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Alien Skies: Planetary Atmospheres from Earth to Exoplanets
Planetary atmospheres are complex and evolving entities, as mankind is rapidly coming to realise whilst attempting to understand, forecast and mitigate human-induced climate change. In the Solar System, our neighbours Venus and Mars provide striking examples of two endpoints of planetary evolution, runaway greenhouse and loss of atmosphere to space. The variety of extra-solar planets brings a wider angle to the from scorching "hot jupiters'' to ocean worlds, exo-atmospheres explore many configurations unknown in the Solar System, such as iron clouds, silicate rains, extreme plate tectonics, and steam volcanoes. Exoplanetary atmospheres have recently become accessible to observations. This book puts our own climate in the wider context of the trials and tribulations of planetary atmospheres. Based on cutting-edge research, it uses a grand tour of the atmospheres of other planets to shine a new light on our own atmosphere, and its relation with life.
162 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 12, 2013
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2020
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning about either atmospheric evolution or exoplanets (and ideally both) at a pop-science level. Despite this target audience, the book was apparently published by a specialty academic press company rather than something with more reach, which explains its obscurity. I found it extremely well written and highly engaging for topics that are often both heavy and dry.
After discussing the basics of Earth's atmosphere (including the Coriolis effect, the water cycle, the rock-carbon cycle, and the impactful presence of oxygen), the next few chapters look closely at Venus, Mars, and Titan by first explaining the evolutions of their atmospheres into their current states and then imagining what would need to happen to Earth to end up in similar states. The major factor here is proximity to the sun, but overall mass (affecting gravity, which determines which atmospheric gases are trapped) and some other characteristics come into play. The book then looks outward to the larger planets of our solar system and beyond to "hot jupiters" (<0.1 AU from their star) and terrestrial exoplanets. I found the final chapter particularly compelling, as it examined some very interesting prior past and hypothetical future states of Earth. It defines an "era" as 100 million years and specifically looks at Earth's formation, the "ocean planet" of age 5 eras where life began, the "snowball planet" of age 24 when Earth was hypothesized to be a giant ice rock with limited liquid water near the equator, age 35 (unremarkable), age 40 when oxygen skyrocketed from 0.1% to 20% of our atmosphere, allowing plants and animals to evolve, and age 46, current day. It then briefly touches on some hypothetical future states of Earth up to and including our ultimate demise when the sun becomes a red giant.
One of my favorite takeaways was the author's stressing of how the presence of clouds is what makes a planetary object so interesting to imagine being on the surface of. Without clouds, most atmospheric forces are invisible, robbing the area of character. Dovetailing perfectly with that premise is the discussion of the various cycles that can occur at different temperatures to create clouds, storms, and weather in general - from water on Earth, to sulfur on Venus, CO2 on Mars, methane on Titan, and sulfuric acid, silicates and iron, and even aluminum and titanium at more extreme (high) temperatures such as those seen on hot jupiters.
Well done!
After discussing the basics of Earth's atmosphere (including the Coriolis effect, the water cycle, the rock-carbon cycle, and the impactful presence of oxygen), the next few chapters look closely at Venus, Mars, and Titan by first explaining the evolutions of their atmospheres into their current states and then imagining what would need to happen to Earth to end up in similar states. The major factor here is proximity to the sun, but overall mass (affecting gravity, which determines which atmospheric gases are trapped) and some other characteristics come into play. The book then looks outward to the larger planets of our solar system and beyond to "hot jupiters" (<0.1 AU from their star) and terrestrial exoplanets. I found the final chapter particularly compelling, as it examined some very interesting prior past and hypothetical future states of Earth. It defines an "era" as 100 million years and specifically looks at Earth's formation, the "ocean planet" of age 5 eras where life began, the "snowball planet" of age 24 when Earth was hypothesized to be a giant ice rock with limited liquid water near the equator, age 35 (unremarkable), age 40 when oxygen skyrocketed from 0.1% to 20% of our atmosphere, allowing plants and animals to evolve, and age 46, current day. It then briefly touches on some hypothetical future states of Earth up to and including our ultimate demise when the sun becomes a red giant.
One of my favorite takeaways was the author's stressing of how the presence of clouds is what makes a planetary object so interesting to imagine being on the surface of. Without clouds, most atmospheric forces are invisible, robbing the area of character. Dovetailing perfectly with that premise is the discussion of the various cycles that can occur at different temperatures to create clouds, storms, and weather in general - from water on Earth, to sulfur on Venus, CO2 on Mars, methane on Titan, and sulfuric acid, silicates and iron, and even aluminum and titanium at more extreme (high) temperatures such as those seen on hot jupiters.
Well done!
January 7, 2019
I'm a little baffled by the existence of pop-science books being published by specialty academic presses. Who are they expecting to read these books? "Alien Skies" is a great example. Pont made a great effort to write in an engaging way, accessible for an audience interested in atmospheres on other worlds but with no formal knowledge. It's a subject that seems to me like it would have wide appeal in the IFL Science crowd, as exoplanets are a popular subject in pop sci journalism, and this book gives a lot of information about what it would actually be like to be on the ground of those planets. (Green sunsets on Osiris! How cool is that?) But by publishing through Springer, this book lost the opportunity to connect with that audience. Meanwhile, the active scientists that *would* see a Springer book are likely to already have a good understanding of a lot of the science that Pont goes into in great detail, making a lot of this book unnecessary. Thus the situation the book is in- a compelling, well-written book with zero written reviews before this one. Sad!
December 25, 2018
I heartily recommend this book, even to those weary of popular science books because so-called writers looked up science history and science basics on Wikipedia then slapped ''Quantum'' on the title. This book examines the atmospheres and conditions on Mars, Venus, Titan, Jupiter, and exoplanets through two main thrusts: 1)explore what would happen on Earth day-by-day if it was suddenly dropped into the conditions of Mars, Venus, or other planets, and 2)what the atmospheric and oceanic circulation would be like in these planets. Very nice book! Pedagogic effort by the author = maximal, I would add my voice in concert with the other lone reviewer, this book deserves a wider audience than its current obscurity given its relatable yet precise explanation of the science and the interest in exoplanets in general.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews