
Audio only
Length10h 20m
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by
pioneering NASA scientist Kevin Peter Hand takes you inside the epic quest to find life on the water-rich moons at the outer reaches of the solar system
Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions have revealed that some of the most habitable real estate may actually lie farther away. Beneath the frozen crusts of several of the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn lurk vast oceans that may have been in existence for as long as Earth, and together may contain more than fifty times its total volume of liquid water. Could there be organisms living in their depths?
Alien Oceans reveals the science behind the thrilling quest to find out.
Kevin Peter Hand is one of today's leading NASA scientists, and his pioneering research has taken him on expeditions around the world. In this captivating account of scientific discovery, he brings together insights from planetary science, biology, and the adventures of scientists like himself to explain how we know that oceans exist within moons of the outer solar system, like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus. He shows how the exploration of Earth's oceans is informing our understanding of the potential habitability of these icy moons, and draws lessons from what we have learned about the origins of life on our own planet to consider how life could arise on these distant worlds.
Alien Oceans describes what lies ahead in our search for life in our solar system and beyond, setting the stage for the transformative discoveries that may await us.
Audiobook details
GenreScience and Nature
Length10 hrs 20 mins
Narrated byKevin Hand
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 7, 2020
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Opening Anno, Dedication, Part 1, Oceans Near and Far, Prologue - The Bottom
10Part 3, The Journey from Habitable to Inhabited, Chapter 9 - Becoming Inhabited
2Chapter 1 - Ocean Worlds on Earth and Beyond
11Chapter 10 - Origins in an Alien Ocean
3Chapter 2 - The New Goldilocks
12Chapter 11 - Building an Ocean World Biosphere
4Part 2, Discovering an Ocean in Three Easy Pieces, Chapter 3 - The Rainbow Connection
13Chapter 12 - The Octopus and the Hammer
5Chapter 4 - Babysitting a Spacecraft
14Chapter 13 - A Periodic Table for Life
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6Chapter 5 - How I Learned to Love Airport Security
15Part 4, The Next Steps, Chapter 14 - Seeking Signs of Life
7Chapter 6 - Lady with a Veil
16Chapter 15 - A New Age of Ocean Exploration
8Chapter 7 - The Queen of Carbon
17Acknowledgements, Closing Anno
9Chapter 8 - Oceans Everywhere