Bøger af Joseph Silk

A scientist's inspiring vision of our return to the Moon as humanity's next thrilling step in space explorationJust over half a century since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the lunar surface, a new space race to the Moon is well underway and rapidly gaining momentum. Laying out a vision for the next fifty years, Back to the Moon is astrophysicist Joseph Silk's persuasive and impassioned case for putting scientific discovery at the forefront of lunar exploration.The Moon offers opportunities beyond our wildest imaginings, and plans to return are rapidly gaining momentum around the world. NASA aims to build a habitable orbiting space station to coordinate lunar development and exploration, while European and Chinese space agencies are planning lunar villages and the mining of precious resources dwindling here on Earth. Powerful international and commercial interests are driving the race to revisit the Moon, but lunar infrastructures could also open breathtaking vistas onto the cosmos. Silk describes how the colonization of the Moon could usher in a thrilling new age of scientific exploration, and lays out what the next fifty years of lunar science might look like. With lunar telescopes of unprecedented size situated in permanently dark polar craters and on the far side of the Moon, we could finally be poised to answer some of the most profound questions confronting humankind, including whether we are alone in the Universe and what our cosmic origins are.Addressing both the daunting challenges and the immense promise of lunar exploration and exploitation, Back to the Moon reveals how prioritizing science, and in particular lunar astronomy, will enable us to address the deepest cosmic mysteries.

"If you want to plunge into the complex and intriguing issues that engage modern cosmologists, rather than skim the surface of easy description, take this journey with Joseph Silk, who will lead you on a tour through dark matter, dark energy, black holes, galaxy formation, and the inflating and accelerating universe. Professor Silk, who knows these topics intimately from his long research career, does not hesitate to take his readers to the heart of the matter, allowing full comprehension to those who travel with him."--Donald Goldsmith, coauthor of the script and companion volume for the PBS television program Four Hundred Years of the Telescope Horizons of Cosmology: Exploring Worlds Seen and Unseen is the fourth title published in the Templeton Science and Religion Series, in which scientists from a wide range of fields distill their experience and knowledge into brief tours of their respective specialties. In this volume, highly esteemed astrophysicist Joseph Silk explores the vast mysteries and speculations of the field of cosmology. Joseph Silk is a professor at Oxford University. He has written six popular books on cosmology, including The Big Bang, A Short History of the Universe, and The Infinite Cosmos. His research specialties include dark matter, the formation of the galaxies and the big bang theory. He previously taught at the University of California at Berkeley. He has received numerous awards, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and honorary degrees from the University of Rome and the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon. He is an honorary member of the French Physical Society and is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.