A highly readable and entertaining guide to modern cosmology. Brings to life new discoveries in the farthest reaches of space, making astronomy accessible to the general reader. Discusses, in nontechnical language, cosmic strings, inflationary models of the early universe, the superstring theory, quasars, galactic streamers, superluminal jets, and gravitational lenses. Building from an historical perspective, the author describes exotic celestial phenomena, and explains the latest theories of the birth and death of the universe.