Includes index

Where did we come from? -- Music of the spheres -- Building blocks -- Our neighbourhood -- A growing space -- A bang or a whimper? -- How do we know? -- Most of our universe is missing -- Cosmic oddities -- Just a theory -- The ultimate question

"From a basic understanding of the nature of stars and of how planets like the Earth were formed, the remarkable story of cosmology unfolds from the beginnings of our universe to the ultimate question of how the universe might end. ... From black holes and dark matter to supernovae and quasars, the reader is taken on a journey through the facts and theories that fill modern cosmology"--P. [4] of cover