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Summary of Cosmic Queries 

4.8 . 2928 reviews

Short summary

What if we are not alone in the universe? What happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang? Space is a most intriguing topic that excited the minds of our ancestors. Modern science made the stars and galaxies closer as technologies are constantly developing, but there are plenty of fascinating theories and legends that blow our minds. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a famous popularizer of science and astrophysics, collaborated with physicist James Trefil to explain the most important stages of the emergence of space and humankind. This summary will open the doors of space’s beautiful mysteries like the Big Bang, gravitation, dark matter, and string theory. You will meet famous scientists who have changed the world and even peek into the future of Earth while exploring our universe from the very first seconds of its creation till the modern times of technology. ”Many questions about our own humble universe — perhaps just one of the infinite number of universes — remain to be unanswered. For the goal of our short life is not to find the answers, but to search for new places to stand so that we can formulate questions not previously imagined.” ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

Table of content

  • Summary of Cosmic Queries
  • About the author
  • What is Cosmic Queries about?
  • Who should read Cosmic Queries
  • Topics in Cosmic Queries
first key point

From magic to education: how people explained the universe before science

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Aristotle and Isaac Newton walked into a bar after arguing about what happens when an object falls to the ground. Each had a specific opinion: Aristotle believed that four basic elements — earth, water, fire, and air — make up everything on Earth, and objects made of the Earth move to the center of the universe, then fall to the ground. He considered our planet the center because he thought all celestial bodies moved around it.

Newton was more interested in the object's mass. He knew that all things on Earth obey the law of gravity; therefore, every thrown object will fall to the ground precisely because of it. Newton stated that due to gravity, two objects thrown at the same time would reach the ground simultaneously, but Aristotle was sure that the one with a larger amount of the earth element would fall first. They dropped an expensive bottle of bourbon and a coin and saw them fall simultaneously. So, Aristotle paid for the bourbon.

This anecdote illustrates how differently people imagined our universe. In 150 A.D., Claudius Ptolemy described the ancient Greek views on the universe's structure in his astronomical book Almagest. He claimed there were seven celestial bodies: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon. He did not define Earth as a planet but as the indestructible center of space and home for all living things (as Aristotle believed). The ancient Greeks did not imagine the possibility of extraterrestrial life and another “Earth,” and they also thought that all celestial bodies were smooth, ideal spheres made of specific material. In the 15th century, knowledge about the structure of the universe was developing; for example, people hardly believed that the Earth was flat.
If the planet were flat, darkness would descend on it simultaneously in different parts of the world.
Enjoy this summary if you are a fan of science, cannot imagine your life without space, or just want to take the first steps in understanding your place in the universe. Join the spaceship, and let's find out what lies between the stars.
second key point

Finding our place in space: history-changing milestones

We first need to determine space’s size and how large it is compared to Earth in order to understand our place in it. In medieval people’s imagination, even after Copernicus' discovery of the Sun as the center of our universe, space seemed to be a small, cozy place until Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to space in 1610. When scientists measured the distance to Mars for the first time in 1672, ideas about space changed: it became much larger, and Earth began to seem much less prominent.
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third key point

Ancient and modern astronomy — from Stonehenge to telescopes

fourth key point

It all started with the Big Bang: the age of our universe

fifth key point

Chemistry is at the forefront of our understanding of the nature of things

sixth key point

The cell that changed Earth completely

seventh key point

Before aliens: humanity and possibility of artificial intelligence

eighth key point

We are looking for alien life, hoping that aliens are doing the same

ninth key point

Conclusion

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What is Cosmic Queries about?

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