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For thousands of years, the sun has been extravagant with its
heat, but its blinding light has kept hidden the secrets of its inner workings.
Now all that is changing, and scientists have been uncovering the structure of
our nearest star at an astonishing pace, offering revelations about stellar dynamics,
exotic new particles, and even the ultimate fate of our universe. Blinded by
the Light tells the story of these exciting discoveries. In
the lucid and lively style that has made him one of today's most successful science
writers, John Gribbin explores many of the latest findings in solar research:
"starquakes" that rock the sun and reveal as much about its interior
as earthquakes do about the earth; and new evidence that the sun actually pulsates
in a cyclic pattern, which may account for large-scale climactic fluctuations
on our planet. Most exciting of all, perhaps, is the
sun's role in the search for the missing "cold dark matter" in the universe.
This dark matter would provide the gravitational mass that astrophysicists believe
is needed to keep the universe from expanding forever. Gribbin shows how cutting-edge
research into the sun's nuclear furnace is fueling the hot debate over what might
account for the missing mass: Is it neutrinos, long thought the most likely candidate,
or WIMPs, the exotic and recently predicted massive particles that have never
before been detected? The answer to this question -- and its implications for
the fate of the universe -- may be as close as the heart of our own sun.
John Gribbin is an award-winning science writer and the author
of many books, including In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, hailed as the
best introduction to quantum physics for the layman. He has written regularly
for The Times of London and is the physics consultant for The New Scientist
magazine. |
