The Search for Worlds Like Our Own
Journal article, 2010
The direct detection of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars and the characterization of such planets particularly, their evolution, their atmospheres, and their ability to host life-constitute a significant problem. The quest for other worlds as abodes of life has been one of mankind's great questions for several millennia. For instance, as stated by Epicurus similar to 300 BC: "Other worlds, with plants and other living things, some of them similar and some of them different from ours, must exist.'' Demokritos from Abdera (460-370 BC), the man who invented the concept of indivisible small parts-atoms-also held the belief that other worlds exist around the stars and that some of these worlds may be inhabited by life-forms. The idea of the plurality of worlds and of life on them has since been held by scientists like Johannes Kepler and William Herschel, among many others. Here, one must also mention Giordano Bruno. Born in 1548, Bruno studied in France and came into contact with the teachings of Nicolas Copernicus. He wrote the book De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi in 1584, in which he claimed that the Universe was infinite, that it contained an infinite amount of worlds like Earth, and that these worlds were inhabited by intelligent beings. At the time, this was extremely controversial, and eventually Bruno was arrested by the church and burned at the stake in Rome in 1600, as a heretic, for promoting this and other equally confrontational issues (though it is unclear exactly which idea was the one that ultimately brought him to his end). In all the aforementioned cases, the opinions and results were arrived at through reasoning-not by experiment. We have only recently acquired the technological capability to observe planets orbiting stars other than our Sun; acquisition of this capability has been a remarkable feat of our time. We show in this introduction to the Habitability Primer that mankind is at the dawning of an age when, by way of the scientific method and 21(st)-century technology, we will be able to answer this fascinating controversial issue that has persisted for at least 2500 years.
project
giant planets
mission
Terrestrial exoplanets
extra-solar planets
stars
companion
Planet-detection methods
Habitability
Bioastronomy
nulling interferometer
space
darwin
disk
systems
Author
M. Fridlund
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
C. Eiroa
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
T. Henning
Max Planck Society
T. Herbst
Max Planck Society
H. Lammer
Institut fur Weltraumforschung
A. Leger
University of Paris-Sud
René Liseau
Chalmers, Department of Radio and Space Science, Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics
F. Paresce
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
A. Penny
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Royal Observatory
A. Quirrenbach
Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
H. Rottgering
Leiden University
F. Selsis
University of Bordeaux
G. J. White
Open University
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
O. Absil
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
University of Liège
D. Defrere
University of Liège
C. Hanot
University of Liège
D. Stam
Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)
J. Schneider
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon
G. Tinetti
University College London (UCL)
A. Karlsson
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
P. Gondoin
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
R. den Hartog
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
L. D'Arcio
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
A. M. Stankov
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
M. Kilter
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
C. Erd
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
C. Beichman
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
D. Coulter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
W. Danchi
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
M. Devirian
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
K. J. Johnston
US Naval Observatory
P. Lawson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
O. P. Lay
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
J. Lunine
University of Arizona
L. Kaltenegger
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Astrobiology
1531-1074 (ISSN)
Vol. 10 1 5-17Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Roots
Basic sciences
DOI
10.1089/ast.2009.0380