The visible universe consists of stars and galaxies. One of the challenges of astronomy is to understand how galaxies and stars first came into existence over thirteen billion years ago. This book tells the story of our quest to solve this problem. Four hundred years after Galileo used his telescope to discover the moons of Jupiter, we are using new telescopes and instruments to search for the first galaxies to form after the Big Bang. This book brings the reader to the current frontier of this subject and lays out some of the exciting developments we can expect in the years to come.

Autorentext
George Rhee is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nevada. He published 37 peer reviewed articles and is a co-author of a Nature article published in 2010. The author is an active researcher in astronomy but also an experienced teacher and has given many science talks in his career for general audiences.

Zusammenfassung
This book takes the reader on an exploration of the structure and evolution of our universe. The basis for our knowledge is the Big Bang theory of the expanding universe. This book then tells the story of our search for the first stars and galaxies using current and planned telescopes. These telescopes are marvels of technology far removed from Galileo's first telescope but continuing astronomy in his ground breaking spirit. We show the reader how these first stars and galaxies shaped the universe we see today. This story is one of the great scientific adventures of all time.

Inhalt
An evening in May.- A brief history of cosmology.- The Big Bang.- The Visible Universe.- Dark matter.- Cosmic backgrounds.- Clues from Nearby Galaxies (astronomical fossils).- Structure formation.- A map of the universe.- The First Stars and Galaxies.- The great time machines; A New Generation of Telescopes.- Exploring the Universe from Space with the next Hubble telescope.