by Lisa Kaltenegger, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2024, ISBN 978-1-250-28363-4, Hardbound, $30.00, US
At first, this book begins with a series of “experiments” the author makes in attempting to teach a class in determining what could be and how to spot an alien. In the beginning, her students are a bit askance in her using a banana, a jellyfish and an invisible dragon in showing how an alien could take any shape – or not, by way of Kaltenegger introducing us to her own voyage, beginning with degrees in astronomy and engineering; however, it’s not until the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, and the Kepler mission’s thousands of exoplanets, that she is able to really begin her research into other world possibilities, forming possible “surfaces” and ultimately keying in life necessities in many of the new-found planetary bodies. She makes extensive use of each star’s “Goldilock’s” zone, as a prerequisite for life, although she does concede that we on Earth could be just one of so many varied living forms. In fact, she reminds us that some of the inhabitants of our world are as “alien” to us as a potential exoplanet resident.
Throughout Alien Earths the reader is following the life of a person who became fascinated with the concept of life on other worlds, and was able to follow her dream such that she is renown throughout the world as an expert, not only as a lecturer on the topic, but as a hands-on other-world experimenter. For anyone interested in cutting-edge work on the concept of other worlds’ inhabitants, this book is a great choice.
