The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: decadal survey, eccentric planets, first transiting planet, Solar System, Astrophysical Journal, Here's How It Happened (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Debra Fischer, Professor of Astronomy, San Francisco State University
“Alan Boss is widely respected for his scientific research and for his ability to clearly convey forefront research to the public. The Crowded Universe is a delightful read that chronicles the twists and turns of the birth and evolution of the rapidly evolving field of exoplanet discovery.”

Michel Mayor, Professor of Astronomy, University of Geneva
“The discovery of exoplanets has transformed modern astronomy. In The Crowded Universe, renowned expert Alan Boss offers an exciting insider’s account of the quest for other Worlds.”

Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain
“The search for life beyond the Earth, and the study of planets orbiting other stars, are surely among the most fascinating topics in 21st century science. Alan Boss offers a clear and masterly guide to these exciting and fast-moving subjects.”

Dr. Paul Butler, Carnegie Institution of Washington
“In the past decade we have gone from complete ignorance of extrasolar planets to the verge of finding habitable planets. In The Crowded Universe, Alan Boss gives an extraordinary inside look at the people and events that have shaped the field. The excitement of discovery shines in Boss's elegant prose, and the work of centuries is seamlessly assembled for the non-expert reader."

Professor Geoff Marcy, Center for Integrative Planetary Science, UC Berkeley
"Rarely is the history of science so accurately told as in this lively and authoritative book. Alan Boss offers insights about our terrestrial origins, our extraterrestrial brethren, and our destiny in the Galaxy, placing our Earth in the cosmic context for the first time."

Dr. Frank Drake, Director, Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute CIRC
“The Crowded Universe is a thorough depiction of the events and people involved in one of the greatest milestones in the history of science: the detection of other planetary systems in the Milky Way. The author is one of the primary players in this ongoing saga, and he tells the story with commendable detail. If you want to see how science works at its best, read this book.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History and author of The Pluto Files
“The search for planets outside our solar system has become a cottage industry. In The Crowded Universe, Alan Boss weaves a ‘you are there’ narrative that reaches behind the scenes of this thrilling new field, exposing the reader to the people, the politics, and the sheer joy of doing science.”

Kirkus
"Solid coverage of one of the most exciting topics in science."

Scientific American
“Astronomer Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington predicts that CoRoT and Kepler will discover abundant Earths. These telescopes are poised to prove him right or wrong, and his book provides essential and fascinating background as the drama unfolds.”

Discover
“The space race is on. No, not back to the moon. The next great achievement for humanity will be to find alien life on another planet. Astronomer Boss gives an inside view of how new space telescopes like Kepler and Corot are on the verge of finding Earth-like worlds around other stars.”

New Scientist
"Boss recounts the exhilarating tale of the race to discover the first truly Earth-like exoplanet. As The Crowded Universe unfolds, it brings alive the thrills and disappointments of bleeding-edge science, the fierce competition between American and European planet-hunting teams and the politics of billion-dollar research. Along the way we learn the latest theories on how planets form and just how astronomers detect distant worlds too faint to see."

BBC Focus Magazine
"If Alan Boss's excellent new book is anything to go by, the next few years could see some dramatic revelations about our cosmic neighbourhood... In 'The Crowded Universe' he skilfully recounts how astronomers have gradually become better acquainted with the exoplanets - planets orbiting stars other than the Sun... This is top-notch-and-timely popular science meets page-turning political intrigue."

Natural History
“In this short and lucid review of his field, [Boss] traces the developments of the last fifteen years in chronological, diarylike entries, so that we can share with him the excitement of discovery…. The tone of Boss’s book, accordingly, is excited and hopeful, but there’s also a note of wry irony in his descriptions of the political trials astronomers have gone through trying to promote their research. And despite the successes of the past decade, Boss senses that it may be increasingly difficult for astronomers to attract the sums needed to continue the search for habitable planets. Readers of this book, I am certain, will hope his fears are unsubstantiated.”

Space Times
“[The Crowded Universe] is a stunning story, recasting scientists as detectives developing and using new tools to expand knowledge of our exciting universe.”

Choice
“[T]he book reads like an adventure yarn, reminiscent of archaeologists looking for fabled lost cities…. [A] thoroughly fascinating account.”

Product Description

We are nearing a turning point in our quest for life in the universe—we now have the capacity to detect Earth-like planets around other stars. But will we find any?

