Discovery of Cosmic Fractals

by Yurij Baryshev, Pekka Teerikorpi

This is the first book to present the fascinating new results on the largest fractal structures in the universe. It guides the reader, in a simple way, to the frontiers of astronomy, explaining how fractals appear in cosmic physics, from our solar system to the megafractals in deep space. It also offers a personal view of the history of the idea of self-similarity and of cosmological principles, from Plato's ideal architecture of the heavens to Mandelbrot's fractals in the modern physical cosmos. In addition, this invaluable book presents the great fractal debate in astronomy (after Luciano Pietronero's first fractal analysis of the galaxy universe), which illustrates how new concepts and deeper observations reveal unexpected aspects of Nature.

Genres: Science

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm neither a physicist, an astronomer nor a mathematician. But I do have a strong interest in cosmology. Discovery of Cosmic Fractals by Yurij Baryshev and Pekka Teerikorpi is a fascinating book. I read it all but am far from proclaiming I understood it all. The authors provide the reader with sort of disclaimer or warning, "It is only appropriate to admit that the universe - and thus the theories describing it - contains things which may easily overpower our capabilities of imagination." Theoretical astrophysics is a bit like philosophy or religion; there are a lot of theories, ideas and opinions, but it's damn hard to prove any of them. It seems that the more that is discovered about the origins and structure of the cosmos, the stranger things seem to be and commonsense is a poor guide in science. I took from the book several notions to ponder. The conditional cosmological principle states that the universe is isotropic and homogeneous. The cosmos is infinite and anything without limits must necessarily also be without a center. The center of the cosmos seems to be wherever you are. The non-uniformities observed in the universe are not random. Fractality means order within chaos, which is the same for all observers. What does all this mean? Damned if I know.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't finish reading this one, but it is good. I will have to request it from ILL again at some point.