EDP Sciences 1777558094 20260430 fre

laboutique.edpsciences.fr-002062 03 01 01 002062 03 9782759827060 15 9782759827060 00 BA 02 160 mm 01 240 mm 08 441 gr 10 01 02 Current Natural Sciences 01 01 On the Edge of the Cosmos A Century of Revolution in Astronomy 1 A01 01 A1657 Alain Omont Omont, Alain Alain Omont Alain Omont se trouve au coeur de cette aventure au sein de nombreuses collaborations internationales autour des grands instruments de l’astronomie au sol et dans l’espace. Il a été le premier directeur de l’Observatoire de Grenoble, puis directeur de l’Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (Sorbonne Université-CNRS) où il est aujourd’hui Directeur de recherche émérite CNRS. 01 eng 00 248 03 02 24 Izibook:Subject Astronomie 24 Izibook:Subject Astrophysique 24 Izibook:SubjectAndCategoryAndTags |Astronomie| 24 Izibook:SubjectAndCategoryAndTags |Astrophysique| 20 astronomy;astrophysics;exploration;universe;space discovery 10 2011 SCI005000 01 520 05 06 05 03 00 In a world where intergalactic wars are a common topic for movies, it is hard to imagine that the discovery of galaxies was made less than a century ago. In fact, it was one of the key astrophysical milestones of the first half of the 20th century, along with the revelation of the expansion of the Universe and the understanding of the source of the stars’ energy.<o:p></o:p>The second half of last century saw <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MilibusLt-Regular; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">the unexpected discovery of fantastic objects and extreme events in the Universe including neutron stars, black holes, radio galaxies, quasars, exoplanets, or stellar explosions. Modern cosmology was simultaneously established with the Big Bang model, leading to an astonishingly precise determination of the parameters of the Universe.<o:p></o:p>The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos. By assessing the major successes of this undertaking and highlighting the fundamental questions that still remain, he puts into perspective the recent progress at the dawn of the new millennium including the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, black hole mergers and gravitational waves, to name only the most spectacular discoveries. This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p> In a world where intergalactic wars are a common topic for movies, it is hard to imagine that the discovery of galaxies was made less than a century ago. In fact, it was one of the key astrophysical milestones of the first half of the 20th century, along with the revelation of the expansion of the Universe and the understanding of the source of the stars’ energy.<o:p></o:p>The second half of last century saw the unexpected discovery of fantastic objects and extreme events in the Universe including neutron stars, black holes, radio galaxies, quasars, exoplanets, or stellar explosions.Modern cosmology was simultaneously established with the Big Bang model, leading to an astonishingly precise determination of the parameters of the Universe.<o:p></o:p>The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos. By assessing the major successes of this undertaking and highlighting the fundamental questions that still remain, he puts into perspective the recent progress at the dawn of the new millennium including the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, black hole mergers and gravitational waves, to name only the most spectacular discoveries. This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p> 02 00 The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos.This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p>  The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos. This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p>  04 00 ContentsGeneral Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IIIAcknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIIPart I A Century of Revolution in Our Vision of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . 1CHAPTER 1 General View of 20th Century Astronomy and Its Starting Point . . . . . . . . . 31.1 Astronomy, the Key to Our Vision of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Benchmarks on 1900 Astronomy and Its Shortcomings . . . . . . . . . . . . 7CHAPTER 2Scientific and Technical Revolutions, Drivers of 20th Century Astronomy . . . 212.1 Physics Revolutions, Keys to Astrophysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.2 Giant Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222.3 Overcoming the Disturbances of the Earth Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4 Exploiting All Spectral Domains from Radio to X-ray and Gamma-ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292.5 Visiting the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352.6 No Pause in the Progress of Signal Detection and Exploitation . . . . . . 35Part II Stars are Well Understood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39CHAPTER 3How does a Star Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.1 Understanding the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.2 Solving the Mystery of the Origin of the Energy of the Sun and the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423.3 The Life of the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463.4 Our Atoms were Born in the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513.5 Stars also Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52CHAPTER 4Complexities of Star Birth and Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.1 General Star Formation Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.2 Young Infrared Stars: Born in Dusty Cocoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.3 Gravitational Contraction, Accretion and Discs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.4 Universality of Stellar Pairs – Complex Ending of Their Lives . . . . . . . 