Reviewed by David White, Customer Service Bibliographer
Originally published in France in 2005, New Worlds was translated and updated to take advantage of the explosive pace of change in this exciting field of astronomy.
Astronomers have been curious about extra-solar planets for longer than astronomy has existed as a science. The underlying questions are simple: Are we alone? Are there other planets, perhaps with alien life out 'there'?
New Worlds discusses theories of planetary system formation - what our own solar system tells us, and how that has been changed by the new systems being found today. Astronomers had always assumed that our solar system was a 'typical' system - and the theories we developed on planetary system formation fit just such a typical system. But results found to date from other planetary systems are calling into question the details of our theories at the least - if not the underlying logic of the theories in their entirety.
The book explains the different methods used to discover exo-planets: velocimetry, the transit method and gravitational microlensing -- and the limitations and strengths of each.
New Worlds asks questions about life in the universe - how we define it, how to search for it, and where we might find it in other star systems. The book concludes with a section on systems under development to help locate smaller and smaller exo-planets.
This book is recommended for astronomy and general science collections.
Published by YBP Library Services
999 Maple St., Contoocook, NH 03229 USA
v: 800.258.3774 f: 603.746.5628
w: www.ybp.com
e: academia@ybp.com
