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Cloudy with a Chance of Starships : How the Drake Equation Reveals the Odds of Life in the Cosmos.

De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2026 Available online

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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Rasmussen, Seven.
Language:
English
Physical Description:
1 online resource (289 pages)
Edition:
1st ed.
Place of Publication:
Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2026.
Summary:
An entertaining tour of the seemingly simple formula guiding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence Cloudy with a Chance of Starships takes readers on an irreverent expedition through the marvelous world of astrobiology, using as a guide the most important equation in science since E=mc2.
Contents:
Cover
Contents
Introduction
1. Stars and Their Planets
The Big Bang
The Origins of the (Light) Elements
The Origins of the (Heavy) Elements
Before the Beginning
The Star Zoo
A Plethora of Planets
Imagination Meets Reality
The Earth through Time
2. On Habitability
Water and the Origins of Life
Out with the Tides
Walking on Eggshells
Magnetic Personalities
Lunar Impact
Do Planets Sing in the Shower?
It's a Beautiful Day in the Galaxy, and You Are a Horrible Star
Our Galactic Habitat
What's Left?
3. The Signature of Another Earth
Life's Ingredients
Amino Acids
Proteins
Which Came First, the Metabolic Chicken or the RNA Egg?
But Does It Have Pockets?
Tools in the Search for Life
Biosignatures
Life as We Don't Know It
Earth: One in a Googol
4. Intelligence in the Mirror
Technosignatures in the Solar System
Technosignatures in the Stellar Neighborhood
Stellar Beacons
Megastructures and Beyond
The Cosmic Mirror Revisited
5. The End of Civilization
A History of Great Filters
Climate Change and the Holocene Extinction
The Nuclear Apocalypse and Other Challenges
Artificial "Intelligence
Gray Goo, Overpopulation, and the Great Unknown
Escaping L
Becoming Interstellar
The End of the Drake Equation
6. Astrobiology's Frontiers
The Universe and You
Nuclear Astrophysics Today
The Cake Is Alive: Of Space Rocks and Life
Old Friends, New Planets
Galaxies, Rabbits, and Puddles: The Chemical Origins of Life Near and Far
Life, Uh, Finds a Way
7. Astrobiology's Tomorrow and Tomorrow's Astrobiologists
Geology's Horizons
Rocket Chemistry and the Materials of Tomorrow
Biology: Unfolding the Future
The Beginning of Wisdom, Not the End
End Matter: Tomorrow's Astrobiologists.
Resources for Marginalized Students and Scientists
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index.
Notes:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
Other Format:
Print version: Rasmussen, Seven Cloudy with a Chance of Starships
ISBN:
9780691248752
OCLC:
1592690531

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