Alien Earths (planet Hunting In The Cosmos)

By (author) Kaltenegger, Lisa
Description:

‘Lisa Kaltenegger offers first-hand access to her expertise on the search for planets in the universe, and the life they may contain. Along the way, Lisa''s breezy narrative style invites you to experience with her the challenges and joys of being a scientist on the frontier of discovery’ Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist

For thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we''re alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. The question should have an obvious answer: yes or no. But once you try to find life elsewhere, you realize it is not so simple. How do you find it over cosmic distances? What actually is life?

Astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger works from Carl Sagan’s former office at Cornell University, where she built a team of tenacious scientists from many disciplines to find life on faraway worlds, using Earth’s diverse biosphere and its history as a Rosetta Stone. With infectious enthusiasm, she provides an eye-opening insider’s guide to the most unusual exoplanets that have shaken our worldview – planets covered in oceans of lava, lonely wanderers lost in space, and others with more than one sun in their sky – as well as the best contenders for Alien Earths. She also shows how close imagined scifi worlds come to reality.

We live in an incredible new epoch of exploration. As our witty and knowledgeable tour guide, Professor Kaltenegger shows how we discover not merely new continents, like the explorers of old, but whole new worlds circling other stars – and how we could spot life there. Worlds from where aliens may even be gazing back at us. What if we''re not alone?

Review quote:
Lisa Kaltenegger is an enthusiastic guide to the search for life beyond our planet — and the new technologies that could help it succeed ... [the] director of Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute, stands out from the crowd of authors as one of the world’s leading practitioners of astrobiology, with extensive personal involvement in the field. She writes with exemplary clarity about the remarkable diversity of the thousands of planets already identified beyond our solar system — and explains how we could detect clear signs of biology in outer space from the vast influx of data provided by a new generation of ultra-powerful telescopes over the next few years ... the tone of Alien Earths is overwhelmingly positive, as Kaltenegger rejoices in her “adventure to find life in the cosmos” and invites readers to share her excitement for the search, without getting carried away by “wild claims” with insufficient evidence ... she writes.“The most exciting phase is about to begin.”
Review quote:
Every other day we discover a new planet. How long before we find one that can sustain intelligent life? ... As Lisa Kaltenegger explains in her horizon-expanding new book, Alien Earths, this observation altered our perception of the universe ... And of course, if we can observe other planets, they can watch us
Review quote:
Have dinosaurs evolved on other worlds? Could we spot a planet of glowing organisms? What nearby star systems are positioned to observe Earth passing in front of the sun? These are just a few of the questions that Lisa Kaltenegger has joyfully tackled. As the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, she has pioneered interdisciplinary work on the origins of life on Earth and the hunt for signs of life, or biosignatures, elsewhere in the universe. Alien Earths ... chronicles her insights and adventures spanning an idyllic childhood in Austria to her Cornell office, which previously belonged to the astronomer Carl Sagan
Review quote:
E.T. is waiting to be found. And what''s the best way to find life as we know it? Just ask Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, the Director of the Carl Sagan Institute. Sh