What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets
We are nearing a turning point in our quest for life in the universe—we now have the capacity to detect Earth-like planets around other stars. But will we find any? In The Crowded Universe , renowned astronomer Alan Boss argues that based on what we already know about planetary systems, in the coming years we will find abundant Earths, including many that are indisputably alive. Life is not only possible elsewhere in the universe, Boss argues—it is common. Boss describes how our ideas about planetary formation have changed radically in the past decade and brings readers up to date on discoveries of bizarre inhabitants of various solar systems, including our own. America must stay in this new space race, Boss contends, or risk being left out of one of the most profoundly important discoveries of all the first confirmed finding of extraterrestrial life.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 3, 2009
3 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 16, 2009
The Crowded Universe outlines the search for planets outside of our solar system, the means used to detect them, and some of the upcoming missions NASA will be launching to further the search.
That's the good news.
The book also contains details of the vagaries of NASA budgeting and funding and internal politics and changes in leadership. Details which are probably of little interest to anyone outside of the agency.
I can't figure out why this book was written. The science of planet hunting and the results are interesting, but better information may be obtained directly from the NASA website. Also, the way the book is structured and even though it was just released, it’s already out of date. Kepler was launched in March and is in trailing earth orbit and will soon be returning data.
Instead of reading this book, check out the following instead:
Kepler - http://www.nasa.gov/kepler
SIM Lite - http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/SIM/i...
Webb Telescope - http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
That's the good news.
The book also contains details of the vagaries of NASA budgeting and funding and internal politics and changes in leadership. Details which are probably of little interest to anyone outside of the agency.
I can't figure out why this book was written. The science of planet hunting and the results are interesting, but better information may be obtained directly from the NASA website. Also, the way the book is structured and even though it was just released, it’s already out of date. Kepler was launched in March and is in trailing earth orbit and will soon be returning data.
Instead of reading this book, check out the following instead:
Kepler - http://www.nasa.gov/kepler
SIM Lite - http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/SIM/i...
Webb Telescope - http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
August 31, 2009
A good but dry account of the modern search for extrasolar planets. While I did enjoy the book, I was suprized by how dry it was. It is basically a dad-by-day account of every event, large and small that was somehow related to the search. I did find it interesting but I'm suprized the author was unable to spruce it up more. There are some more fluid sections - passages that describe things in more detail and with more flair - but aside from these and the occassional joke (Boss has a great sense of humor when he lets it show), the book reads like notes compiled for the writing of a textbook.
My last critism is that I would have liked to see a chapter on astonomers interest in planets in the centuries befor the 20th.
While I am glad I read it, I can really only reccomend this book to those who are seriously interested in astronomy, but to those, I highly reccommend it.
My last critism is that I would have liked to see a chapter on astonomers interest in planets in the centuries befor the 20th.
While I am glad I read it, I can really only reccomend this book to those who are seriously interested in astronomy, but to those, I highly reccommend it.
November 28, 2009
Interesting is the current search for earth-like planets using new and simple, but ingenious methodology. They can't see the planets, but can infer their presence and size by the gravitational wobble of the host star. They have found some already; more to come. The writer, however seems something of a bore (and boor).
March 3, 2015
The Crowded Universe follows the (American) search for planets outside the solar system from 1995 to the launch of Kepler in 2009 in great detail, offering a lot of interesting facts on a topic that's endlessly fascinating, and getting into the personal and political conflicts connected with it...
So why just the two stars in a book that literally contains millions of them? Well, I'm not going to claim to be fair, and Boss obviously knows more about the subject than I ever would even if I spent the rest of my life studying it. But the fact remains, something this interesting shouldn't be this, well, dull. I don't really mind that he occasionally goes off-topic to rant about politics (noting that the only way to get the GWB administration to pay for the budget they needed would have been to let the P in Terrestrial Planet Finder stand for Petroleum), because at least then he sounds like he's actually invested in it. The US-centricism is a bit annoying as well, but I guess the book is basically intended as a letter to Obama asking for more cash before the Europeans beat NASA to, I dunno, landing on a comet or something. (And yes, the endless harping on about NASA budget processes gets tiring.) It's written exclusively from an astrophysicist's point of view - it's about the search for a way to find habitable worlds, more than the question of what might be on the actual planets - which is also fine. But I think the book's major problem is that he's chosen to write it as a journal, going through findings and theories day by day, returning to the same arguments over and over every time someone publishes a new article, rather than trying to summarize what was known when the book was written. How we learn something is always important to teach, but for most of the time in this book, I find myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. Instead, the book spends so much time mired in minutiae you never get an overview of just why this topic is so important.
