The Unknown Universe - by Stuart Clark (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

On March 21, 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the Big Bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometres of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: we will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology, on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct.

The map contains anomalies that challenge our understanding of the universe. It will force us to revisit what is known and what is unknown, to construct a new model of our universe. This is the first book to address what will be an epoch-defining scientific paradigm shift. Stuart Clark will ask if Newton's famous laws of gravity need to be rewritten; if dark matter and dark energy are just celestial phantoms? Can we ever know what happened before the Big Bang? What's at the bottom of a black hole? Are there universes beyond our own? Does time exist? Are the once immutable laws of physics changing?

Review Quotes

"The author brings the subject up to 2015 with the obligatory new discovery combined with a fine history of cosmology, and he makes it clear that our knowledge and ignorance seem to be expanding in parallel. Since satisfying results have yet to turn up, Clark's book ends on a cliffhanger, but readers will be entirely pleased with the experience." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"There's plenty of fresh and fascinating information to learn. The exciting recent discovery of gravitational waves will make this title all the more relevant for the cosmologically curious." --Library Journal

"Celebrates and challenges the current state of modern astrophysics with this wide-ranging and accessible look at the field's most cutting edge research. Stuart explores the arguments, the rivalries, and the triumphs of astrophysics with lively writing and an enviable knack for whittling the most complex topics into clear, crisp ideas. This enthusiastic book will entertain as well as educate pop science readers." --Publishers Weekly

"Clark's easily absorbed prose places readers deep in the middle of exciting new models, ideas, and analysis that are requiring scientists to rethink what they had thought they knew about outer space." --Shelf Awareness