Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- List of Figures -- Chapter 1. A Day without Yesterday -- 1.1 Instant of Creation -- 1.2 Size and Age of Earth, Sun and Milky Way -- 1.3 Einstein's Static Universe -- 1.4 Expanding Universe -- 1.5 Universe without Center -- 1.6 Karl Schwarzschild and Black Holes -- 1.7 Questions -- 1.8 Boxes 1-9 -- Chapter 2. Formation of Galaxies -- 2.1 Fragmentation of Giant Clouds into Galaxies and Galaxy Clusters -- 2.1.1 Galaxies and Stars -- 2.2 Types of Galaxies -- 2.2.1 Spiral Arm Galaxies -- 2.2.2 Elliptical Galaxies -- 2.2.3 Lenticular Galaxy -- 2.3 Fritz Zwicky and Galaxies as Gravitational Lenses -- 2.4 Unseen Matter and Energy -- 2.4.1 Dark Matter, Dark Energy -- 2.4.2 Hot and Cold Dark Matter -- 2.4.3 Distinguishing between Dark and Ordinary Matter -- 2.5 Globular Clusters -- 2.6 Box 10 -- Chapter 3. Birth and Life of Stars -- 3.1 The First Stars -- 3.2 Star Birth -- 3.3 Orion: A Stellar Nursery -- 3.4 Birth of Massive Stars in the Tri d Nebula -- 3.5 Galaxy Collisions and Star Birth -- 3.6 In the Fires of Stars -- 3.7 Thermonuclear Evolution of Stars -- 3.8 Questions -- 3.9 Boxes 11-12 -- Chapter 4. Supernovae: Death and Trans guration of Stars -- 4.1 A Dying Star -- 4.2 The Guest Star -- 4.3 Core Collapse and Supernovae -- 4.4 Ghostly Neutrinos -- 4.5 Detecting Far-off Supernova -- 4.6 What Sustains a Star So Long Before Its Collapse -- 4.7 White Dwarfs and Chandrasekhar -- 4.8 The Pauli Principle -- 4.9 Neutron Stars -- 4.10 Discovery: Jocelyn Bell -- 4.11 Birth, Death, and Transfiguration -- 4.12 Reverend John Michell and the Idea of Black Holes -- 4.13 Questions -- Chapter 5. Nebulae -- 5.1 The Milky Way and Nebula -- 5.2 Sir John Herschel and the Carina Nebula -- 5.3 Planetary Nebulae -- 5.4 The Cerro Tololo Observatory -- 5.5 Questions -- Chapter 6. Spacetime, Relativity, and Superdense Matter.

6.1 Einstein: Spacetime and Relativity -- 6.2 Superdense Matter -- 6.3 Spinning Neutron Stars -- 6.4 Questions -- 6.5 Boxes 13-18 -- Chapter 7. Origins -- 7.1 Formation of the Solar System -- 7.2 Johannes Kepler -- 7.3 The Sun -- 7.4 The Sun and Arthur Eddington -- 7.5 Eventual Fate of Our Sun -- 7.6 The Planets -- 7.7 The Earth -- 7.8 The Moon and Tidal Locking -- 7.9 The Moon -- 7.10 Laplace (1749-1827) -- 7.11 Questions -- 7.12 Box 19 -- Chapter 8. First Modern Astronomer -- 8.1 Galileo: Principle Discoveries -- 8.2 Youth -- 8.3 His Astronomical Research with the Telescope -- 8.4 The Earth Turns Round -- 8.5 Conflict with the Church -- Chapter 9. Life on Earth -- 9.1 Land and Waters of Earth -- 9.2 Conditions for Life on Earth -- 9.3 Evolution of Life on Earth -- 9.4 Earliest Life on Earth -- 9.5 Mass Extinctions -- 9.6 Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) -- 9.7 Habitable Zone around Stars -- Chapter 10. Other Planets and Their Moons -- 10.1 Jupiter -- 10.2 Moons of Jupiter -- 10.3 Mars -- 10.4 Moons of Mars -- 10.5 The Ringed Planet, Saturn -- 10.6 Venus -- 10.7 Mercury -- 10.8 Uranus -- 10.9 Neptune -- 10.10 Pluto (a Dwarf Planet) -- 10.11 The Voyager Missions -- 10.12 Questions -- Chapter 11. New Worlds -- 11.1 Edmond Halley: The Stars Also Move -- 11.2 The Sun Also Orbits -- 11.3 First Planets beyond Our Solar System -- 11.4 The Search for Exoplanets -- 11.5 Search for Life beyond the Solar System -- Bibliography -- Index.