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rtpodzemny's review against another edition
4.0
A brief, clear, and entertaining rundown of the search for extrasolar planets. The book is around three years old, which is a lifetime in the absurdly fast-moving field of planet hunting, but it's a great summary of a really exciting period in science, and it really leaves you excited for what's coming up in the next couple of decades.
iambartacus's review against another edition
4.0
This book was awesome. I would have given it five stars if I liked the author's writing style a little better. It seemed a little weird to me, but I guess I should cut the guy some slack, I don't think his native language is English.
Besides that, great book! The first probably 2/3 are devoted to the history of extrasolar system planet searching, mostly failures. Then he starts getting into the success stories, explaining the evolution of various technologies along the way (said technologies allowed the successes). Mostly it focuses on American efforts, but since he works out of a Canadian university, Canada, Europe, and Japan get honorable mentions as well. He also tries hard to use examples that put things into perspective for the reader to help imagine the both enormously large and tiny measurements being made.
Once he has established how planets in other solar systems are found (in quite a lot of readable detail), he then explains the criteria that have been laid out for planets scientists feel have the best chances of harboring life. Interestingly, they don't rule out moons. The last couple chapters are devoted to this criteria, findings thus far, and ideas that may yield results (or not) in the future with more exploration and funding.
The geology of our own solar system that he describes is fascinating, especially about why Venus, Mars, and Earth all diverged in their atmospheres, etc. Very cool stuff. He describes the commonality of various planets that have been discovered by comparing them to planets in our own solar system, which was pretty neat. If you don't know the planets...you should brush up on them or you'll be confused.
I love planetary science and space both, so this book was an ideal fit. Very readable and fairly concise (about 225 pages) with a glossary at the back for those who are a little rusty on their space terms, or have a hard time tracking all the ones he uses. He also included a lot of very helpful illustrations/charts, both of physics concepts and planets. The way he explains how we might look for life on other planets using the Earth as the standard to measure by is interesting too. The different ways we know Earth is living besides the obvious, and the fact they trained a space probe back on Earth to measure these things so we can compare to foreign planets is pretty rad, too.
A very worthwhile read if you're interested in planetary science, astronomy, space, whatever. If you devoured every book on the solar system you could as a child, this book is for you. If you believe in aliens, this book is also for you.
Side note: I think the cover art of the book pretty much sums it up. The big planet talks about strange new worlds, which is the theme of the book, next the search for alien planets which is a fair chunk, and the smallest planet talks about life beyond our solar system, which is a pretty small chunk. The proportions are accurate, so good work whoever created the cover art!
Besides that, great book! The first probably 2/3 are devoted to the history of extrasolar system planet searching, mostly failures. Then he starts getting into the success stories, explaining the evolution of various technologies along the way (said technologies allowed the successes). Mostly it focuses on American efforts, but since he works out of a Canadian university, Canada, Europe, and Japan get honorable mentions as well. He also tries hard to use examples that put things into perspective for the reader to help imagine the both enormously large and tiny measurements being made.
Once he has established how planets in other solar systems are found (in quite a lot of readable detail), he then explains the criteria that have been laid out for planets scientists feel have the best chances of harboring life. Interestingly, they don't rule out moons. The last couple chapters are devoted to this criteria, findings thus far, and ideas that may yield results (or not) in the future with more exploration and funding.
The geology of our own solar system that he describes is fascinating, especially about why Venus, Mars, and Earth all diverged in their atmospheres, etc. Very cool stuff. He describes the commonality of various planets that have been discovered by comparing them to planets in our own solar system, which was pretty neat. If you don't know the planets...you should brush up on them or you'll be confused.
I love planetary science and space both, so this book was an ideal fit. Very readable and fairly concise (about 225 pages) with a glossary at the back for those who are a little rusty on their space terms, or have a hard time tracking all the ones he uses. He also included a lot of very helpful illustrations/charts, both of physics concepts and planets. The way he explains how we might look for life on other planets using the Earth as the standard to measure by is interesting too. The different ways we know Earth is living besides the obvious, and the fact they trained a space probe back on Earth to measure these things so we can compare to foreign planets is pretty rad, too.
A very worthwhile read if you're interested in planetary science, astronomy, space, whatever. If you devoured every book on the solar system you could as a child, this book is for you. If you believe in aliens, this book is also for you.
Side note: I think the cover art of the book pretty much sums it up. The big planet talks about strange new worlds, which is the theme of the book, next the search for alien planets which is a fair chunk, and the smallest planet talks about life beyond our solar system, which is a pretty small chunk. The proportions are accurate, so good work whoever created the cover art!
piratequeen's review against another edition
4.0
Fun and interesting. The writer kept it simple, so you can understand everything he says as long as you have rudimentary grasp of science. I was already familiar with everything he covered here, but reading more about the subject definitely helped to solidify my understanding.
meags1's review against another edition
3.0
It is really weird to see people I've met be referred to in third person.
piratequeen's review against another edition
4.0
Fun and interesting. The writer kept it simple, so you can understand everything he says as long as you have rudimentary grasp of science. I was already familiar with everything he covered here, but reading more about the subject definitely helped to solidify my understanding.
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