Mauro D'Onofrio – författare

In order to outline possible future directions in galaxy research, this book wants to be a short stopover, a moment of self-reflection of the past century of achievements in this area.

Since the pioneering years of galaxy research in the early 20th century, the research on galaxies has seen a relentless advance directly connected to the parallel exponential growth of new technologies. 

Through a series of interviews with distinguished astronomers the editors provide a snapshot of the achievements obtained in understanding galaxies. While many initial questions about their nature have been addressed, many are still open and require new efforts to achieve a solution. The discussions may reveal paradigms worthwhile revisiting. With the help of some of those scientists who have contributed to it, the editors sketch the history of this scientific journey and ask them for inspirations for future directions of galaxy research.

Are we living in the "golden age" of cosmology? Are we close to understanding the nature of the unknown ingredients of the currently most accepted cosmological model and the physics of the early Universe? Or are we instead approaching a paradigm shift? What is dark matter and does it exist? How is it distributed around galaxies and clusters? Is the scientific community open to alternative ideas that may prompt a new scientific revolution - as the Copernican revolution did in Galileo''s time? Do other types of supernovae exist that can be of interest for cosmology? Why have quasars never been effectively used as standard candles? Can you tell us about the scientific adventure of COBE? How does the extraction of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy depend on the subtraction of the various astrophysical foregrounds?

These, among many others, are the astrophysical, philosophical and sociological questions surrounding modern cosmology and the scientific community that Mauro D''Onofrio and Carlo Burigana pose to some of the most prominent cosmologists of our time. Triggered by these questions and in the spirit of Galileo''s book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" the roughly 40 interview partners reply in the form of essays, with a critical frankness not normally found in reviews, monographs or textbooks.

The 50th anniversary of the discovery of quasars in 1963 presents an interesting opportunity to ask questions about the current state of quasar research. Formatted as a series of interviews with noted researchers in the field, each of them asked to address a specific set of questions covering topics selected by the editors, this book deals with the historical development of quasar research and discusses how advances in instrumentation and computational capabilities have benefitted quasar astronomy and have changed our basic understanding of quasars. In the last part of the book the interviews address the current topic of the role of quasars in galaxy evolution. They summarise open issues in understanding active galactic nuclei and quasars and present an outlook regarding what future observational facilities both on the ground and in space might reveal.

Its interview format, the fascinating topic of quasars and black holes, and the lively recollections and at times controversial views of the contributors make this book both rewarding and a pleasure to read!