Books

By: Cynthia Phillips, Shana Priwer

Highlights the most recent developments in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and advocates a diverse range of approaches to make SETI increasingly more powerful and effective in the years to come.

By: Nathalie Cabrol and Edmond Grin

On Earth, lakes provide favorable environments for the development of life and its preservation as fossils. They are extremely sensitive to climate fluctuations and to conditions within their watersheds. As such, lakes are unique markers of the impact of environmental changes. Past and current missions have now demonstrated that water once flowed at the surface of Mars early in its history. Evidence of ancient ponding has been uncovered at scales ranging from a few kilometers to possibly that of the Arctic ocean.

By: Seth Shostak

Aliens are big in America. Whether they’ve arrived via rocket, flying saucer, or plain old teleportation, they’ve been invading, infiltrating, or inspiring us for decades, and they’ve fascinated moviegoers and television watchers for more than fifty years.

By: Peter Jenniskens

A unique handbook for astronomers interested in observing meteor storms and outbursts. Spectacular displays of 'shooting stars' are created when the Earth's orbit crosses a meteoroid stream, as each meteoroid causes a bright light when it enters our atmosphere at high speed. Jenniskens, an active meteor storm chaser, explains how meteoroid streams originate from the decay of meteoroids, comets and asteroids, and how they cause meteor showers on Earth.

By: Douglas Vakoch, Director of Interstellar Message Composition

Highlights the most recent developments in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and advocates a diverse range of approaches to make SETI increasingly more powerful and effective in the years to come.

By: Tristan Guillot, Patrick Cassen, Andreas Quirrenbach, Stephane Udry (Editor), Michel Mayor (Editor), Willy Benz (Editor), Didier Queloz (Editor)

Research on extrasolar planets is one of the most exciting fields of activity in astrophysics. In a decade only, a huge step forward has been made from the early speculations on the existence of planets orbiting "other stars" to the first discoveries and to the characterization of extrasolar planets. This breakthrough is the result of a growing interest of a large community of researchers as well as the development of a wide range of new observational techniques and facilities.

By: Cynthia Phillips, Shana Priwer

Sure, you’ve heard of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. But do you really know what it means? And even if you do there’s a lot more to be learned about this eccentric genius. Did you know he worked to develop hearing aids? Or that a student actually spotted a mistake in one of his papers? And you’ll never guess what happed to Einstein’s brain after he died.

Inside these pages, you’ll learn about how and why:

By: Ray Villard, Lynette Cook, Afterword by Frank Drake

Merely a decade ago there were no known planets orbiting sunlike stars outside our own solar system. In the past ten years, however, fast-paced developments in astronomy have revealed over 140 extrasolar planets--with more discoveries surely on the way. Though it will be years before we have direct images of these far-flung worlds, this lavishly illustrated book gives us an idea of what they might look like.

By: Gloria Skurzynski

In the jungle of Puerto Rico, next to a giant aluminum telescope bowl, we meet astronomers Peter Backus and Jill Tarter of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program. This research program is determined to find evidence of extraterrestrial life by searching for its radio signals. They hope to catch radio waves created by some kind of life far out in space. These scientists love their work: "Arriving in the control room, Jill puts on a tape of her favorite samba music by a group called Viva Brazil.

By: Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer

His childhood curiosities and unusual education- The scientific climate of Einstein's time and the people who influenced him- His theories, their impact, and their potential for future application- Einstein's philosophies on war, religion, and pacifism- Einstein in America