ramlmres and <rontrasts the jovian gas g|ants--Jupiter， Saturn， Uranus， and<br > Neplune. Chapter 9 looks at the minor worlds~Mercury， Pinto， Earth s<br > Moon. and the major satellites of jupiter， Saturn， and Neptune. Chapter I 0<br > spotlights comets and meteoroids， the solar system s vagabonds.<br > Moving outward， Chapters 11 through 16 discuss all aspects of stars.<br > Chapter 11 begins by presentmg observational traits of stars--their colors，<br > types， and groupings. Chapter 12 shows how we measure the distance and<br > brighmess of stars. Chapter 13 provides a detailed look at the most familiar<br > star. our Sun. Chapter 14 answers the quesuon of how stars shine and<br > reveals ，hat all stars have life cycles. Cbapter 15 tells what happens when<br > stars die and describes some of the peculiar objects that violent stellar death<br > ( a Jr ( reatt ， including neutron stars and pulsars. Chapter 16 focuses on black<br > h，，les Ihe most bizarre objects to result from explosive star death.<br > ks w，. explore further. Chapter 17 describes the parts of the Milky Way<br > .，， ，~，Jc~ ~，.， plate in it. Chapter 18 pushes beyond the Milky Way to<br > .， ，._，.da~ics rn general， the fnndamental building blocks of the Uni-<br > ， ~ ，~.， 19 looks al qu;tsars， enigmatic high-energy objects that<br > . :.，h I the key to tmder~tanding how tbe Universe of galaxies came<br > h，ptcr 20 considers the uhimate question of cosmologk;fl<br > ::~ :h /i.e recent findings and current tbeories. Lastly， as a coda<br > ，. :~ ，I，， avs intriguing search for extraterrestrial intelligence i~<br > -， ::，~，，~，se offers instructors a short te~t with complete b~ t<br > ~~t- ，， ，， ，~m c)r astronotmcal topics. An early discussion oft]，，<br > ，，. ~1，， ，，I .，~ ~ its importa~ce in the verifica~.ion of observatiot， .<br > ，~ ~ ~. ~ ，， t~p-lo-date coverage of all important findings a~， I<br > ，ct~ h ，， ..~，~1~，.~ of results of the Voyager flybys of Uranus al~ i<br > .~-~ ra(l~Jr st. Oies ofVem~s lrom the Magellan orbiter， the impo -<br > I- .，an-tilt(- t.~ttlls and their implication for cosmological theoric ，<br > ，x~lll~ mnnbeJ of significant findings from the Hubble Spa，<br > I ht (h~t，n:r~ on terrestrial planets， jovian planets， and smalh<br > ，I pi;~t，ets allow for a comparative planetology approach to tl-"<br > ~h~<br > ，~ ，GY<br > " ， ~， ~， motivational features introduced in Journey Through the Unive， ，e<br > .，， 1:，，， t~s Essays and Interviews. Each Focus Essay introduces a fundame~，-<br > I~0 ztslr，，~omicat concept--time， distance， mass， power， and space and a( ts<br > as.， p~ elude to the chapters lbllowing it. The questions arising from thes( <br > c，mcel，ts have fascinated and preoccupied astronomers for centuries， but it<br > bas been twentieth-century astronomers who have begun to solve many of<br > the mysteries posed by these deceptively simple ideas. These concepts also<br > function as major themes in astronomical research， which are echoed<br > throughout the text.<br > Each of the five Interviews presents a notable researcher (Jeff Hoff<br > man， Carolyn Porco， Ben Peery， William Fowler， and Sandra Faber) e，t-<br > gaged in conversatior~ about a variety of topics: current and future work in<br > astronomy， what led that person to study and pursue astronomy as a career，<br > why learning about astronomy is an important scientific and human en-<br > deavor. It hits been fun tot me to conduct this series of interviews with such<br > a talented and varied group of astronomers. 1 hooe that you enjoy reading<br >