The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet

by Dimitar Sasselov

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus fomented a revolution when he debunked the geocentric view of the universe, proving instead that our planet wasn’t central to the universe. Almost five hundred years later, the revolution he set in motion is nearly complete. Just as earth is not the center of things, the life on it, it appears, is not unique to the planet. Or is it?

The Life of Super-Earths is a breathtaking tour of current efforts to answer the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov, the founding director of Harvard University’s Origins of Life Initiative, takes us on a fast-paced hunt for habitable planets and alien life forms. He shows how the search for “super-Earths”—rocky planets like our own that orbit other stars—may provide the key to answering essential questions about the origins of life here and elsewhere. That is, if we don’t find the answers to those questions here first. As Sasselov and other astronomers have uncovered planets with mixes of elements different from our own, chemists have begun working out the heretofore unseen biochemistries that those planets could support. That knowledge is feeding directly into synthetic biology—the effort to build wholly novel forms of life—making it likely that we will first discover truly “alien” life forms in an earthly lab, rather than on a remote planet thousands of light years away.

Sasselov tells the gripping story of a moment of unprecedented potential—a convergence of pioneering efforts in astronomy and biology to peer into the unknown. The Life of Super-Earths offers nothing short of a transformation in our understanding of life and its place in the cosmos.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Space, Biology, Physics, Geology, Astronomy

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 2011

About the author

Dimitar Sasselov is a Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and the Founder and Director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative. His research has been covered by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and others. He lives in Auburndale, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Michael Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

About the possibilities of life on other planets, this is a slender book that might have been better as a longish essay. There are informative passages on planet-hunting methods, life-forming processes, and the relative scales of the cosmic, geologic, and biological, but the book just never captured my imagination. Although it gets bogged down in technical details a few times, the writing is clear, to the point of being simplistic. And as another reviewer observed, the book does not live up to its subtitle. There is very little space given to how life on Earth may be transformed by the search for extraterrestrial life. For those interested in the subject, it's not a bad read at all, but I found myself at times wanting both less and more

[Chris Lutz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a non-expert who is nonetheless sufficiently fascinated by science to try to explain quantum mechanics to anyone foolish enough to listen, I will admit that I'm not your average reader. My knowledge of scientific history and of current discoveries, particularly when it comes to space, is probably well past your average layperson. I say this not to brag, but merely to explain why I blew through this book. As someone who reads a certain peculiar yet popular bad astronomy blog, I frequently smiled to myself every time he mentioned the number of discovered exoplanets as 600 (it was in the thousands last I remember, with two or three thousand more awaiting confirmation). If you aren't particularly up-to-date on scientific news, this book will serve as an excellent introduction to trends in both modern astronomy and biology leading us closer to answering the ever-important question of humanity's alleged uniqueness in the universe. If you regularly read about these things on the internet, there is little here other than some brief anecdotes from scientific history you might not have heard and the light but well-written prose that occasionally stretches its wings to wax poetic about some subject or another, to great effect. There's nothing wrong with a popular science book aimed at people with little interest in science, particularly if it argues so poignantly for understanding the beauty of the universe scientifically; I'm just not in that audience.

I would recommend this book to my friends who object when I say that scientific understanding doesn't take away the beauty of nature. I would not recommend this book to anyone who subscribes to Nature magazine.

[Христо Блажев · Rating 4 out of 5]

На лов за планети: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/j...

Не знам колцина са хората, които са чували за литературната агенция “Brockman”, работеща с най-знаковите световни учени и техните книги, които постоянно разширяват границите на познанието. Каталозите на агенцията са истинско мъчение – много е трудно да се реши коя книга да се преведе по-напред и от коя да се откажеш с недоволна гримаса. А удоволствието да видиш българин сред тази селекция е неописуемо, още повече в толкова интересна област като търсенето на екзопланети, тази нова фаза на Великите географски открития, разпростряла се из цялото обзоримо космическо пространство. Съвременната наука може да “види” наистина далеч, почти до “края” на разширяващата се Вселена, а скоро може би наистина ще можем да надзърнем и в най-далечните ни галактики, с които се раздалечаваме през последните 13,7 милиарда години.

Издателство "Изток-Запад"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/j...

