J. Craig Wheeler is Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professor of Astronomy and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas Austin. He was elected President of the American Astronomical Society in 2006.

'Wheeler's is one of those rare popular science books that leaves readers both thoroughly entertained and considerably more expert than when they began. Written in a lively, jargon-free style, laced with personal anecdotes, this is a hard-to-put-down, deeply satisfying book.' Kitty Ferguson, author of the best-seller, Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything

• Preface; 1. Setting the stage: star formation and hydrogen burning in single stars; 2. Stellar death: the inexorable grip of gravity; 3. Dancing with stars: binary stellar evolution; 4. Accretion disks: flat stars; 5. White Dwarfs: quantum dots; 6. Supernovae: stellar catastrophes; 7. Supernova 1987A: lessons and enigmas; 8. Neutron stars: atoms with attitude; 9. Black holes in theory: into the abyss; 10. Black holes in fact: exploring the reality; 11. Gamma-ray bursts, black holes and the universe: long, long ago and far, far away; 12. Supernovae and the universe; 13. Worm holes and time machines: tunnels in space and time; 14. Beyond: the frontiers; Index.

J. Craig Wheeler is Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professor of Astronomy and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas Austin. He was elected President of the American Astronomical Society in 2006.

'Wheeler's is one of those rare popular science books that leaves readers both thoroughly entertained and considerably more expert than when they began. Written in a lively, jargon-free style, laced with personal anecdotes, this is a hard-to-put-down, deeply satisfying book.' Kitty Ferguson, author of the best-seller, Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything

• Preface; 1. Setting the stage: star formation and hydrogen burning in single stars; 2. Stellar death: the inexorable grip of gravity; 3. Dancing with stars: binary stellar evolution; 4. Accretion disks: flat stars; 5. White Dwarfs: quantum dots; 6. Supernovae: stellar catastrophes; 7. Supernova 1987A: lessons and enigmas; 8. Neutron stars: atoms with attitude; 9. Black holes in theory: into the abyss; 10. Black holes in fact: exploring the reality; 11. Gamma-ray bursts, black holes and the universe: long, long ago and far, far away; 12. Supernovae and the universe; 13. Worm holes and time machines: tunnels in space and time; 14. Beyond: the frontiers; Index.

J. Craig Wheeler is Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professor of Astronomy and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas Austin. He was elected President of the American Astronomical Society in 2006.

'Wheeler's is one of those rare popular science books that leaves readers both thoroughly entertained and considerably more expert than when they began. Written in a lively, jargon-free style, laced with personal anecdotes, this is a hard-to-put-down, deeply satisfying book.' Kitty Ferguson, author of the best-seller, Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything

• Preface; 1. Setting the stage: star formation and hydrogen burning in single stars; 2. Stellar death: the inexorable grip of gravity; 3. Dancing with stars: binary stellar evolution; 4. Accretion disks: flat stars; 5. White Dwarfs: quantum dots; 6. Supernovae: stellar catastrophes; 7. Supernova 1987A: lessons and enigmas; 8. Neutron stars: atoms with attitude; 9. Black holes in theory: into the abyss; 10. Black holes in fact: exploring the reality; 11. Gamma-ray bursts, black holes and the universe: long, long ago and far, far away; 12. Supernovae and the universe; 13. Worm holes and time machines: tunnels in space and time; 14. Beyond: the frontiers; Index.