Let authors Mike Seeds and Dana Backman guide you through a fascinating study of astronomy with this text. With each chapter of Perspectives on Astronomy, Seeds and Backman show you that astronomy is so much more than the study of stars and planets- it is the study of the universe in which we live, and in turn the study of what we are. With this spirit of discovery woven throughout the book, you will learn how we know about the natural world. That is, how science combines theory and evidence to answer essential questions such as: "How do we know there was a big bang?" "How do we know that the sun will die?" and "How do we know there are other worlds orbiting other suns?" Book jacket.