The Search for Worlds Like Our Own
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 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.
systems
mission
darwin
stars
project
nulling interferometer
Habitability
giant planets
extra-solar planets
Planet-detection methods
companion
disk
Terrestrial exoplanets
space
Bioastronomy
Författare
M. Fridlund
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
C. Eiroa
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)
T. Henning
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
T. Herbst
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
H. Lammer
Institut fur Weltraumforschung
A. Leger
Université Paris-Sud
René Liseau
Chalmers, Institutionen för radio- och rymdvetenskap, Radioastronomi och astrofysik
F. Paresce
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
A. Penny
Royal Observatory
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
A. Quirrenbach
Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl
H. Rottgering
Universiteit Leiden
F. Selsis
Université de Bordeaux
G. J. White
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Open University
O. Absil
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
Universite de Liège
D. Defrere
Universite de Liège
C. Hanot
Universite de Liège
D. Stam
Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)
J. Schneider
Observatoire de Paris-Meudon
G. Tinetti
University College London (UCL)
A. Karlsson
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
P. Gondoin
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
R. den Hartog
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
L. D'Arcio
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
A. M. Stankov
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
M. Kilter
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
C. Erd
Europeiska rymdorganisationen (ESA)
C. Beichman
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
D. Coulter
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
W. Danchi
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
M. Devirian
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
K. J. Johnston
US Naval Observatory
P. Lawson
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
O. P. Lay
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
J. Lunine
University of Arizona
L. Kaltenegger
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Astrobiology
1531-1074 (ISSN)
Vol. 10 1 5-17Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2011)
Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi
Fundament
Grundläggande vetenskaper
DOI
10.1089/ast.2009.0380