About this Book

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? Recent discoveries have made it more likely than ever that we will know the answer to this age-old question in our lifetimes -- and that the answer most likely will be "yes." No longer a subject relegated to the fringes, the search for extraterrestrial life is now a mainstream scientific pursuit. In "Other Worlds," Michael Lemonick introduces us to the pioneering researchers who are using brand-new technology to explore the universe, looking for elusive signs of life.

Within recent years, tantalizing suggestions of extraterrestrial life have materialized, including new data from Mars and discoveries about Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Lemonick describes these remarkable breakthroughs, including the very recent discovery that there are more planets outside our solar system than in it -- an idea that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

"Other Worlds" takes us inside the observatories, from the world's most powerful telescopes, situated at the top of a volcanic mountain in Hawaii, to the giant radio antennas in a bucolic West Virginia valley, used to listen for alien signals. It is in these places that scientists like Paul Butter and Geoff Marcy analyze the data that led to their discovery of new planets trillions of miles away, and where astronomer Seth Shostak helps run Project Phoenix for the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute. Even NASA has now begun its Origins Program, hoping the search for extraterrestrial life will do for the agency what the mission to put a man on the moon did in the 1960s.

Michael Lemonick has been called "an inspiring explainer of some of the most mind-expandingideas in contemporary cosmology" in the "Los Angeles Times" and "[one of] the best of today's astronomy popularizers" in "The New York Times Book Review."

Lively and anecdotal, "Other Worlds" is a fascinating look at one of the most compelling areas of scientific research today and the scientists behind it, as well as a thought-provoking reflection on how the search for extraterrestrial life affects the way we regard our place in the universe.