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Astrophysics is facing challenging aims such as deep cosmology at redshift higher than 10 to constrain cosmology models, or the detection of exoplanets, and possibly terrestrial exoplanets, and several others. It requires unprecedented ambitious R&D programs, which have definitely to rely on a tight cooperation between astrophysics and optics communities. The book addresses most of the most critical interdisciplinary domains where they interact, or where they will do. A first need is to collect more light, i.e. telescopes still larger than the current 8-10 meter class ones. Decametric, and even hectometric, optical (from UV to IR wavelengths) telescopes are being studied. Whereas up to now t...
This book looks at the persistence of life and how difficult it would be to annihilate life, especially a species as successful as humanity. The idea that life in general is fragile is challenged by the hardiness of microbes, which shows that astrobiology on exoplanets and other satellites must be robust and plentiful. Microbes have adapted to virtually every niche on the planet, from the deep, hot biosphere, to the frigid heights of the upper troposphere. Life, it seems, is almost indestructible. The chapters in this work examine the various scenarios that might lead to the extermination of life, and why they will almost always fail. Life's highly adaptive nature ensures that it will cling on no matter how difficult the circumstances. Scientists are increasingly probing and questioning life's true limits in, on and above the Earth, and how these limits could be pushed elsewhere in the universe. This investigation puts life in its true astronomical context, with the reader taken on a journey to illustrate life's potential and perseverance.
This book explores new methods and perspectives in the anthropology of outer space. For the past ten years, scholarship of outer space has grown significantly in the social sciences. Now, an international community of anthropologists is starting to produce significant contributions to this work. This is pushing the conversations around the future of humanity, technology, and outer space beyond the realm of speculative theory into concrete challenges to established norms within anthropology. Each chapter in this volume introduces a unique take on what constitutes an ethnographic field in anthropology. They signal a re-imagination of the central concept for the discipline and offer a timely me...
Recording the proceedings of the IAU XXVI General Assembly, this volume of the IAU Highlights of Astronomy covers virtually all aspects of modern astrophysics as discussed by 2400 participants from 73 countries. Notably, the common aspects of astrophysical phenomena known to exist in widely differing interstellar environments is thoroughly examined, providing fertile cross correlation from one specialisation to another. This text highlights the importance of the triennial IAU General Assemblies in bringing together the work of observers and theoreticians in widely different fields, but working towards a common goal: understanding the physics of the Universe. Together with the Proceedings of the IAU Symposia 235-240, this volume examines all of the astrophysics presented at the General Assembly.
In this book, David Stevenson offers us a look at the evolution of planets as they move from balls of mixed molten rock to vibrant worlds capable of hosting life. Embedded in our everyday architecture and in the literal ground beneath our feet, granite and its kin lie at the heart of many features of the Earth that we take for granted. From volcanism and mountain building to shifting water levels and local weather patterns, these rocks are closely intertwined with the complex processes that continue to shape and reshape our world. This book serves as a wonderful primer for anybody interested in our planet’s geological past and that of other planets in our Solar System and beyond. It illustrates not only how our planet’s surface evolved, but also how granite played a pivotal role in the creation of complex, intelligent life on Earth. There has long been a missing element in popular astronomy, which Stevenson now aims to fill: how geological and biological evolution work in a complex partnership, and what our planet’s own diversity can teach us about other rocky worlds.
The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the most authoritarian Muslim-majority countries have produced highly imaginative accounts on one of the frontiers of knowledge: astrobiology, or the study of life in the universe. This book argues that the Islamic tradition has been generally supportive of conceptions of extra-terrestrial life, and in this engaging account, Jörg Matthias Determann provides a survey of Arabic, Bengali, Malay, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu texts and films, to show how scientists and artists in and from Muslim-m...
Le phénomène OVNI est bien présent au Maroc, ce n'est pas seulement dans les pays tels la France, les Usa, l'Italie etc.... qu'il est localisé. Au Maroc plusieurs centaines d'observations ont été rapportées et figurent dans « L'HISTOIRE DES OVNIS AU MAROC ». Le problème est sérieux, lors d'une observation en 1976, sa majesté le roi Hassan II s'en est inquiété et a demandé aux autorités américaines des informations sur le sujet. En France le dossier OVNI est également pris au sérieux, tout comme dans plusieurs pays et un service spécialisé au sein même du CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) : le GEIPAN ( Groupe d'Études et d'informations sur les Phénomènes aérospatiaux Non Identifiés) est chargé de l'étudier et rend compte au grand public, via un site internet spécialisé, de l'avancement de ses recherches.Gérard LEBAT.
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An introduction to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence through the lens of Fermi's paradox, discussing methodology and potential solutions.