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know why we are here, this is the book for you. Obviously, Sasselov does not have a definite answer as to our existence, however, he takes us on a beautiful journey and builds upon the importance of our existence through it. It is a must read for those who are not interested in the "science" stuff or still believe there are only 9 planets in this universe. Through estimates, measurements and scenarios, Sasselov0 successfully conveys the vastness of our universe and the magic it holds.
A word of caution: For an avid reader of astronomy, this book may not appeal to you due to its simplicity and out-of-date information. For me, however, it did the trick. Since putting this book down, I have been looking at the stars, the sun, the sky and all life on earth with awe and wonder!

[Blagoy Nikolov · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Животът на свръхземите" ни разказва основно за търсенето на земеподобни планети през последните дестилетия. Книгата е написана изключително разбираемо и проследява темата още от зараждането на Вселената, така че всеки да може да разбере принципите на образуване на основните типове планетите, разположението им спрямо техните звезди и други фактори, както и способите за откриването им. Това се оказва една наистина сложна задача. И досега знаех какви са методите за наблюдение на екзопланети, но едва сега, прочитайки тази книга, успях да оценя на практика колко е трудно всичко. Бележките, макар и малко странно организирани, бяха много полезни и дават насоки какво друго може да се прочете по темата и не само.

Накрая ще отбележа, че останах леко учуден, а и раздразнен от коректорските пропуски по изданието, толкова неприсъщи за издателство като "Изток-Запад". В началото нямаше такива проблеми, но към края се натрупаха поне десетина грешно набрани съседни на клавиатурата букви, една-две грешки при номерирането на бележките и още някои дреболии, но като за 200 страници текст се забелязваха.

[Мартин Касабов]

Написана изключително простичко и разбираемо, с достатъчно схеми и обяснителни бележки, тя върши много повече работа от високопарните изказвания на повечето научни популисти, а смиреният тон напомня на незабравимия Карл Сейгън.

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

a brief, yet informative primer on the search for exoplanets, the life of super-earths outlines the accelerating quest to discover potentially habitable planets outside of our solar system. dimitar sasselov, a harvard astronomy professor, offers the intriguing backstory of the scientific developments that have led to the discovery of over 600 extrasolar planets. sasselov goes into considerable detail in conveying the methods utilized to determine whether a particular star does, in fact, have orbiting planets (including astrometry, the doppler effect, gravitational lensing, spectroscopy, and the detection of transiting planets). he writes about the formations of super-earths, presumptive requirements for life thereon, and the myriad reasons why some planets may well be more conducive and supportive of life than our own.

while the entire book is rather fascinating, the sparse portions dealing with perovskite (a mineral found within the earth's mantle which composes some 40% of our planet's mass), high-pressure ices (vii, x, & xi) that can exist at a 1000 degrees kelvin, and the future of synthetic biology are of particular note. of the 200 billion stars in just our own galaxy, there are an estimated 100 million orbiting planets with habitable potential- making the prospects for life outside of our solar system quite intriguing. considering that "there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand in all the beaches on earth" truly boggles one's mind and makes the possibility of there being life on any number of exoplanets seem a mere as-yet unproven certainty. the life of super-earths is an eminently readable work, easily accessible to even those with but the faintest scientific education. sasselov does a remarkable job of balancing some of the more heady scholarship with coherent prose and lucid illustrations. sasselov's enthusiasm for his field is rather evident and helps compel the reader to a more fully realized comprehension of a truly exhilarating subject.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true win here is the fascinating discussion of scale -- why does life as we know it happen on the physical scale that it does? What forces are at work at different scales? Why does this matter in terms of looking for other life? Even cooler is the perspective on the time scale -- the Universe is actually not that much older than Earth (it is on the same scale), which is a pretty insane when you think about it. A lecturer had once casually thrown out the fact that our Sun was part of the first generation of stars that could have planets capable of supporting life. I was completely unable to find anything to back this up, until now -- Sasselov explains why this is likely true. Mind-stretching, seriously. I also appreciate him going into some depth as to why size of planet matters as much as location when it comes to habitability (the oft-mentioned "Goldilocks zone" is only one small part of the story).

