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Adam Frank

Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth Illustrated Edition

by Adam Frank (Author)

4.6 313 ratings

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Astrophysicist and NPR commentator on what the latest research on the existence and trajectories of alien civilizations may teach us about our own.

Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity’s coming of age as we awaken to the possibilities of life on other worlds and their sudden relevance to our fate on Earth. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life and intelligence from the ancient Greeks to the leading thinkers of our own time, and shows how we as a civilization can only hope to survive climate change if we recognize what science has recently discovered: that we are just one of ten billion trillion planets in the Universe, and it’s highly likely that many of those planets hosted technologically advanced alien civilizations. What’s more, each of those civilizations must have faced the same challenge of civilization-driven climate change.

Written with great clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars builds on the inspiring work of pioneering scientists such as Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, whose work at the dawn of the space age began building the new science of astrobiology; Jack James, the Texas-born engineer who drove NASA’s first planetary missions to success; Vladimir Vernadsky, the Russian geochemist who first envisioned the Earth’s biosphere; and James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, who invented Gaia theory. Frank recounts the perilous journey NASA undertook across millions of miles of deep space to get its probes to Venus and Mars, yielding our first view of the cosmic laws of planets and climate that changed our understanding of our place in the universe.

Thrilling science at the grandest of scales, Light of the Stars explores what may be the largest question of all: What can the likely presence of life on other worlds tell us about our own fate?

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ISBN-10

0393609014
ISBN-13

978-0393609011
Edition

Illustrated
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

June 12, 2018
Language

English
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
Print length

272 pages
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Customer reviews

313 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book thought-provoking and enlightening. They describe it as an easy, straightforward read with clear arguments presented in a concise manner. The history and analysis provided are considered comprehensive and helpful in forming opinions about climate change.

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Thought provoking Readability History

31 customers mention "Thought provoking"31 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and thought-provoking. They appreciate the author's skill at articulating complex scientific theories in a simple way.

"...There are some compelling explanations about how a planet, as well as both its life and eventual civilization(s), co-exist and can change, support,..." Read more

"...It's a fascinating book, and well worth reading. Recommended. I initially borrowed this book from my local library, and then bought it." Read more

"This is an excellent book...." Read more

"...discoveries of multitudes of alien worlds is a major topic of this interesting and comprehensible book...." Read more

17 customers mention "Readability"17 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They appreciate the author's conversational writing style and find it a quick read. The arguments are compelling and presented clearly.

"...Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth' is a direct and uncomplicated read that will instantly engage you and make you hope for follow-up..." Read more

"...with a deep interest in this topic I appreciated the author's conversational writing style...." Read more

"...and yet I think he may have outdone himself with this one... The prose is elegant, the arguments compelling and clearly presented, and the..." Read more

"...It is actually a pretty quick read. I learned a lot and had fun at the same time." Read more

10 customers mention "History"7 positive3 negative

Customers find the book's history and analysis interesting and easy to read. They appreciate the comprehensive, multidisciplinary review that can help inform and shift the argument about climate change. The author provides a beautiful explanation of how our civilization interacts with the biosphere. The goal of the book is to introduce the reader to a new perspective on global warming, and it's written simply for non-cosmologists who may yet be interested.

"...It provides insights into the climate changes that have occurred in the past and is informed by our observations of other planets and systems...." Read more

"Fascinating book. Very well but simply written for the non-cosmologist who may yet be interested...." Read more

"...Padded with lots of history of planetary science. I'd rather read that elsewhere." Read more

"The goal of this book was to introduce the reader to a new perspective on global warming...." Read more

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J. Alden
Very readable and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2024
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This should be read by every member of congress. They should reframe the climate issue as a civilization survival issue. However, I have little confidence this will happen.

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Mathew Anderson
An excellent read to understand the chance for life and civilization to occur (and be sustained) across the cosmos
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2018
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Adam Frank tells an intriguing story of humanity's project of civilization and how it may apply on other worlds. 'Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth' is a direct and uncomplicated read that will instantly engage you and make you hope for follow-up works from the author.

In the book, Adam starts us off by summarizing our current civilization in a historical context and how it ties so closely to the Earth's biosphere. He goes on to share insights from other scientists on why we feel the need to search for life and civilization elsewhere in the cosmos. This leads quickly to describing our civilization's exoplanet hunting achievements and how we came about acquiring the tools and techniques that are employed today by astronomers, and some futuristic tools and techniques in development. Scientists mentioned include Jill Tarter and many others I've read about before, so it was good to see their names in this book.

What Adam does exceptionally well is tell the stories of these scientists from a personal viewpoint, especially if he happened to have met the scientist in person. He accomplishes this without spending an overt amount of time on them either, moving along at the right pace to the next topic at-hand. I found this part of the book to be extremely engaging because it showed how the hard work of generations of scientists can lead us to achieve new heights on the ladder of technological advancement in all fields. Focusing on astrophysics, astrobiology, exoplanets, and a healthy dose of history, Adam reveals how we came about detecting exoplanets through presented works of See, Borucki, Tarter, Drake, and others.

