The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life [Hardcover]

Here is Williss fundamental argument: The more we learn about Earthour one pale blue data point for a planet on which life has definitively arisenthe more qualified we will be to recognize signs of life elsewhere. . . . [A] joyful account.Steven Poole,The Wall Street Journal
 
A thrilling tour of Earth that shows the search for extraterrestrial life starts in our own backyard.
 
Is there life off Earth? Bound by the limitations of spaceflight, a growing number of astrobiologists investigate the question by studying life on our planet. Astronomer and author Jon Willis shows us how its done, allowing readers to envision extraterrestrial landscapes by exploring their closest Earth analogs. With Willis, we dive into the Pacific Ocean from the submersible-equipped E/VNautilusto ponder the uncharted seas of Saturns and Jupiters moons; search the Australian desert for some of Earths oldest fossils and consider the prospects for a Martian fossil hunt; visit mountaintop observatories in Chile to search for the telltale twinkle of extrasolar planets; and eavesdrop on dolphins in the Bahamas to imagine alien minds.
 
With investigations ranging from meteorite hunting to exoplanet detection, Willis conjures up alien worlds and unthought-of biological possibilities, speculating what life might look like on other planets by extrapolating from what we can see on Earth, our single pale blue dotas Carl Sagan famously called itor, in Williss reframing, scientists pale blue data point.

Jon Willisis professor of astronomy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia where he studies both the properties of the universe we live in and the formation of life within it. He is the author ofAll These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life.Preface
1 The Pale Blue Data Point
2 Twenty Thousand Pings Under the Sea: In Search of Alien Oceans
3 Swimming witlÃS