Galaxies — the Milky Way's siblings — offer a surprising variety of forms and colours. Symmetric spiral arms, glowing red nebulae, diffuse halos: just the image of a galaxy reveals much about its contruction. They all consist of gas, dust, and stars. But the influence of gravity, the effect of dark matter, and the interaction of star formation and stellar explosions also influence the appearance of galaxies.
This volume of photos shows more than 250 of the most beautiful galaxies and uses them as examples to explain current research. From the Andromeda galaxy to galaxy clusters to gravitational lenses: for the first time, the nature of galaxies is described via excellent amateur photographs.