The Planet Factory

Forget about rockets to Mars - the future of space science lies with the search for exoplanets

Twenty years ago, the search for planets outside the Solar System was the preserve of science-fiction writers. Now it's one of the fastest-growing fields in astronomy, with thousands of exoplanets discovered to date, and the number rising fast.

These new-found worlds are more alien than anything in fiction. Planets larger than Jupiter with years lasting a week; others with two suns lighting their skies, or with no sun at all. Planets with diamond mantles supporting oceans of tar; possible Earth-sized worlds with split hemispheres of perpetual day and night; waterworlds drowning under global oceans and volcanic lava planets awash with seas of magma. The discovery of this diversity is just the beginning. There is a whole galaxy of possibilities.

• *The Planet Factory tells the story of these exoplanets. What can we learn about these faraway surface environments and planetary atmospheres? And do the results hint at the tantalising possibility of alien life?

Auteur

Elizabeth Tasker is an astrophysicist specialising in computational models of how stars and planets form in our galaxy. After a degree in theoretical physics, she went on to complete her doctorate at Oxford before moving across to the United States and Canada for postdoctoral research positions. In 2011 she became an assistant professor at Hokkaido University in the north of Japan, and moved to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) as an associate professor in 2016.

Elizabeth has been a keen science communicator for many years, dating back to winning the Daily Telegraph Young Science Writers Award in 1999. Since then she has written for Scientific American and Astronomy Magazine, as well as blogs on sites that include Nautilus, the Conversation and space.com.

@girlandkat

Contenu

Preface
Introduction: The Blind Planet Hunters
PART 1: THE FACTORY FLOOR
Chapter 1: The Factory Floor2
Chapter 2: The Record-breaking Building Project
Chapter 3: The Problem with Gas
Chapter 4: Air and Sea
PART 2: DANGEROUS PLANETS
Chapter 5: The Impossible Planet
Chapter 6: We Are Not Normal
Chapter 7: Water, Diamonds or Lava? The Planet Recipe Nobody Knew
Chapter 8: Worlds Around Dead Stars
Chapter 9: The Lands of Two Suns
Chapter 10: The Planetary Crime Scene
Chapter 11: Going Rogue
PART 3: GOLDILOCKS WORLDS
Chapter 12: The Goldilocks Criteria
Chapter 13: The Search for Another Earth
Chapter 14: Alien Vistas
Chapter 15: Beyond the Goldilocks Zone
Chapter 16: The Moon Factory
Chapter 17: The Search for Life
Author's note
Glossary
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Index