In search of the solar system's sister worlds
Are there planets around other stars? It was not until 1995 that this question could be answered with a resounding "yes". Since then, large telescopes and space probes have been searching for them. Almost 2,000 exoplanets are now known. Twenty years after the first discovery, this book takes stock: what types of exoplanets are known, how are they searched for today, and why is it so difficult to discover a second Earth?
Table of contents:
- Alien worlds in science and fiction: Why humans have always thought about distant life and alien worlds
- A new sky: The brief history of the first exoplanet discovery
- Our home address in the cosmos: Earth and the solar system
- Hidden in the spotlight: The difficulty of detecting exoplanets
- From hot Jupiters to a second Earth: planets around other stars and their profiles
- Life on exoplanets? The habitability of worlds outside our solar system
- In search of the second Earth: The future of exoplanet research
- Exoplanets for everyone: amateur astronomers and their contribution
The author Bernhard Mackowiak works as a science journalist specialising in astronomy, space flight and geosciences. He is the author of several books.
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