Stuart G. Clark Books

With approximately 500 cutting-edge images, 'Galaxy' investigates every aspect of the Milky Way, from its place in the universe to its large-scale anatomy, from its history to its future.

Embark on a fantastic voyage across 276 billion trillion miles of space and 13.5 billion years of time, featuring over 300 stunning astronomical images. This collection showcases the 101 greatest sights from Earth to the edge of the cosmos, with dramatic large-format photographs, many displayed at full or double-page size. Prepare to explore 46.5 billion light years of space, delving into celestial wonders ranging from comets to quasars. Starting on Earth in the Orion Spur of the Milky Way, readers will journey through the entire universe. Discover mesmerizing photos of Martian sand dunes shaped by spring winds, alien cloudscapes of fluorescing gases, and hidden nests of new stars. Witness hypergiant stars disintegrating, colliding galaxies, and superclusters gathering like cosmic dust. The journey is organized into four zones: interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic, and intertemporal. This grand tour offers an unparalleled portrait of our cosmic habitat, making it the ultimate way to experience the Universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken thousands of images of the cosmos. Many are the most detailed visual records of celestial bodies that scientists have ever seen, others are of objects never seen before, and some are breathtakingly beautiful. Universe in Focus uses over 150 of these remarkable images to reveal the evolving history of the planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe itself. Despite its early troubled history, Hubble has revealed to us objects in space that could only be imagined before now. Insight into black holes, active galaxies, and collapsing stars have been captured in revolutionary images, which are reproduced here in splendid color and interpreted for the non-expert by a professional astronomer. The book is organized into six chapters, moving from the workings of the telescope itself progressively outward to the Solar System, the stars, the galaxies, and the universe, including the most wide-ranging views into deep space. The final chapter, the Factfile, provides key reference information to expand and supplement the main content.