Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "astronomy"

Louis Neal Irwin and Dirk Schulze-Makuch do a thorough job of reviewing the environments of the planets and their moons in our solar system. Are any of them friendly enough to harbor life? What kind of life? How many probably house internal oceans under a cap of ice? Those are the most likely candidates for microbes, maybe even swimmers or crawlers on three types of environment--an internal ice ceiling, an ocean floor over a warm core, and the internal ocean itself. The authors consider all the chemical ifs, ands and buts of such environments.

I'm most eager to see what the flybys that will pick up samples from the leaking moon Enceladus in 2030? Actually, it's spurting icy water and organics several hundred kilometers into space from its south pole. It there is an internal ocean there, it could be very interesting--and we won't even have to drill through kilometers of ice.
Meanwhile, come visit my blogs on astronaut.com. Here's the latest-- http://astronaut.com/whos-good-news-l...

The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities by Caleb Scharf, New York, ScientificAmerican/Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2014. Astrophysicist Caleb Scharf’s Science Book of the Year 2014 wins my award for a vibrant, readable and enjoyable history of astronomy and a comprehensive overview of the current finds that suggest answers to the “ultimate” question, “Are we alone in the universe?”

Schaft begins by reminding us of old-world answers to that question. Then he takes us beyond Copernicus and his problems with a heliocentric solar system to the Kepler telescope and its exoplanet zoo.

What delighted me were Scharf’s forays into all the difficult sciences that serve as tools for studying the universe. These include statistics, constants necessary for life, relativity, chaos, the complex nature of life, biochemistry and its requirements, as well as Rare Earth geoastronomy, requirements for Earth Equivalence, and remote clues that suggest life elsewhere.

Scharf does not dance around the facts. Space is enormous, as are energy and time requirements for traveling to other stars. He does suggest that Earth orbits in a rather special solar system, special because most of our fellow planets sail around in orbits within 10% of circular. At the same time, our Milky Way galaxy is richly endowed with other solar systems, some unexpected, some thought impossible or surprisingly different, but overall not too different from computer models of possible varieties.

The author charges ahead in covering all the possibilities for finding an answer to the big question. In the end, he stays true to his realism when suggesting two choices we will have to make, if we do find evidence of life elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy. I heartily recommend this book if you have ever wondered who we are and where we seem to be.

Astrobiology—a Very Short Introduction by David C. Catling, Oxford University Press, 2013
I hesitate to review this extraordinary book because it is so good. Somehow, David Catling, Professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and the Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington, Seattle, has written a beautifully written, clear summary of all the basic biology and astronomy you need to now to understand current findings in astrobiology—“…a branch of science concerned with the study of the origin and evolution of life on Earth and the possible variety of life elsewhere.” (his definition.)

After a short review of other definitions and the earliest history (Thales C.600 B.C.) questioning whether “…we’re alone in the universe,” Catling discusses attempts to define life, then leads us gently into what we know about planets, stars, biochemistry, genetics and energy required for life. In the end he brings us up to date on exoplanets and possibilities for life beyond Earth.

Here’s the spoiler: Europa is his choice as “…the best prospect for life” in our solar system. Why? Read this wonderful book to review or get acquainted with the science involved in the search for the nature of our existence. He has convinced us that “Astrobiology is here to stay.”

For readers of my blog “Who’s Out there on astronaut.com: In coming blogs, I will be updating and reviewing the various topics he covers.