3The Cosmic Mystery Tour takes us on a lightning tour of the mysteries of the universe enlivened by brief stories of the colourful characters who created modern science. It explores hot topics in physics and astronomy, including the recent discovery of gravitational waves; the quest for the origin of dark matter; the study of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy; the ongoing search for Earth-like exoplanets; the search for signals from extraterrestrials; and the development of technologies to send spacecraft to the stars.

The first part of the book explores the laws that govern the universe. Physics is a spiritual quest to find deep meaning in the cosmos. Its goal is to provide a concise, but accurate description of the world that accounts for all the amazing features that it contains. The second part takes a look at the history of the cosmos, studies its geography and explores some of its architectural highlights such as red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars and the ultimate cosmic mysteries--supermassive black holes. The last part considers the possibility that life might exist elsewhere in the universe, and explores the cosmos from the outer fringes of science fiction to the ongoing search for alien civilizations.