The Chemical Cosmos: A Guided Tour (Astronomers' Universe Book 3)

If you have ever wondered how we get from the awesome impersonality of the Big Bang universe to the point where living creatures can start to form, and evolve into beings like you, your friends and your family, wonder no more. Steve Miller provides us with a tour through the chemical evolution of the universe, from the formation of the first molecules all the way to the chemicals required for life to evolve. Using a simple Hydrogen molecule – known as H-three-plus - as a guide, he takes us on a journey that starts with the birth of the first stars, and how, in dying, they pour their hearts out into enriching the universe in which we live. Our molecular guide makes its first appearance at the source of the Chemical Cosmos, at a time when only three elements and a total of 11 molecules existed. From those simple beginnings, H-three-plus guides us down river on the violent currents of exploding stars, through the streams of the Interstellar Medium, and into the delta where new stars and planets form. We are finally left on the shores of the sea of life. Along the way, we meet the key characters who have shaped our understanding of the chemistry of the universe, such as Cambridge physicist J.J. Thomson and the Chicago chemist Takeshi Oka. And we are given an insider’s view of just how astronomers, making use of telescopes and Earth-orbiting satellites, have put together our modern view of the Chemical Cosmos. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Purple Haze: Introducing Our Guide....Pages 1-7 The Early Universe: The Source of Chemistry – and of Our Guide....Pages 9-24 Shooting the Rapids: The Life and Death of the Earliest Stars....Pages 25-62 Heading Downstream and Cooking by Starlight....Pages 63-90 Fishing for Molecules....Pages 91-113 Branching Out: In the Land of the Giants and Dwarves....Pages 115-151 In the Delta: Exoplanets – Worlds, but Not as We Know Them....Pages 153-169 Towards the Sea of Life....Pages 171-189 Back Matter....Pages 191-236