1.
b. For images and information on active galactic nuclei, as well as numerous links to images of gravitational lensing, go to the following: AGN & LENSING INFORMATION
c. See the following a tutorial on the Big Bang Theory:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm
d. Click on the following to go to a page of URLs for supplemental information concerning the cosmic microwave background radiation. The links show COBE images not in your text as well as the most recent sets of observations by the MAP mission - very important results for cosmologists.
e. The following link takes you to a report from a
thorough sky survey effort, and the conclusion that correlating the observed
galaxy distribution with the recent MAP observations requires dark energy to explain both data sets. This evidence is
independent of that described in item g & f below.
http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20030721.darkenergy.html
f. Click on the following for streaming video of
an HST press conference explaining the observation and
huge significance of the most distant Ia
supernova in understanding the expansion of the universe:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/09/live-replay.html
The panelists are some of today's most famous astrophysicists, and they address in
understandable terms the acceleration of our expanding universe. I particularly
enjoyed the discussion of 'serendipity' (which played a major role in the
discovery) near the end of the 40 minute video. This critically important
discovery apparently almost cinches the case for an accelerating universe
(with the strange concept of 'dark energy') that began with a Big Bang. Since
2001, the two SN Ia teams have jointly discovered and used several more very
distant supernovae, using the Hubble Space Telescope: for example, see:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040227.html
and
http://www.space-explorers.com/internal/common/offsite.asp?link=http://hubblesite.org/news/2004/12
2.
3.