Key Message: With Astronomy Today, Sixth Edition, trusted authors Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan communicate their excitement about astronomy and awaken readers to the universe around them. Thoroughly updated, the revised edition focuses on the process of scientific discovery and scientific method, making "how we know what we know" a more integral part of the book with attention to clearly and concisely presenting scientific terms to the non-science reader. Key Topics: Charting The Heavens: The Foundations of Astronomy, The Copernican Revolution: The Birth of Modern Science, Radiation: Information from the Cosmos, Spectroscopy: The Inner Workings of Atoms, Telescopes: The Tools of Astronomy, The Solar System: An Introduction to Comparative Planetology, Earth: Our Home in Space, The Moon and Mercury: Scorched and Battered Worlds, Venus: Earth's Sister Planet, Mars: A Near Miss for Life?, Jupiter: Giant of the Solar System, Saturn: Spectacular Rings and Mysterious Moons, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto: The Outer Worlds of the Solar System, Solar System Debris: Keys to Our Origin, The Formation of Planetary Systems: The Solar System and Beyond, The Sun: Our Parent Star, Measuring the Stars: Giants, Dwarfs, and the Main Sequence, The Interstellar Medium: Gas and Dust Among the Stars, Star Formation: A Traumatic Birth, Stellar Evolution: The Life and Death of a Star, Stellar Explosions: Novae, Supernovae, and the Formation of the Elements, Neutron Stars and Black Holes: Strange States of Matter, The Milky Way Galaxy: A Spiral in Space, Galaxies: Building Blocks of the Universe, Galaxies and Dark Matter: The Large-Scale Structure of the Cosmos, Cosmology: The Big Bang and the Fate of the Universe, The Early Universe: Toward the Beginning of Time, Life In The Universe: Are We Alone? Market: Intended for those interested in learning the basics of Astronomy