Measuring the universe
Subtitle: our historic quest to chart the horizons of space and time
By: Kitty Ferguson
Publisher: Walker and Company
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 342
Subjects: Cosmology; Cosmological distances; Measurement
Description: Measuring the Universe is an eloquent chronicle of the men and women - from Aristarchus to Cassini, Sir Isaac Newton to Henrietta Leavitt and Stephen Hawking - who have gradually unlocked the mysteries of "how far" and in so doing have changed our ideas about the size and nature of the universe and our place in it. Kitty Ferguson reveals their methods to have been as inventive as their results were - and are - eye-opening.

Advances such as Copernicus's revolutionary insights about the arrangement of the solar system, William Herschel's meticulous creation of the first three-dimensional map of the universe, and Edwin Hubble's astonishing discovery that the universe is expanding have by turns revolutionized our concept of the universe. Connecting centuries of breakthroughs with the political and cultural events surrounding them, Ferguson makes astronomy part of the sweep of history.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.