At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds

by Dan Hooper

Overview

A new look at the first few seconds after the Big Bang—and how research into these moments continues to revolutionize our understanding of our universe

Scientists in the past few decades have made crucial discoveries about how our cosmos evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. But there remains a critical gap in our knowledge: we still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. At the Edge of Time focuses on what we have recently learned and are still striving to understand about this most essential and mysterious period of time at the beginning of cosmic history.

Delving into the remarkable science of cosmology, Dan Hooper describes many of the extraordinary and perplexing questions that scientists are asking about the origin and nature of our world. Hooper examines how we are using the Large Hadron Collider and other experiments to re-create the conditions of the Big Bang and test promising theories for how and why our universe came to contain so much matter and so little antimatter. We may be poised to finally discover how dark matter was formed during our universe’s first moments, and, with new telescopes, we are also lifting the veil on the era of cosmic inflation, which led to the creation of our world as we know it.

Wrestling with the mysteries surrounding the initial moments that followed the Big Bang, At the Edge of Time presents an accessible investigation of our universe and its origin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691197005
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Series:	Science Essentials , #31
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	724,449
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Dan Hooper is a senior scientist and the head of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Dark Cosmos and Nature’s Blueprint (both Smithsonian/Harper Collins). He lives in Oak Park, Illinois. Twitter @DanHooperAstro

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 At the Edge of Time 1

2 A World of Time and Space 12

3 A World without a Beginning? 25

4 Glimpses of the Big Bang 46

5 The Universe and the Accelerator 63

6 The Origins of Everything 84

7 Hearts of Darkness 105

8 A Beacon in the Dark? 125

9 Radically Rethinking Dark Matter 143

10 A Flash in Time 158

11 Endless Wodds Most Beautiful 182

12 Touching the Edge of Time 201

Credits 225

Index 227

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Essential reading for any cosmology enthusiast."—Laura Nuttall, BBC Sky at Night

"[An] informed introduction to 'the mysteries of our universe’s first seconds.'"—Andrew Robinson, Nature

"Scientists know precious little about what happened when the universe got its start: many cosmologists think space and time underwent an extremely rapid expansion called inflation. . . . Hooper takes readers on a mind-bending expedition through these questions and shows how they all connect to the beginning."—Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American

"If you're mystified and curious about the mysteries of the Universe . . . you won't want to miss this book."—Ethan Siegel, Forbes

Editorial Reviews

"I found myself getting wonderfully lost in this book, and swapping my usual pre-bedtime read for this. This is not something that has ever happened to me before with a popular science book!. . . I love that the book does not shy away from controversial or tough concepts. . . . This is essential reading for any cosmology enthusiast."—-Dr. Laura Nuttall, BBC Sky at Night

"[At the Edge of Time]’s enthusiasm for its subject is contagious. From Einstein’s theories and Edwin Hubble’s discoveries to the Large Hadron Collider, the text presents scientific advancement as an exciting odyssey—if one that is, for the time being, often characterized by questions, to be answered at a future date to the satisfaction of all."—-Rebecca Foster, Foreword Reviews

"[An] informed introduction to 'the mysteries of our universe’s first seconds'."—-Andrew Robinson, Nature

"Hooper takes the reader on a tour of our collective ignorance about the early universe. . . . Science is a messy endeavor, with dead ends and false alarms and backtracking; that can still be an interesting story, and this book succeeds in explaining both what we do know about the universe’s origins and what remains unknown."—-Jeff Foust, The Space Review

"Scientists know precious little about what happened when the universe got its start: many cosmologists think space and time underwent an extremely rapid expansion called inflation, yet this theory raises as many questions as it answers. . . . Hooper takes readers on a mind-bending expedition through these questions and shows how they all connect to the beginning."—-Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American

"If you're mystified and curious about the mysteries of the Universe, including dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic inflation, and want a unique take on all of these puzzles with a peek behind how science-in-action works, you won't want to miss this book."—-Ethan Siegel, Forbes

"Hooper's writing style has an almost palpable sense of excitement, which creates an incredibly engaging read as we travel back in time."—-Matthew Hodgson, Astronomy Now

"This is definitely a book that will leave you musing on what might be the next big cosmological discovery."—-Deb Farkas, California Classroom Science

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. . . . [At the Edge of Time is] a brief but comprehensive account of the general development of current cosmological knowledge, written by an enthusiastic expert in the field and easy for the layman to follow."—-Colin Cooke, The Observatory

From the Publisher

★ 2019-09-11
A fine history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present.

Hooper (Astronomy and Astrophysics/Univ. of Chicago Nature's Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force, 2009, etc.), a senior scientist in the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermilab, explains that the Big Bang is simply the consequence of rewinding time in today's universe, which is expanding and cooling. As time moves backward, the cosmos shrinks and becomes hotter until, 13.8 billion years ago, according to calculations, it becomes infinitely small and infinitely hot. During that early period, "matter likely interacted in ways that it no longer does, and space and time themselves may have behaved differently than they do in the world that we know." Nothing existed except a uniform soup. Since Einstein—whose theory of relativity provides the science behind the Big Bang—proved that matter and energy are equivalent, the particles that make up matter did not yet exist. After a few millionths of a second, the universe cooled enough for familiar subatomic particles (protons, neutrons, electrons) to form, but it remained too hot for these to combine. The universe was dark because charged particles (i.e., protons and electrons) soak up light. At 380,000 years ago, the temperature had dropped enough for these to combine into atoms. The universe became electrically neutral, and light spread everywhere; it is still present in the cosmic microwave background. Stars, galaxies, and planets followed. Progress in cosmology has increased our ignorance as well as our knowledge. A good sport, Hooper seems positively excited as he describes the discoveries of dark matter and dark energy, which reveal that everything we observe represents less than 5% of the universe. Beginning with Carl Sagan's Cosmos in 1980, Big Bang books have become a genre that curious readers should check out every few years to keep up with breakthroughs (gravity waves being the latest). They can't go wrong with Hooper's.

A lucid account that is neither dumbed down nor overly difficult.

Kirkus Reviews