In The Infinite Cosmos Joseph Silk takes the reader on a tour of the universe, past, present, and future, showing how the very latest observations and theories are unlocking clues about its origin and structure: X-ray, radio, and high-energy views of the most distant reaches of the universe. Theories from the frontiers of current research seek to explain its structure from the first moments to the present day, and we are beginning to understand its extraordinary nature and possible fate. This is a story involving the visible and the invisible; subatomic particles and unusual forces; long ages of darkness and spectacular and violent events. It tells of supernovae, dark matter, dark energy, curved spacetime, colliding galaxies, and supermassive black holes. Weaving the ideas of poets and writers as well as scientists into the story, from Kant and Keats to Einstein and Lemaitre, Silk explains our present state of knowledge, and how much more there is to understand about our infinite cosmos.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Perspectives
3. Principles
4. Our neighbourhood
5. The universe of galaxies
6. The invisible cosmos
7. Supermassive black holes and the birth of galaxies
8. Clusters and clustering
9. Space is nearly flat
10. Dark energy and the runaway universe
11. The panacea of cold dark matter
12. Origins
13. The seeds of structure
14. Beyond the beginning
15. Towards the infinite universe
16. From time to time machines
17. A brief moment in time
18. Into the infinite future
19. And so to God
20. Where next?
Index