50 IDEAS YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW: Universe

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 Kepler's laws of planetary motion and orbits to Olber's paradox and the Shapley-Curtis debate, she explains ideas at the cutting-edge of scientific enquiry, making them comprehensible and accessible to the layperson. Includes: Planets and solar system; Heliocentrism; Kepler's laws; Galileo; Newton's laws of motion; Gravitation; Spectrum; Milky Way; Doppler shift and redshift; Shapley-Curtis debate; Olbers paradox; Hubble's law; Cosmic distance ladder; Big bang; Cosmic inflation; Dark energy; Matter and antimatter; Cosmic microwave background; Big bang nucleosynthesis; General relativity; Special relativity; Black holes; String theory; Astroparticle physics; Cosmic rays; Higgs boson; Anthropic principle; Hubble sequence of galaxy types; Dark matter; Large scale structure; Galaxy clusters and voids; X-ray background; Radio galaxies; Quasars and active galactic nuclei; Supermassive black holes; Galaxy formation and evolution; Gravitational lensing; Stars: types; Stars: births of stars; Stars: deaths of stars; Stars: life cycles; The sun: fusion and sunspots; Pulsars; Cepheids and variable stars; Gamma ray bursts; Exoplanets; Theories of creation; Earth-moon giant impact theory; Astrobiology; Fermi paradox.