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Lucky planet : why Earth is exceptional-- and what that means for life in the universe / David Waltham.

by Waltham, David.

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Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2014]

Bioclimatology.

Life -- Origin.

Life on other planets.

9780465039999 (hc.)

0465039995 (hc.)

ix, 198 pages ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-190) and index.

A tale of two planets -- Almost too good to be true -- Mediocrity -- Rarely earth -- Constant change -- Air conditioning -- Snowballs and greenhouses -- Staggering through time -- Music of the spheres -- Force of nature -- Pond weeds and daisies -- Life's Big Bang -- Eclipse -- The dark side of the moon -- Gaia or Goldilocks? -- Siblings.

Humankind has long fantasized about life elsewhere in the universe. And as we discover countless exoplanets orbiting other stars-among them, rocky super-Earths and gaseous Hot Jupiters -- we become ever more hopeful that we may come across extraterrestrial life. Yet even as we become aware of the vast numbers of planets outside our solar system, it has also become clear that Earth is exceptional. Astrobiologist David Waltham argues that Earth's climate stability is one of the primary factors that makes it able to support life, and that nothing short of luck made such conditions possible. The four-billion-year stretch of good weather that our planet has experienced is statistically so unlikely, he shows, that chances are slim that we will ever encounter intelligent extraterrestrial others. Describing the three factors that typically control a planet's average temperature -- the heat received from its star, how much heat the planet absorbs, and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- Waltham paints a complex picture of how special Earth's climate really is.

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