XTL: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It

What makes this book different from other descriptions of the search for life on other planets is its up-to-the-minute coverage of recent research and discoveries, its use of many photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA space probes, and a nice sampling of extraterrestrial vistas as imagined by space artists who offer their insight into what a sunrise on an extrasolar planet must look like. Goodwin and Gribbin recount recent discoveries by astronomers of planets orbiting other stars; the likelihood of life arising in our own solar system, especially on Mars, Europa (a moon orbiting Jupiter), and Titan (a moon of Saturn); the latest ideas in the search for signals from intelligent extraterrestrials, including the highly sensitive Square Kilometer Array radio telescope and the SETI@home project that utilizes home computers to analyze data collected by the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico; and evidence that there may be many other solar systems in our galaxy. A good, not overly technical introduction to the subject. George Eberhart
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