614.5 Brown Dwarfs, Billions of Aborted Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634.6 Stars are Still at the Forefront of Current Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.7 Stars and Ecology of Planets and Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Part III The New World of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71CHAPTER 5Discovery of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.1 The Appreciation of the Nature of Galaxies Dates Back Only to the Beginning of the 20th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.2 First Steps in the World of Nearby Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.3 Architecture and Stellar Content of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81CHAPTER 6Our Galaxy and Its Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.1 Exploration of Our Galaxy, the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.2 An Ordinary Galaxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846.3 Current Organization of Stars Resulting from the Milky Way History . 866.4 The Interstellar Gas, a Key Player in the Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . 866.5 Other Players in the Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906.6 Exotic Components of the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94CHAPTER 7Hundreds of Billions of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.1 Galaxies at All Stages of Their Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.2 The Turbulent Family Life of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997.3 Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . 106Part IV Cosmology, the Science of the Universe as a Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . 109CHAPTER 8Birth of Cosmology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.1 The Universe of Galaxies is Expanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.2 The Saga of the Big Bang Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148.3 The Very First Phase in the History of the Universe: Uncertain Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168.4 AWell-Understood Second Phase: The Standard Big Bang Model . . . . 118CHAPTER 9Content of the Universe and Structure Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239.1 Formation of Galaxies and Structures of the Present Universe . . . . . . . 1239.2 Fundamental Parameters of the Universe are Better Known than Its Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259.3 Age of the Universe and Variations of the Determinations of the Hubble Constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.4 An Overall Density Very Close to the Critical Density . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.5 Need and Nature of Dark Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299.6 A Last-Minute Surprise, the Re-Acceleration of the Expansion Involving an Unknown Source of Cosmic Energy . . . . . . . 1319.7 Summarizing: An Unexpected Universe Model Validated in Multiple Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Part V Singular Stars and Cataclysms in Extreme Physical Conditions . . . 135CHAPTER 10Explosions of Stars and Their Singular Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.1 Extreme Physics of Supernova Implosion/Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.2 Neutron Stars, Hyper-Dense Supernova Residues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14510.3 Gamma-Ray Bursts, Even More Powerful Bursts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14710.4 Cosmic Rays, Messenger Particles of the High Energy Universe . . . . . 149CHAPTER 11Black Holes and Their Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.1 Black Holes, General Relativity and the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.2 Stellar Black Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15711.3 GravitationalWaves, Propagation of Spacetime-Curvature Disturbances. . . 15811.4 Quasars: New Stars a Thousand Times Brighter than Galaxies . . . . . 16211.5 Manifestations of Super-Massive Black Holes and Their Interpretation . . . 16411.6 Co-evolution of Galaxies and Their Black Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17011.7 The Super-Massive Black Hole of Our Galaxy and Others . . . . . . . . . 171Part VI Planets, in the Solar System and Outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173CHAPTER 12Direct Exploration of the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.1 Planets, Stars of Astronomy until the 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.2 Half a Century Without Revolution for Planetology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17812.3 Humans Went to the Moon! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18012.4 We Broadly Understand the Origin of the Moon and Its Importance for the Earth . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . 18112.5 Very Rich Close-up Photos of All the Bodies of the Solar System . . . 18312.6 Summary of Planetary Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18412.7 Searching for Life in the Solar System: Where and When? . . . . . . . . . 191CHAPTER 13Entering the Dream World of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.1 Explosion of Discoveries of New Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.2 The Majority of Stars have a Planetary System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20113.3 Surprising Variety of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20213.4 The Search for Earth-Like Planets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209CHAPTER 14A New Cosmos in the 21st Century?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.1 A New Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.2 Auguries for 21st Century Astronomy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Acronyms and Space Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231The asterisks * indicate words or acronyms whose meaning is explained in the“Glossary” or “Acronyms and space missions” sections at the end of the book. ContentsGeneral Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IIIAcknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIIPart I A Century of Revolution in Our Vision of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . 