Book Review: Alien Earths By Lisa Kaltenegger

 This is a book to gift to any young person interested in Astronomy/physics/biology. It was so easy to read and so enjoyable. 

Lisa Kaltenegger is the Director of  the Carl Sagan Institute in New York, and her ability to communicate difficult scientific concepts in ways that are easily understood may be unmatched.

This cover is also stunning, one of my favorite telescopic photos of our universe. I know it's a hot gas or something, but to me it always makes me think of the hands of the creator. 

This cover by Allen Lane is decidedly less stunning and I dislike it.

It has sort of child's coloring book look about it, when inside this book is a lot of very interesting and important information about exoplanets etc.  But hey- covers sell books. 

I picked this audio from the library, and I was kind of worried.  Lately my outer space reading has been kind of blah on the non-fiction side.  A lot of it has remained in the DNF pile, which was discouraging. Thankfully, this one did not disappoint!  I felt like I learned both interesting trivial things - such as the story of how Tardigrades ended up on the moon (encased in all sorts of metals etc) and the consistency of various planets (marshmallows? yep)  and also how to better conceptualize the distance between planets, orbits and the shape of the earth actually (nope - it isn't a perfect globe.)  Kaltenegger also generously shares her experiences as a woman scientist in a field dominated by men, how this affected her career, and how it hasn't affected her career. Some of her writing was honestly quite inspiring as I listened to the audiobook at a time when I was facing a lot of challenges at work. 

One of the most interesting things that is raised is that it is possible that we have already left living material in space (not on purpose) and if we discover life in places we have been we might not ever know if it evolved from something left behind, or on it's own.  MIND BLOWN! 

Should you read this?  YES if you are interested in the possibility of alien life! It was a very easy to understand book, which added to my brain! 

STATS

First Published: 2024  

Pages: 228

Available as an Audio Book :  YES  ~8 hours

               Trigger Warnings: misogyny (very brief), discrimination (very brief), alien discussion.  

(this is not a full list, read responsibly)