Abstract
After the demise of the Aristotelian world picture, it took hundreds of years of astronomical observations and physical theories to reach a level at which a satisfactory modern scientific picture of the physical universe could be formed. The decisive steps in the development were the clarification of the nature of the galaxies in the 1920’s and the general theory of relativity developed by Einstein in the 1910’s. Research in cosmology tries to answer questions such as: How large and how old is the Universe? How is matter distributed? How were the elements formed? What will be the future of the Universe? The central tenet of modern cosmology is the model of the expanding universe. On the basis of this model, it has been possible to approach these questions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Further Reading
Burnham: Burnham’s Celestial Handbook I, II, III,Dover 1966, 2nd ed. 1978.
de Vaucouleurs et al.: Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies,University of Texas Press 1964, 2nd catalogue 1976.
Hirshfeld, Sinnott: Sky Catalogue 2000.0, Sky Publishing 1985.
Hoffleit: Bright Star Catalogue,Yale University Observatory 1982.
Kholopov (ed.): Obshij katalog peremennyh zvezd,Nauka, 4th edition 1985.
Luginbuhl, Skiff: Observing Handbook and Catalogue of Deep-sky Objects, Cambridge University Press 1989.
Ridpath: Norton’s 2000.0,Longman 1989.
Rükl: Atlas of the Moon,Hamlyn 1991.
Ruprecht, Balâz, White: Catalogue of Star Clusters and Associations, Akadémiai Kiadó (Budapest) 1981.
Tirion: Sky Atlas 2000.0,Sky Publishing 1981.
Tirion, Rappaport, Lovi: Uranometria 2000.0, Willman-Bell 1987.
Greeley, Batson: The NASA Atlas of the Solar System, Cambridge University Press 1997.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (2003). Cosmology. In: Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (eds) Fundamental Astronomy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05333-1_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05333-1_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-05335-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-05333-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive