Astronomical Alchemy: A History and Tour of the Universe - Paperback

by Geoffrey Canham (Author)

Let's go on a four-dimensional tour through the universe, starting off at the Big Bang and the creation of time and space, and continue on to the end of the universe. Along the way, we'll take a peek into other potential universes, but mainly we'll concentrate on the one we know, which is exciting enough. We'll see how matter and energy formed and evolved, how it transfigured itself into stars and galaxies that gave us the more massive particles needed for forming planets. Mysterious matter and energy, which we call Dark Matter and Dark Energy, played their roles in the developing universe too, so we'll explore them also.

Naturally, we have to visit the planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and meteors in our solar system, and we'll look at a sample of the planets that we've discovered around other stars recently. Our own Earth is important to us, so we'll travel through time to see its creation and growth, including how it was hit by another planet and gave birth to the Moon.

Our planet also gave birth to life, which we'll follow from the arrival of organic chemicals on Earth and on to humans. We'll observe how life was not only fashioned by Earth, but how life has been fashioning Earth. We can also speculate on what kinds of lifeforms we will find elsewhere in our solar system and beyond.

As we travel, we will find many marvels, such as black holes, neutron stars, and gravitational waves. There will also be many mysteries, and we may not be able to resolve them all, but we'll see what progress we are making. So, fasten your seatbelts because the cosmos awaits and it can be a bumpy and explosive ride!