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Meet the Author
Jeffrey Bennett
Jeffrey Bennett holds a B.A. (1981) in biophysics from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.S. and Ph.D. (1987) in astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has taught at every level from preschool through graduate school, including more than 50 college classes in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and education. He served two years as a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters, where he created NASA's "IDEAS" program, started a program to fly teachers aboard NASA's airborne observatories (including SOFIA), and worked on numerous educational programs for the Hubble Space Telescope and other space science missions. He also proposed the idea for and helped develop both the Colorado Scale Model Solar System on the CU-Boulder campus and the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. In addition to this astronomy textbook, he has written college-level textbooks in astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics; two books for the general public: On the Cosmic Horizon (Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2001) and Beyond UFOs (Princeton University Press, 2008); and an award-winning series of children's books that includes Max Goes to the Moon, Max Goes to Mars, Max Goes to Jupiter, and Max's Ice Age Adventure. When not working, he enjoys participating in masters swimming and in the daily adventures of life with his wife, Lisa; his children, Grant and Brooke; and his dog, Cosmo. His personal Website is www.jeffreybennett.com.
Seth Shostak earned his B.A. in physics from Princeton University (1965) and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology (1972). He is currently a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, where he helps press the search for intelligent cosmic company. For much of his career, Seth conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies and investigated the fact that these massive objects contain large amounts of unseen mass. He has worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen, the Netherlands (where he learned to speak bad Dutch). Seth also founded and ran a company that produced computer animation for television. He has written several hundred popular articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film, and television. A frequent fixture on the lecture circuit, Seth gives approximately 70 talks annually at both educational and corporate institutions, and he is also a frequent commentator on astronomical matters for radio and television. His book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (National Geographic, 2009) details the latest ideas, as well as the personal experience of his day job. When he’s not trying to track down aliens, Seth can often be found behind the microphone, as host of the SETI Institute's weekly, one-hour radio show about science, Are We Alone.
Table of Contents
Introducing Life in the Universe 1
A Universe of Life? 1
Learning Goals 1
The Possibility of Life Beyond Earth 2
The Scientific Context of the Search 4
Places to Search 8
The New Science of Astrobiology 11
The Big Picture 12
Summary of Key Concepts 13
Review Questions 14
Quick Quiz 14
Discussion Questions 15
Web Projects 15
The Science of Life in the Universe 16
Learning Goals 16
The Ancient Debate About Life Beyond Earth 17
The Copernican Revolution 25
The Nature of Modern Science 33
The Process of Science in Action: Understanding Gravity 39
The Big Picture 42
Summary of Key Concepts 43
Review Questions 44
Test Your Understanding 45
Quick Quiz 45
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 45
Quantitative Problems 46
Discussion Questions 47
Web Projects 47
The Universal Context of Life 48
Learning Goals 48
The Universe and Life 49
The Structure, Scale, and History of the Universe 51
The Nature of Worlds 70
A Universe of Matter and Energy 80
The Process of Science in Action: Changing Ideas About the Formation of the Solar System 88
The Big Picture 93
Summary of Key Concepts 94
Review Questions 95
Test Your Understanding 96
Quick Quiz 96
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 97
Quantitative Problems 97
Discussion Questions 98
Web Projects 98
Life on Earth
The Habitability of Earth 99
Learning Goals 99
Geology and Life 100
Reconstructing the History of Earth and Life 102
The Hadean Earth and the Dawn of Life 116
Geology and Habitability 120
Climate Regulation and Change 132
The Process of Science in Action: Formation of the Moon 139
The Big Picture 143
Summary of Key Concepts 144
Review Questions 145
Test Your Understanding 146
Quick Quiz 146
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 146
Quantitative Problems 147
Discussion Questions 147
Web Projects 147
The Nature of Life on Earth 148
Learning Goals 148
Defining Life 149
Cells: The Basic Units of Life 160
Metabolism: The Chemistry of Life 167
DNA and Heredity 171
Life at the Extreme 178
The Process of Science in Action: Evolution as Science 181
The Big Picture 185
Summary of Key Concepts 186
Review Questions 187
Test Your Understanding 188
Quick Quiz 188
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 188
Quantitative Problems 189
Discussion Questions 189
Web Projects 189
The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth 190
Learning Goals 190
Searching for Life's Origins 191
The Origin of Life 197
The Evolution of Life 206
Impacts and Extinctions 215
Human Evolution 221
The Process of Science in Action: Artificial Life 226
The Big Picture 229
Summary of Key Concepts 230
Review Questions 231
Test Your Understanding 232
Quick Quiz 232
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 233
Quantitative Problems 233
Discussion Questions 233
Web Projects 234
Life in the Solar System
Searching for Life in Our Solar System 235
Learning Goals 235
Environmental Requirements for Life 236
A Biological Tour of the Solar System: The Inner Solar System 242
A Biological Tour of the Solar System: The Outer Solar System 246
The Process of Science in Action: Spacecraft Exploration of the Solar System 251
The Big Picture 256
Summary of Key Concepts 256
Review Questions 257
Test Your Understanding 258
Quick Quiz 258
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 258
Quantitative Problems 259
Discussion Questions 259
Web Projects 259
Mars 260
Learning Goals 260
Fantasies of Martian Civilization 261
A Modern Portrait of Mars 264
The Climate History of Mars 276
Searching for Life on Mars 280
The Process of Science in Action: Martian Meteorites 287
The Big Picture 290
Summary of Key Concepts 291
Review Questions 292
Test Your Understanding 292
Quick Quiz 292
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 293
Quantitative Problems 293
Discussion Questions 293
Web Projects 294
Life on Jovian Moons 295
Learning Goals 295
The Moons of the Outer Solar System 296
Life on Jupiter's Galilean Moons 304
Life Around Saturn, and Beyond 312
The Process of Science in Action: Chemical Energy for Life 319
The Big Picture 323
Summary of Key Concepts 323
Review Questions 325
Test Your Understanding 325
Quick Quiz 325
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 326
Quantitative Problems 326
Discussion Questions 327
Web Projects 327
The Nature and Evolution of Habitability 328
Learning Goals 328
The Concept of a Habitable Zone 329
Venus: An Example in Potential Habitability 332
Surface Habitability Factors and the Habitable Zone 338
The Future of Life on Earth 343
The Process of Science in Action: Global Warming 348
The Big Picture 354
Summary of Key Concepts 355
Review Questions 356
Test Your Understanding 356
Quick Quiz 356
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 357
Quantitative Problems 357
Discussion Questions 358
Web Projects 358
Life Among the Stars
Habitability Outside the Solar System 359
Learning Goals 359
Distant Suns 360
Extrasolar Planets: Discoveries and Implications 369
The Possibility That Earth Is Rare 384
The Process of Science in Action: Classifying Stars 388
The Big Picture 393
Summary of Key Concepts 393
Review Questions 395
Test Your Understanding 395
Quick Quiz 395
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 396
Quantitative Problems 396
Discussion Questions 397
Web Projects 397
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 398
Learning Goals 398
The Drake Equation 399
The Question of Intelligence 405
Searching for Intelligence 410
The Process of Science in Action: UFOs and Aliens on Earth 425
The Big Picture 432
Summary of Key Concepts 433
Review Questions 434
Test Your Understanding 434
Quick Quiz 434
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 435
Quantitative Problems 435
Discussion Questions 433
Web Projects 436
Interstellar Travel and the Fermi Paradox 437
Learning Goals 437
The Challenge of Interstellar Travel 438
Designing Spacecraft for Interstellar Travel 444
The Fermi Paradox 456
The Process of Science in Action: Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity 466
The Big Picture 472
Summary of Key Concepts 472
Review Questions 473
Test Your Understanding 474
Quick Quiz 474
Short-Answer/Essay Questions 475
Quantitative Problems 475
Discussion Questions 476
Web Projects 476
Epilogue: Contact-Implications of the Search and Discovery 477
Is There Life Elsewhere? 478
Discussion Questions 485
Appendixes
Useful Numbers A-3
Useful Formulas A-4
A Few Mathematical Skills A-5
The Periodic Table of Elements A-14
Planetary Data A-15
Selected Astrobiology Web Sites A-20
Glossary G-1
References and Bibliography R-1
Credits C-1
Index I-1