A Century of Cosmic Discoveries

Beschreibung

This book provides a concise, non-mathematical summary of key astronomical discoveries, organized chronologically from the founding of the International Astronomical Union in 1919 to the present day. It highlights significant findings related to solar and space physics, exoplanets, astrophysics and cosmology.

Focusing on the 20th century, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of major breakthroughs in heliophysics, planetary exploration, the study of the interstellar medium, and the recent discovery of exoplanets. Additionally, it gives an account of the exploration of pulsars, white dwarfs, and neutron stars, alongside developments in high-energy astrophysics, such as the study of supernovae, active galactic nuclei, extragalactic jets, quasars, black holes, and X- and γ-ray astronomy. Further, the book discusses discoveries in galactic hierarchy and the cosmic voids, the bubbles of the cosmic web as well as the discovery of gravitational waves and multi-messenger astronomy. It also explores the investigations into the early Universe, dark matter, and dark energy.

This work serves as a valuable resource for students, educators, researchers, and the general public, offering insights into how these groundbreaking discoveries have shaped our understanding of both the nearby and the distant Universe over the last century and into the present day.

This extended volume (in total 700+  pages, 124 b/w illustrations, 338 in colour) starts with an interesting Foreword entitled The Nature of beings and the Reasons of beings by the Rev. Dr. Nikolaos Chatzinikolaou Metropolitan of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki, a physics trained theologian and philosopher whom the author met while he was doing his postgraduate studies in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University.

The Prologue briefly mentions the discoveries of some pioneering classical astronomers, who left their indelible marks on the evolution of early astronomy:  Aristarchos of Samos (310–230 BC), the systematic proposer of the heliocentric system, the so-called Copernicus of antiquity, Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276–194 BC), who measured with admirable accuracy the circumference of the Earth and Hipparchos of Rhodes (190–120 BC), the prince of observational astronomers of antiquity, a classical astronomer. It  also briefly mentions some other early mathematicians, astronomers and cosmic thinkers depicted in the well known fresco by Raphael, the School of Athens, painted between 1509 and 1511, at the Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City.

An extended Table provides a brief chronology of a selection of key astronomical discoveries, from the early 20th century, e.g., from Hale's discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots (1908)  to the recent Proba-3 formation flying observations of the solar corona, (2026), including 20 Astrophysics-related Nobel prizes in physics.

