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Are we alone in the universe, or are there other life forms 'out there'? This is one of the most scientifically and philosophically important questions that humanity can ask. Now, in the early 2020s, we are tantalizingly close to an answer. As this book shows, the answer will almost certainly be that life forms are to be found across the Milky Way and beyond. They will be thinly spread, to be sure. Yet the number of inhabited planets probably runs into the trillions. Some are close enough for us to detect evidence of life by analysing their atmospheres. This evidence may be found within a couple of decades. Its arrival will be momentous. But even before it arrives we can anticipate what life elsewhere will be like by examining the ecology and evolution of life on Earth. This book considers the current state of play in relation to these titanic issues.
Estimates the likely extent of the Biological Universe (all life-forms everywhere)
Paints a broad-brush picture of the current state of knowledge about exoplanets and the possible existence of life on many of them; and provides a series of key hypotheses about such life
Discusses current and planned space telescopes that will lead to discoveries in the next couple of decades
Part I. Painting Big Pictures:
1. A tree with millions of twigs
2. A galaxy with billions of planets
3. The likelihood of other trees
Part II. Life Here, Implications for Elsewhere:
4. A thin sliver of existence
5. Energy and life
6. Habitats and life
7. Skeletons and life
8. Intelligence and life
Part III. Planetary Systems and Life:
9. Types of planetary system
10. Habitable zones
11. Other habitability factors
12. How many inhabited planets?
Part IV. Discovering Life:
13. On the repeatability of evolution
14. Candidate planets
15. Atmospheric signatures
16. Radio and life
17. Sixty years of SETI
Part V. Beyond the Milky Way:
18. The physical universe
19. The biological universe
20. The intelligent universe
Bibliography
Acknowledgements.
Description
Are we alone in the universe, or are there other life forms 'out there'? This is one of the most scientifically and philosophically important questions that humanity can ask. Now, in the early 2020s, we are tantalizingly close to an answer. As this book shows, the answer will almost certainly be that life forms are to be found across the Milky Way and beyond. They will be thinly spread, to be sure. Yet the number of inhabited planets probably runs into the trillions. Some are close enough for us to detect evidence of life by analysing their atmospheres. This evidence may be found within a couple of decades. Its arrival will be momentous. But even before it arrives we can anticipate what life elsewhere will be like by examining the ecology and evolution of life on Earth. This book considers the current state of play in relation to these titanic issues.
Estimates the likely extent of the Biological Universe (all life-forms everywhere)
Paints a broad-brush picture of the current state of knowledge about exoplanets and the possible existence of life on many of them; and provides a series of key hypotheses about such life
Discusses current and planned space telescopes that will lead to discoveries in the next couple of decades
