EAN: 9780691215471

THE LITTLE BOOK OF EXOPLANETS - JOSHUA N WINN G...

A concise and accessible introduction to exoplanets that explains the cutting-edge science
behind recent discoveries. For centuries  people have speculated about the possibility of
planets orbiting distant stars  but only since the 1990s has technology allowed astronomers to
detect them. At this point  more than five thousand such exoplanets have been identified  with
the pace of discovery accelerating after the launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Satellite
Survey and the Webb Space Telescope. In The Little Book of Exoplanets  Princeton astrophysicist
Joshua Winn offers a brief and engaging introduction to the search for exoplanets and the
cutting-edge science behind recent findings. In doing so  he chronicles the dawn of a new age
of discovery-one that has rapidly transformed astronomy and our broader understanding of the
universe. Scientists now know that many Sun-like stars host their own systems of planets  some
of which may resemble our solar system and include planets similar to the Earth. But  Winn
tells us  the most remarkable discoveries so far have been of planets with unexpected and
decidedly un-Earth-like properties  which have upended what we thought we knew about the
origins of planetary systems. Winn provides an inside view of the sophisticated detective work
astronomers perform as they find and study exoplanets and describes the surprising-sometimes
downright bizarre-planets and systems they have found. He explains how these discoveries are
revolutionizing astronomy  and he explores the current status and possible future of the search
for another Earth. Finally  drawing on his own and other scientists' work  he considers how the
discovery of exoplanets and their faraway solar systems changes our perspectives on the
universe and our place in it--

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