1CHAPTER 1General View of 20th Century Astronomy and Its Starting Point . . . . . . . . . 31.1 Astronomy, the Key to Our Vision of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Benchmarks on 1900 Astronomy and Its Shortcomings . . . . . . . . . . . . 7CHAPTER 2Scientific and Technical Revolutions, Drivers of 20th Century Astronomy . . . 212.1 Physics Revolutions, Keys to Astrophysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.2 Giant Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222.3 Overcoming the Disturbances of the Earth Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4 Exploiting All Spectral Domains from Radio to X-ray and Gamma-ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292.5 Visiting the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352.6 No Pause in the Progress of Signal Detection and Exploitation . . . . . . 35Part II Stars are Well Understood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39CHAPTER 3How does a Star Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.1 Understanding the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.2 Solving the Mystery of the Origin of the Energy of the Sun and the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423.3 The Life of the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463.4 Our Atoms were Born in the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513.5 Stars also Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52CHAPTER 4Complexities of Star Birth and Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.1 General Star Formation Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.2 Young Infrared Stars: Born in Dusty Cocoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.3 Gravitational Contraction, Accretion and Discs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.4 Universality of Stellar Pairs – Complex Ending of Their Lives . . . . . . . 614.5 Brown Dwarfs, Billions of Aborted Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634.6 Stars are Still at the Forefront of Current Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.7 Stars and Ecology of Planets and Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Part III The New World of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71CHAPTER 5Discovery of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.1 The Appreciation of the Nature of Galaxies Dates Back Only to the Beginning of the 20th Century . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . 735.2 First Steps in the World of Nearby Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.3 Architecture and Stellar Content of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81CHAPTER 6Our Galaxy and Its Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.1 Exploration of Our Galaxy, the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.2 An Ordinary Galaxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846.3 Current Organization of Stars Resulting from the Milky Way History . 866.4 The Interstellar Gas, a Key Player in the Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . 866.5 Other Players in the Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906.6 Exotic Components of the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94CHAPTER 7Hundreds of Billions of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.1 Galaxies at All Stages of Their Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.2 The Turbulent Family Life of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997.3 Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . 106Part IV Cosmology, the Science of the Universe as a Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . 109CHAPTER 8Birth of Cosmology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.1 The Universe of Galaxies is Expanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.2 The Saga of the Big Bang Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148.3 The Very First Phase in the History of the Universe: Uncertain Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168.4 AWell-Understood Second Phase: The Standard Big Bang Model . . . . 118CHAPTER 9Content of the Universe and Structure Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239.1 Formation of Galaxies and Structures of the Present Universe . . . . . . . 1239.2 Fundamental Parameters of the Universe are Better Known than Its Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259.3 Age of the Universe and Variations of the Determinations of the Hubble Constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.4 An Overall Density Very Close to the Critical Density . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.5 Need and Nature of Dark Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299.6 A Last-Minute Surprise, the Re-Acceleration of the Expansion Involving an Unknown Source of Cosmic Energy . . . . . . . . . . . 1319.7 Summarizing: An Unexpected Universe Model Validated in Multiple Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Part V Singular Stars and Cataclysms in Extreme Physical Conditions . . . 135CHAPTER 10Explosions of Stars and Their Singular Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.1 Extreme Physics of Supernova Implosion/Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.2 Neutron Stars, Hyper-Dense Supernova Residues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14510.3 Gamma-Ray Bursts, Even More Powerful Bursts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14710.4 Cosmic Rays, Messenger Particles of the High Energy Universe . . . . . 149CHAPTER 11Black Holes and Their Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.1 Black Holes, General Relativity and the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.2 Stellar Black Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15711.3 GravitationalWaves, Propagation of Spacetime-Curvature Disturbances. . . 