COVER PAGE -- HALF TITLE PAGE -- TITLE PAGE -- COPYRIGHT PAGE -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER 1: EARLY UNDERSTANDING -- Ancient Ideas -- Claudius Ptolemy -- Science Approaches the Problem -- The Copernican Principle -- CHAPTER 2: COSMOLOGY IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY -- Albert Einstein -- Another Revolution in Cosmology -- The Cosmological Constant -- The Expanding Universe -- Edwin Powell Hubble -- The Uniform Universe -- CHAPTER 3: LOOKING BACKWARD: THE BIG BANG -- Friedmann-Lemaître and Gamow Models -- Predictions of the Big Bang Theory -- Antimatter -- Evidence for the Big Bang Theory -- Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) -- CHAPTER 4: LOOKING FORWARD: THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE -- Difficulties and Their Solutions -- Inflation -- Dark Matter -- WIMPs -- Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe -- CONCLUSION -- GLOSSARY -- FOR MORE INFORMATION -- FOR FURTHER READING -- INDEX -- BACK COVER.