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The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life

Name: The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life
Brand: University of Chicago Press
SKU: 9780226822402
Price: 26.00 USD
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Contributors:

Jon Willis

Publisher:

University of Chicago Press

Binding:

Hardcover

Book Category:

Science

Book Subcategory:

Space Science, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences

Book Topic:

Astronomy, Biology

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The product is eligible for a complimentary return within 30 days from the date of purchase. Furthermore, individual items are shipped within 24 hours of receiving the order.

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Release Date:

10/30/2025

ISBN 13:

9780226822402

Weight:

0.95 lbs

Size:

8.60 x 5.60 x 0.90 inches

Pages:

256

Mint Condition +

product description

Description

A thrilling tour of Earth that shows the search for extraterrestrial life starts in our own backyard.

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."

About the Author
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.

The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life

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