Even if people sometimes argue over the pettiest things, we all have our curiosity in common. The universe is a stupendous place that has no obligation to make sense to us. Just think about it: we’re living on a tiny planet that’s hurtling around a star which is whirling through a galaxy that’s careening through the cosmos at absurd speeds. We humans only appeared 100,000 years ago in our universe’s 13.8-billion-year-long backstory. In the big picture, we’re newcomers to the cosmos—and our entire planet is nothing more than a microscopic speck. Disclaimer warning for an existential crisis!

From science writer Nathan Hellner-Mestelman comes Cosmic Wonder, a humorous and detailed guide to our universe as you’ve never seen it before.

While our cosmos sounds like a remote and abstract place, we’re connected to it in every way. Our atoms were smashed together in the cores of exploding stars. The universe dooms us to a riveting cascade of destruction, humbling us to look at one another with more compassion. Life sprouted on this planet thanks to a series of fantastic cosmic collisions—and we might not be alone in this universe after all.

Come along on a funny, deep, and insightful journey to the edge of the universe and back. From the tiny particles that make up life to the galaxies on the other end of the cosmos, and from the explosion of the Big Bang to the chilling death of the universe itself, Cosmic Wonder is sure to be a rollercoaster ride for your brain.