Be warned, the book gets off to a painfully slow start -- it spends several chapters providing a very basic overview of exoplanet hunting and its history. This would not have bothered me except that Sasselov does not seem to know who is audience is (he takes multiple sentences to explain what "mass" is, but gives the same amount of text to explaining the entire process of spectroscopy). It's like his editor told him he needs to make it accessible to the general public, but he had no guidance on what that might mean.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

While for the most part this book does a great job of describing the types of extrasolar planets discovered and likelihood of our finding life elsewhere, I was disappointed in its concluding chapter, to the point of feeling irked. Why is it that scientists always like to trumpet the idea of "synthetic cells" or "artificial intelligence" as the legacy, or the "future" of, the extraterrestrial progress of humanity? Why is it that something always must be synthetic, created in our own image, or of our own understanding of life's mechanism, to be worthy of accolade? Why aren't people like Sasselov more concerned with finding rival organisms, on our own scale, in the new other worlds which we know are myriad throughout our galaxy, and (in all the galaxies beyond, as well?) Why isn't it more exciting to find out exactly how organisms evolve and are extant on other planets, than casting some dumb idol of our own making across the skies? That's what I take away from this book, anyway. In the future, I hope to find more books theorizing what life on other planets will actually LOOK like, than anything as ultimately anthropocentric and anthro-chauvinistic such as this one.

[Peter Abresch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isa great book, technical, but easy to understand by the layman. I had almost no problems following along, maybe understood about 98%.

The author talks of how they discovered new plants in distant solar systems, some of which might be super earths, up to ten time in size of our earth home, and he sets up the case for how life is easily established on them. He points out as well that our earth is right on the edge of sustaining life and the super earth, because of their greater gravity and mass, have a better chance of doing so. And the last thing that sort of blew my mind, because of time and the size of our earth, we could be the first of the intelligent beings. Maybe all that yelling out to the stars and getting no response could be because there ain't no one out there.

[Wendelle]

lots of info about detection methods like transiting and photometry, and about the qualities of super-earths. thankfully little about the personal lives of the researchers or the regurgitation of the history of astronomy from copernicus and galileo that invasively overpopulate popsci books and dwindle their instructive content

[Parallax · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic introduction to what we currently know about extrasolar planets, what the planetary conditions are that could support life, and the basic biological/chemical conditions needed to sustain life.

[Matteo Negro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Da sempre l’uomo è affascinato e talvolta ossessionato dall’ignoto e dal sogno di scoprire nuove terre e nuove frontiere. Dopo aver esplorato il nostro pianeta la curiosità dell’essere umano si è proiettata negli ultimi decenni verso le profondità del cosmo. Se un tempo i limitati mezzi tecnico-scientifici non permettevano agli scienziati di scrutare a fondo i meandri dell’universo, oggigiorno grazie alle moderne tecnologie satellitari è possibile scandagliare lontani sistemi solari alla ricerca di nuovi mondi molto simili alla nostra Terra. In questo importante saggio l’astronomo e professore di Harvard Dimitar Sassalov accompagna il lettore, con un linguaggio chiaro e coinvolgente, alla scoperta delle tecniche che i ricercatori hanno recentemente utilizzato per individuare questi pianeti simil-Terra. Ad esempio è possibile scorgere un pianeta in orbita attorno ad una stella grazie allo studio dei transiti. Questa tecnica si basa sulla misurazione, mediante fotometria, della diminuzione della luminosità della stella nel momento in cui viene eclissata dal pianete di passaggio. Nella seconda parte del libro l’autore si sofferma sulla probabilità che esista o meno la vita al di fuori del nostro sistema solare. Sassalov argomenta la sua convinzione in base alla quale i pianeti siano i corpi celesti ottimali per la comparsa delle macromolecole organiche necessarie alla vita. Probabilmente la vita è un fenomeno planetario molto frequente nell’universo e lo sarà sempre di più nei prossimi miliardi di anni visto che il processo di arricchimento dell’universo di atomi pesanti (principalmente carbonio e ossigeno) ad opera della nucleosintesi stellare sta continuando inesorabilmente. Non ci resta che continuare la ricerca…

