Description

Our cosmic tour begins here. As we leave the secure confines of the Earth and journey into space, we find a plethora of strange and unexpected phenomena. Little can we anticipate from the quiet, star-studded sky the violent events in the cosmos. Stars explode. Powerful radio sources eject matter in jets. The ever-changing Universe grows more beautiful and more complex the deeper into it we go. Professor Narlikar skillfully steers us through a cosmic journey of discovery, starting from the Earth and Solar System and stepping out to the farthest reaches of the Universe. Using simple analogies, humorous anecdotes, and a wealth of illustrations, he conveys the thrill of observing strange and surprising features of the Universe. The seven wonders represent a range of mysterious phenomena, a class of spectacular events, or remarkable cosmic objects that have challenged human curiosity and defied explanation. They concern the giants and dwarfs of the stellar world, the catastrophic explosion of massive stars, pulsars--the ultimate timekeepers of the cosmos, the strange effects of gravity, illusions of space, and the majestic expansion of the Universe as a whole. With lucid prose, the author weaves together a host of exciting recent discoveries in astronomy and shows us how these motivate astronomers to unravel the wonders of tomorrow.