by David Waltham
Humankind has long fantasized about life elsewhere in the universe. And as we discover countless exoplanets orbiting other stars among them, rocky super-Earths and gaseous Hot Jupiters, we become ever more hopeful that we may come across extraterrestrial life. Yet even as we become aware of the vast numbers of planets outside our solar system, it has also become clear that Earth is exceptional. The question is: why?
In Lucky Planet, astrobiologist David Waltham argues that Earth's climate stability is one of the primary factors that makes it able to support life, and that nothing short of luck made such conditions possible. The four billion year stretch of good weather that our planet has experienced is statistically so unlikely, he shows, that chances are slim that we will ever encounter intelligent extraterrestrial others. Describing the three factors that typically control a planet's average temperature, the heat received from its star, how much heat the planet absorbs, and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, Waltham paints a complex picture of how special Earth's climate really is.
Waltham challenges the prevailing scientific consensus that other Earth-like planets have natural stabilizing mechanisms that allow life to flourish. A lively exploration of the stars above and the ground beneath our feet, Lucky Planet presents a new perspective of the surprising role chance plays in our place in the universe.
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