"In Pillars of Creation, award-winning science writer Richard Panek presents the first complete account of the James Webb Space Telescope-the [...] billion NASA instrument whose stunning images have captured the world's imagination and are revolutionizing our understanding of the cosmos. Moving from the near and now to the farthest and earliest, Panek shows how everything we thought we knew about our own solar system, our galaxy, and the birth of the universe itself has been touched and transformed by the Webb's findings. Drawing on access to the project's most senior scientists and featuring a selection of the most astonishing color images taken by Webb, Pillars of Creation explains the big theoretical takeaways that the mission has already generated, and points to future areas of research-and even future missions-that will expand our horizons further still. A celebration of mankind's biggest leap yet into the cosmos, Pillars of Creation unveils the genius and contingency behind this groundbreaking invention and reveals, in glittering detail, how it has ushered in a thrilling new era of celestial knowledge"--