The Dark Side of the Universe: A Scientist Explores the Mysteries of the Cosmos

Astrophysicists now believe that at least 90 percent of the universe is composed of material we cannot see``dark matter.'' Giving off neither light nor radio waves, dark matter remains a mystery: Is it made of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), massive neutrinos, quarks, photinos or something even more exotic? Physicist Trefil ( The Moment of Creation , etc.) takes readers to the outermost frontiers of the new cosmology in this wonderfully readable tour of an Alice-in-Wonderland universe that is growing curiouser and curiouser. Why galaxies group themselves into superclusterswith Hubble bubbles (vast voids) in betweenis still a puzzle to astronomers. Trefil's search for an answer to these enigmas leads him to consider hot new topics like cosmic superstrings, the long, one-dimensional cords of dark matter, formed in the Big Bang, that may somehow tie together the cosmos. (August)