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Envisioning Exoplanets: Searching for Life in the Galaxy
"Envisioning Exoplanets traces the journey of astronomers and researchers on their quest to explore the universe for a planet like Earth"--
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2020
About the author
Michael Carroll
196 books238 followersLibrarian Note:
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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 12, 2021
A non-technical coffee-table overview of where things stand with exoplanets, with fun artist renditions to help the reader imagine it all. The author covers what seems like all of the bases, including many new to me since I haven’t kept up. Repetitive bits of text scattered about, but I’m guessing you’re not meant to read every word like I did 😆. This field moves so quickly that of course it’s already out of date and at least one exoplanet discussed has been found to be just a loose clump of icy bits.
May 17, 2023
Great way to catch up on one of the most exciting trends in astronomy since 1992. Astronomers have discovered "exoplanets" (planets orbiting stars outside our Solar System). I didn't know that there are thousands of them, all discovered since 1992.
This book imagines what these exoplanets are like, how they are discovered, which ones are most similar to Earth, which ones may contain life, and what that life might be like.
The book is rich in illustrations: there are imagined views from the surface of these exoplanets, or views of the exoplanets from their moons. I get the feeling that they started this book idea with some of the illustrations and had to come up with additional material, since it's a little repetitive. That's a minor complaint though, I imagine most readers would jump in and out of this book instead of reading it all the way through like I did.
My favorite part was learning about Teegarden b, the planet with the highest "Earth Similarity Index." It's described over a few pages. Some other important exoplanets get short profiles too. You'll likely have a favorite too.
Since it's an astronomy book, expect some physics. Maybe less obviously, expect chemistry and geology as well. It's not too hard to follow, and even if you don't understand all of it, there's enough easy stuff here that you should expect to get something out of it.
It's a quick read, if you're interested in astronomy, you should consider it!
This book imagines what these exoplanets are like, how they are discovered, which ones are most similar to Earth, which ones may contain life, and what that life might be like.
The book is rich in illustrations: there are imagined views from the surface of these exoplanets, or views of the exoplanets from their moons. I get the feeling that they started this book idea with some of the illustrations and had to come up with additional material, since it's a little repetitive. That's a minor complaint though, I imagine most readers would jump in and out of this book instead of reading it all the way through like I did.
My favorite part was learning about Teegarden b, the planet with the highest "Earth Similarity Index." It's described over a few pages. Some other important exoplanets get short profiles too. You'll likely have a favorite too.
Since it's an astronomy book, expect some physics. Maybe less obviously, expect chemistry and geology as well. It's not too hard to follow, and even if you don't understand all of it, there's enough easy stuff here that you should expect to get something out of it.
It's a quick read, if you're interested in astronomy, you should consider it!
October 22, 2021
Expand your mind to the possibilities! Exoplanets galore, and more a comin’! Just you wait, the James Web telescope and others will tease out these exo -secretive planets hiding in the ether, and perhaps, just maybe….find a few that have fields to romp and beaches to play!
May 29, 2023
We’re still a long way from even being able to imagine manned flight to distant exoplanets. Even the cutting edge of using light-based interstellar probes for such journeys is in the proof-of-concept stage. And maybe it gets stuck there, and we as a result end up stuck here on an increasingly overpopulated and uninhabitable Earth, never to venture forth into the galaxy.
Still, we know now from a host of sophisticated techniques that plenty of planets, stars, and moons exist well beyond our own spiral-armed galaxy. Many of these planets exist well-within what scientists have deemed “the habitable zone,” planets like our own which may host carbon-based life and get their sustenance from a main phase star. And that’s before you even factor in the potential for life to be scaffolded on other elements or compounds. Silicon has always been one candidate, since the days when science fiction first turned its attention to the question. The universe gets so crazy when you go out far enough into its outer reaches that even some forms of ice—like clathrate ice hard as diamond—could serve to host life. Considering the hardihood of recently discovered extremophiles like the tardigrade or “water bear,” and you see how life under supposedly mercilessly hot or cold or radioactive conditions is not only possible, but probable. Fermi’s paradox and Drake’s Equation be damned!