15811.4 Quasars: New Stars a Thousand Times Brighter than Galaxies . . . . . 16211.5 Manifestations of Super-Massive Black Holes and Their Interpretation . . . 16411.6 Co-evolution of Galaxies and Their Black Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17011.7 The Super-Massive Black Hole of Our Galaxy and Others . . . . . . . . . 171Part VI Planets, in the Solar System and Outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173CHAPTER 12Direct Exploration of the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.1 Planets, Stars of Astronomy until the 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.2 Half a Century Without Revolution for Planetology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17812.3 Humans Went to the Moon! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18012.4 We Broadly Understand the Origin of the Moon and Its Importance for the Earth . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18112.5 Very Rich Close-up Photos of All the Bodies of the Solar System . . . 18312.6 Summary of Planetary Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18412.7 Searching for Life in the Solar System: Where and When? . . . . . . . . . 191CHAPTER 13Entering the Dream World of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.1 Explosion of Discoveries of New Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.2 The Majority of Stars have a Planetary System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20113.3 Surprising Variety of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20213.4 The Search for Earth-Like Planets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209CHAPTER 14A New Cosmos in the 21st Century?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.1 A New Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.2 Auguries for 21st Century Astronomy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Acronyms and Space Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231The asterisks * indicate words or acronyms whose meaning is explained in the“Glossary” or “Acronyms and space missions” sections at the end of the book. 21 00 06 01 https://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/produit/1250/9782759827077/on-the-edge-of-the-cosmos 01 00 03 02 https://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/system/product_pictures/data/009/982/597/original/9782759827060_Edge-Cosmos_couv-sofedis.jpg 17 14 20240913T173620+0200 01 P15 EDP Sciences & Science Press 01 01 P15 EDP Sciences & Science Press 04 11 00 20220407 01 00 20220407 19 00 20220407 2026 06 3052868830012 01 WORLD 27 03 9782759827077 15 9782759827077 WORLD 08 EDP Sciences & Science Press 04 01 00 20220407 03 01 D1 EDP Sciences 21 04 05 01 02 1 00 105.00 01 5.50 5.47 EUR laboutique.edpsciences.fr-R001631 03 01 01 R001631 00 ED E107 00 01 01 On the Edge of the Cosmos A Century of Revolution in Astronomy 01 eng 08 250 03 22 26574563 17 01 P15 EDP Sciences & Science Press 01 01 P15 EDP Sciences & Science Press 11 00 20220407 02 01 002063 03 9782759827077 15 9782759827077 03 01 D1 EDP Sciences 45 03 laboutique.edpsciences.fr-002063 03 01 01 002063 03 9782759827077 15 9782759827077 10 EA E107 10 00 01 R001631 ED E107 1 10 01 02 Current Natural Sciences 01 01 On the Edge of the Cosmos A Century of Revolution in Astronomy 1 A01 01 A1657 Alain Omont Omont, Alain Alain Omont Alain Omont se trouve au coeur de cette aventure au sein de nombreuses collaborations internationales autour des grands instruments de l’astronomie au sol et dans l’espace. Il a été le premier directeur de l’Observatoire de Grenoble, puis directeur de l’Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (Sorbonne Université-CNRS) où il est aujourd’hui Directeur de recherche émérite CNRS. 01 eng 08 248 03 02 24 Izibook:Subject Astronomie 24 Izibook:Subject Astrophysique 24 Izibook:SubjectAndCategoryAndTags |Astronomie| 24 Izibook:SubjectAndCategoryAndTags |Astrophysique| 20 astronomy;astrophysics;exploration;universe;space discovery 10 2011 SCI005000 01 520 05 06 05 03 00 In a world where intergalactic wars are a common topic for movies, it is hard to imagine that the discovery of galaxies was made less than a century ago. In fact, it was one of the key astrophysical milestones of the first half of the 20th century, along with the revelation of the expansion of the Universe and the understanding of the source of the stars’ energy.<o:p></o:p>The second half of last century saw <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MilibusLt-Regular; font-size: 18.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">the unexpected discovery of fantastic objects and extreme events in the Universe including neutron stars, black holes, radio galaxies, quasars, exoplanets, or stellar explosions. Modern cosmology was simultaneously established with the Big Bang model, leading to an astonishingly precise determination of the parameters of the Universe.<o:p></o:p>The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos. By assessing the major successes of this undertaking and highlighting the fundamental questions that still remain, he puts into perspective the recent progress at the dawn of the new millennium including the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, black hole mergers and gravitational waves, to name only the most spectacular discoveries. This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p> In a world where intergalactic wars are a common topic for movies, it is hard to imagine that the discovery of galaxies was made less than a century ago. In fact, it was one of the key astrophysical milestones of the first half of the 20th century, along with the revelation of the expansion of the Universe and the understanding of the source of the stars’ energy.<o:p></o:p>The second half of last century saw the unexpected discovery of fantastic objects and extreme events in the Universe including neutron stars, black holes, radio galaxies, quasars, exoplanets, or stellar explosions.Modern cosmology was simultaneously established with the Big Bang model, leading to an astonishingly precise determination of the parameters of the Universe.<o:p></o:p>The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos. By assessing the major successes of this undertaking and highlighting the fundamental questions that still remain, he puts into perspective the recent progress at the dawn of the new millennium including the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, black hole mergers and gravitational waves, to name only the most spectacular discoveries. This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p> 02 00 The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos.This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p>  The author here retraces the adventure of twentieth-century astronomy and describes how it has changed our vision of the cosmos. This book thus offers, in a concise and accessible form, a synthesis of our current knowledge of astrophysics, including many beautiful images from leading observatories.<o:p></o:p>  04 00 ContentsGeneral Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IIIAcknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIIPart I A Century of Revolution in Our Vision of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . 1CHAPTER 1 General View of 20th Century Astronomy and Its Starting Point . . . . . . . . . 31.1 Astronomy, the Key to Our Vision of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Benchmarks on 1900 Astronomy and Its Shortcomings . . . . . . . . . . . . 7CHAPTER 2Scientific and Technical Revolutions, Drivers of 20th Century Astronomy . . . 212.1 Physics Revolutions, Keys to Astrophysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.2 Giant Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222.3 Overcoming the Disturbances of the Earth Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4 Exploiting All Spectral Domains from Radio to X-ray and Gamma-ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292.5 Visiting the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352.6 No Pause in the Progress of Signal Detection and Exploitation . . . . . . 35Part II Stars are Well Understood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39CHAPTER 3How does a Star Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.1 Understanding the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.2 Solving the Mystery of the Origin of the Energy of the Sun and the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423.3 The Life of the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463.4 Our Atoms were Born in the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513.5 Stars also Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52CHAPTER 4Complexities of Star Birth and Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.1 General Star Formation Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.2 Young Infrared Stars: Born in Dusty Cocoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.3 Gravitational Contraction, Accretion and Discs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.4 Universality of Stellar Pairs – Complex Ending of Their Lives . . . . . . . 614.5 Brown Dwarfs, Billions of Aborted Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634.6 Stars are Still at the Forefront of Current Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.7 Stars and Ecology of Planets and Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Part III The New World of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71CHAPTER 5Discovery of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.1 The Appreciation of the Nature of Galaxies Dates Back Only to the Beginning of the 20th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.2 First Steps in the World of Nearby Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.3 Architecture and Stellar Content of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81CHAPTER 6Our Galaxy and Its Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.1 Exploration of Our Galaxy, the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.2 An Ordinary Galaxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846.3 Current Organization of Stars Resulting from the Milky Way History . 866.4 The Interstellar Gas, a Key Player in the Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . 866.5 Other Players in the Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906.6 Exotic Components of the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94CHAPTER 7Hundreds of Billions of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.1 Galaxies at All Stages of Their Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.2 The Turbulent Family Life of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997.3 Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . 106Part IV Cosmology, the Science of the Universe as a Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . 109CHAPTER 8Birth of Cosmology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.1 The Universe of Galaxies is Expanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.2 The Saga of the Big Bang Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148.3 The Very First Phase in the History of the Universe: Uncertain Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168.4 AWell-Understood Second Phase: The Standard Big Bang Model . . . . 118CHAPTER 9Content of the Universe and Structure Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239.1 Formation of Galaxies and Structures of the Present Universe . . . . . . . 1239.2 Fundamental Parameters of the Universe are Better Known than Its Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259.3 Age of the Universe and Variations of the Determinations of the Hubble Constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.4 An Overall Density Very Close to the Critical Density . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.5 Need and Nature of Dark Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299.6 A Last-Minute Surprise, the Re-Acceleration of the Expansion Involving an Unknown Source of Cosmic Energy . . . . . . . 1319.7 Summarizing: An Unexpected Universe Model Validated in Multiple Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Part V Singular Stars and Cataclysms in Extreme Physical Conditions . . . 135CHAPTER 10Explosions of Stars and Their Singular Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.1 Extreme Physics of Supernova Implosion/Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.2 Neutron Stars, Hyper-Dense Supernova Residues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14510.3 Gamma-Ray Bursts, Even More Powerful Bursts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14710.4 Cosmic Rays, Messenger Particles of the High Energy Universe . . . . . 149CHAPTER 11Black Holes and Their Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.1 Black Holes, General Relativity and the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.2 Stellar Black Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15711.3 GravitationalWaves, Propagation of Spacetime-Curvature Disturbances. . . 15811.4 Quasars: New Stars a Thousand Times Brighter than Galaxies . . . . . 16211.5 Manifestations of Super-Massive Black Holes and Their Interpretation . . . 16411.6 Co-evolution of Galaxies and Their Black Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17011.7 The Super-Massive Black Hole of Our Galaxy and Others . . . . . . . . . 171Part VI Planets, in the Solar System and Outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173CHAPTER 12Direct Exploration of the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.1 Planets, Stars of Astronomy until the 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.2 Half a Century Without Revolution for Planetology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17812.3 Humans Went to the Moon! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18012.4 We Broadly Understand the Origin of the Moon and Its Importance for the Earth . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . 18112.5 Very Rich Close-up Photos of All the Bodies of the Solar System . . . 18312.6 Summary of Planetary Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18412.7 Searching for Life in the Solar System: Where and When? . . . . . . . . . 191CHAPTER 13Entering the Dream World of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.1 Explosion of Discoveries of New Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.2 The Majority of Stars have a Planetary System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20113.3 Surprising Variety of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20213.4 The Search for Earth-Like Planets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209CHAPTER 14A New Cosmos in the 21st Century?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.1 A New Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.2 Auguries for 21st Century Astronomy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Acronyms and Space Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231The asterisks * indicate words or acronyms whose meaning is explained in the“Glossary” or “Acronyms and space missions” sections at the end of the book. ContentsGeneral Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IIIAcknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIIPart I A Century of Revolution in Our Vision of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . 1CHAPTER 1General View of 20th Century Astronomy and Its Starting Point . . . . . . . . . 31.1 Astronomy, the Key to Our Vision of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Benchmarks on 1900 Astronomy and Its Shortcomings . . . . . . . . . . . . 7CHAPTER 2Scientific and Technical Revolutions, Drivers of 20th Century Astronomy . . . 212.1 Physics Revolutions, Keys to Astrophysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.2 Giant Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222.3 Overcoming the Disturbances of the Earth Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4 Exploiting All Spectral Domains from Radio to X-ray and Gamma-ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292.5 Visiting the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352.6 No Pause in the Progress of Signal Detection and Exploitation . . . . . . 35Part II Stars are Well Understood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39CHAPTER 3How does a Star Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.1 Understanding the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.2 Solving the Mystery of the Origin of the Energy of the Sun and the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423.3 The Life of the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463.4 Our Atoms were Born in the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513.5 Stars also Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52CHAPTER 4Complexities of Star Birth and Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.1 General Star Formation Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574.2 Young Infrared Stars: Born in Dusty Cocoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.3 Gravitational Contraction, Accretion and Discs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594.4 Universality of Stellar Pairs – Complex Ending of Their Lives . . . . . . . 614.5 Brown Dwarfs, Billions of Aborted Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634.6 Stars are Still at the Forefront of Current Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.7 Stars and Ecology of Planets and Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Part III The New World of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71CHAPTER 5Discovery of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.1 The Appreciation of the Nature of Galaxies Dates Back Only to the Beginning of the 20th Century . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . 735.2 First Steps in the World of Nearby Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775.3 Architecture and Stellar Content of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81CHAPTER 6Our Galaxy and Its Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.1 Exploration of Our Galaxy, the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836.2 An Ordinary Galaxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846.3 Current Organization of Stars Resulting from the Milky Way History . 866.4 The Interstellar Gas, a Key Player in the Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . 866.5 Other Players in the Interstellar Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906.6 Exotic Components of the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94CHAPTER 7Hundreds of Billions of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.1 Galaxies at All Stages of Their Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977.2 The Turbulent Family Life of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997.3 Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . 106Part IV Cosmology, the Science of the Universe as a Whole . . . . . . . . . . . . 109CHAPTER 8Birth of Cosmology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.1 The Universe of Galaxies is Expanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118.2 The Saga of the Big Bang Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148.3 The Very First Phase in the History of the Universe: Uncertain Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168.4 AWell-Understood Second Phase: The Standard Big Bang Model . . . . 118CHAPTER 9Content of the Universe and Structure Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239.1 Formation of Galaxies and Structures of the Present Universe . . . . . . . 1239.2 Fundamental Parameters of the Universe are Better Known than Its Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259.3 Age of the Universe and Variations of the Determinations of the Hubble Constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.4 An Overall Density Very Close to the Critical Density . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289.5 Need and Nature of Dark Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299.6 A Last-Minute Surprise, the Re-Acceleration of the Expansion Involving an Unknown Source of Cosmic Energy . . . . . . . . . . . 1319.7 Summarizing: An Unexpected Universe Model Validated in Multiple Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Part V Singular Stars and Cataclysms in Extreme Physical Conditions . . . 135CHAPTER 10Explosions of Stars and Their Singular Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.1 Extreme Physics of Supernova Implosion/Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13710.2 Neutron Stars, Hyper-Dense Supernova Residues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14510.3 Gamma-Ray Bursts, Even More Powerful Bursts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14710.4 Cosmic Rays, Messenger Particles of the High Energy Universe . . . . . 149CHAPTER 11Black Holes and Their Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.1 Black Holes, General Relativity and the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15511.2 Stellar Black Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15711.3 GravitationalWaves, Propagation of Spacetime-Curvature Disturbances. . . 15811.4 Quasars: New Stars a Thousand Times Brighter than Galaxies . . . . . 16211.5 Manifestations of Super-Massive Black Holes and Their Interpretation . . . 16411.6 Co-evolution of Galaxies and Their Black Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17011.7 The Super-Massive Black Hole of Our Galaxy and Others . . . . . . . . . 171Part VI Planets, in the Solar System and Outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173CHAPTER 12Direct Exploration of the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.1 Planets, Stars of Astronomy until the 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17512.2 Half a Century Without Revolution for Planetology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17812.3 Humans Went to the Moon! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18012.4 We Broadly Understand the Origin of the Moon and Its Importance for the Earth . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18112.5 Very Rich Close-up Photos of All the Bodies of the Solar System . . . 18312.6 Summary of Planetary Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18412.7 Searching for Life in the Solar System: Where and When? . . . . . . . . . 191CHAPTER 13Entering the Dream World of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.1 Explosion of Discoveries of New Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19713.2 The Majority of Stars have a Planetary System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20113.3 Surprising Variety of Exoplanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20213.4 The Search for Earth-Like Planets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209CHAPTER 14A New Cosmos in the 21st Century?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.1 A New Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21114.2 Auguries for 21st Century Astronomy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217Acronyms and Space Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231The asterisks * indicate words or acronyms whose meaning is explained in the“Glossary” or “Acronyms and space missions” sections at the end of the book. 21 00 06 01 https://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/produit/1250/9782759827077/on-the-edge-of-the-cosmos 01 00 03 02 https://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/system/product_pictures/data/009/982/597/original/9782759827060_Edge-Cosmos_couv-sofedis.jpg 17 14 20240913T173620+0200 01 P15 EDP Sciences & Science Press 01 01 P15 EDP Sciences & Science Press 04 11 00 20220407 01 00 20220407 19 00 20220407 2026 06 3052868830012 01 WORLD 13 03 9782759827060 15 9782759827060 WORLD 08 EDP Sciences & Science Press 04 01 00 20220407 03 01 D1 EDP Sciences 20 04 05 01 02 1 00 72.99 01 5.50 3.81 EUR 04 06 01 02 1 00 256.99 01 5.50 3.81 EUR 01 04 06 01 02 1 00 281.99 01 5.50 14.70 USD 01