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by Giles Sparrow
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by Brian May
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by Giles Sparrow
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by Robert Dinwiddie
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The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (Penguin Press Science) by Brian Greene |
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Setting off from planet Earth and travelling at the speed of light, we cross the 385,000 kilometres (240,000 miles) to the moon in just 1.3 seconds. At this velocity Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Sun are reached in minutes, and we are only hours from the edge of the solar system. But having crossed this rubicon, over four years of travel separate us from our next landmark, the star Proxima Centauri.
As we press deeper into the Milky Way distances are measured in hundreds and even thousands of light years. On this scale, the rhythms of stellar life unfold before our eyes: we pass through dark nebulae afire with newly smelted stars, watch dying stars bloom and fade and skirt the debris clouds of supernovae. Navigating through think swarms of stars, we approach the galactic core, a gravitational court of white dwarfs, neutron stars and hypergiants in the thrall of a supermassive black giant.
Hundreds of thousands of light years must be covered to reach the Milky Ways companion galaxies, the Large and Small Magellenic Clouds, and millions more devoured before we cross true intergalactic space. Out here we watch the hidden lives of galaxies: we see themlocked in gravitational combat, tearing each other apart or swallowing their companions whole.
Now billions of light years from Earth, we can discern the large-scale structure of the universe: massive conglomerations of galaxies gather like grains of dust on a veil of cobwebs, warping space with their tremendous gravity. Having crossed an almost unimaginable 13.4 billion light years, we encounter a wall of radiation. Here our voyage into the cosmos must finally end, for we have reached the very edge of the visible universe: what stands before us is the afterglow of the Big Bang itself.
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85% buy the item featured on this page: Universe: A Journey from Earth to the Edge of the Cosmos £5.99 |
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4% buy Bang! The Complete History of the Universe £11.00 |
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4% buy The Cosmic Quest (BBC Audio) £17.50 |
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3% buy DK Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe£14.30 |
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