Looking for Earths : The Race to Find New Solar Systems
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Alan Boss is a theoretical planetologist: he imagines how and where planets might form. Looking for Earths is his account of the first discoveries of planets around other stars, which he rightly calls "a step as significant as Neil Armstrong's first step onto the Moon." Because Boss is a leading theoretician and a member of various committees and advisory bodies, he had a trackside seat for the race but is free from the bias that comes from actually running. He is better (and much more honest) than most astronomers at describing the infighting, boredom, professional feuds, bad donuts, and hard work that go into doing Big (i.e. astronomically expensive) Science. Boss includes an acronym glossary, so you can wrap your brain around sentences such as "The SISWG agreed that Michael Shao's design for OSI met the requirements for AIM." And he proves that you can consult for the government and still maintain a sense of humor, as when he says that "51 Pegasi's planet must have formed more or less at its predicted location, and then been dragged kicking and screaming inward toward its star."
The late 1990s have seen the start of one of the great ages of discovery, and Boss's excitement is palpable. "In the distant future, a thousand years or two from now, aliens will reach an Earth-like planet orbiting a star in the Sun's neighborhood.... Our descendents will be those aliens." --Mary Ellen Curtin
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Scientific American
It is a riveting question: Are there other Earths, bearing life in some form? Earlier the question was, Are there other planets outside the solar system? A flurry of discoveries over the past three years has provided the answer to that one: yes. Boss traces the story chronologically, telling it from the viewpoint of an astrophysicist and incidentally providing a rewarding account of how astronomers and astrophysicists do their work. Now, he says, we are in a new era, "in which we will discover many planetary systems circling stars in our neighborhood of the galaxy, systems containing Earth-like planets capable of supporting life."
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Looking for Earths : The Race to Find New Solar Systems
Looking for Earths: The Race to Find New Solar Systems,Alan Boss,Wiley,0471379115,Astronomy - General,Earth Sciences - General,Extrasolar planets,Planets,Science,Science/Mathematics,Solar system,Cosmology & the universe,Popular astronomy,Science / Earth Sciences
Buy Best Books:
Recommended Books