Chapter 1, entitled The amazingly variable and active Sun, is extensive (144 pages) unfolding more than a century of great discoveries which led to the present understanding of our life-giving star, the Rosetta Stone of Astrophysics. Actually, this chapter’s preface starts with what Gene Parker once said: "If it were not for its variable magnetic field, the Sun would have been a rather uninteresting star.." and, "out of the trillions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy and those in the other trillions of galaxies – in total about 10²⁴ stars - it is only our Sun that is resolved in great detail and also affects our technology in space via space weather and our lives here on Earth.." The periodical appearance of sunspots and solar cycle 1 (1755-1766) and the strongest solar flare ever recorded (1869) have been among the oldest indicators of solar activity, while recently we have observed unlucky exoplanets around wild flare stars. Actually, the closest known exoplanet to Earth orbits Proxima Centauri, a notorious red dwarf flare star, which was blasted by a massive superflare that increased the star's brightness by 1,000 times in just 10 seconds, threatening the planet's atmosphere. The same year (1869) marks the emergence of Space Weather with solar effects on power grids and expensive blackouts, solar effects on satellites and navigation, communications & GPS, as well as effects of the Solar–Terrestrial interaction and solar variability on Earth’s climate. The first discovery of strong magnetic fields in the Sun and of their dominant role in sunspots and the solar atmosphere was made by Hale (1908). The rise of magnetic flux tubes from the solar interior in the solar photosphere has been shown to be similar to the rise of air bubbles in an aquarium, or a swimming pool (1980). In 1961 the first theory of the solar dynamo was proposed and in 1962 Helioseismology allowed us to listen to the music and thus decipher the secrets of the solar interior, which led in 1980 to the discovery of the (Invisible) internal rotation of the Sun, while since 2002 we similarly observe pulsations in other stars via asteroseismology.  In 1968 the famous solar neutrino problem was realized and was eventually solved in 1999 (Physics Nobel prizes 2002, 2015). In 1970-1971 coronal mass ejections (elevating from the Sun the mass of a mountain range) and coronal holes were discovered. In 1974-1975 detailed observations became available of solar prominences (huge floating unstable curtains of cooler/denser plasma which when erupt are launched into the interplanetary medium IPM), chromospheric networks (luminous spider webs spread over the photosphere and chromosphere), chromospheric jets (a burning meadow, with hundreds of thousands flames) and solar coronal loops (the ubiquitous magnetic arches of the solar atmosphere, building blocks of the solar corona). It also contains a detailed reference to the legacies and anekdotal discussions with Gene Parker, the founder of modern solar physics and author’s PhD advisor and S. Chandrasekhar, physics Nobel prize in 1985, both emblematic scientists with whom the author enjoyed a fruitful interaction on topics of plasma astrophysics and magnetohydrodynamics at the Un. of Chicago. In particular, Parker‘s theoretical discoveries, such as the solar wind, the dynamo mechanism,  magnetic buoyancy and the physics of magnetic flux tubes, magnetic reconnection, the shape of the solar wind bubble within the IPM, the Parker limit on the flux of magnetic monopoles based upon the survival of the galactic magnetic field, the theorem on the non-equilibrium of non-invariant magnetic fields and the spontaneous formation of tangential discontinuities creating coronal heating in thin electrical current sheets, are outstanding. From a more general perspective, one may think in the following way for Parker’s theory of the solar wind, a milestone in solar physics and Astrophysics, wherein one may draw the following comparison. Kepler was the first to discover observationally the physical laws governing the motion of the planets around the Sun (1609). In 1687, 78 years later, Newton was able to theoretically explain Kepler’s laws of planetary motions, by using his theory of classical mechanics and the law of the gravitational attraction of the Sun on each planet, in the well known two-body problem. As it happens in most of physics and astrophysics, observation/experiment was ahead of theory. Nevertheless, both, Kepler and Newton assumed an empty interplanetary medium for the planets to move around the Sun, without a solar wind. In 1957, i.e., 348 years after Kepler and 270 years after Newton, it was left to Parker to discover, theoretically this time, that the interplanetary medium is not empty at all, but is flood with the supersonic solar wind that travels at millions of kilometers per hour across the planets. And, this is one of the few cases of physical phenomena where theory was ahead of observations. Nevertheless, Kepler, Newton and Parker were lucky, because such fundamental physical laws and phenomena can be discovered only once! The experience of the author as a PI of space missions, such as the Solar Orbiter and the novel formation flying ESA Proba 3 mission and respective interaction with Ester Antonucci (PI of Metis, the Solar Orbiter coronagraph), and Andrei Zhukov (PI of the Proba 3 Coronagraph), Angelos Vourlidas project scientist for the SECCHI (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) instrument suite onboard NASA’s STEREO (Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory), together with theoretical solar physicists, such as Eric Priest, Vasilis Archontis, Costis Gontikakis, Spiros Patsourakos, all have been very useful in reviewing the material in this Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 entitled Our privileged solar planetary system discusses the impressive in situ exploration of our home planetary system, from the dawn of the Space Age (1957) and the first landing on the Moon (1969), to the robotic exploration of Mars and the other planets and satellites, to the longest journey of the two Voyager spacecrafts launched in 1977, to the exit of Voyager 1 from the Heliosphere at 121 AU from the Sun (2012). The author has benefited from discussions with Tom Krimigis, who has led or has participated in space physics experiments that have explored all nine planets of our solar system and designed, developed, sent into space, and analyzed the data from 23 scientific instruments, used in various American and European space missions, e.g., the Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instrument on the two Voyagers. Also, we have benefited from discussions with Thanasis Economou who has been building instruments for interplanetary spacecraft since the mid-1960s and has developed tools and techniques that enabled several known NASA’s missions to be carried out successfully, such as the Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer that perfo-rmed the first chemical analysis of Martian rocks aboard the Mars Pathfinder rover (1997) and cosmic dust instruments that flew on several other NASA missions to comets, asteroids and outer solar system planets.

