Xtl: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It - Softcover

John Gribbin has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Cambridge, and is now Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex and consultant to New Scientist. His books have been translated into many languages, and have won awards in both Britain and the United States. He also writes science fiction. JOHN GRIBBIN is a best-selling writer, lecturer and broadcaster. Since 1992 he has been a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. He led the recent project that discovered the age of the universe and is a household name. SIMON GOODWIN is a lecturer at Cardiff University and author of many books. His first book, HUBBLE'S UNIVERSE, was an instant success when it was published in 1996.

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