Being oneself as well a part of surroundings and universe, human is always curious to know in detail about not only about his inner self but all about its relationship with outer world extended to astronomy and cosmology. Knowledge about astronomy and cosmology along with its application for the wellbeing of mankind has been the basis of mythology all over the world in general and Hindu mythology in particular as the oldest philosophy of life. Our ancient knowledge of astronomy and cosmology however, remained constrained verbally and few examples of written text to a particular section of society and thus lost its acceptance with time. At present when Indian knowledge and application of astronomy and cosmology concepts in day to day life has become as a laughing stock, advanced countries with strong footing of research in these exciting areas of science have progressed very much ahead of us. Need is to popularize the teaching of these so called difficult and irrelevant topics of science and technology to younger generation. Technological development has made it possible to observe the astronomical and cosmological concepts and events with ease which were though not more than some natural phenomena some time back.
Why we are interested in studying the Astronomy, Astrophysics and cosmology and solving the mysteries of our Universe?
- It is the same curiosity that human kind have since its early existence to explore the environment where we are. Initially, we are limited to ourselves, our surrounding (earth) and then think of our solar system and universe to universes that how and why we are entangled together. Thus, knowing and understanding the stage on which our life is being played is crucial for any existence to have real meaning.
- We, humans, are curious to learn about the formation and evolution of the world we see. It is not that our curiosity and leaning about ourselves, our immediate surroundings and our life processes have come to an end but continuing the same, we are also interested to learn about our entanglement with astronomy and cosmology.
- Nowadays, we have technical resources to explore even far away into the space leading our knowledge about astronomy and cosmology.
- We want to know the mysteries of our space (solar system as well as universes).
- Though astronomy and cosmology is not my field but as a Physics student the topic is always very dear to my heart. Similarly, most of the people are naturally interested is space, how big it is, what is out there simply because it is so different from what we experience every day.
- However, to unleash the secrets of universe together, is the only goal in most of the people’s life.
- Humans are driven to extend the boundaries of our scientific and technical limits, explore the space, discover new worlds, and then push even further.
- Information about space, the solar system, dark matter, galaxies, black holes or any one of a range of different topics of astronomy and cosmology have become very common to people nowadays.
Modern pursuits in understanding astronomy and cosmology
It started with the theory of relativity given by Albert Einstein in 1905. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 was awarded to Albert Einstein “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” At 26, the famous physicist explained the science behind consequences of relativistic motion as well as today’s solar energy revolution.
Theory of Relativity
The theory explains the behaviour of objects in space and time, and it can be used to predict everything from the existence of black holes, to light bending due to gravity, to the behavior of the planet Mercury in its orbit.
Einstein’s theory of relativity is divided into two parts:
- Special theory of relativity- dealing with inertial frames of references
- General theory of relativity- dealing with non-inertial frames of references
- Many interesting theoretical consequences of special theory of relativity which were and are still experimentally being proved came into light:
- Length contraction
- Time dilation (Twin paradox)
- Velocity addition
- Variation of mass
- Energy-mass relationship
- Dark Energy
- Doppler’s effect & red shift
- Relativistic gyroscopes
- Similarly, understanding of general theory of relativity is also proving a milestone in exploring the mysteries of space. The implications of Einstein’s most famous theoryare profound. The theory explains the behaviour of objects in space and time, and it can be used to predict everything from the existence of black holes, to light bending due to gravity, to the behaviour of the planet Mercury in its orbit.
A New Window onto the Universe
The last six decades have witnessed a great revolution in astronomy, driven by improvements in observing capabilities across the electromagnetic spectrum: very large optical telescopes, radio antennas and arrays, a host of satellites to explore the infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray parts of the spectrum, and the development of key new technologies (CCDs, adaptive optics). Each new window of observation has brought new surprises that have dramatically changed our understanding of the universe.
- the relic cosmic microwave background radiation which has become our primary tool for exploring the Big Bang
- the fact that quasi-stellar objects are at cosmological distances which has developed into the understanding that they are powered by supermassive black holes
- pulsars which opened up the study of neutron stars and illuminated one endpoint for stellar evolution
- X-ray binary systems which now enable us to make detailed studies of black holes and neutron stars
- gamma-ray bursts coming from immense distances which are not fully explained even today
- the fact that the expansion of the universe is accelerating which has led to the hunt for the nature of dark energy.
