In this, the latest volume in the best selling 50 Ideas series, author Joanne Baker unravels the complexities of the universe for a general readership.
From Heliocentrism to dark matter, and from Keplers laws of planetary motion and orbits to Olbers paradox and the Shapley-Curtis debate, she explains ideas at the cutting-edge of scientific enquiry, making them comprehensible and accessible to the layperson.
* Planets and solar system
* Cosmic microwave background
* Supermassive black holes
* Heliocentrism
* Big bang nucleosynthesis
* Galaxy formation and evolution
* Keplers laws
* General relativity
* Gravitational lensing
* Galileo
* Special relativity
* Stars: types
* Newtons laws of motion
* Black holes
* Stars: births of stars
* Gravitation
* String theory
* Stars: deaths of stars
* Spectrum
* Astroparticle physics
* Stars: life cycles
* Milky Way
* Cosmic rays
* The sun: fusion and sunspots
* Doppler shift and redshift
* Higgs boson Pulsars
* Shapley-Curtis debate
* Anthropic principle
* Cepheids and variable stars
* Olbers paradox
* Hubble
* sequence of galaxy types
* Gamma ray bursts
* Hubbles law
* Dark matter
* Exoplanets
* Cosmic distance ladder
* Large scale structure
* Theories of creation
* Big bang
* Galaxy clusters and voids
* Earth-moon giant impact theory
* Cosmic inflation
* X-ray background
* Astrobiology
* Dark energy
* Radio galaxies
* Fermi paradox
* Matter and antimatter
* Quasars and active galactic nuclei