| 內容註: |
1. What is Astrobiology? -- 2. Do we know what we are looking for? Can we define life? Why water? -- 3. The cosmic zoo: from our Solar System to distant galaxies -- 4. A short history of Astrobiology: from the Persians and Epicureans to discovering exoplanets and the Kepler space telescope -- 5. The tools of science: measurement, questions and hypotheses. Statistics, good and evil. How science differs from journal reports -- 6. A few units necessary for Astrobiology -- 7. The Habitable Zone of our solar system and of other star systems -- 8. Our star - the Sun -- 9. Is Earth special? 10. The evolution of life on Earth, from prokaryotes to Homo sapiens, and its effects on Earth -- 11. The role of an atmosphere: climate and habitability -- 12. The potential for life on the terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus and Mars -- 13. The potential for life on the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons: Europa, Enceladus and Titan -- 14. The small bodies in the Solar System: carbonaceous meteorites, asteroids and comets, and their possible impact on life -- 15. The quest for exoplanets: detecting planetary systems around other stars -- 16. Biosignatures -- 17. How different could alien life be? -- 18. Stellar types and their habitable zones -- 19. The structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way and other galaxies: is there a galactic habitable zone? -- 20. Cosmology and life: "long long ago, in a galaxy far far away" - from the Big Bang to the anthropic principle -- 21. The chances of finding extraterrestrial Complex and Intelligent life: SETI. The Drake equation and interstellar communication -- 22. Can we reach the stars? Space flight and advanced propulsion techniques -- 23. The Fermi paradox: where are all the aliens? -- Glossary -- Index. |