The universe in time

In his popular book "Beyond the Moan, "Italian astronomer Paolo Maffei offered a celestial tour, guiding his readers on a trip to the farthest reaches of space and pointing out to them how, as the distances increased, individual stars could be seen clustered into galaxies, the galaxies themselves forming clusters, and those clusters in turn aggregating into superclusters ....In this sequel, Maffei invites us along on another journey, this one through time: "Extending oneself in time, " he writes, "is even more exhilarating than traveling in space. It is a little like feeling immortal." The itinerary follows time's arrow from the fireball of the Big Bang some 15 billion years ago to the present to various conceivable futures, some extending the world indefinitely through time, others bringing the world to a definite end."The Universe in Time" is structured as a series of embedded voyages first through the life cycle of the stars, then through that of planetary systems, and finally through both geological/ecological evolution and the origin and development of life on earth. Maffei explores the possibilities of extraterrestrial life before he steps back to take a broader time perspective and to discuss alternative theories of the origin, development, and fate of the universe as a whole. Paolo Maffei is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Perugia. The MIT Press has published translations of two of his previous books, "Beyond the Moon "and "Monsters in the Sky."