rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    non sort: The
    title: Music of the Big Bang
    sub title: The Cosmic Microwave Background and the New Cosmology
  name:
    name part: Balbi, Amedeo.
    role:
      role term: editor.
  name:
    name part: SpringerLink (Online service)
  type of resource: text
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: gw
    date issued: 2008
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: electronic
    form: electronic resource
    reformatting quality: access
    form: remote
    extent: XVI, 160 p. 41 illus. online resource.
  abstract: The cosmic microwave background radiation is the afterglow of the big bang: a tenuous signal, more than 13 billion years old, which carries the answers to many of the questions about the nature of our Universe. It was serendipitously discovered in 1964, and thoroughly investigated in the last four decades by a large number of experiments. Two Nobel Prizes in Physics have already been awarded for research on the cosmic background radiation: one in 1978 to Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who first discovered it, the other in 2006, to George Smoot and John Mather, for the results of the COBE satellite. Most cosmological information is encoded in the cosmic background radiation by acoustic oscillations in the dense plasma that filled the primordial Universe: a "music" of the big bang, which cosmologists have long been trying to reconstruct and analyze, in order to distinguish different cosmological models, much like one can distinguish different musical instruments by their timbre and overtones. Only lately, this amazing cosmic sound has been unveiled by such experiments as BOOMERANG and MAXIMA and, more recently, by the WMAP satellite. This led to a giant leap in our understanding of the Universe, but the investigation is not ended yet. The book focuses on how the exploration of the cosmic background radiation has shaped our picture of the Universe, leading even the non-specialized readers towards the frontier of cosmological research, helping them to understand, using a simple language and captivating metaphors, the mechanisms behind the Universe in which we live. "This non-technical tour of the discovery and significance of the whispers of creation, the fossil radiation from the Big Bang, is a delight to read." Prof. Joe Silk, University of Oxford, a pioneering contributor to understanding the structure of the cosmic background radiation.
  table of contents: Prologue -- The framework (an introduction to the Big Bang model) -- First light (an introduction to the cosmic background radiation - CMB) -- Cosmic seeds (structure formation in the Universe and the CMB) -- Music of the spheres (acoustic oscillations in the primordial Universe) -- Finding harmony (the discovery of acoustic oscillations in the CMB power spectrum) -- The undiscovered country (some future prospects) -- Epilogue.
  note: edited by Amedeo Balbi.
  subject:
    topic: Physics
  subject:
    topic: Gravitation
  subject:
    topic: Astronomy
  subject:
    topic: Astrophysics
  subject:
    topic: Cosmology
  subject:
    topic: Physics
  subject:
    topic: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
  subject:
    topic: Popular Science in Astronomy
  subject:
    topic: Astrophysics and Astroparticles
  subject:
    topic: Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory
  classification: QB1-991
  classification: QB460-466
  classification: QB980-991
  classification: 520
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Springer eBooks
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Astronomers’ Universe
  identifier: 9783540787280
  identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78728-0
  record info:
    record creation date: 100301
    record change date: 20151204181822.0
    record identifier: 978-3-540-78728-0