Recent discoveries of planet-like objects circling other sun-like stars have stirred enormous interest in what other planets may exist in the universe, and whether they support intelligent life, or at least could do so. This book will take us into the thick of this search for extrasolar planets. Unlike other books, it will focus on the people behind the searches--many of whom the author knows--and the extraordinary technology that is on the drawing boards and currently in use to detect distant wanderers and describe their characteristics, thus bringing us to the cutting edge of knowledge of the subject. The author is an experienced, award-winning science journalist who was technology correspondent for the Financial Times of London and is now working as a journalist in France. He has written on many topics in astronomy and astrobiology, and has had pieces published in over 35 different newspapers and magazines worldwide.
The Hunt is On...
Modern planet-hunters, working around the clock and around the globe, are beginning to find just how mind-bogglingly exotic extra-solar planets and planetary systems can be. Using an extraordinary array of technologies that is still evolving, they have learned - from their outposts high in the Chilean desert and atop a Hawaiian volcano, from viewing platforms in space and spread over thousands of miles on Earth - that planets outside our own Solar System are anything but ordinary and predictable.
In this report from the front lines of astronomical research and theory, Bruce Dorminey shows us that:
Less than 80 years after Edwin Hubble proved that our Milky Way galaxy was not alone, we now know that our galaxy is only one of at least 50 billion - each of which may contain billions of planets orbiting stars like our Sun.
So far, extra-solar planets have been detected by indirect means: perturbations in the radio-timing of pulsars, Doppler spectroscopy, and transit photometry. But direct imaging, especially with the advent of space-based telescopes, will play an increasingly important role in the hunt.
The teams searching the distant skies cooperate with each other - they share findings and research techniques at frequent meetings - but they are also locked in an extremely competitive race that has clearly accelerated the pace of development.
Astronomers continue to debate the frequency of planets and planetary systems around other Sun-like stars, but the number may be much lower than science fiction writers would have us believe.
The discoveries mader by planet hunters have shown that we may need to revise our definitions. Huge gas giants have been detected in orbit around distant stars, but astronomers have not yet decided whether they should be thought of as oversized "Jupiters" or brown dwarfs.
Within the next generation, we should have the means to detect life on an extra-solar planet light years away simply by analysing its reflected light - and we may even be able to select planets that might be good candidates for human colonisation.