[Iskren Zayryanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Прекрасна, интригуваща и завладяваща книга. Страхотно е, че има българин, които може по такъв интересен и увлекателен начин да говори за науката и да я популяризира.
Книгата е разделена на две части
Първата част е съсредоточена върху това да разясни по възможно най-подробен, но за сметка на това и интересен начин, методите по които астрономите в момента открива планети подобни на Земята. Съсълов ги е нарекъл Свръхземи, защото те са скалисти планети, които надвишават няколко пъти масата на нашата Земя и на който е най-вероятно да се зароди живот на въглеродна основа. Покрай методите автора разяснява и много други процеси и отговаря на интересни въпроси, като например защо във вътрешната част на слънчевите системи са каменистите планети, а във външните газовите гиганти, и между другото развенчава няколко мита, които са плъзнали из света, и за които се твърди, че официалната наука няма отговор, и позорно премълчава.
Втората част се занимава с парадокса на Ферма и дава някои наистина интересни и иновативни отговори. Съсълов отговаря на този прословут въпрос, като започва от самото начало на вселената и живота, като времето между началата тези две емблематични събития, най-вероятно, на базата на това което знаем и сме открили като природни закони, е почти 10 милиарда години. За да възникне животът е нужно цели поколения от звезди да умрат. Първоначално за да може в техните термоядрени пещи да бъдат изковани елементите на живота до Fe, а после в агонията на свръхмощните експлозии на суперновите, да се синтезират по-тежките елементи и да бъдат буквално посети из вселената. А после, после трябва да се даде време на планетообазуването, на звездите от второ поколение, на еволюцията… Та в крайна сметка може да се окаже, че не сме сами във вселената, но не защото сме уникални, или защото всички други са се самоунищожили, а защото ние сме подранили.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more than OK, but nothing really special. Sasselov writes and explains well enough to keep interest up, but he's no Sagan. And it's a fascinating subject, to be sure. A big problem is that this branch of astronomy is so fast moving that even a four year old book is already dated - no fault of Sasselov's, of course.

The main problem, though, is that the subtitle is misleading - this is about the hunt for alien worlds and life, and how that will affect our view of human existence, but artificial cells barely rate a mention, and the last part of the subtitle is pure hyperbole. "The life of Super-Earths: The Hunt for Life Beyond the Solar System" would be a far more accurate and neutral title. If that is what you're looking for in a book, though, it is a worthwhile read.

[Mishehu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book's subtitle is a bit misleading. Emphasis is on the search for other worlds capable of generating/sustaining life (and which may already be doing/have done so). Very little to do with artificial cells. And even less on the potentially revolutionizing impact of both areas of investigation on life on earth (other than the possibility that exoplanets may one day provide harbor for terrestrial life when our sun powers down). Nonetheless, it's a fascinating read. Bit prosaic in the telling, at first, but picks up momentum as it moves along. Heady stuff and a terrific intro to one very cutting edge area of contemporary science.

[Georgi Varoshkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книгата предлага научно логични отговори на глобални въпроси. Развива "космическото мислене" за всеки , който иска да се запознае с темата вселена. Определено положително за нас е българксата нишка в лицето на автора и факта,че повечето неща са представени от първо лице, т.е лични изводи на един теоритик . Препоръчвам , книгата е стойностен труд.

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breve raccolta di lecturers che fanno il punto della situazione sulla ricerca dei pianeti extrasolari e sulle possibilità di trovare altra vita nell'universo.
Lettura gradevole e sciolta, scorre bene. Ovviamente ho letto la traduzione italiana pubblicata assieme a Le Scienze di Novembre 2012.

[Tim Lepczyk]

I walked away from this book. The writing was too stilted.

[John Paterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting new ideas about the search for extrasolar planets.

[Elizabeth]

As heard on 60-Second Space.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "hunting for alien wolds" part was solid and exciting, the "creating artificial cells" was unconvincing.

[Bram · Rating 4 out of 5]

6

[Scott Kennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Akot of history lessons in this book. Not much at all about artificial cells. It's a small book however, so didn't waste too much of my time.

[Mark Yashar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps a bit out-dated (~2011) given that most of the Kepler detections of possible terrestrial earth-mass exoplanets in or near the habitable zones of their host stars occurred after the publication of this book.