Astronomy is one of the most ancient sciences. Thanks to the knowledge accumulated by humanity since our ancestors began to monitor the movements of the Sun and stars, the idea of man’s place in the Universe has changed radically. Every breakthrough in science was reflected in public life: in the 17th century, Galileo was arrested for the controversial doctrine that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Similar mistrust was caused by evidence that the solar system is not located at the center of the Milky Way. And Edwin Hubble silenced the debate in the 1920s by discovering that the Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies scattered throughout the expanding 14-billion-year-old Universe. In the twentieth century, even more discoveries were made. We began to better understand the structure of stars and their engine - nuclear fusion, and at the same time we gained knowledge about nuclear energy and radiation. Later, radio astronomy appeared, pulsars, quasars and black holes were discovered. New windows have opened on the Universe - from the cosmic microwave background radiation to celestial X-rays and gamma rays. This book is a fascinating excursion into astrophysics from the point of view of modern science.