- There is keen interest in observing gravitational waves directly, in order to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity and to observe some of the most exotic objects in nature, particularly black holes.
Physics Nobel prizes related cosmology, astronomy, and space science:
Though, there is no Nobel prize for astronomy or cosmology or space science, perhaps omitted because Nobel might have considered that there were few practical benefits from these branches of science. In actuality astronomy, cosmology and space science have had many practical consequences and uses that continue to this day. In any case there have been a handful of physics Nobel prizes (about 12) that touched on cosmology, astronomy, and space science.
| 1936 | Victor Francis Hess | Austria | “for his discovery of cosmic radiation“ |
| Shared for other discovery | |||
| 1947 | Edward Victor Appleton | United Kingdom | “for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer“ |
| 1948 | Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett | United Kingdom | “for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation“ |
| 1974 | Martin Ryle | United Kingdom | “for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars“ |
| Antony Hewish | United Kingdom | ||
| 1978 | Shared for other discovery | ||
| Arno Allan Penzias | United States | “for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation“ | |
| Robert Woodrow Wilson | United States | ||
| 1983 | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | India United States |
“for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars“ |
| Shared for other discovery | |||
| 2002 | Raymond Davis Jr. | United States | “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos“ |
| Masatoshi Koshiba | Japan | ||
| Riccardo Giacconi | Italy United States | “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources“ | |
| 2006 | John C. Mather | United States | “for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation“ |
| George F. Smoot | |||
| 2011 | Saul Perlmutter | United States | “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae“ |
| Brian P. Schmidt | Australia United States |
||
| Adam G. Riess | United States | ||
| George F. Smoot | |||
| 2017 | Rainer Weiss | Germany United States |
“for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves“ |
| Kip Thorne | United States | ||
| Barry Barish | |||
| 2019 | James Peebles | Canada United States |
“for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology“ |
| Michel Mayor | Switzerland | “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star” | |
| Didier Queloz | |||
| 2020 | Roger Penrose | United Kingdom | “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity“ |
| Reinhard Genzel | Germany | “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy“ | |
| Andrea Ghez | United States | ||
Scientists are still trying to explore all mysteries of space with the help of scientific knowledge and technology in the field of astronomy, cosmology and space science as well as trying to imbibe the applications of relativity in daily life. Still there is a long way to go ahead to understand, explain and make to understand following mysteries of space.
· Grand unified theory
· Alien life
· Dark Matter
-
Dark Energy
· Quantum Entanglement
· Antimatter
· The Fermi Paradox
· Black Holes
· Space Roar
· Cosmic Rays
· Fate of the universe (Big bang & big crunch), Age, Cosmological constant, The Multiverse
· Gravity (The Great Attractor), gravitational waves, Gravitational constant
- The Giant Void
- Astronomical objects: comets, meteoroids, meteors, exoplanets & dwarf planets, Kuiper belt objects, planetary systems, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, asteroids, moons, planets, and stars
Milestones of numerical solving
Numerical solving is a thousand-year-old art, which developed into modern numerical analysis several decades ago with the advent of modern computers and supercomputers. It is impossible to summarize all the important work on the subject but for a compelling account of the early history of numerical analysis and computing in the field of astronomy, cosmology and space science. There is a long list of numerically solving results leading towards the prediction and our better understanding of astronomy, cosmology and space.
Einstein’s Relativity in Everyday Life
When Einstein finalized his theory of gravity and curved space-time in November 1915, ending a quest which he began with his 1905 special relativity, he had little concern for practical or observable consequences. He was unimpressed when measurements of the bending of starlight in 1919 confirmed his theory. Even today, general relativity plays its main role in the astronomical domain, with its black holes, gravity waves and cosmic big bangs, or in the domain of the ultra-small, where theorists look to unify general relativity with the other interactions, using exotic concepts such as strings and branes.
