Galaxy

Introduction. The Cosmic Landscape: Our Place in the Cosmos: The Cosmos at 13 billion light years; The Cosmos at 5 billion light years; The Cosmos at 1 billion light years; The Cosmos at 200 million light years; The Cosmos at 100 million light years - Galaxy classification - Spiral galaxies - Barred spiral galaxies - Lenticular galaxies - Elliptical galaxies - Irregular galaxies; The Cosmos at 5 million light years; The Cosmos at 500,000 light years. The Milky Way: Anatomy of a Galaxy: The Milky Way, a bird's eye view; The Milky Way, in profile; Spiral arms; Dust clouds; The galactic core; The dark heart of the galaxy; The Milky Way and dark matter. Stars: Star Life: The stellar life cycle. Birth: Dark clouds and emission nebulae. Maturity: Young stars; Open clusters; Globular clusters; Stellar mergers; Stellar classification. Old Age and Death: Planetary nebulae; White dwarfs; Supergiant stars; Supernovae; Stellar corpses. Rebirth. Solar Systems: Planets: Building a solar system. Our Solar System: Sun - Solar activity. Rocky Worlds: Mercury; Venus - Geology of Venus - Venusian weather; Earth - A restless planet - Wind and weather - Life on Earth; Moon - Near side - Far side - Human lunar exploration; Mars - Martian moons - Martian volcanoes - Valles Marineris - Martian weather - Icy plains and polar caps - Water on Mars; The Asteroid belt. Gas Giants: Jupiter - The Jovian atmosphere - The moons of Jupiter; Saturn - Rings - The moons of Saturn; Uranus - The moons of Uranus; Neptune - The moons of Neptune. Outer Limits: The Kuiper belt; The Oort cloud. What next? Glossary. Index. Credits.

Stuart Clark ist leitender Redakteur für Weltraumwissenschaft der European Space Agency (ESA)Er schreibt für New Scientist, BBC Focus, The Times, Guardian und Economist.