Distant Wanderers - The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System

Recent discoveries of planet-like objects circling other sun-like stars have stirred enormous interest in what other planets may exist in the universe, and whether they support intelligent life, or at least could do so. This book will take us into the thick of this search for extrasolar planets. Unlike other books, it will focus on the people behind the searches--many of whom the author knows--and the extraordinary technology that is on the drawing boards and currently in use to detect distant wanderers and describe their characteristics, thus bringing us to the cutting edge of knowledge of the subject. The author is an experienced, award-winning science journalist who was technology correspondent for the Financial Times of London and is now working as a journalist in France. He has written on many topics in astronomy and astrobiology, and has had pieces published in over 35 different newspapers and magazines worldwide.

Paris-based journalist Bruce Dorminey writes about astronomy and astrophysics. He is a former Hong Kong bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine and a former regular science and technology contributor for the daily pages of the Financial Times, London. Dorminey has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, including Astronomy, Discover, Geographical, Canada's Globe & Mail, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Toronto Star, and The Dallas Morning News. He is also a 1998 winner in the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards. This is his first book.