This book contains the expanded lecture notes of the 32nd Saas-Fee Advanced Course. The three contributions present the central themes in modern research on the cold universe, ranging from cold objects at large distances to the physics of dust in cold clouds.

Readers with any kind of an interest in astronomy will find this work fascinating, detailing as it does the proceedings of the symposium of the same name held in Japan in 2006. The symposium focused on mapping the interstellar media and other components in galactic disks, bulges, halos, and central regions of galaxies. Thanks to recent progress in observations using radio interferometers and optical/infrared telescopes in ground and space, our knowledge on structures of our Galaxy and nearby galaxies has been growing for the last decade.

Readers with any kind of an interest in astronomy will find this work fascinating, detailing as it does the proceedings of the symposium of the same name held in Japan in 2006. The symposium focused on mapping the interstellar media and other components in galactic disks, bulges, halos, and central regions of galaxies. Thanks to recent progress in observations using radio interferometers and optical/infrared telescopes in ground and space, our knowledge on structures of our Galaxy and nearby galaxies has been growing for the last decade.

This book contains the expanded lecture notes of the 32nd Saas-Fee Advanced Course. The three contributions present the central themes in modern research on the cold universe, ranging from cold objects at large distances to the physics of dust in cold clouds.

IAU Symposium 309 contains contributions on the timely theme of spatially and energetically resolved properties of galaxies. New technologies in 3D spectroscopy in the optical and near-infrared regimes, and radio interferometry, allow for the first time the efficient mapping of stars, gas and dust in galaxies near and far. This volume demonstrates how detailed measurements of individual objects are complemented by surveys aiming at a full census of galaxies across the local Universe. Reaching out to the limits of the Universe, the evolution of spatially resolved properties is traced throughout our whole cosmic history. In parallel with this, new computer technology and highly advanced algorithms are exploited for detailed simulations to probe the underlying physical and cosmological connections. This volume benefits astronomers and graduate students working in areas relating to galaxy formation and evolution, star formation, dust and stellar populations.

The mystery of how the galaxies formed is a complex and intriguing subject, involving several different theories and an understanding of many different phenomena. Francoise Combes outlines the context in which the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe occurred and the first inhomogeneities from which arose the early structures of the universe.

The author describes how, contrary to our everyday experience, space and time appear to be intimately connected. In astronomy, a telescope is a time machine. We can look today at distant galaxies and, although we describe them in the present tense, we are really seeing them in their youthful stages, now long over. Having outlined the evolution and structure of galaxies, black holes are introduced. What do we know about their origins and growth at the centers of galaxies? The author describes how scientists can observe and draw conclusions about black holes.

Scenarios of both "top down" and "bottom up" galaxy formation are discussed, together with the relationship between red and blue galaxies and dwarf, elliptical, and spheroidal galaxies. The problem of dark matter is then addressed, including its relationship to visible matter and to the structure of the universe on the grand scale, focusing on the success of the Cold Dark Matter model. The author concludes by reviewing problems that remain to be solved and the techniques that might begin to be used to solve these."