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Distant wanderers
17 April 2002
Science journalist Bruce Dorminey’s new book Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System, published by Springer, is a good read for those who want to find out more about planets: what they are; how they form; and past, present and future exploratory space missions.
Many of the missions described in the book have been carried out by ESA. These include past exploratory missions such as Hipparcos and ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory; ongoing missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope, carried out together with NASA; and future ESA exploratory missions such as Gaia, Mars Express and Darwin, as well as ESA’s role in the planned New Generation Space Telescope project.
Bruce Dorminey is well qualified to write on the subject of planets as he has been covering the search for extra-solar planets for the past six years. He has written for numerous magazines and newspapers on astronomy and astrophysics, and in 1998 he was a winner in the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards. His light-hearted approach makes the book enjoyable to read and his sometimes irreverent style strips away the mystery surrounding astronomers and astrophysicists and the work they do.
Few of us realise when glancing at the night sky that as many as half of the stars we see may harbour planetary systems. Is it possible that some of these contain life forms? What can they tell us about our own planet? It is the quest to find the answers to these and many other fascinating questions that drives astronomers, and space agencies such as ESA, in their work.
If you too are curious to learn more about the planets then this is a good book to read.
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| | Related articles ESA takes another step towards the search for Earth-like planets and gravitational wavesESA scientist discovers a way to shortlist stars that might have planetsEuropean astronomers get their first chance to detect rocky planets around other worldsESA to test the smartest technique for detecting extrasolar planets from the groundRelated links HipparcosISO HomepageHubble ESA Information CenterESA's Gaia websiteESA's Mars Express websiteESA's Darwin homepageNext Generation Space Telescope
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