My utter enjoyment of How I Killed Pluto and Why it had it Coming led me to seek out another book on astronomical discovery. Unlike Pluto, The Day we Found the Universe is a bit drier; it spans a longer time period and over a dozen astronomers.
“Hubble was lucky in a way. The Hubble Space Telescope could easily have been given another name had certain events turned out differently: if someone had not prematurely died (Keeler), if someone else had not taken a promotion (Curtis), or if another (Shapley) was not mulishly wedded to a flawed vision of the cosmos. The discovery of the modern universe is a story filled with trials, errors, serendipitous breaks, battles of wills, missed opportunities, herculean measurements, and brilliant insights. In other words, it is science writ large.”
On January 1, 1925 Major Edwin Hubble announced the observation that ultimately established that our universe was thousands of trillions times larger than previously believed and that the Milky Way wasn’t the only galaxy in the cosmos. The story really begins in the late 1800s when the nouveu riche’s desire to create lasting symbols of their money led them to build observatories like Lick, Yerkes and Lowell. Throughout the early 20th century scientists like Vesto Slipher, Harlow Shapley, Herber Curtis, George Lemaître and Milton Humason along with numerous others searched the cosmos. Albert Einstein, and his theory of relativity, makes a few appearances although his interest was more mathematical than astronomical. Bartusiak is well researched and each scientist is given his due; many discoveries hinged on the work of others and while conflicting theories flooded the early 1900s the competition led to confirmation of numerous, expanding galaxies.
There is a lot of information in this one and it’s very scientific, almost textbook. While it may take a while to get through it is ultimately an incredible story about the men (and some women) who shaped the universe into what we know today.