Looking for Earths: The Race to Find New Solar Systems [Paperback]

Alan Boss (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471379115 | ISBN-13: 978-0471379119 | Publication Date: February 25, 2000

The ultimate insider's account of astronomy's fantastic voyage in search of brave new worlds in faraway galaxies

"Highly recommended." -Science and Technology

"Full of humor, heartbreak, and a deep understanding of the ardor and luck that compose years of research. . . . The reader becomes not merely a receiver of Boss's vision, but a fellow explorer." -Astronomy

"A rewarding account." -Scientific American

Are we alone in the universe . . . or are there other planets generating and sustaining life? The question may be as old as civilization, but in the twilight of a century marked by countless frustrated quests to find other solar systems, several teams of pioneering astronomers have at last discovered a rich crop of mammoth, Jupiter-sized gas planets -the first compelling evidence that there may indeed be life in other galaxies.

In Looking for Earths, a prominent planetary scientist takes us along on this thrilling hunt for new life, revealing the behind-the-scenes stories of scientific determination, frustration, and triumph. Ushering us to the mountaintop observatories that house the world's most powerful telescopes, and into the tension-filled scientific meetings where new results are announced and old results overturned, Alan Boss brings the process of exploration vividly alive. Experience the roller-coaster ride as intricate observations of minuscule stellar wobbles raise hopes that at last a true planet has been found, only to be almost immediately shattered by more powerful observations. Boss also introduces the principal players whose dreams defied all odds and made the first major discovery possible.

Like no other book, Looking for Earths captures the lively tension between theory and observation that defines cutting-edge astronomical discovery, along with the heated battles that will determine the direction of big-ticket American astronomy for years to come.

"You will find no better introduction to one of the truly revolutionary developments in modern astronomy."-Natural History

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (February 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471379115
• ISBN-13: 978-0471379119
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,327,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Extrasolar Enterprise, June 29, 2002

By 

"mrsfaganselves" (huntington, ny United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Looking for Earths: The Race to Find New Solar Systems (Hardcover)

If you're content to have your view of the universe stop right where it is, don't read this book. But if you want to know the planetary exploration history and latest information about the search for planets beyond our solar system, then pick up "Looking for Earths."

Alan Boss, a NASA adviser at the Carnegie Institution, has presented us with an extremely well written, smart and well-informed account of the search for "extrasolar planets", those beyond our solar systems. Just in case anyone thinks that's an easy step-you know, just pull up the telescope and point it at the stars, here is his description of the difficulty:

"Trying to see an extrasolar planet right next to its star is akin to trying to see a tiny mirror being held by a person standing next to a powerful carbon-arc searchlight that is pointed right at you-you can't see the light from the mirror because you are blinded by the far brighter light from the
searchlight itself. Human beings could start at the sky until
their eyes popped without ever seeing a planet belonging to another star."

What Boss does is quickly but clearly tell us the history of planetary exploration, tracing thoughts and discoveries,
starting with Pythagoras in the sixth century B.C.E., who thought the Earth was fixed an unmoving, then explaining the brilliance of Copernicus and then Kepler, Brahe, Giordano Bruno, Kant and other early giants.

Then he moves on to such contemporary heroes as Peter van de Kamp, Daniel Goldin and George Gatewood as they come up, rapid-fire, it seems, relatively speaking, with proof of the extrasolar planets' existence, some coming so quickly that scientists joked about subscribing to "Planet of the Week".

What Boss does especially well, besides writing in utterly understandable language, is connect the dots, as it were.

If you read this book, you'll get a wonderful look at scientific thinking and development, instead of getting science piecemeal.

Boss has a rather interesting approach: starting with
Chapter 3, he dates events as he opens the chapter, so that each chapter, and often sub-chapters start with the date of the discovery or event that led to a discovery. It's a neat way of encompassing history and allows us to see how quickly ideas can move along. Most obvious to me was the sense that discoveries are speeding up-each development happens a little more quickly and closely to its predecessor, feeding yet the next discovery.

The science outlined in this book is totally comprehensible to most teenagers and adults and probably some pre-teens as well, if they're reasonably aware of astronomical issues. You may want to skip some of the deeper science and just read about the discoveries and who made them. Charts and photos accompany
several chapters to help explain who did what and why it was important.

Anyone wanting to know more about what's next, and not have to get all their science from Star Trek would be well advised to read this book.