Envisioning Exoplanets takes what we know—what we have seen by both transiting and parallax methods—as a starting point to ask questions about these exoplanets. How likely are they to really host life? If there’s a possibility, what form will that life take? And how will we get there? In and among the wholly accessible explanations and cool and informative sidebars are some beautiful paintings by artist Michael Carroll. He has a background in science as well as a great knack for capturing the wonders of the cosmos, which lends gravity and heft to his limitless vision.
These aren’t the implausible but wondrous worlds of Frank Frazetta or Edgar Rice Burroughs, with men in loincloths somehow riding saber-tooth tigers on superheated or frozen worlds. Neither are buxom maidens seen riding sidesaddle on monstrous green lizards guarding the caves where ancient races dwell. (Not that I have anything against loinclothed space warriors or buxom, lizard-riding queens clad in the accoutrement of dominatrices.) Everything depicted here has either been glimpsed by telescope or inferred by some means of spectrometry, and occasionally even photographed. The paintings are so good, in fact, that the author of the book’s forward claims she had to many times present the images with the caveat that these were depictions, not actual captures from space satellites. There’s really no higher compliment an illustrator of space art can be paid.
It's all undeniably beautiful, and educative, and God willing some of our descendants will eventually get to behold such sights with their own eyes. I just pray that when they reach those distant worlds, they don’t have to do battle with the merciless ice monsters. Or tungsten-based quadrupeds. Yes, tungsten is another candidate for life, according to the book, believe it or not. Highest recommendation, for my fellow starwatching nerds out there.
Still, we know now from a host of sophisticated techniques that plenty of planets, stars, and moons exist well beyond our own spiral-armed galaxy. Many of these planets exist well-within what scientists have deemed “the habitable zone,” planets like our own which may host carbon-based life and get their sustenance from a main phase star. And that’s before you even factor in the potential for life to be scaffolded on other elements or compounds. Silicon has always been one candidate, since the days when science fiction first turned its attention to the question. The universe gets so crazy when you go out far enough into its outer reaches that even some forms of ice—like clathrate ice hard as diamond—could serve to host life. Considering the hardihood of recently discovered extremophiles like the tardigrade or “water bear,” and you see how life under supposedly mercilessly hot or cold or radioactive conditions is not only possible, but probable. Fermi’s paradox and Drake’s Equation be damned!
Envisioning Exoplanets takes what we know—what we have seen by both transiting and parallax methods—as a starting point to ask questions about these exoplanets. How likely are they to really host life? If there’s a possibility, what form will that life take? And how will we get there? In and among the wholly accessible explanations and cool and informative sidebars are some beautiful paintings by artist Michael Carroll. He has a background in science as well as a great knack for capturing the wonders of the cosmos, which lends gravity and heft to his limitless vision.
These aren’t the implausible but wondrous worlds of Frank Frazetta or Edgar Rice Burroughs, with men in loincloths somehow riding saber-tooth tigers on superheated or frozen worlds. Neither are buxom maidens seen riding sidesaddle on monstrous green lizards guarding the caves where ancient races dwell. (Not that I have anything against loinclothed space warriors or buxom, lizard-riding queens clad in the accoutrement of dominatrices.) Everything depicted here has either been glimpsed by telescope or inferred by some means of spectrometry, and occasionally even photographed. The paintings are so good, in fact, that the author of the book’s forward claims she had to many times present the images with the caveat that these were depictions, not actual captures from space satellites. There’s really no higher compliment an illustrator of space art can be paid.
It's all undeniably beautiful, and educative, and God willing some of our descendants will eventually get to behold such sights with their own eyes. I just pray that when they reach those distant worlds, they don’t have to do battle with the merciless ice monsters. Or tungsten-based quadrupeds. Yes, tungsten is another candidate for life, according to the book, believe it or not. Highest recommendation, for my fellow starwatching nerds out there.
January 22, 2026
Good non-technical explanation of exoplanets and the science of how life may form. The real draw is the illustrations. They are very cool and serve as good inspiration for people who write or do other art. This would make a very good book to keep on a coffee table or give to a young person interested in space.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews