Collects writings from several leading theoretical physicists and cosmologists that offer an overview of our scientific understanding of the universe as it stands today.

Explores the mysteries of the cosmos and the place of humans within it.

In 1957, as Americans obsessed over the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite, another less noticed space-based scientific revolution was taking off. That year, astrophysicists solved a centuries-old quest for the origins of the elements, from carbon to uranium. The answer they found wasn't on Earth, but in the stars. Their research showed that we are literally stardust. The year also marked the first conference that considered the origin of life...

Presents a new study of the cosmos that explains the latest theories on why the universe and life exist and why they work the way they do, through the concept of the multiverse, or "m-theory," that attempts to construct a grand unified design.

Presents a history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the formation of Earth, in the form of a letter written by the thirteen-billion-year-old universe itself to an Earth child.

After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, the Milky Way would like a chance to speak for itself. All one hundred billion stars and fifty undecillion tons of gas of it. It all began some thirteen billion years ago, when clouds of gas scattered through the universe's primordial plasma...

Documents the recent efforts of scientists to explain the ninety-six percent of the universe not comprised of known matter, drawing on interviews with leading figures to describe the rivalries, collaborations, and discoveries that are redefining current understandings.

The author traces the Big Bang through the rise of civilization, documenting his work with a host of the world's most advanced scientists and mathematicians to explain why things are the way they are.

Presents a series of 250 significant events in the history of astronomy and space exploration, from the original formation of the galaxies, to the space mission to the planet Mars, to speculation about the end of the universe -- Source other than Library of Congress.