Rhodri Evans tells the story of what we know about the universe, from Jacobus Kapteyn's Island universe at the turn of the 20th Century, and the discovery by Hubble that the nebulae were external to our own galaxy, through Gamow's early work on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and its subsequent discovery by Penzias and Wilson, to modern day satellite-lead CMB research. Research results from the ground-based experiments DASI, BOOMERANG, and satellite missions COBE, WMAP and Planck are explained and interpreted to show how our current picture of the universe was arrived at, and the author looks at the future of CMB research and what we still need to learn.
This account is enlivened by Dr Rhodri Evans' personal connections to the characters and places in the story.

Autorentext
Rhodri Evans is an experienced and enthusiastic science communicator. He appears regularly on the BBC talking about Astronomy and Physics and has also been on US radio and TV. He is a research fellow at Cardiff University and lectures on Physics and Astrophysics. And he is the only UK based astronomer involved in SOFIA - the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy.

Inhalt
From Kapteyn to Hubble.- George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman.- Penzias and Wilson and Dicke et al.- COBE.- DASI and BOOMERANG and other ground-based experiments.- WMAP.- Planck.- The Future.