The Little Book of Aliens
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4.6 • 16 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“With wit and brio, Frank separates current nonsense about aliens from the serious and fascinating search for extraterrestrial life.” —Carlo Rovelli, New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
From astrophysicist Adam Frank, a little book on the biggest questions in our search for extraterrestrial life, questions we stand ready to answer.
Everyone is curious about life in the Universe, UFOs and whether ET is out there. Over the course of his thirty-year career as an astrophysicist, Adam Frank has consistently been asked about the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. Are aliens real? Where are they? Why haven’t we found them? What happens if we do?
We’ve long been led to believe that astronomers spend every night searching the sky for extraterrestrials, but the truth is we have barely started looking. Not until now have we even known where to look or how. In The Little Book of Aliens, Frank, a leading researcher in the field, takes us on a journey to all that we know about the possibility of life outside planet Earth and shows us the cutting-edge science that has brought us to this unique moment in human history: the one where we go find out for ourselves.
In this small book with big stakes, Frank gives us a rundown of everything we need to know, from the scientific origins of the search for intelligent life, the Fermi Paradox, the Kardashev Scale, the James Webb Telescope, as well as UFOs and their conspiracy theories. Drawing from his own work and that of other scientists studying the possibility of alien life, he brings together the latest scientific thinking, data, ideas, and discoveries to equip us with the critical facts as we stand at what may be the last moment in human history where we still believe we are all alone. This book is about everything we do—and do not—know about life, intelligent or otherwise beyond Earth. In language that is engaging, entertaining and fun, The Little Book of Aliens provides a comprehensive first look at how close we are to finding out if others actually exist—and if they do, what they might be like.
Humankind is on the precipice of finding its neighbors. What comes next? No person is better suited to answer that question—and lead the search—than Adam Frank.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Is there anyone out there?" asks University of Rochester astrophysicist Frank (Light of the Stars) in this animated overview of scientists' search for extraterrestrial life. Frank notes that researchers only started taking the quest to find aliens seriously in 1960 after astronomer Frank Drake tried (and failed) to detect radio emissions "from a star ten light years away." Highlighting some of the major discoveries made since then, Frank writes that such advanced technologies as NASA's Kepler space telescope have expanded astronomers' knowledge of planets outside the solar system (among the peculiarities observed are planets that don't spin on an axis, so "the sun never moves in their sky") and that the discovery of water on Jupiter's moon Europa, "far outside the Sun's habitable zone," changed astronomers' assumptions about the most promising places to look for life. Frank discusses some of the ways astronomers are currently looking for aliens and hospitable planets, including studying the chemical composition of distant planets' atmospheres by observing how they filter starlight as it passes through. The conversational tone keeps things light ("Our solar system has eight planets. "), though the lack of a cohesive narrative can sometimes make this feel like a collection of trivia. Still, it's a solid survey of the hunt for life beyond Earth.
