How Likely is Extraterrestrial Life?What does existing scientific knowledge about physics, chemistry, meteorology and biology tell us about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life and civilizations? And what does the fact that there is currently no credible scientific evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial biospheres or civilizations teach us? This book reviews the various scientific issues that arise in considering the question of how common extraterrestrial life is likely to be in our galaxy and whether humans are likely to detect it. The book stands out because of its very systematic organization and relatively unbiased treatment of the main open question. It covers all relevant aspects of many disciplines required to present the different possible answers. It has and will provide undergraduates with a stimulating introduction to many of these fields at an early stage in their university careers, when they are still choosing a specialty. The difficulties and the range of possible answers to the title question are carefully addressed in the light of present understanding. The resulting perspective is distinctly different from those suggested by most other books on this topic. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 1 |
Part IBottom Up What We Learn from Basic Science About the Likelihoodof Extraterrestrial Life | 10 |
Part IITop Down What We Learn from theFailure of Attempts to DetectExtraterrestrial Life | 57 |
Appendix 11 Forms of the Drake Equation | 120 |
Appendix 21 The Doppler Shift | 123 |
Appendix 31 Doppler Shifts for Circular Planet Orbits | 125 |
Appendix 41 Catalysis at Surfaces | 127 |
Appendix 42 A KauffmanLike Model | 129 |
Appendix 61 Diffusion and Random Walks | 133 |
Appendix 62 Modeling Diffusion Birth and Death | 135 |
Appendix 63 Units of Radiation Dosage | 137 |
Appendix 71 Origin of the 21 cm Line | 138 |
Appendix 72 SETI Microwave Searches | 141 |
Appendix 73 FM and AM Signals | 143 |
Appendix 74 Quantitative Analysis of Messages Correlations Information Entropy and Complexity | 145 |
| 148 | |
Appendix 51 Evaluating How an Experiment or Observation Affects the Relative Likelihood of Two Competing Theories | 131 |
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Common terms and phrases
anthropic principle argument assume atmosphere atoms Author(s autocatalytic average biochemistry biopolymer biosphere complex cycles density detect diffusion discussed in Chap Doppler shift Drake equation earth like planet emitting estimate Europa event evidence evolved example existence experiments or observations extraterrestrial civilizations fact factor failure to observe falsifiable Fermi paradox flife fprebio frequency galaxy genome habitable planets human hypotheses intelligent design interstellar J. W. Halley Jupiter life-like systems lifetime likelihood liquid water Mars mass metastable million molecules moons NASA Nciv Number of stars observable universe occur option orbiting organisms p-process panspermia Pbefore planetary systems polymer assembly model possible prebiotic evolution predict probability processes proteins radiation radio random polymer assembly random walk reactions reproduce scenario scientific scientists search for extraterrestrial SETI searches SETI@home solar system space species SpringerBriefs in Astronomy stars searched suggest supernovae surface symbols temperature terrestrial theory wavelength