The Infinite Expanse: The Astonishing Scale of the Universe offers a compelling exploration of the cosmos, revealing its intricate structures and our place within this grand design.

The journey begins in our solar system, our immediate cosmic neighborhood. Here, we examine the Sun, the star that provides light and warmth to our planet, and the diverse planets that orbit it, from the rocky terrain of Mars to the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn with their complex systems of moons.

Venturing beyond, we encounter the Milky Way galaxy, our galactic home, a massive spiral structure populated by hundreds of billions of stars, vast nebulae where new stars are born, and a supermassive black hole at its center.

Expanding our perspective further, we explore the Local Group, a collection of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Triangulum Galaxy, and we explore the interactions between these galaxies, including the distant but inevitable collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda.

From there, we zoom further out to galaxy clusters and superclusters, the largest gravitationally bound structures in the observable universe, and the immense cosmic web they form. Finally, we confront the limits of our current understanding of the observable universe and the theoretical possibilities of what lies beyond.

In this book, author Fred Pierson offers readers a comprehensive view of the known universe, from our solar system to the largest cosmic structures.