"Science is not a static body of
dogma, to stray from which is to risk having one's epaulets stripped
off in a ceremony of banishment from the scientific community. It is
a self-correcting system of inquiry, in which errors--of which there
are, of course, plenty--are sooner or later detected by experiment or
by more careful analysis."
"The cosmos of our not-so-distant
ancestors was small, static, and Earth centered. By the middle of the
twentieth century we had discovered that we are adrift in an
expanding universe so large that light from its outer reaches takes
more than twice the age of the earth to reach our telescopes. Looking
ahead, we can see an emerging cosmology in which our universe turns
out to be a great deal larger still, and to be but one among many
sovereign universes."
The images on this page come from the
website of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech. The credit
for each goes to "NASA/JPL/CalTech."
I have always been fascinated by physics,
astronomy and cosmology. To have some understanding of the universe
is to truly better understand where we come from and where we are
going. In some circles this concept would be limited to the
individual existence of particular humans; but in physics, astronomy
and cosmology, the concern is far smaller (down to the most minute
particles) and far greater (whether this massive universe is only one
of many). Like so many other subjects, perspective is needed and
these fields of science place perspective on so many of the
small-minded and limited concerns of mankind.
Some of the best books for the layman that
I've read on this subject include Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," (1980) and
Timothy Ferris' "Coming of Age In The Milky Way" (1988). Since the
field changes and is updated on a virtually daily basis, Ferris'
current book, "The Whole Shebang" was needed to help us understand
the achievements of science in these fields through to the present,
and to provide some guidance as to where these sciences may be going
in the future.
Below are links to some of the many
fascinating websites dealing with these sciences.
An artist's image of the
Hubble Space Telescope just after
launching.
