Education
He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge and is Professor of Astrophysics and until May 2007 was Head of the Astrophysics Group at Imperial College London.
(The scale of cosmological distances has been a topic of d...)
The scale of cosmological distances has been a topic of dramatic controversy during the past decade. Experts estimating the size of the universe, as measured by the Hubble constant, have differed by as much as a factor of two. Just how big is the universe, and why have distance measurements varied to greatly? Michael Rowan-Robinson sheds new light on the origins of this controversy, critically reviewing the main techniques of measuring distances between astronomical bodies both within and outside our galaxy. Stars, galaxies, and cluster of galaxies all play a major part in the distance ladder, and knowledge of distance is essential for all branches of astronomy. As we examine the geometrical speculations of the Greeks and the first correct estimates of the relative distances of the planets from the Sun by Copernicus we realize that this is also a history of mankind's expanding horizon. Offering a fair, balanced review and a clear synthesis of the variety of techniques and methods for measuring cosmological distances (including the work of Gerard del Vaucouleurs, Allan Sandage, Gustav Tammann, and others), Rowan-Robinson integrates the various distance-measuring methods and presents a new, revised distance scale for the known universe. He supplies a unique perspective on modern astronomy itself as he pursues and expanding scale of distance from the solar system outward. Extensively illustrated with photographs and line drawings.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0716715864/?tag=2022091-20
(On April 23, 1992 a major science story appeared in newsp...)
On April 23, 1992 a major science story appeared in newspaper headlines around the world. The announcement of the discovery of small-scale fluctuations in the cosmic microwave radiation, ripples in the cosmos, was a bolt from the blue, taking most of the world's cosmologists by surprise. Then came the first reactions: 'the discovery of the century, perhaps of all time' (Stephen Hawking), 'the Holy Grail of cosmology', 'English does not have enough superlatives', and 'a certain Nobel Prize.' What are the ripples? Why are they of such fundamental importance? What do they tell us about the beginning of the universe? And was the hype reported in the media justified? In this immensely readable book, distinguished cosmologist Michael Rowan-Robinson sets the discovery in its wider context, that of the search for an explanation of how galaxies, clusters of galaxies and even larger structures formed in a universe which was initially of almost perfect uniformity. This puzzle has been at the heart of the cosmological debate for the past decade. Using telescopes in orbit around the earth, working at wavelengths invisible to the human eye, astronomers have recently taken two enormous steps forward in their search for an explanation of the evolution of structure, their discoveries making front-page news. The first was the mapping of the distribution of galaxies by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS); the second, the detection of the ripples by the Cosmic Background Explorers (COBE). Here is an insider's account of these momentous discoveries: Michael Rowan-Robinson was a leading participant with IRAS, one of the most successful space astronomy missions of all time. It is a story packed with anecdote and drama, culminating in a series of spectacular cosmological discoveries. These include the explanation of the rapid motion of our galaxy through space; the demise of the hypothetical 'Great Attractor'; the demonstration that the universe is filled with an exotic form of dark matter, and the detection--by the author and his colleagues--of the most luminous galaxy in the universe. Professor Rowan-Robinson goes on to describe how the IRAS discoveries and the COBE ripples are connected, and how this has helped to solve the problem of how structure, and hence we ourselves, evolved in the universe. Ripples in the Cosmos is far more than an exciting--and personal-- story of modern cosmology. Michael Rowan-Robinson asks fundamental questions about the very nature of science, and how it works. His surprising answers will intrigue general readers and scientists alike.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0716745038/?tag=2022091-20
(How old is the universe? What do the atoms in our bodies,...)
How old is the universe? What do the atoms in our bodies, our very existence, tell us about the history of the universe? How heavy is the vacuum? How do galaxies form? Michael Rowan-Robinson answers these questions and encapsulates all that modern astronomy has discovered about the universe around nine numbers. His motto is Montaigne's "What do I know?" And the reader emerges with a genuine feel for what we do really know about the universe and also what we do not. Only one of the nine numbers is known with real precision, while four of them are not known at all. Complicated ideas like the origin of the elements, the General Theory of Relativity, quantum theory, and the standard model of particle physics, ideas that constitute modern cosmology, are explained in a simple way. Speculative ideas like inflation, Theories of Everything, strings and superstrings, are also in this book, but they are treated with a refreshing skepticism. Although most of what we know has been learned during the twentieth century, Rowan-Robinson gives an historical perspective and honors the achievements of the Greeks, renaissance astronomers, and the age of Newton. He ends the book with an analysis of the future, predicting that with the advent of the MAP and PLANCK-Surveyor space missions, the Large Hadron Collider, and other planned experiments, all nine numbers will be accurately known by 2015. However, he stresses that many questions and mysteries will remain, and the book concludes with the idea that the origin of the Big Bang will remain a mystery in 2100 and perhaps even in the year 3000.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198504446/?tag=2022091-20
He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge and is Professor of Astrophysics and until May 2007 was Head of the Astrophysics Group at Imperial College London.
From 1981 to 1982, he gave public lectures as professor of astronomy at Gresham College. He retired as president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2008. Rowan-Robinson"s research interests include the Spitzer Space Telescope SWIRE project, the European Large Area International Organization for Standardization Survey, the United Kingdom Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array Survey (see James Clerk Maxwell Telescope), the IRAS Christian Social Party Redshift Survey, the Herschel Space Observatory SPIRE instrument and the Planck Surveyor HFI.
(How old is the universe? What do the atoms in our bodies,...)
(The scale of cosmological distances has been a topic of d...)
(On April 23, 1992 a major science story appeared in newsp...)