Review - The Crowded Universe

The Crowded Universe - The Search for Living Planetsby Alan Boss; Basic Books, New York, New York; (hardcover) $26.00; February 2009.

Noted astronomer, Alan Boss, has written this book, offering a fresh look at the on-going search to scope out Earth-like planets. This book could not be more timely given the upswing in exo-planet detections and the forthcoming launch of NASA's Kepler spacecraft.

Boss is a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and is a leading expert on the formation of stars and planets. His writing style is humorous as well as enlightening. The author points out right at the start that "a new space race" has begun - one that is international in character and a competition to discover how frequently Earth-like planets occur in our neighborhood of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The book offers a march through time in the blossoming quest to detect planets with life around other stars. The bottom line for Boss is that life is not only possible elsewhere out there... it is common.

The reader will find well-written explanations of the technology behind the search, be it NASA's Hubble or the Spitzer space telescopes or the French CoRoT, specifically designed to scan for extrasolar planets. The upcoming Kepler liftoff is also spotlighted - a major new space entry in finding out just how crowded the universe really is.

Not only is the technology of the past and present highlighted. Future space observatories are detailed. Sprinkled throughout this volume is the political background - both good and bad - that is also part of the adventure of addressing that age-old query: Are we alone?

For more information on this book, go to:
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/basic/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0465009360