Outstanding imagery, stunningly presented. Perceptive text from award-winning science writer James Trefil. A foreword by David H. Levy, discoverer of 21 comets. Put them all together and you get Other Worlds: Images of the Cosmos from Earth and Space. Bonnie Gordon, editor of Astronomy magazine, calls this "a gorgeously produced book about our solar system, the larger universe, and our place in both....Few writers give you as much insight as Trefil. Few will make you feel you understand the story of planetary evolution or how scientists discovered the distances to neighboring stars." Paul H. Knappenberger, president of Chicago's Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, agrees, calling Trefil "a superb guide" with "a splendid overview of astronomy." Join in this armchair journey through the universe, which sparkles with the best images available from all sources, including ground-based observatories, landers, flybys, and other missions, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope. Other Worlds, says Knappenberger, "is a masterful balance of beautiful, full-color photographs and clearly written, insightful information about the cosmos....Jim Trefil takes the reader on a mind-expanding adventure that begins with our own star, the sun, then moves outward through the planets and moons of our solar system. He leads us past the stars and gas clouds of our Milky Way galaxy and beyond to the myriad other distant galaxies that populate the expanding universe. Along the way we encounter such exotic objects as black holes and quasars, and witness galactic cannibalism. "Trefil explains in a clear and easily readable manner our evolving understanding of the complex nature of the cosmos, and how scientists have gone about exploring the universe....Everyone who is curious about space and our place within the grand scheme of things will want to have this book." Highly acclaimed science writer James Trefil is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University and is on the Science Advisory Board for National Public Radio. He has written numerous books on science for the general public, including The Moment of Creation, The Dark Side of the Universe, From Atoms to Quarks, and Are We Alone? Winner of the AAAS-Westinghouse Award for science writing, Trefil also contributes to Smithsonian, Science, and USA Today. Read Less