Exoplanets

Exoplanets: Asking the Right Questions in Our Strange New Universe
by Michael E. Summers, &  James Trefil

The past few years have seen an incredible explosion in our knowledge of the universe. Since its 2009 launch, the Kepler satellite has discovered more than two thousand exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system.  The recent discovery of earth sized planets in the “Goldilocks Zone” of an  ultra cool dwarf star system surprised astronomers.  The Trappest-1 system is relatively close only 39.5 light years from Earth.  More exoplanets are being discovered all the time, and even more remarkable than the sheer number of exoplanets is their variety.

In Exoplanets , astronomer Michael Summers and physicist James Trefil explore these remarkable recent discoveries: planets revolving around pulsars, planets made of diamond, planets that are mostly water, and numerous rogue planets wandering through the emptiness of space.

This captivating book reveals the latest discoveries and argues that the incredible richness and complexity we are finding necessitates a change in our questions and mental paradigms. In short, we have to change how we think about the universe and our place in it, because it is stranger and more interesting than we could have imagined.