The Day We Found the Universe

by Bartusiak, Marcia

• ISBN13: 9780307276605
• ISBN10: 0307276600
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-09
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

The riveting and mesmerizing story behind a watershed period in human history, the discovery of the startling size and true nature of our universe. On New Years Day in 1925, a young Edwin Hubble released his finding that our Universe was far bigger, eventually measured as a thousand trillion times larger than previously believed. Hubblers"s proclamation sent shock waves through the scientific community. Six years later, in a series of meetings at Mount Wilson Observatory, Hubble and others convinced Albert Einstein that the Universe was not static but in fact expanding. Here Marcia Bartusiak reveals the key players, battles of will, clever insights, incredible technology, ground-breaking research, and wrong turns made by the early investigators of the heavens as they raced to uncover what many consider one of most significant discoveries in scientific history.

Author Biography

Marcia Bartusiak is an award-winning author whose previous books include Through a Universe Darkly, Thursday’s Universe, Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony, and Archives of the Universe. Her work has appeared in such publications as National Geographic, Smithsonian, Discover, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She teaches at MIT and lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts

Table of Contents

Preface /January 1, 1925	p. ix
Setting Out
The Little Republic of Science	p. 3
A Rather Remarkable Number of Nebulae	p. 13
Grander Than the Truth	p. 36
Such Is the Progress of Astronomy in the Wild and Wooly West	p. 56
My Regards to the Squashes	p. 70
It Is Worthy of Notice	p. 90
Exploration
Empire Builder	p. 103
The Solar System Is Off Center and Consequently Man Is Too	p. 114
He Surely Looks Like the Fourth Dimension!	p. 135
Go at Each Other "Hammer and Tongs"	p. 149
Adonis	p. 169
On the Brink of a Big Discovery-or Maybe a Big Paradox	p. 182
Discovery
Countless Whole Worlds àStrewn All Over the Sky	p. 199
Using the 100-Inch Telescope the Way It Should Be Used	p. 225
Your Calculations Are Correct, but Your Physical Insight Is Abominable	p. 239
Started Off with a Bang	p. 250
Whatever Happened to à	p. 262
Notes	p. 271
Acknowledgments	p. 309
Bibliography	p. 311
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

[1]

The Little Republic of Science

An immense continent of rock known as the North American plate slid inexorably over an oceanic slab of Earth’s crust moving eastward. At the tectonic juncture, where the two gargantuan plates smashed together, the ocean floor plunged downward, the tremendous compression forging massive blocks of shale and sandstone. In due course some of this material lifted upward from its depths, relentlessly rising toward the sky to form the Diablo Mountain Range—two hundred miles of peaks and vales stretching from the San Francisco Bay southward along California’s coastline. As if readying for a performance, nature sculpted the landscape that, millions of years later, offered astronomers a unique observing platform for their studies of the cosmos. Situated on the eastern edge of the Pacific, this lofty terrain became the perfect vantage point from which to make the first great discoveries in twentieth-century astronomy.

One noticeable peak in the Diablo Range, some forty miles from the sea, was known to early settlers as La Sierra de Ysabel. The first to record an ascent to its uppermost reaches were William Brewer, a geologist who worked on California’s first complete geological survey, and Charles Hoffman, a topographer. Laurentine Hamilton, then a Presbyterian minister from San Jose, tagged along for the 1861 summertime adventure. While journeying over the lower elevations the men used mules but struggled over the last three miles on foot. With the two scientists burdened down by their heavy equipment, the minister was able to sprint ahead, pushing through the chaparral, mesquite, and thick groves of scrub oak that filled the mountain’s furrowed sides like well-sprinkled seasoning. Upon reaching the summit, Hamilton waved his hat in the air and exclaimed, “First on top, for this is the highest point.” In honor of the achievement, Brewer graciously named the peak after his “noble and true” friend.

Within three decades Mount Hamilton was the site of a radical new endeavor in astronomy. Fueled by America’s escalating wealth, “the public mind in this country is now directed to the importance of original scientific research,” wrote Joseph Henry, head of the Smithsonian Institution, in 1874 to the noted English biologist Thomas Huxley, “and I think there is good reason to believe that some of the millionaires who have risen from poverty to wealth will in due time seek to perpetuate their names by founding establishments for the purpose in question.” In the vanguard to answer that call was San Francisco entrepreneur James Lick, who funded the world’s first astronomical observatory permanently established at high elevation. Before this, professional telescopes were routinely constructed in relatively low-lying areas, near major cities or on university campuses for easy access.

In 1888, from its commanding perch atop Mount Hamilton, the Lick Observatory began operating the largest telescope in its day, which featured a pair of imposing lenses a full yard wide to gather and magnify the celestial light. It was the same type of telescope through which Galileo first peered, one that directed the light through two aligned pieces of glass, but the diameter of the Lick instrument was a couple of dozen times larger. Its founder spared no expense to house this giant refractor. The massive building was designed in a classical style by Washington architect S. E. Todd. From afar, it appeared as if a European palace had been magically transported to the American West. Inside its dome, hand-carved moldings decorated the walls. The floors were curved wooden planks, polished to a sheen and stylishly following the shape of the circular dome. Tourists traveled on stagecoach for hours for a glimpse of this new wonder of the scientific world.

Unbeknownst to those visitors, though, the most innovative

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Excerpted from The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak
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