In The Crowded Universe, renowned astronomer Alan Boss argues that based on what we already know about planetary systems, in the coming years we will find abundant Earths, including many that are indisputably alive. Life is not only possible elsewhere in the universe, Boss argues—it is common.

Boss describes how our ideas about planetary formation have changed radically in the past decade and brings readers up to date on discoveries of bizarre inhabitants of various solar systems, including our own. America must stay in this new space race, Boss contends, or risk being left out of one of the most profoundly important discoveries of all time: the first confirmed finding of extraterrestrial life.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465009360
• ISBN-13: 978-0465009367
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #199,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than us?, February 20, 2009

By	Tyler Kokjohn (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book tells the story of those who scour the universe in search of planets beyond our solar system.

Written as a personal journal, the book presents the recollections and musings of one of the principal players at the center of this international competition. Alan Boss is the all-too-rare scientist who is willing to find the time and make the effort to communicate with the general public. And he is good at it.

Conveyed in a way that gives readers enough background without burying them in details, he keeps the story line lean and moving. Replete with intrigue and tales of the many trials, tribulations and anxieties of being a scientist dependent on government support, readers get a feel for what it might be like to be a part of these teams as they compete for money and glory. For those of us who know about NASA science mainly from scripted press releases, these glimpses behind the scenes are quite interesting.

Generally benevolent to his scientific colleagues, he is far less kindly disposed to politicians and political appointees. Even former Vice President Dick Cheney receives some attention from Dr. Boss. Leaving for readers to discover what Mr. Cheney is alleged to have done and admitting that this juicy anecdote may reflect the underlying truth faithfully, other explanations still seem viable. Readers left wondering about cause, effect and coincidental correlation may wish to return to the quotation from Mark Twain that opens Chapter 7.

Much more is yet to come and Dr. Boss offers a few predictions concerning the immediate future for the planet hunters. Scientists are on the verge of discovering how common Earth-like planets are in the galaxy. Perhaps they will find that our universe is crowded with abundant potential abodes for life. Or maybe we will end up contemplating just how rare it is to encounter anything remotely like the life-laden rock that is our home.

Get the story directly from an investigator who is literally writing scientific history.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not As Good As I Expected, March 17, 2009

By	William J. Hubeny - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I did not buy this book to learn about science budget problems, whose to blame, and the writers political leanings, right or left. I'm am just not interested in those things. I get the feeling the author was writing more to his work associates then the average science reader and book buyer. I expected a book on exo-planets. I did not get what I expected.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How many other Earths are out there?, February 24, 2009

By	Steve Reina (Troy Michigan) - See all my reviews

In 1600 Giodorno Bruno was burned at the stake for saying that the stars of the night sky were surrounded by planets which themselves had life like here on Earth.

The same ignorance which consigned Bruno to the flames also was present in many modern opinions regarding the search for Earth like planets and extra terrestrial life.

As funding for projects like Project SETI and extra terrestrial planet searches languished it fell to a hearty few like this book's author Allan Boss to meaningfully advance the cause.

And thanks to their efforts we now possess a list of 300 and counting extra terrestrial planets ranging from big Earth sizes to big Jupiter sizes.

In fact now science can say for sure that other Earths are perhaps as common anywhere from 1 in ten stars to 1 in a thousand. The details of course are the provence of continued research which this book says will yield meaningful conclusions by as early as summer of this year.

Whatever the findings the results will be significant. Conventional thinking suggests that planets like Earth would exhibit conditions friendly to the development of life and perhaps with it, life capable of developing technology.

For my part I believe that however common life generally is we probably have the best chance of finding it somewhere during the existence of our species of any time in cosmic history. The reason I believe this is because we exist and there's no reason to suppose that our existence is any way special or different from life that would otherwise emerge elsewhere.

Now, all that being said, it does remain true that if life is common but rare (closer to one planet among a thousand stars) then it also follows that the likely galactic distances between us and our nearest neighbors would be effectively insurmountable by any type of technology we possess or can expect to possess in the near future.

But still, just the knowledge that "they" are out there is inherently exciting, not the least of which because that the reciprocal would be implied and finally someone off of Earth would be aware of our presence.

It's an astounding fact of history that all these discoveries could be made so close to a time when even contemplating them was punishable by death.