Beyond the Stars: Our Origins and the Search for Life in The Universe PDF
Preview Beyond the Stars: Our Origins and the Search for Life in The Universe
BEYOND THE STaRS Our Origins and the Search for Life in The Universe 7640.9789814295536-tp.indd 1 22/6/12 10:08 AM B1358 Beyond the Stars TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk bb11335588__FFMM..iinndddd ii 66//2266//22001122 66::5522::5588 PPMM BEYOND THE STaRS Our Origins and the Search for Life in The Universe Paolo Saraceno Institute for Astrophysics and Space Planetology INAF, Italy Translated by David Goodstein California Institute of Technology, USA World Scientific NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI 7640.9789814295536-tp.indd 2 22/6/12 10:08 AM Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover image courtesy of Heikenwaelder Hugo © 1998. BEYOND THE STARS Our Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe Copyright © 2012 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 978-981-4295-53-6 ISBN 978-981-4295-54-3 (pbk) Typeset by Stallion Press Email: [email protected] Printed in Singapore. Rhaimie - Beyond the Stars.pmd 1 6/28/2012, 6:52 PM B1358 Beyond the Stars Acknowledgements This book has been possible thanks to the numerous contributions I had from colleagues and friends. Without their suggestions, the book would probably not have been possible. For the English version, I have to thank Prof. Peter Clegg of the Queen Mary College of London for the several suggestions he gave in the revision of the first part of the book and Erina Pizzi, for the fantastic work she provided for the figures. I also thank Howard Smith of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for his suggestion and Mario Cavagnaro for his careful reading of the final manuscript. I also thank the colleagues expert in the different fields discussed in the book, they made possible the first version of the text among them I have to remember Prof Patrizia Dall’Olio of the M. L. King Secondary School, Masate Milan, Prof Alberto Franceschini of the University of Padua, Prof Paolo De Bernardis of the University of Rome, Prof Bruno Carli of the Istituto di Fisica applicata of CNR Florence, Dott. Giovanni Valsecchi of the Institute of Planetology and Space Physics of Rome and Prof Olga Rickards of the Institute of Molecular Anthropology of the University of Rome. I am also indebted to the many friends who, with their enthusiasm, com- ments and discussions push me to continue this long work, among them I remember Anna Orcese, Renato Orfei, Luigi Spinoglio and Michele Pestalozzi. Paolo Saraceno Institute for Astrophysics and Space Planetology INAF, Italy Acknowledgements v bb11335588__FFMM..iinndddd vv 66//2266//22001122 66::5533::0000 PPMM B1358 Beyond the Stars TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk vi Beyond the Stars bb11335588__FFMM..iinndddd vvii 66//2266//22001122 66::5533::0000 PPMM B1358 Beyond the Stars Preface About a year ago, a close friend of mine, Professor Franco Scaramuzzi, gave me as a present a book, Il Caso Terra by Paolo Saraceno. I put the book aside for future reading but soon had forgotten all about it until a few months later. I came across the book again, and began reading it in earnest. I quickly realized this was a genuinely important book, about the Universe and had been written with lay readers in mind. It laid out clearly the mecha- nisms that underlay all of the many features it dealt with. After reading book halfway, I wrote to Franco to say the book deserved to be translated into English. Franco quickly put me in touch with Paolo, who had begun his career in physics as Franco’s student. I didn’t know Paolo, but I wrote to him saying his book was important and deserved to be translated into English. Paolo wrote back suggesting that I do the translation! This suggestion came as a considerable shock to me, given my weak grasp of the Italian language, but I took the challenge and translated the first chapter. I found the writing so lucid I was able to translate it easily and translate it I did. I spent about an hour a day at it for the next six months, and now you will be able to read the result. In the meantime, Paolo and I had become good friends. Paolo has now a retired as an astrophysicist at the (first) University of Rome and he, Franco and I, together with our wives, had spent happy evenings together talking about all sorts of things at Paolo’s home in Rome. Preface vii bb11335588__FFMM..iinndddd vviiii 66//2266//22001122 66::5533::0000 PPMM B1358 Beyond the Stars Any awkwardness or difficulty in understanding the English text is my fault alone. I did my best to be true to Paolo’s elegant Italian, and this, some- times, caused problems. But I am hopeful I had succeeded in rendering into English this beautiful book Paolo had written, for everyone to enjoy. David Goodstein Rome, 2009 viii Beyond the Stars bb11335588__FFMM..iinndddd vviiiiii 66//2266//22001122 66::5533::0000 PPMM B1358 Beyond the Stars Contents Acknowledgements v Preface vii Part I Origins 1 Chapter 1 Our Origins 3 Chapter 2 The Beginning of Everything 13 Chapter 3 Origins of Stars and Planets 45 Chapter 4 The Origin of the Elements 79 Chapter 5 The Origins of Life 107 Part II The Case of the Earth 153 Chapter 6 History of the Earth 155 Chapter 7 Extinctions 193 Chapter 8 An Inhabitable Planet 229 Chapter 9 The Importance of Continental Drift 255 Chapter 10 The Earth: A Rare Planet? 289 Contents ix bb11335588__FFMM..iinndddd iixx 66//2266//22001122 66::5533::0000 PPMM
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