Majosta EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

We live on a small planet that revolves about a star that resides in a lonely remote corner of a galaxy that swims within a sea of more than a 100 billion other galaxies, each with 100 billion stars of their own. We each look out upon the vast expanse of our Universe with awe and we wonder. We wonder how it all works, where it all came from, and where it is all going. In this book we explore the Universe together and answer all these questions. We begin our voyage from planet Earth, and expand outwards from there to encompass the entire Universe. From a purely scientific perspective we review when the planets formed, how stars are born and why they produce light, what shapes galaxies can have, when the Universe was created and how large it is. We review what black holes, pulsars and supernovae are. We learn what dark matter might be, and why we think there is dark energy. And we discuss what atoms are made of, why quantum mechanics rules the Universe of the tiny, and how Einstein’s Theory of Relatively rules the Universe of the immense. This book takes a broad perspective intended to familiarize the general reader with a thorough understanding of the mysteries of the Universe. The latest up-to-date discoveries are reviewed and the book is illustrated with recent telescopic photographs of the incredible Universe that we live within.