For the past twelve billion years, galaxies have governed the Universe, bringing form to the firmament, light to the void. Each one a giant system of as many as hundreds of billions of stars, the galaxies are the building blocks of the cosmos, and through new data from modern telescopes--including the Hubble Space Telescope--we are discovering dizzying new facts about how they formed, how they evolve, and what they are made of. This book acquaints readers with these facts and findings--and with what they can tell us about the lives of galaxies over cosmic time, from their emergence shortly after the Hot Big Bang to their ongoing gyrations and transmutations.

William H. Waller is Investigator and Liaison for Space Scientists at NASA's New England Space Science Initiative in Education.

Paul W. Hodge is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at the University of Washington and editor-in-chief of Astronomical Journal.

Read More by Paul W. Hodge:

• Galaxies