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The Four Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, Richard Panek.
A readable summary of the discoveries that have led cosmologists to the strange conclusion that most of the universe consists of unknown "dark matter", and even more mysterious "dark energy".
In the 1960s astronomer Vera Rubin and others discovered that the rotation of galaxies was very different from what it should be from their visible mass distribution, suggesting that they were full of some form of mass that did not produce radiation--dark matter. By the late 1990s, rival teams of astronomers and physicists studying supernovae made the even more strange discovery that the rate of expansion of the universe was increasing. In other words, after the galaxies exploded in the Big Bang, gravity should have started to pull them together or at least slow down the expansion--but it didn't. Instead something is pushing them apart even more, which is something that we have no idea how to explain.
The book describes the discovery of dark matter and (mostly) dark energy in a readable style. Relatvely unsung heroes of science such as Fritz Zwicky (who first explained supernovae and neutron stars, unsung because he was a dick) and Vera Rubin get their due here. Much of the book describes the rivalry and backbiting between the two supernova teams, which you'd think scientists would be above, but...nah.
The end of the book is frustrating because of course we still have no idea what dark matter and dark energy actually are. We have candidates for dark matter but dark energy could be anything. The best hope is that whatever it is will solve the problem of quantum gravity and fix the shortcomings of the Standard Model of Particle Physics....but if that happens it will probably be a long time in the future.
A readable summary of the discoveries that have led cosmologists to the strange conclusion that most of the universe consists of unknown "dark matter", and even more mysterious "dark energy".
In the 1960s astronomer Vera Rubin and others discovered that the rotation of galaxies was very different from what it should be from their visible mass distribution, suggesting that they were full of some form of mass that did not produce radiation--dark matter. By the late 1990s, rival teams of astronomers and physicists studying supernovae made the even more strange discovery that the rate of expansion of the universe was increasing. In other words, after the galaxies exploded in the Big Bang, gravity should have started to pull them together or at least slow down the expansion--but it didn't. Instead something is pushing them apart even more, which is something that we have no idea how to explain.
The book describes the discovery of dark matter and (mostly) dark energy in a readable style. Relatvely unsung heroes of science such as Fritz Zwicky (who first explained supernovae and neutron stars, unsung because he was a dick) and Vera Rubin get their due here. Much of the book describes the rivalry and backbiting between the two supernova teams, which you'd think scientists would be above, but...nah.
The end of the book is frustrating because of course we still have no idea what dark matter and dark energy actually are. We have candidates for dark matter but dark energy could be anything. The best hope is that whatever it is will solve the problem of quantum gravity and fix the shortcomings of the Standard Model of Particle Physics....but if that happens it will probably be a long time in the future.