Chapter 3  entitled Spectacular star and planet formation inside dark nebulae deals with a theoretical understanding and key observations of star formation, something that ranks highly among the marvelous achievements of the 20th century astronomy.  In this subject, the author has benefited from participation of the Un. of Athens MHD research group to the four-year EC Marie Curie Research Training Network JETSET (Jet Simulations, Experiments and Theory) which focused on plasma jet studies, particularly in the context of star formation, integrating astrophysical observations, theoretical modeling, laboratory experiments, and advanced computational techniques, creating thus a synergy among diverse European academic institutions. The network developed sophisticated theoretical jet models, high-resolution observational techniques, diagnostic tools for data comparison, and experimental validation, bringin together modellers, observers, and laboratory scientists from several European institutions. Across the various European nodes, the individual nodes and Principal Investigators, who drove the scientific agenda included: Dublin Iinstitute of Advanced Studies (T. Ray, leading the network, presently ESO Council president), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (K. Tsinganos), Université de Paris VII/Observatoire de Paris (Ch. Sauty), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (J. Ferreira), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble/Observatoire de Paris (C. Dougados/S. Cabrit), Università degli Studi di Torino (S. Massaglia), Imperial College London (S. Lebedev),  Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (J. Eislöffel), Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri (F. Bacciotti), Universidade do Porto (Paulo J. Garcia).   Among the conclusions of the research of the author’s group on MHD winds and jets, is that jets form in newborn stars by stealing angular momentum and then leave gravity free to create the star. For that reason, we might not be here today if jets did not accompany the solar formation, since the natural law of conservation of the disk angular momentum would not allow the collapse of the material for the formation of the protosun and subsequently of Earth and the other planets from the remaining material. In that sense, protostellar jets are the ex machina Deus in star formation, a term originating in Greek ragedy, wherein at the climax of the tragedy, when the plot of the drama seems to be leading to a dead end, an actor suddenly appears on the scene, with the help of some mechanism, impersonating some deity or divine person, to solve the impasse.

For the experts, there is a technical interlude in this chapter wherein the mathemati-cal MHD theory of plasma jets is summarized, including a short presentation of the Parker theory of a themally driven stellar wind and the Blandford & Payne model of a magnetocentrifugally driven disk-wind, fast/slow magnetic rotators and the Weber &  Davis MHD model for angular momentum loss by a rotating magnetized star, the “bead on a rotating rigid wire” picture for magnetorotational acceleration and flow collimation, a simple numerical demonstration of the initial magnetocentrifugal acceleration and final collimation of astrophysical outflows, the use of self-similarity for constructing analytical MHD models of astrophysical outflows and jets, the role of magnetosonic separatrices in self-similar MHD flows, the modeling of radially self-similar disk winds and meridionally self-similar winds and jets, an energy integral and criterion for the formation of uncollimated winds and collimated jets, an example of numerical modeling of protostellar jets with the formation of shocks along the jet, etc. 

Actually, the front-cover picture of this book is from a Herbig-Haro 211 object, a bipolar jet travelling through interstellar space at supersonic speeds. At roughly 1,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Perseus, the object is one of the youngest and nearest protostellar outflows, making it an ideal target for the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST. These Herbig-Haro objects are luminous regions surroun-ding newborn stars, and are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from such newborn stars form shock waves, as they collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. This spectacular image of HH 211 reveals an outflow from a Class 0 protostar, an infantile analogue to our Sun, when it was no more than a few tens of thousands of years old and with a mass only 8% of the present-day Sun (it will eve-ntually grow into a full growth star like the Sun). Infrared imaging is powerful in stu-dying newborn stars and their outflows, because such stars are invariably still em-bedded within the gas from the molecular cloud in which they formed. Molecules excited by the turbulent conditions, including H₂, CO and SᵢO, emit infrared light that Webb can collect to map out the structure of the outflows. The image showcases a series of bow shocks to the lower-left and upper-right, as well as the narrow bipolar jet that powers them in unprecedented detail. The inner jet is seen to wiggle with mirror symmetry on either side of the central protostar, in agreement with ob-servations on smaller scales, suggesting that the protostar may in fact be an unre-solved binary star.

