Wonders of the Universe

CHAPTER 1: Messengers THE STORY OF LIGHT Our place in the Universe Our galactic neighbourhood Mapping the Milky Way Galaxy The shape of our glaaxy A star is born WHAT IS LIGHT? Young's doube-slit experiment Messengers from across the ocean of space Chasing the speed of light The search for a cosmic clock Speed limits TIME TRAVEL To the dawn of time Finding Andromeda The Hubble Telescope Hubble's most important image All the colours of the rainbow Hubble expansion Redshift THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE Visible light Picturing the past First sight CHAPTER 2: Stardust THE ORIGINS OF BEING The cycle of life Mapping the night sky Stellar nurseries How to find exoplanets The origins of life The Periodic Table The universal chemistry set What are stars made of? THE EARLY UNIVERSE El Tatio Geysers, Chile The Big Bang Sub-atomic particles Timeline of the Universe: The Big Bang to the present Matter by numbers The most powerful exploion on Earth FROM BIG BANG TO SUNSHINE: THE FIRST STARS Red giant Star death Planetary nebulae The rarest of all Supernova: life cycle of a star The beginning and the end The origin of life CHAPTER 3: Falling FULL FORCE The invisible string The apple that never feel The grand sculpture The geoid THE TUG OF THE MOON The false dawn The Blue Marble Galactic cannibals Collision course When galaxies collide FEELING THE FORCE The gravity paradox The land of little green men What is gravity? Einstein's Theory of General Relativity Into the darkness The anatomy of a black hole CHAPTER 4: Destiny THE PASSAGE OF TIME The cosmic clock The galactic clock Ancient life The arrow of time The order of disorder Entropy in action The life cycle of the Universe The life of the Universe THE DESTINY OF STARS The demise of our universe The death of the Sun The last stars The beginning of the end A very precious time Index Picture credits Acknowledgements