Everything we've learned about the universe warns us against assuming that we are special. Our star is one of billions of stars in the Milky Way. The process of star formation naturally leads to rocky planets. Water and carbon are widespread in the universe. Yet there are attributes of the Earth that make it particularly hospitable for biology and the evolution of large,complex organisms. But is the Earth just right, or are we indulging in one of Kipling's "just So Stories"--telling ourselves a complex tale of how we came to be and imagining it couldn't have happened any other way?

Astrobiology–the study of life in space–is one of today’s fastest growing and most popular fields of science. In this compelling, accessible, and elegantly reasoned new book, award-winning scholar and researcher Chris Impey explores the foundations of this rapidly developing discipline, where it’s going, and what it’s likely to find.

The journey begins with the earliest steps of science, gaining traction through the revelations of the Renaissance, including Copernicus’s revolutionary declaration that the Earth was not the center of the universe but simply a planet circling the sun. But if Earth is not the only planet, it is so far the only living one that we know of. In fascinating detail, The Living Cosmos reveals the incredible proliferation and variety of life on Earth, paying special tribute to some of its hardiest life forms, extremophiles, a dizzying array of microscopic organisms compared, in Impey’s wise and humorous prose, to superheroes that can survive extreme heat and cold, live deep within rocks, or thrive in pure acid.

From there, Impey launches into space, where astrobiologists investigate the potential for life beyond our own world. Is it to be found on Mars, the “death planet” that has foiled most planetary missions, and which was wet and temperate billions of years ago? Or on Venus, Earth’s “evil twin,” where it rains sulfuric acid and whose heat could melt lead? (“Whoever named it after the goddess of love had a sorry history of relationships.”) The answer may lie in a moon within our Solar System, or it may be found in one of the hundreds of extra-solar planets that have already been located. The Living Cosmos sees beyond these explorations, and imagines space vehicles that eschew fuel for solar- or even nuclear-powered rockets, all sent by countries motivated by the millions to be made in space tourism.

But The Living Cosmos is more than just a riveting work about experiment and discovery. It is also an affecting portrait of the individuals who have devoted their lives to astrobiology. Illustrated throughout, The Living Cosmos is a revelatory book about a science that is changing our view of the universe, a mesmerizing guide to what life actually means and where it may–or may not–exist, and a stunning work that explains our past as it predicts our future.

PREACE

1.THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION

THE AUDACITY OF THE GREEKS

HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW

THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

MODERN COSMOLOGY

ENHANCING OUR SENSES

OUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

THE EMERGENCE OF ASTROBIOLOGY

2.LIFE'S ORIGINS

COSMIC CHEMISTRY

ODDP TIME

FIRST TRACES OF LIFE

LIFE IN A BOTTLE

THE NATURE OF LIFE

HOW DID LIFE START?

ONE EARTH

3.EXTREME LIFE

THE TREE OF LIFE

OUR DISTANT ANCESTORS

CHAMPION DXTREMOPHILES

EXTREME INDUSTRIES

COSMIC HITCHHIKERS

HOW STRANGE CAN LIFE BE?

ARTIFICIAL LIFE

4.SHAPING EVOLUTION

5.LIVING IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

6.DISTANT WORLDS

7.ARE WE ALONE?

NOTES

GLOSSARY

READING LIST

MEDIA RESOURCES

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

INDEX