Astrobiology, the study of life and its existence in the universe, is one of the hottest areas of scientific research. Lewis Dartnell considers some of the fascinating questions facing researchers today. Could life exist anywhere else in the universe? What might aliens really look like? Dartnell explains why Earth is uniquely suited for life and reveals our profound connection to the cosmos.
Preface
You hold in your hands Life in the Universe: A Beginner’s Guide;
thank you for picking it from the shelf.This book tells the story of
our place in the cosmos and the prospects for finding life beyond
the Earth, a field of scientific research that has come to be called
‘astrobiology’. It has been written as both a popular science book,
for anyone curious about the existence of life ‘out there’, and also
an entry-level primer for undergraduate or postgraduate students
starting a course in astrobiology. A glossary and reading list have
been included at the back of this book to help those starting afresh
in this field.
Over the coming chapters we’ll consider some of the most fundamental
questions in science.What actually is ‘life’? How did it
develop on our own world? In what way might the Earth be special,
or the entire Universe be fortuitously set-up to allow life?
Where else in the solar system or galaxy as a whole might the conditions
for life be met? We’ll take a look at some of the hardiest lifeforms
known on Earth, how cells might be transferred between
planets, and what dangers lurk out in the depths of space.We’ll
travel through four billion years of our planet’s history and take a
guided tour of the mostly likely abodes in our own solar system,
before voyaging out to the pinprick stars that speckle our skies.
I encountered three main problems writing this book on astrobiology.
The first was both a joy and a frustration.As astrobiology is
such a fast-paced discipline, some information will have become
out-dated even before the ink has dried on the page. For example,
since completing the draft the first terrestrial planet orbiting....to be continue
Hello, my name is Vaibhav Saraswat. I'm a 23 year old self-employed Science lover from India.
No comments:
Post a Comment