Status Updates From Teleskop Einsteina. W poszu...

Almost hard to believe that there really is a DARK ENERGY TASK FORCE, established in 2005 consisting of 13 scientists, and funded by the Dept of Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation! Wonder what The Department of Gov't Efficiency (DOGE headed by Elon Musk) thinks of that?

When exploring gravity the "real fun" begins when theories with more than four dimentions of space & time are included. The reading gets a little dense here, the theories are wonderfully ambitious & inventive, but in the end seem to come down to "anything is possible".

Some of the theories regarding the subject of matter/antimatter/dark matter are as rollicking as those postulated by Cjelli (aka Gently) in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, which I recently finished (5-stars btw).

The deflection of light by massive objects (stars, galaxies, black holes) creates a lens (gravitational lensing) making it possible to map out the invisible-to-humans (aka dark matter'& dark energy) sector of the universe! This is the underlying principle upon which the operation of a powerful telescope (Einstein's Telescope) is based; no need to get "bogged down" with the minutia if that's not where it's at for you!

Written in a friendly tone & conversational style,no prior science knowledge of any kind is required. With easily relatable nonscience analogies, a few pictures & diagrams, some well defined acronyms, and a little self deprecating humor the author uses the first 3 chapters to lay down the basics needed to understand the contents of the book. It's very good, much better than 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene.