For millennia humanity has gazed in wonder at the night sky‎,‎ tracked the motions of the planets and attempted to explain our place in the Universe‎.‎ But only in our own time has the true scale‎,‎ the astonishing variety and the remarkable strangeness of the cosmos come clearly into focus‎.‎ The pace and sophistication of recent scientific discovery has been breathtaking‎,‎ but breakthroughs are often difficult to understand and their impact is hard to fully appreciate‎.‎ In 50 Ideas You Really Need to Know‎:‎ Universe‎,‎ Joanne Baker clearly and concisely explains all of the essential concepts‎,‎ major discoveries and the very latest thinking in astrophysics‎,‎ including‎:‎ the basic principles of astronomy ‎- from heliocentrism to Newton‎'‎s theory of optics‎;‎ the constituent parts of the Universe‎,‎ its creation and evolution‎;‎ the key concepts of cosmology including the theory of relativity‎,‎ supermassive black holes and ‎'‎multiverses‎'‎‎;‎ the very latest developments in our understanding of quasars‎,‎ exoplanets and astrobiology‎.‎ From dwarf planets to dark energy‎;‎ and from the Big Bang to the death of stars‎,‎ this book is the perfect introduction to the cutting‎-edge science that is shaping our understanding of our place in the Universe and that could lead to the next great discovery ‎- the detection of life beyond Earth‎.‎