
16. Vesto Slipher
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
17. Milton Humason, 1923
Photograph by Margaret Harwood, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
18. Mount Wilson Observatory under construction, 1904
The Hale Observatories, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
19. 100-inch Hooker telescope, Mount Wilson Observatory
Photograph by Edison R. Hoge, Hale Observatories, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre
Visual Archives
20. Edwin Hubble (left) and James Jeans (right) at the 100-inch telescope at
Mount Wilson Observatory
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection