Earth-like Exoplanets
Astrobiology Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond Series, Vol. 3

Coordinators: Mason Paul A., Gordon Richard

Language: English

Subject for Earth-like Exoplanets

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550 p. · 19.1x23.5 cm · Paperback

Earth-like Exoplanets, Volume Three reviews the rapidly expanding study of exoplanets and what these new worlds have revealed regarding planet types located in diverse circumstellar and planetary environments. Currently, Earth remains the only example for life on planets, but other Solar System bodies - Venus, Mars, and the Moon - provide important information about where and when life is possible. As life on Earth and the lack of detected life on bodies in, or near, the habitable zone of the Sun supply much of what is directly known about astrobiology, the possibilities of finding life out there is ripe for new discovery.



  • Includes a broad ranging survey of the emerging field of exoplanets and the potential for life in the Universe
  • Offers both a comprehensive introduction to, and a modern review of, the coupled field of exoplanet astrobiology
  • Highlights exoplanet reviews from experts in the field

Exoplanets - What Have We Found and What is on the Horizon? 1. Kepler’s Planet Discoveries and Beyond 2. Tess Planet Finder for Nearby Stars

Habitability of Exoplanets 3. Updated Habitable Zone Definitions 4. The abundance of non-water seas in rocky worlds 5. The Binary Habitability Mechanism

Detection of Biomarkers vs. False Positives 6. Can lightning spectra be a biomarker for Earth-like exoplanets? 7. Detectability of open seas and their reflection spectra on exoplanets 8. Challenges of reading biomarkers from exoplanet atmospheres during transits

The Origin of Organic Matter and Life, In-situ or Panspermia? 9. A survey of solar system and galactic objects with pristine surfaces that record history and perhaps panspermia, with a plan for exploration 10. Panspermia: A panoply of possibilities

Extremophiles - Alternate Evolutionary Pathways 11. Can there be a Rogue Earth? 12. Comparison of the multidimensional niches inhabited by Earth extremophiles with the multidimensional spectrum of exoplanets

Life on Exoplanets over Cosmic Time 13. Habitable and super-habitable exoplanets

The audience is the same as for the series Astrobiology: Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond, including investigators in any area of exoplanets or astrobiology, who will find this book to be both a comprehensive introduction to and a modern review of the coupled field of exoplanet astrobiology. Exoplanet enthusiasts, without the astrobiology component, will also be attracted to this book because it will include expert exoplanet reviews.

Paul A. Mason is a Professor at New Mexico State University and the Director of Picture Rocks Observatory and Astrobiology Research Center. He obtained two B.S. degrees from the University of Arizona-Astronomy and Physics & Mathematics, where he founded the University of Arizona astronomy club. He received a Masters in Physics from Louisiana State University and a PhD in Astronomy from Case Western Reserve University, where he received the Towson Memorial Scholarship. Professor Mason has been a teacher and researcher at the University of Texas at El Paso and New Mexico State University, Dona Ana Community College, and received the prestigious David Lovelock teaching award. His research includes observations of accreting white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. These observations utilized both ground-based and spaced based telescopes fromradio to gamma-rays. Most recently, he has been theoretically investigating
planetary habitability constrained by high energy radiation, especially concerned with the potential for habitability of Earth-like planets orbiting moderately close binary stars. His wrote the seminal paper on enhanced habitability in binary star systems with J. Zuluaga, P. Cuartas and J. Clark who have an online habitability calculator http://bhmcalc.net/ and most recently, Mason Biermann introduced the Supergalactic Habitable Zone concept.