De Pree C., Axelrod A. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Astronomy

The Ian Samuel Group, 2001. — 457 p.Although Astronomy has been around for more than 5,500 years, astronomers say that we’ve learned more than 90% of what we know about the universe in just the last 50—and much of that in the last decade! The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Astronomy, Fourth Edition, continues to be the most comprehensive introduction to the topic, covering all the latest advances and discoveries, including:
The demotion of Pluto and promotion of Ceres as planetary objects
Breakthrough evidence of recent water flow on Mars
New developments in asteroid-tracking programs
New information on the nature and shape of our universe
Mind-bending theories concerning multiple universes
Information on the latest telescopes