XTL: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It [Hardcover]

Simon Goodwin (Author), John Gribbin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0304358975 | ISBN-13: 978-0304358977 | Publication Date: May 28, 2002

Are we alone in the Universe? The best scientists are searching hard for the answer--and may be just around the corner from finding it. Two top astronomers (and bestselling authors) take a cutting-edge look at how life itself develops, survives, evolves, becomes intelligent, and where it might exist in outer space. Illustrated with breathtaking photos and state-of-the-art graphics, this thrilling story reveals a newfound understanding of the conditions that fostered life on Earth, how stars and planets are formed, the specific qualities of the Sun and planets in our solar system, and the techniques required to observe phenomena outside of our system. The fascinating advances in technology and information revealed here could enable us to locate extraterrestrials within the next twenty years!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

What makes this book different from other descriptions of the search for life on other planets is its up-to-the-minute coverage of recent research and discoveries, its use of many photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA space probes, and a nice sampling of extraterrestrial vistas as imagined by space artists who offer their insight into what a sunrise on an extrasolar planet must look like. Goodwin and Gribbin recount recent discoveries by astronomers of planets orbiting other stars; the likelihood of life arising in our own solar system, especially on Mars, Europa (a moon orbiting Jupiter), and Titan (a moon of Saturn); the latest ideas in the search for signals from intelligent extraterrestrials, including the highly sensitive Square Kilometer Array radio telescope and the SETI@home project that utilizes home computers to analyze data collected by the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico; and evidence that there may be many other solar systems in our galaxy. A good, not overly technical introduction to the subject. George Eberhart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Simon Goodwin is on Xchange, Children's BBC TV Weds Sept 25th 6pm

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Cassell (May 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304358975
• ISBN-13: 978-0304358977
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,953,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice pictures, lightweight text, July 18, 2003

By 

M. A Michaud "michael_michaud" (Dulles, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XTL: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It (Paperback)

This short book offers a non-technical introduction to the question of finding life beyond the Earth. Chapters review the basics of our solar system and others (concluding that there is nothing special about ours), the probability of life elsewhere, scientific searches for extraterrestrial life and intelligence, and, very briefly, interstellar flight. There is a heavy emphasis on full page visual images, many of them artists' conceptions. I would rank the book one star higher if it did not claim that Io is Jupiter's largest moon, a glaring error.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars from extraterrestrial probe, July 3, 2004

By 

henadzi filipenka "hfilipenk" (Grodno Belarus) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XTL: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It (Hardcover)

Dear Sirs!
Please see the paper about UFO,s materials.
Thank you.Sincerely,Henadzi Filipenka,teacher of
materials.

Dear Sirs!The information, contained in the project is
in my
opinion
the evidence of its extraterrestrial origin.

Project
of decoding of 'The Stormer Effect'

The phenomenon is described by C.Stormer in his
work 'The
Problem of Aurora Borealis' in the chapter
entitled 'The
Echo of Short Waves, Which Comes Back in Many Seconds
After
The Main Signal'.

In 1928 the radio- engineer Jorgen Hals from Bigder
near Oslo
informed C.Stormer about an odd radio echo received 3
seconds after the cessation of the main signal;
besides, an
ordinary echo encircling the Earth within 1/7 of a
second
was received.

In July Prof. Stormer spoke to Dr. Van-der-Paul in
Andhoven
and they decided to carry out experiments in autumn
and send
telegraphic signals in the form of undamped waves
every 20
seconds three dashes one after the other. On 11

October 1928
between 15.30 and 16.00, C.Stormer heard an
echo 'beyond any
doubt'; the signals lasted for 1,5- 2 seconds on
undamped
waves 31,4 meters long.

Stormer and Hals recorded the intervals between the
main
signal and the mysterious echo:
1) 15, 9, 4, 8, 13, 8, 12, 10, 9, 5, 8, 7, 6
2) 12, 14, 14, 12, 8
3) 12, 5, 8
4) 12, 8, 5, 14, 14, 15, 12, 7, 5.5, 13, 8, 8, 8, 13,
9,10,7,14,6,9,5

5) 9

Atmospheric disturbances were insignificant at that
time.
The frequency of echoes was equal to that of the main
signal. C.Stormer explained the nature of echoes by
reflection of radio waves from layers of particles
ionised
by the Sun. But!

The Professor of the Stenford Electrotechnical
University
R.Bracewell suggested possibility of informational
communication through space probes between more or less
developed civilisations in space. From that point of
view
the information about decoding of Stormer series can be
found in following journals:

'Smena' No.2 Moscow 1966 , 'Astronautics and
Aeronautics'
No.5 USA 1973, 'Technika Molodezi' No.4 1974 and No.5
1977
Moscow, etc.

The author of this work offers the following decoding:
let
the numbers in the series be replaced for chemical
symbols
of elements with corresponding nuclear charges:
1) P F Be O Al O Mg Ne F B O N C
2) Mg Si Si Mg O
3) Mg B O
4) Mg O B Si Si P Mg N B B Al O O O Al F Ne N Si C F B
5) F

It is easy to see that the second series is repeated

at the
beginning of the forth series with the only difference
that
in the forth series silicon is alloyed with boron and
phosphorus, i.e. 'p-n transition' of a diode is
created. The
third series describes receipt of pure boron through
action
on boron anhydrite by magnesium:
B2O3 and Mg = B ...

The author of the above hypothesis wrote his degree
paper on
silicon carbide light-emitting diode, that is why the
ending of the forth series is the most simple- it is a
modern light-emitting diode. Silicon carbide is
alloyed with
nitrogen and boron with 'some participation' of
fluorine.
Approximately the same way diamond is alloyed with
participation of fluorine in laboratories of 'other
civilisations', as can be seen at the ending of the
first
series. In the middle of the forth series corundum,
the base
of ruby, is also alloyed with boron, nitrogen and
fluorine.
In the fifth series simply fluorine is educed as a
useful
but very aggressive gas. Inert neon seems to divide
optoelectronic devices.

In conclusion, some repeated applications should be
noticed:
fluorine favours in a way either diffusion of boron or
electronic processes in forbidden zones of diamond,
silicon
carbamide; for some reason magnesium contacts are used.

In 1928 semi-conductor devices were not in use on
Earth.
It was made in Leningrad,1978.
Sincerely yours,
H.G Filipenka.

http://home.ural.ru/~filip
Henadzi Filipenka,6a-7 Boldina str.Grodno 230030
Belarus

Dear Sirs!
My account is;

Account holder: Moneybookers Ltd. Bank: Commerzbank
Account number: 5817325 Sort / Bank Code: 50040000
SWIFT:
COBADEFF IBAN: DE23500400000581732500 Bank address:
Kaiserstr. 30 Frankfurt 60311 Germany Reference: 437080
Henadzi Filipenka,[e-mail]
http://www.moneybookers.com