Chapter 4  entitled Exotic Exoplanets deals with the observation of already more than 6000 exoplanets at the beginning of 2026, 31 years from the first discovery of an exoplanet around a solar-type star by Mayor and Queloz (1995, Nobel prize in physics 2019).  This is an exciting and promising area ahead us, because if we imagine that with about 10¹² galaxies, each one hosting about 10¹² stars and roughly each star surrounded by at least one planet, we should have totally something of the order of 10²⁴ planets in the Universe. Their observation however, is non trivial, since the light that our Earth reflects and shines is only one billionth of the light that is emitted from the Sun. And, if an alien observer tried to observe the diminution of sunlight as the Earth passed in front of the solar disk, they should be able to detect a decrease in solar brightness by a factor of 10,000. Specifically, in order to detect a planet the size of the Earth, i.e., with a mass approximately 300,000 times smaller than that of the Sun, one should be able to detect a radial velocity equal to 30 km per second/300,000 = 10 cm per second. 
Yet we have discovered planetary systems at their infancy with ESO’s telescopes, the most populous extrasolar planetary system with 8 planets, water vapor in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the habitable-zone, exoplanets wherein rains down from the sky droplets of iron, or, red rubies and blue sapphires (corundum), or, molten glass, or, snows titanium oxide (sunscreens), etc, CO, CO₂, SO₂ and Na, additionally to H₂O vapor, in the atmospheres of several exoplanets, etc. 

Chapter 5  entitled marvellous discoveries in astrophysics during the last 100 years starts with the discoveries of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and white dwarfs (1910), the derivation of black hole solutions from the field equations of Einstein’s theory of general relativity by Schwarzchild during the 2nd WW (1915), the observa-tion of the first extragalactic plasma jet (1918), the first confirmation of  Einstein’s theory of general relativity via a total solar eclipse (1919), the Great Debate on spiral nebulae and the size of the Universe (1920) and later the famous conflict of Sir Arthur Eddington with his PhD student S. Chandrasekhar on the existence of black holes (1929). The proposition of the existence of dark matter by Fritz Zwicky follows (1933), while supernovae, neutron stars and cosmic rays were shown to be interelated (1933 –1934). Also in the 30’s and before the 2nd WW the new branch of radio astronomy appears, with active galactic nuclei and quasars to follow (1963), as well as the new fields of X-ray & γ-ray Astronomy, & γ-ray Bursts (1962-1970). In 1967 we have the discovery of the first pulsar (Nobel prize in physics 1974) and models of pulsars as rotating neutron stars, the discovery of the double pulsar (1974, Nobel prize in physics 1993), and the understanding that the observed change of its orbital period is due to the emission of gravitational waves, according to the theory of general relativity (1983), the discovery of neutron star spin-down in millisecond pulsars (1982), and finally magnetars (1992). The galactic hierarchy in groups, clusters, and superclusters follows (1978) and then the observational discovery of gravitational lensing (1979).  In 1995 we have the discovery of a black hole at the center of our milky way galaxy (physics Nobel prize 2020), in 2019 the first photograph of the silhouette of a supermassiveg galactic black hole in M87, in 2022 the most distant detection of a black hole swallowing a star and emitting towards us a relativistic jet, and in 2024 a black hole accreting a solar mass per day, 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun. In 2015 we have the first direct detection of gravitational waves (Nobel prize in physics 2017), the discovery and first identification of a gravitational wave by the LIGO and VIRGO interferometers and 70 ground-based and space telescopes globally observed across the ectromagnetic spectrum (2017) and the discovery of kilonova explosions, cosmic alchemy, and the creation of the precious metals.

