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http://www.facebook.com/AstronomyMagazine6 ASTRONOMY • MAY 2020FROM THE EDITOR
When I talked with my friend Dan
Hooper at Fermilab a few months ago,
we decided that it was high time to do
a “state-of-the-art” story on where we stand with
dark matter. When Dan started writing the story,
however, he evolved it into a summary of a much
bigger dilemma: “Holes” in the Big Bang theory
of the origin of the universe are increasingly leav-
ing some astronomers unsettled. So his story, “Is
the Big Bang in crisis?” describes the problems
astronomers must yet overcome.
When the universe began to assemble matter,
it preferred to lump it into galaxies — huge clouds
and wheels of stars, gas, and dust. As I was grow-
ing up — when we weren’t even sure that the Big Bang was the
correct model of the universe — one of my favorite books was Tim
Ferris’ classic Galaxies. Since its publication in 1980, what we know
about galaxies, the basic units of matter in the cosmos, has been
completely revolutionized. I’ve written my own book, Galaxies:
Inside the Universe’s Star Cities, to explain exactly what we know
about these majestic structures now. You can order copies of this
new book, just out, from MyScienceShop.com.
This issue features stories on galaxies, too. Veteran observer Steve
O’Meara describes how you can observe face-on and edge-on galax-
ies, and lists challenging objects in each category to target. We have
a historical story I’ve done on the great astronomer V.M. Slipher,
who discovered in 1912 that the universe is expanding.
And we have an excerpt from another brand-new book, Cosmic
Clouds 3-D: Where Stars Are Born, which I wrote along with Brian
May, my book-writing partner and founding member and guitarist
of the rock group Queen. This book features the incredible work
of Finnish photographer J.-P. Metsävainio, who is a master at
analyzing the data of distant nebulae and creating realistic 3D
images showing the relative distances of stars and gas clouds
surrounding them. You can also order this book from
MyScienceShop.com.
On a staffing note, please join me in congratulating Alison
Klesman on her promotion to Senior Associate Editor. Since joining
the magazine in 2016, Alison has taken on an increasingly larger
and more varied workload and has produced very nice stories that
I know you have enjoyed. You’ll treasure her work for a long time
to come.Yo u r s t r u l y,David J. Eicher
EditorGalaxies, the Big Bang,
and existence
Editor David J. Eicher
Design Director LuAnn Williams Belter
EDITORIAL
Senior Editor Richard Talcott
Production Editor Elisa R. Neckar
Senior Associate Editor Alison Klesman
Associate Editor Jake Parks
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ART
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Glenn F. Chaple Jr., Martin George, Tony Hallas,
Phil Harrington, Korey Haynes, Jeff Hester, Alister Ling,
Stephen James O’Meara, Martin Ratcliffe, Raymond Shubinski
SCIENCE GROUP
Executive Editor Becky Lang
Design Director Dan Bishop
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Buzz Aldrin, Marcia Bartusiak, Jim Bell, Timothy Ferris,
Alex Filippenko, Adam Frank, John S. Gallagher lll,
Daniel W. E. Green, William K. Hartmann, Paul Hodge,
Edward Kolb, Stephen P. Maran, Brian May, S. Alan Stern,
James Trefil
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Allow 6 to 8 weeks for new subscriptions and address changes. Subscription rate: single copy: $5.99; U.S.: 1 year $42.95; 2 years $79.95; 3 years $114.95.
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year, payable in U.S. funds, drawn on a U.S. bank. BN 12271 3209 RT. Not responsible for unsolicited materials.The blue light in this
image of MACS
J0717.5+3745 shows
the arrangement of
dark matter in this
galaxy cluster. Despite
the ubiquity of dark
matter in the universe,
astronomers still have
no good idea what it
is made of. NASA/ESA/
D. HARVEY (ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE
FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE)/
R. MASSEY (DURHAM UNIVERSITY)/
H. EBELING (UNIVERSITY OF
HAWAII)/J.-P. KNEIB (LAM)Follow the
Dave’s Universe blog:
http://www.Astronomy.
com/davesuniverse
Follow Dave Eicher
on Twitter:
@deicherstar