Our small blue planet Earth receives its light and life from the Sun, the central furnace of our solar system. The Sun is a star, just one of a hundred billion stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way itself numbers among an estimated 200 billion galaxies, or “islands in infinity,” in the observable universe, stretching out in space, and back in time toward the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago. In this book, Professor Derek Ward-Thompson and Sir Brian May discuss the origins of the universe, describe how galaxies evolve and interact, and explore the wide range of galaxies we observe today, drawing on the latest scientific data. For the first time ever, here we can see galaxies as they really are, in glorious stereoscopic three-dimensional space, thanks to the groundbreaking 3-D images created by acclaimed astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio. An OWL stereo viewer