Chapter 6  entitled fundamental discoveries in Cosmology in the last 100 years presents the discoveries before and after the time Cosmology started to become an exact science with the COBE/WMAP/Planck space missions (1962).  While Albert Ein-stein’s General Theory of Relativity (GTR, 1915) was a major step forward, after its publication, Einstein applied the theory to the Universe as a whole and produced a fully self-consistent model of a static Universe by introducing the cosmological constant. The first theoretical models of a homogeneous and isotropic expanding Universe were discovered by the Soviet Physicist and Mathematician Alexander Friedmann (1922), and independently by Georges Lemaître  (1927) who proved that Einstein’s solution for a static Universe, with the help of the cosmological constant, is unstable to small perturbations of this constant. In the next step, Lemaître used the already published Doppler shift velocities of 42 galaxies and their corresponding distances and showed that these observed velocities V are nothing but the result of the expansion of the Universe, the velocity being proportional to the distance D, i.e., the relation V = HD, where H is a constant, the inverse of which approximates the age of the Universe, in the so-called Hubble law (1929). However, Lemaître was the first to calculate the value of the constant H in the expansion law of the Universe, and from this the age of the Universe, already two years before Hubble (1929). Then, in 2018, I had the opportunity to participate in the XXX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Vienna, where, after an open vote of all its members, the IAU decided to rename the law relating the expansion speed V of the galaxies in the Universe, in proportion to their corresponding distance D, V = HD, to the Hubble-Lemaître law. Nevertheless, Lemaître’s Big Bang theory did not prevail till 1965 when the diffuse cosmic microwave radiation (CMR) was discovered by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Labs (1965, Nobel prize in physics 1978). In the preceeding years, Gamov predicted the nuclear fusion of light nuclei – in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis - and the diffuse CMR (1948) and Hoyle the formation of carbon via the so-called Hoyle resonane (1954). In 1989, COBE, signaled the beginnings of exact observational Cosmology, followed by the more detailed observations of the anisotropy and polarization of the CMR, with NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP, (2001) and ESA’s Planck (2009) space missions. Analysis of the observations for the anisotropy of the diffuse CMR by WMAP have shown that the density of the Universe is very close to the critical density (Ω = 1) and the Universe is flat. This means that the Universe is infinite in extent. But because it has a finite age, we observe only a part of it. The Universe, according to the latest data from the WMAP and Planck space missions, consists of neutrinos (0.1%), ordinary matter (4.8%), cold dark matter (26.8%) which neither emits nor absorbs light, and dark energy (68.3%) in the form of the cosmological constant, which accelerates the expansion of the Universe. Hence, dark matter is about 85% of the total matter in the Universe, while dark matter and dark energy together constitute about 95% of the total mass–energy content. This is the currrently accepted Λ-cold Dark Matter Model of the Universe. In 1998 we have the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe (via Supernovae type Ia, physics Nobel prize 2011).  Regarding the early Universe, recent research has concluded that after the Big Bang, the Universe passed through the following epochs: The Planck epoch (t <10⁻⁴⁴ secs), with all interactions unified. The epoch of the Grand Unification (10⁻⁴⁴ secs < t < 10⁻³⁶ secs) where gravity separated from the other united interactions and the Universe underwent an immense cooling. The epoch of inflation (10⁻³⁶ secs < t < 10⁻³² secs), wherein the strong and electroweak interactions splitted and ceased to behave as a single interaction and space expanded exponentially. With the end of the era of inflation, the Universe was mostly made up of energy in the form of photons. The epoch of electroweak forces follows (10⁻³² secs < t < 10⁻¹⁶ secs), with the Universe filled with a dense, hot quark–gluon plasma. Particle interactions in this phase were energetic enough to create large numbers of exotic particles, including W, Z and Higgs bosons and gluons. The strong nuclear force had already separated, leaving the electromagnetic and weak forces unified until the end of the phase. The quark epoch next  (10⁻¹⁶ secs < t < 10⁻¹² secs) is the period of evolution of the infant Universe, where the fundamental interactions of gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak had taken their present forms, but the temperature of the Universe was still high enough to allow quarks to combine to form the bound states of hadrons, as the energies and densities were too great, filling the Universe with a dense, hot quark–gluon plasma. The size of the Universe was the size of our solar system. Due to further expansion and cooling of the Universe, after these 10⁻⁶ secs, the quarks could no longer travel around free but could combine together in pairs, or triplets, forming baryons, thus we have the epoch of hadrons. In the era of leptons (1 sec < t < 10 secs),  leptons are formed and dominated the mass of the Universe. Next, the atomic nuclei of the light elements were created in the process of Big Bang nucleosynthesis by nuclear fusion, wherein helium, and trace amounts of deuterium, helium-3, and lithium-7 nuclei for-med from protons and neutrons. At about 20 min, nuclear fusion ceased and normal matter consisted of 75% hydrogen nuclei and 25% helium nuclei, while free electro-ns begin scattering light.  In the atomic/recombination epoch (after around 380,000 years), electrons bound to nuclei to form neutral hydrogen and helium atoms, relea-sing the CMR.  The era that began immediately after 380,000 years from the great explosion, marks the beginning of the period of the cosmic dark ages. Finally, in the galactic epoch (200 million to 3 billion years),  gravity pulled primeval gas clouds together to seed the first cosmic structures, galaxies and quasars. 