Milhouse: Do any of these boxes contain candy?
Factory owner: No. We only make boxes to ship nails. Any other questions?
Martin: When will we see a finished box, sir?
Factory owner{chuckles}: We do not do that here. That is done in Flint, Michigan.
Bart: Has anyone lost their hand in the machinery?
Factory owner: No, that has never happened.
Bart: And then the disembodied hand suck out and starting strangling people?
Factory owner: I do not know what factory you are talking about! We only make boxes.
So why just the two stars in a book that literally contains millions of them? Well, I'm not going to claim to be fair, and Boss obviously knows more about the subject than I ever would even if I spent the rest of my life studying it. But the fact remains, something this interesting shouldn't be this, well, dull. I don't really mind that he occasionally goes off-topic to rant about politics (noting that the only way to get the GWB administration to pay for the budget they needed would have been to let the P in Terrestrial Planet Finder stand for Petroleum), because at least then he sounds like he's actually invested in it. The US-centricism is a bit annoying as well, but I guess the book is basically intended as a letter to Obama asking for more cash before the Europeans beat NASA to, I dunno, landing on a comet or something. (And yes, the endless harping on about NASA budget processes gets tiring.) It's written exclusively from an astrophysicist's point of view - it's about the search for a way to find habitable worlds, more than the question of what might be on the actual planets - which is also fine. But I think the book's major problem is that he's chosen to write it as a journal, going through findings and theories day by day, returning to the same arguments over and over every time someone publishes a new article, rather than trying to summarize what was known when the book was written. How we learn something is always important to teach, but for most of the time in this book, I find myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. Instead, the book spends so much time mired in minutiae you never get an overview of just why this topic is so important.
Milhouse: Do any of these boxes contain candy?
Factory owner: No. We only make boxes to ship nails. Any other questions?
Martin: When will we see a finished box, sir?
Factory owner{chuckles}: We do not do that here. That is done in Flint, Michigan.
Bart: Has anyone lost their hand in the machinery?
Factory owner: No, that has never happened.
Bart: And then the disembodied hand suck out and starting strangling people?
Factory owner: I do not know what factory you are talking about! We only make boxes.
September 28, 2011
An interesting read although the title and cover are a bit misleading. It contains a lot of information about the way that science missions are funded through America's NASA and various other governmental organizations, how planets can be found, and how science works in general. It doesn't say much about how biomarkers could be found in the future, or speculate much on how much life there might be in our galaxy.
Still, it did give a nice overview of how far we've come in our understanding of space science, and it gave me a renewed sense of shame about the how far the 2nd Bush administration put back science programs in the U.S. Read if you're curious about how science programs rise or fall on the basis of pure political whim.
Still, it did give a nice overview of how far we've come in our understanding of space science, and it gave me a renewed sense of shame about the how far the 2nd Bush administration put back science programs in the U.S. Read if you're curious about how science programs rise or fall on the basis of pure political whim.
September 23, 2009
We live in interesting times. As of this review, 365 extra-solar planets have been discovered or await confirmation. This book begins with the first discovery of a planet around another star in 1995 and gives a chronology of the scientific rush to discover another Earth. Hopefully, that will be soon with the launch of Kepler in March of this year.
September 13, 2010
This book had potential, but I lost the ability to follow when it turned towards the budget. And that's too bad because discussing how NASA programs are being cut and that the future of innovation hangs in the balance is an important topic. Unfortunately, the book was not able to impress me, perhaps because of its bifurcated subject.
April 12, 2009
An excellent overview of the recent history of exoplanet searches. The author makes several snide remarks about the Bush administration, which are out of place but amusing nonetheless.
April 30, 2009
we are not alone...
August 30, 2012
more than i ever needed to know about how NASA underfunds and cuts various telescope projects.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews