Description
Book Synopsis1. What is Astrobiology?.- 2. Do we know what we are looking for? Can we define life? Why water?.- 3.The cosmic zoo: from our Solar System to distant galaxies.- 4. A short history of Astrobiology: from the Persians and Epicureans to discovering exoplanets and the Kepler space telescope.- 5. The tools of science: measurement, questions and hypotheses. Statistics, good and evil. How science differs from journal reports.-6. A few units necessary for Astrobiology.- 7. The Habitable Zone of our solar system and of other star systems.- 8. Our star the Sun.- 9. Is Earth special? 10. The evolution of life on Earth, from prokaryotes to Homo sapiens, and its effects on Earth.- 11. The role of an atmosphere: climate and habitability.- 12. The potential for life on the terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus and Mars.- 13. The potential for life on the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons: Europa, Enceladus and Titan.- 14. The small bodies in the Solar System: carbonaceous meteorites, asteroids and comets, and their possible impact on life.- 15. The quest for exoplanets: detecting planetary systems around other stars.- 16. Biosignatures.- 17.How different could alien life be?.- 18. Stellar types and their habitable zones.- 19. The structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way and other galaxies: is there a galactic habitable zone?.- 20. Cosmology and life: "long long ago, in a galaxy far far away" - from the Big Bang to the anthropic principle.- 21.The chances of finding extraterrestrial Complex and Intelligent life: SETI. The Drake equation and interstellar communication.- 22. Can we reach the stars? Space flight and advanced propulsion techniques.- 23. The Fermi paradox: where are all the aliens?.- Glossary.- Index.
