The impact of Einstein's relativity is perhaps most dramatic in
astronomy, radically altering our interpretation of the observations of
the stars and galaxies. Astronomers now encounter challenging phenomena
that Einstein never lived to see, in which the bizarre effects of
relativity played out on a cosmic scale. This accessible overview
explains to general readers the many applications of relativity that
have not been shown in earlier popular-level books. Using no mathematics
beyond e=mc2, it explains how deeply relativistic ways of viewing the
Universe have informed our interpretations of it, and how many of the
amazing discoveries of these decades have made sense only as part of
Einstein's universe. Some principal observers provide fresh commentary
on their discoveries, accompanied by illustrations, newly produced from
data in the archives of such observatories as Hubble and Chandra.