Everyone knows astronomers use telescopes to peer into distant space. But did you know that they also use them as time machines to look back into the past? In this fascinating and original book, world-renowned astronomer Paul Murdin

lays out the entire history of the Universe from here on Earth into the distance, leading us step by step through the history of time and space.

Our knowledge of the Universe is greater than ever thanks to cutting- edge scientific research, as well as a new age of space exploration and discovery, and Murdin has been at the forefront of this inquiry―he was the first person to identify a black hole. In The Universe, Murdin draws on his expertise in the field to explain difficult concepts such as black holes, nebulae, and dark matter and relates them to the most important characters and events in the history of our Universe: powerful explosions, the largest planets, galaxies, and celestial bodies. Structured in a clear, accessible fashion as a "biography" of our Universe, this history begins at the Big Bang and proceeds stage by stage through the story of our cosmos.

Full of fascinating details about our own existence, for instance that two-thirds of the atoms in our body are hydrogen atoms formed in the first few minutes of the Big Bang, and that we are a by-product of the manufacture of galaxies and stars, this volume offers a glimpse into the future of our Universe and what it means to us all.

大家都知道天文学家用望远镜来窥视遥远的太空。但你知道他们也用它们作为时间机器来回望过去吗？在这本精彩的原创书中，世界知名的天文学家保罗·穆尔丁（Paul Murdin）阐述了从地球上到遥远地方的整个宇宙历史，带领我们一步步穿越时空的历史。

由于前沿的科学研究以及新时代的太空探索和发现，我们对宇宙的了解比以往任何时候都要多，而穆尔丁一直处于这种探索的最前沿，他是**个识别黑洞的人。在《宇宙》中，穆尔丁利用他在该领域的专业知识，解释了黑洞、星云和暗物质等困难的概念，并将它们与宇宙历史上最重要的人物和事件联系起来：强大的爆炸、**的行星、星系和天体。本书结构清晰，易于理解，是宇宙的“传记”，从宇宙大爆炸开始，逐个阶段地讲述了我们的宇宙故事。

本书充满了人类自身存在的迷人细节，例如，人类体内三分之二的原子是在宇宙大爆炸的最初几分钟内形成的氢原子，我们是制造星系和恒星的副产品，这本书让我们看到了宇宙的未来以及它对我们所有人的意义。