For Mum, Dad and Sandra – none of this would have been possible without you
Brian Cox
For my dad, Geof Cohen (1943–2007)
Andrew Cohen
Wonders of the Universe
Professor Brian Cox & Andrew Cohen
Copyright
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WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE. Text © Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen 2011. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Ebook Edition © MARCH 2011 ISBN: 9780007413379
Version 2017-02-03
Contents
Copyright
Introduction
The Universe
Chapter 1
Messengers
Young’s double-slit experiment
Messengers from across the ocean of space
All the colours of the rainbow
Chapter 2
Stardust
Timeline of the Universe: The Big Bang to the present
The most powerful explosion on Earth
From Big Bang to Sunshine: The First Stars