Foreword It was a great pleasure to have been able to provide assistance to Kenji Ishikawa in creat- ing this book. I was very thankful for the help I had received when I wrote my own book, A Distant 14.6 Billion Light Year Journey, and felt that I wanted to return the favor now. Be that as it may, I inspected the manuscript as carefully as possible, and I aimed for complete accuracy by requesting corrections or revisions with little thought of any nuisance it might be to the author or publisher. Research related to the universe is progressing steadily now, and even researchers find it difficult to sufficiently understand the leading edge of their own fields. Even more, it's next to impossible for anyone to gain a complete understanding of the universe. From that perspective, when I first read this book, I was surprised that it discussed major obser- vational and theoretical results, starting from a view of the solar system and finally arriving at cosmology. I was also pleased to find diligent explanations of the basics of astrophysics and astronomy. This book, which overflows with the author's extraordinary care and enthusiasm for solving the riddles of the universe, makes an extremely lively, unique, and wholesome handbook. Furthermore, the power of manga as a means of communication is enormous, and it goes without saying that it is much more effective than any mere accumulation of words. If a new perspective on the universe can be gained with this book, new interest in the universe can be generated, or readers can be encouraged to aspire to gaining a better understanding of its mysteries, it will be an unexpected delight to me, since I have been involved in cosmology for a great many years. Kiyoshi Kawabata supervising editor november 2008