Visions of the Universe by Raman Prinja


Visions of the Universe
Title : Visions of the Universe
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0760786232
ISBN-10 : 9780760786239
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 192
Publication : First published May 30, 2004

Visions of the Universe presents a unique and exquisite collection of the most recent images from NASA, ESA, and ESO that capture the visual drama, beauty and challenging activity of the universe, from the origins of stars and galaxies, to the most detailed images ever obtained of the Sun, and new discoveries confirming the presence of super-massive black holes. These photographs come from the most advanced telescopes on Earth as well as facilities in space itself, such as The Hubble Space Telescope, the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft and the latest exploration vehicles to land on Mars. Starting with an explanation as to why our recent exploration of the solar system has been a hunt for water, and how the spectacular images of liquid water traces from Jupiter's moons and Mars are leading us to a better understanding of the possibility of life on other planets. Dr Prinja further explores what the latest images show us about the origins of the universe and some of its most violent processes, including the death throes of stars, and a study of the detailed search for the "dark matter" that is currently hidden from our telescopes. In an exhilarating and accessible way, awarding-winning scientist Dr Raman Prinja explains the fresh perspectives that scientists have gained on the content, structure, and fate of the universe.


Visions of the Universe Reviews


  • J. D.

    With this book, I am focused on galaxies, and Prinja's discussion of such. As with the other books, this one, filled as it is with colorful pictures, seems to me omits what is fundamental: Why are galaxies round? Why do they rotate? Why do so many have spiral arms and are the arms moving inward to the center or are they moving outward from the spiraling galaxies?

    When the Hubble photographs a galaxy (there are broadly three forms - spirals, elliptical, and irregular), it would seem that some discussion of Einstein’s general theory of relativity would be relevant. In particular, with the galaxies, are we seeing Einstein’s theory in real time: large bodies of mass draw, geometrically, surrounding mass (gas, dust, matter, bodies) toward its gravitational center; which is the fabric of space(time) condensed into itself. Seen that way, the matter and energy of the spiral arms are drawn toward the center, progressively concentrated per the inverse square law, as the arms move (with increased speed) to the center, creating the bubble at the center and the black hole within that bubble.

    Prinja, as with other writers on Hubble, says nothing about Einstein's theory. He nevertheless bumps into these questions and treats them in an inconsistent way. He says on the one hand, for example, that the accretion disc “is a disk of matter spirally in toward a massive object such as a star or black hold” and, on the other, he writes that spiral arms contain "young stars and interstellar material that wind out from the central regions of (spiral) galaxies. In other words, he is having it both ways - the arms flow inward (much as Einstein’s theory might suggest), and they spiral ("wind out") outward. (He does say that elliptical galaxies form from collisions with the large one pulling the smaller one inward and also refers to binary systems that “pull” material into a swirling disk).

    The associated questions - why the galaxies rotate and the surrounding effect that creates an accretion disk with a bulge versus a straight drawing of mass of energy inward from all directions, like the creation of a gravitational center for a planet or a star - are not discussed by Prinja. (Interestingly, Saturn has an accretion disk with a large bulge, the planet itself, unlike other planets that (mostly) lack an accretion disk; and, of course, our solar system has a bulge at the center, the sun, and an accretion disk, the orbiting planets.)

    Does this have a bearing on dark matter, which Prinja also discusses? He, like many other writers, asserts that dark matter exists, even though that finding is theoretical only, because it is thought that a substantially unseen mass must be holding galaxies together (the “known” mass is not sufficient to keep outward movement of the swirling arms from continuing to spiral away from the galaxy). This suggests that in Prinja’s mind, the swirling arms are moving outward into space, but they are kept from dissipating into space by the presence of dark matter. But if you reverse that scenario, the question disappears. With the inflow toward the center via the arms, there’s no need for some unexplained mass to keep the arms from dissipating in space because all the momentum, as with the formation of planets and stars, is inward toward the gravitational center. And, with the Hubble pictures of spirals, there is a continuum of streams of gas, dust, matter that progressively concentrates itself into the spiral arms, getting thicker and more condensed (closer) with the movement toward the center. Prinja of course adds a problem of speed when he says that the outer ends of the spiral arms are going faster than they should be for movement outward from the center.
    But if the movement is inward, doesn’t the inverse square law hold: As matter and energy moves toward the center, the concentration and speed picks up, progressively, and might this be the so-called “speed” problem that Prinja discusses?

    Prinja also discusses dark energy which is even more enigmatic than dark matter since it constitutes a larger mysterious element within all cosmic phenomena. Dark energy is thought to have an anti-gravitational, repulsing, effect. Here again, is Einstein’s theory pertinent? Specifically, if gravity and inertia are flip sides of each other, a body’s natural straight-line motion in the presence of gravity is curved. What then happens to such bodies (light, gas, dust, particles) when they are released (via distance) from a gravitational center? Would they speed up because they are free of gravitational effects? Would they now continue their straight-line motion around an overall cosmic curvature (As Prinja and others refer to the overall curvature created by superclusters of galaxies, would there not be, with the same concept extended, be an overall curvature to the cosmos in general?), at speed, back around to their beginning point (big bang beginning?). In other words, is the cosmos (like a planet, star, galaxy, local cluster of galaxies, supercluster of galaxies) round? And does that mean that the cosmos is cyclic in essence?



  • James

    Absolutely gorgeous - these pictures are a wonderful example of the kind of beauty we find in the world, in the universe that outshines anything humans create. Beautiful enough to frame, or to meditate on; just the kind of thing to spark awe in children or adults and stir interest in science and space.

  • Samuel

    This book is great, it has lots of full page, page and a half, and 2 page spreads of awesome space photos. Brief, concise, yet interesting explanations of the photos are given but the main focus is on the pictures, which I love.