1. A place like home -- The nebular theory of planetary formation -- The spiral nebulae: small and close or large and distant? -- Hello out there -- Homes for ET -- Someone to talk to -- 2. Early ideas and lessons from our own backyard -- Moving off the center -- Getting the message across -- The Goldilocks Principle -- Migrating habitable zones -- Starring roles: M dwarfs ; K-type stars ; G-type stars ; F-type stars ; A-type stars ; B-type stars ; O-type stars ; From supernova to black holes -- Habitable zone types -- Past lives of our Earth -- The great dyings -- Earthlike planets in our Solar System -- Isn't that special? -- A really big habitable zone? -- Applying lessons to exo-Earths -- 3. The search for and discovery of exoplanets -- Finding invisible worlds: Directing imaging ; Radial velocity ; Timing technique ; Gravitational microlensing ; Autocorrelation function timescale technique ; Transits ; Astrometry -- The new age of discovery: orbiting observatories -- 51 Pegasi b ... and beyond -- Chilled giants -- Earths, mega-Earths, sub-Neptunes and super-Earths -- 4. Strange Solar System architectures -- Migrating planets and the search for life -- 5. Zeroing in on Earth 2.0 -- Sub-Neptunes -- Giant planets and Earth-moons -- Other super-Earth types -- Assorted super-Earths -- What's the forecast? -- Zeroing in on Earth 2.0 -- Super-habitable places -- Giants inside the habitable zone: the promise of the moons -- 6. Looking for life in all the right places -- Life based on what? -- Life in our own image -- A Martian invasion of a different sort -- Is carbon the only game in town? -- Extreme biomes -- Under the surface: extremophiles galore -- Europa -- Enceladus: Europa on steroids -- Titan: the alien world next door -- Habitable sub-zones -- Deep sea astrobiology beyond Europa and Enceladus -- Life with a few suns -- In the beginning, life -- Life's "tells" in the poker game of astrobiology -- Finding exo-veggies -- The stars are out, but is anyone home? -- 7. Could we make contact? -- Fermi's paradox: Answer #1: A "special" rare Earth ; Answer #2: Extinction ; Answer #3: Not interested, thank you! ; Answer #4: We've moved on ; Answer #5: Sentient suicide ; Answer #6: Natural quarantine ; Answer #7 Cosmic menagerie ; Answer #8: Spectator sport ; Answer #9 Missed it by that much -- Using waves -- What are the odds? -- Amoebas to technology -- Reaching out -- Transmission in a bottle -- Calls for caution -- Undertakings in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence -- A different kind of message -- If I could talk with the animals ... -- Assumptions -- UFOs -- Civilization's fingerprints here and beyond -- 8. Could we visit Earths of distant suns? -- Interstellar vacations -- Roadblock to faster-than-light travel -- Project Orion -- Project Daedalus: to the stars -- Project Icarus -- Non-nuclear options for star travel -- Arrival -- Interstellar exploration's human component -- Generation ships -- Why go? -- 9. First contact : what will it mean? -- Life's rich pageantry -- Visualizing world SETI -- Why bother? -- SETI all grown up -- Culture clash -- Dreams of distant Earths -- Engaging with others.
Summary:
Based on the latest missions results and supported by commissioned artwork, this book explores the possible lessons we may learn from exoplanets. As the number of known Earth-like objects grows significantly, the author explores what is known about the growing roster of "pale blue dots" far afield. Aided by an increased sensitivity of the existing observatories, recent discoveries by Keck, the Hubble Space Telescope, and Kepler are examined. These findings, once thought to be closer to the realm of science fiction, have fired the imaginations of the general public as well as scientists. All of us are mesmerized by the possibility of other Earth-like worlds out there. Author Michael Carroll asks the tough questions of what the expected gain is from identifying these Earth analogs spread across the Universe and the reasons for studying them. Potentially, they could teach us about our own climate and Solar System. Also explored are the more remote options of communication between or even travel to these distant yet perhaps not so dissimilar worlds.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.