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Worlds Unnumbered: The Search for Extrasolar Planets

Donald Goldsmith Interstellar Media
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Out of Print A popular and readable account of the people, the search and the discovery of extra solar planets. Worlds Unnumbered captures the excitement and explains the significance of these new worlds, with an up-to-the-last-planet account that gives the general reader a vivid picture of the new planets.

ISBN: 0-935702-97-0
Copyright 1997
225 pages, Casebound

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Summary

A popular and readable account of the people, the search and the discovery of extra solar planets. Worlds Unnumbered captures the excitement and explains the significance of these new worlds, with an up-to-the-last-planet account that gives the general reader a vivid picture of the new planets.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. What New Worlds Are These?
2. Could the New Planets Harbor Life
3. Why Can’t We See Planets?
4. The Formation of Planetary Systems
5. How Strange Can Planets Be?
6. Five Ways to Find Planets Around Other Suns
7. How Many Worlds in the Milky Way
8. Prospecting for Life on Extrasolar Planets
9. Future Searches for Extrsolar Planets

 

Reviews

“On the heels of Goldsmith’s The Hunt for Life on Mars comes this exciting account of the new planets. The burning curiosity, of course, is whether the newcomers could support life: the answer is no; most are gigantic and too close to their stars, and an earth-size planet found orbiting a pulsar would obviously be a crispy critter…Goldsmith reports with the enthusiasm and clarity essential to popular works. Two dozen color plates, some imagining the appearance of the new planets, gussy up a wonderful science acquisition.”
-Booklist

“Highly recommended for all levels.”
-Choice

“The book does a fine job of bringing the interested public up-to-date on a scientific revolution in progress.”
-Meteoritics & Planetary Science

“This planet book is excellent. The level and style mean that it is both readable by the interested layman, yet useful to the professional astronomer. If you want to understand extrasolar planets, this is the book to buy.”
-The Observatory

“If you want to learn about the migrational patterns of giant planets or the interferometric imaging of earth-like planets, Goldsmith’s book will serve for many years as an enjoyable classic.”
-American Journal of Physics

“Goldsmith’s book offers all readers a scientifically compelling panorama of the search for our human origins in the astrophysical context.”
-Royal Astronomical Society

“…the best of the bunch. An enjoyable and authoritative account of one of the hottest topics in modern astronomy.”
-New Scientist

Donald Goldsmith

Donald Goldsmith Interstellar Media

Donald Goldsmith was the science editor and co-writer of the PBS television series The Astronomers and the co-writer of NOVA's Is Anybody Out There? with Lily Tomlin. He has written and edited 15 books on astronomy, including The Runaway Universe, Worlds Unnumbered, Supernova!, and The Hunt for Life on Mars. Donald Goldsmith received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught astronomy courses there and at other institutions, including Stanford University, Cornell University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. He has received the lifetime achievement award in popularizing astronomy from the American Astronomical Society, the science writing award from the American Institute of Physics, and the Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts award for increasing public awareness of astronomy from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

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