On the cover: Hundreds of thousands of stars swarm in M80, one of the densest globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy, in this recent Hubble Space Telescope image. The cluster is about 28,000 light-years from Earth.

Astronomy is a science for explorers. Although humans have visited only one other body in our universe — the Moon — we have sent robotic probes to dozens of others. With our telescopes, we have explored everything from comets and asteroids to the hellish environments around black holes. And with our imaginations, we have looked even farther: to the beginning and the end of the universe. In this issue of StarDate, we offer excerpts from several stories of exploration. Each story celebrates human imagination, courage, and ingenuity — the same qualities that distinguish explorers of every generation.

Book Space
Stellar explorations for Autumn reading

The Fifth Miracle by Paul Davies	The Race by James Schefter
Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek	West Texas Time Machine Essay by Steven Weinberg
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

Read archived news from StarDate magazine in the Resources section.

Every issue of StarDate also includes monthly star charts and stargazing highlights, plus stunning astronomical images.

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