Title:
Worlds without end : exoplanets, habitability, and the future of humanity
Author:
Publication Date:
2023
Publication Information:
Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2023]
©2023.
Physical Description:
368 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9780262047661
Abstract:
"WORLDS WITHOUT END: EXOPLANETS, HABITABILITY, AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY will present the scientific missions exploring exoplanets through the lens of habitability and our survival in the universe"-- Provided by publisher.
Planet Earth may not be the best of all possible worlds-- and lately humanity has been carelessly depleting resources, decimating species, and degrading everything needed for life. Could space be our salvation? Impey explores the definition of habitability, and the changing shape of space exploration as it expands beyond the interests of government to the pursuits of private industry. -- adapted from jacket
Contents:
Prologue: The best of all possible worlds -- Searching for distant worlds. The visionaries ; Doppler wobble ; Chasing shadows ; Seeing is believing ; Calling Pandora ; The next wave ; Milky Way census -- Habitability and the exoplanet zoo. Gas giants ; Ice giants ; Water worlds ; Earth clones ; Exomoons ; Rogue planets -- The search for life beyond Earth. The solar system ; Sniffing biosignatures ; Send in the nanobots ; ET phone home ; Energy footprints ; The Drake equation ; Fermi's question -- The promise of space exploration. Habitable Earth ; Space boom ; How to get to space ; Going to the moon and Mars ; Mining asteroids ; Living beyond Earth -- Epilogue: Scenes from the future.
Geographic Term:
Language:
English
