The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living PlanetsWe are nearing a turning point in our quest for life in the universe -- we now have the capacity to detect Earth-like planets around other stars. But will we find any? In The Crowded Universe, renowned astronomer Alan Boss argues that based on what we already know about planetary systems, in the coming years we will find abundant Earths, including many that are indisputably alive. Life is not only possible elsewhere in the universe, Boss argues -- it is common. Boss describes how our ideas about planetary formation have changed radically in the past decade and brings readers up to date on discoveries of bizarre inhabitants of various solar systems, including our own. America must stay in this new space race, Boss contends, or risk being left out of one of the most profoundly important discoveries of all time: the first confirmed finding of extraterrestrial life. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
51 Pegasi able Alan Stern announced astrometric Astrophysical Journal atmosphere Barnard’s star binary stars Borucki budget Butler Center cold super-Earths colleagues core accretion CoRoT cost overruns Decadal Survey decided discovered disk gas disk instability distance Doppler wobble dwarf stars e-mail Earth-like planets exoplanets extrasolar planet formed frequency FRESIP Galaxy gas giant gas giant planets George Wetherill giant stars Gliese gravitational Griffin habitable worlds hot Jupiters hot super-Earths Hubble hydrogen ice giants infrared interferometer Jupiter masses Kepler Mission launch Marcy Mars massive meteorite microlensing million NASA headquarters Neptune Observatory OGLE orbital period Planet Finder planet formation planet orbiting planet search planet-forming disk planetary systems planethood Pluto protoplanets pulsar planets result secondary eclipse Shuttle SIM-Lite Solar System Spitzer star’s star's light submitted a paper terrestrial planets tion TPF-C TPF-I transiting planet tronomers University Walker wavelengths Webb Weiler Wetherill