Exoplanets

Hidden Worlds and the Quest for Extraterrestrial Life

ISBN 9780674976900

Publication date: 09/10/2018

“How do alien, faraway worlds reveal their existence to Earthlings? Let Donald Goldsmith count the ways. As an experienced astronomer and a gifted storyteller, he is the perfect person to chronicle the ongoing hunt for planets of other stars.” —Dava Sobel

Astronomers have recently discovered thousands of planets that orbit stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy. With his characteristic wit and style, Donald Goldsmith presents the science of exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life in a way that Earthlings with little background in astronomy or astrophysics can understand and enjoy.

Much of what has captured the imagination of planetary scientists and the public is the unexpected strangeness of these distant worlds, which bear little resemblance to the planets in our solar system. The sizes, masses, and orbits of exoplanets detected so far raise new questions about how planets form and evolve. Still more tantalizing are the efforts to determine which exoplanets might support life. Astronomers are steadily improving their means of examining these planets’ atmospheres and surfaces, with the help of advanced spacecraft sent into orbits a million miles from Earth. These instruments will provide better observations of planetary systems in orbit around the dim red stars that throng the Milky Way. Previously spurned as too faint to support life, these cool stars turn out to possess myriad planets nestled close enough to maintain Earthlike temperatures.

The quest to find other worlds brims with possibility. Exoplanets shows how astronomers have broadened our planetary horizons, and suggests what may come next, including the ultimate discovery: life beyond our home planet.

Praise

In terms of what’s out there, how we discovered it, and how that’s changed our view and understanding of the planets out there in the Universe, Exoplanets by Donald Goldsmith does a remarkable job of covering what we know, how we learned it, what it means and what comes next. We are closer than we’ve ever been for discovering the first evidence of life in another Solar System. Come learn where we are on that quest with this book.

—Ethan Siegel, Forbes
How do alien, faraway worlds reveal their existence to Earthlings? Let Donald Goldsmith count the ways. As an experienced astronomer and a gifted storyteller, he is the perfect person to chronicle the ongoing hunt for planets of other stars. Notwithstanding the grandeur of his subject—an age-old human question now become an active quest—Goldsmith treats the search for other worlds with wisdom, wit, and an often thrilling choice of words.

—Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe
Were you fortunate enough to have a favorite aunt, or a particularly great teacher, who could explain complicated ideas in a way that helped you understand them, and made you want to know more? That's the role Donald Goldsmith plays in his delightful new book. In the past few decades, scientists have discovered myriad worlds that are like and unlike those we are familiar with. Goldsmith brings the reader up close and personal, inviting us to explore many of these systems and their discoverers. He helps us understand what we know and what we have yet to uncover, how we came to be here, and what the chances are for life beyond Earth.

—Jill Tarter, Chair Emeritus for SETI Research, SETI Institute
For centuries humans have speculated about worlds beyond our solar system and life beyond Earth. In just the last few decades astronomers have discovered that most stars have planets, and that many of these planets could be habitable. Goldsmith recounts this stunning transformation in our cosmic understanding in a book that is comprehensive yet concise, and that prepares readers for the breakthroughs to come, including—perhaps within our lifetime—the discovery of credible evidence that we are not alone.

—Richard Tresch Fienberg, Press Officer, American Astronomical Society
[Goldsmith] recounts early efforts to detect planets outside our solar system and explains the breakthroughs in detection methods that enabled astronomers to find the first exoplanets. He also gives an informative account of where known exoplanets are and what they might be like, along with a tantalizing glimpse at what might come next for astronomers as they search beyond the solar system’s bounds.

—Melinda Baldwin, Physics Today

Author

Donald Goldsmith has written more than a dozen books, including Exoplanets, The Runaway Universe, The Hunt for Life on Mars, Supernova, and, with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Origins. He has received lifetime achievement awards for astronomy education from the American Astronomical Society and for the popularization of astronomy from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.