With all previous chapters having discussed our present knowledge of the nature (the how/what) of the various components of the Universe, the final Chapter 7  entitled Fine-Tuning of the Cosmic Parameters and Earth’s Place in the Universe attempts to discuss the reasons (the why’s) of the various physical laws and critical physical constants that govern and rule our Universe. Specifically, the laws of physics, as we know them today, contain some very few fundamental numbers, the values of which cannot be derived from our theory today. They are determined only from the experiment. They are the fine structure constant (α ≈ 1/137 ≈ 7.3 × 10⁻³) one of the most mysterious numbers in the Universe, characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between charged elementary particles, one of the empirical parameters in the Standard Model of particle physics. A second  impressive fact is that the number of about 10⁸⁰ negatively charged particles in the observable Universe is exactly equal to the 10⁸⁰ positively charged particles, so that the Universe as a whole is neutral (Qₜₒₜ = 0). Did this happen by chance? Did it happen by simple coincidence? Was it set by Divine Providence; or, it occurred for some other unknown reason? A third number is related to the strength of the weak interaction which determines the efficiency (0.7%) of the thermonuclear interactions powering the energy production in our Sun and the stars. A fourth number is the ratio of the gravitational to the strong coupling constant (10⁻³⁸ ). Why there exists this unbearable lightness of gravity in the Universe? This question remains still unanswered. A fifth number is the number of dimensions of spacetime [(n, m) = 3+1)].   For example, in a space with n > 3, there can be no traditional atoms and perhaps no stable structures. Also, when n > 3, the two-body problem no longer has any stable orbits as solutions, so there would be no stable orbits of planets around the Sun. A sixth number is the normalized density of the Universe which seems to have been tuned to a  precise value (Ω = 1). The meaning of this number Ω is that it expresses how important is the role that gravity plays compared to antigravity (dark energy). If gravity and mass dominated, the Universe would have collapsed long ago. If, on the other hand, dark energy dominated, they wouldn’t let neither galaxies nor stars to be formed. A seventh parameter is the value of the cosmological constant, a measure of the energy density of the vacuum of space. The specific numerical value of the magnitude of the cosmological constant Λ seems to dictate, not only the future of the Universe itself, but also that we ourselves exist today. In the case where the value of Λ was greater, its effect would have stopped the formation of stars and galaxies, so that the cosmic evolution and the subsequent emergence of life would have been smothered before it could even begin!             

As Stephen Hawking wrote in his popular book A Brief History of Time, we cannot, at least for now, predict the values of these numbers through our theory. We have to find them through observation. Perhaps one day we shall discover a complete unified theory of everything that will predict all these numerical quantities. The remarkable fact, however, is that the values of these numbers seem to be rather precisely defined, so as to make possible the development of life.

What stands out about this book is that it is written in a way to remove the mathematical barrier, without taking away from the science itself. It has the potential to help train the next generation and, more importantly, to preserve the story and ideas beyond any single edition or printing. I believe that this volume should be interesting to PhD students, as it gives, for example, a general perspective of Heliophysics in the general framework of Astrophysics, and vice versa, by presenting in a nontechnical way, most influential discoveries since the establishment of the International Astronomical Union (1919) and till today. 

In summary, this volume stands as a monumental archival ledger of a century of cosmic discoveries. Structured around the historical timeline established by the founding of the International Astronomical Union (1919), the book successfully synthesizes major breakthroughs in solar physics, planetary exploration, exoplanets, astrophysics, cosmology and the early-universe.

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Kanaris Tsinganos

Themen in »A Century of Cosmic Discoveries«

Star and Planet formation Helioseismology Photospheric and Chromospheric networks Compact objects Active Galactic Nuclei, Quasars, Extragalactic jet Gravitational waves Multiwavelength astronomy Multimessanger astronomy Dark matter, dark energy Exoplanetary systems Early Universe

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