The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life
Autor Jon Willisen Limba Engleză Hardback – 30 oct 2025
Is there life off Earth? Bound by the limitations of spaceflight, a growing number of astrobiologists investigate the question by studying life on our planet. Astronomer and author Jon Willis shows us how it’s done, allowing readers to envision extraterrestrial landscapes by exploring their closest Earth analogs. With Willis, we dive into the Pacific Ocean from the submersible-equipped E/V Nautilus to ponder the uncharted seas of Saturn’s and Jupiter’s moons; search the Australian desert for some of Earth’s oldest fossils and consider the prospects for a Martian fossil hunt; visit mountaintop observatories in Chile to search for the telltale twinkle of extrasolar planets; and eavesdrop on dolphins in the Bahamas to imagine alien minds.
With investigations ranging from meteorite hunting to exoplanet detection, Willis conjures up alien worlds and unthought-of biological possibilities, speculating what life might look like on other planets by extrapolating from what we can see on Earth, our single “pale blue dot”—as Carl Sagan famously called it—or, in Willis’s reframing, scientists’ “pale blue data point.”
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780226822402
ISBN-10: 0226822400
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: 10 color plates, 10 halftones
Dimensiuni: 140 x 216 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.43 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
ISBN-10: 0226822400
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: 10 color plates, 10 halftones
Dimensiuni: 140 x 216 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.43 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
Notă biografică
Jon Willis is professor of astronomy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia where he studies both the properties of the universe we live in and the formation of life within it. He is the author of All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life.
Cuprins
Preface
1 The Pale Blue Data Point
2 Twenty Thousand Pings Under the Sea: In Search of Alien Oceans
3 Swimming with Stromatolites: The Hunt for Martian Fossils
4 The Arc of the Firmament: Mapping Exoplanets
5 To Catch a Falling Star: Meteorites and the Clues to Earth’s Origin as a Life-Bearing Planet
6 So Long and Thanks for All the Fish: A Dolphin-Led Guide to Alien Communication
Acknowledgments
Further Travels
Index
1 The Pale Blue Data Point
2 Twenty Thousand Pings Under the Sea: In Search of Alien Oceans
3 Swimming with Stromatolites: The Hunt for Martian Fossils
4 The Arc of the Firmament: Mapping Exoplanets
5 To Catch a Falling Star: Meteorites and the Clues to Earth’s Origin as a Life-Bearing Planet
6 So Long and Thanks for All the Fish: A Dolphin-Led Guide to Alien Communication
Acknowledgments
Further Travels
Index
Recenzii
"Five stars. . . . The most fascinating and eye-opening book about extraterrestrial life that I’ve read for a long time."
"Absolutely riveting. Not only did I find it difficult to put down, I often continued my reading of it (rather than turning to the work of fiction I keep beside my bed and reserve for the purpose of bed-time reading) just before turning in to sleep for the night. . . . I simply didn’t want to stop reading it as each page contained a new (to me, at least) piece of information or a new (also to me) way of understanding something I perhaps already did know. If you have an interest in astrobiology, astronomy, biology, Earth science, or simply enjoy reading a book that will cause you to say 'Wow!' with great regularity whilst reading it, I very much encourage you to read The Pale Blue Data Point for yourself. After having done so, I very much doubt that you’ll ever look up into the night sky ever again and not find your mind filled with new questions, curiosities, and dreams of what may one day be found on one of those glittering—perhaps red, perhaps green, perhaps even blue—dots."
“Stimulating. . . . The book shines in its attention to scale, shifting with ease between sensory-rich observations drawn from life, microhistories of major scientific personalities and engineering marvels, and technical descriptions. . . . Rich with firsthand fieldwork and unexpected connections, The Pale Blue Data Point is a thorough primer on humanity’s centuries-long search for alien life in the observable universe.”
“According to popular media, the search for alien life involves advanced technology, space exploration and sometimes even government conspiracies and secret programs. But according to University of Victoria (UVic) astronomer Jon Willis, author of The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life, the search for alien life actually begins right in our own backyard. . . . Willis investigates the question 'Is there life off Earth?' by joining astrobiologists to study life right here on our planet. By envisioning extraterrestrial landscapes through the exploration of Earth’s closest analogs, Willis conjures up alien worlds and unthought-of biological possibilities, speculating what life might look like on other planets by extrapolating from what we can see on Earth.”
“The Pale Blue Data Point is goosebump inducing. Willis grapples with deep questions about our place in the universe, and readers may be astonished to learn that the answers could be breathtakingly close at hand.”
“Willis’s book is quite novel: He shows how the search for life in the cosmos is guided by our studies of life on Earth. And he does so with anecdotes of his own travels to experience the different Earth-bound investigations—of life in hydrothermal vents, fossilized bacteria, exoplanets, traces in meteorites, and more—which makes the book extremely fun. An enlightening read (even as a physicist), The Pale Blue Data Point is a charming, compelling, and approachable look at how scientists are hunting beyond the Earth for life unknown to us.”
“A lively introduction to the field of astrobiology.”
“[Willis] conveys great enthusiasm alongside necessary scientific skepticism.”
“Energizing. . . . Through humorous, concise, accessible writing, Willis eloquently presents the growing—though still circumstantial—evidence that we are not alone.”
“A concise overview of astrobiology and what we know—and, more importantly, what we don’t—about the search for life elsewhere in our solar system and beyond.”