THE SECRET LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE

We are on the cusp of a new wave of exploration, according to a leading astrobiologist.

Some people are in the enviable position of loving their work. Cabrol is one of them, and it shows in this wonderfully sweeping book. As director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, the author leads projects in planetary science and research, spending much of her time thinking about life beyond Earth. With the invention of advanced telescopes and exploratory spacecraft, “we are living in a golden age in astrobiology, the beginning of a fantastic odyssey.” Cabrol is not a starry-eyed dreamer, and she readily admits that the first life we find outside of Earth is likely to be microbial. There are various theories about how life developed on Earth, and she examines them to establish where the chemical ingredients and environmental conditions for life might exist in our solar system. Planets long thought to be completely inhospitable are now being reconsidered, she notes. Mars, Venus, and the dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres are new possibilities. Cabrol is particularly excited by the moons Europa and Titan, which will be the subjects of unmanned explorations in the foreseeable future. Looking further afield, there are also intriguing prospects among the thousands of other planets discovered in the rest of the galaxy. In the concluding chapters of the book, Cabrol discusses the likelihood of encountering intelligent life and explains the Drake equation, used to estimate “the number of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.” Along the way, the author also speculates about entirely new types of organisms. This is a book for anyone with an interest in scientific discovery and a perfect choice for any budding astronomer or astrobiologist.

Combining enthusiasm and knowledge, Cabrol gives a lovely guided tour of the possibilities of the cosmos.