Since the book focuses on Earth and how a civilization might be sustained in the long-term, Adam carefully points out the issues that led to the current desiccated conditions of Mars and Venus, which provide valuable lessons for the future of Earth sustaining life and civilization. He goes into detail on our planet's current biosphere state known as the Anthropocene epoch - a period in Earth's history where human induced changes to our planet are calling into question the long-term sustainability of our civilization, and indeed, most of present life itself. He also points out that while humans are causing climate change, a planet is itself going to cause this over time as well.

Change is inevitable is another underlying theme of the book. There are some compelling explanations about how a planet, as well as both its life and eventual civilization(s), co-exist and can change, support, and even destroy each other through natural processes. Adam describes how the success of a planet's life and civilizations are dependent on initial starting conditions of its atmosphere and water content, and the present position of the planet in the star's habitable zone with its level of greenhouse gases. This is a key 'big picture view' that is not usually presented in astrophysics or astrobiology books or papers, but often instead as separate topics or footnotes. Adam excels at providing the needed big picture view, much like how I try to do the same in my books about similar subjects.

Adam also spends a good deal of time exploring the Drake Equation and how it ties into The Fermi Paradox and The Great Filter, important topics to understand the chance of life and civilization existing elsewhere in the universe, as well as how long that life and those civilizations may typically last technologically (at least in a way that's detectable). There is clear recognition in the book that the project of civilization has limitations to likely all attempts made to build it. Adam strongly infers that one answer to The Fermi Paradox and The Great Filter is that all civilizations simply do not last long enough to make a significant long-lasting mark on their host galaxy before being destroyed or set back technologically (either through natural causes or through their own devices).

While I have a far more optimistic estimate of the number of civilizations in existence at any given moment (roughly 1 per galaxy on average), I still accept the pessimistic viewpoint that the immensely complex project of civilization is just too sensitive to nature's instabilities to survive for very long (200 years for radio communication capable civilizations, or above, as a median estimate for civilizations that are at least able to reach beyond the stone age at some point in their history). I would like to also add here the tantalizing thought that there are perhaps countless more planets with simple lifeforms only, or even intelligent lifeforms forever trapped on their waterworlds and unable to escape due to lack of materials to build a civilization, or trapped by their super-Earth's immense gravity well. Adam touches on a few of these ideas through quotes by other scientists.

Related to use of materials and energy to build a civilization, Adam appears to be cautious about us taking the Kardashev scale so literally with its focus on energy consumption when coming to any conclusions about the actual power and reach of extraterrestrial civilizations. He's right to do so. The scale is in my view an unrealistic and likely inaccurate gauge for the rise and peak of a civilization, for all the points he lay out so well. It's not to say the scale is not useful, as it has its place just like the Drake Equation, but like Adam says in the book - "... it is not simply energy consumption (the focus of The Kardashev Scale) that must be considered. Instead, we must learn to think in terms of energy transformations."

Recognizing the limitations of energy use and simple physical limitations that all civilizations must adhere too will ensure we have a realistic and sound expectation for what we end up finding (or not finding) out there in the cosmos, and our likely future here on Earth.

Much of the above comments reveal a sad and lonely, and definitely pessimistic, but perhaps realistic viewpoint - a viewpoint that Adam infuses in the book so well and draws you right in to wanting to learn more about the realities of our existence in the universe.

An excellent read Adam, thank you.

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Elisabeth Carey
Fascinating look at the importance of understanding our place in the universe
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
What practical use is research into possible extraterrestrial live and civilizations?

We need a new frame to think about our own planet and our relationship. It's just false to all the evidence that we don't affect the habitability of Earth. It's unhelpful, providing no useful path forward, to think of ourselves as a completely malign, destructive force.

We need a new story to tell ourselves, that correctly places us as an active force on Earth, currently doing a lot of damage out of our ignorance until now, but able to change direction and, through use of our growing knowledge, able to make different, more useful decisions.

Adam Frank looks at both the history of our thinking and investigation of the idea of alien life, up to and including the recent explosion of discovery of extrasolar planets and what that means for the likelihood that other technologically advanced civilizations at least have existed, and the history of our growing understanding of our real impact on the habitability of Earth for us and our technologically advanced civilization. It turns out that that history of growing understanding of the crucial factor of our contribution to global warming goes back not to the 1970s, but to the latter part of the 19th century.

He looks at how early life changed our planet to make in habitable for life like us, the crucial fact that it's not Earth we need to worry about protecting, but ourselves (Earth, and life, will go one almost regardless of what we do, but we might not), and how even the study of certainly lifeless Venus and so far not proven to harbor life Mars have enhanced our understanding of Earth and our relationship to it. Even understanding that planets, at all sizes and types, are fairly common in the universe, and that therefore it's wildly unlikely that we're the first technological civilization to exist, expands our understanding. We further need to understand whether it's common, possible, or wildly unlikely for civilizations to survive the technological and environmental bottleneck we are currently struggling through.

We want to be a civilization that survives.

It's a fascinating book, and well worth reading. Recommended.

I initially borrowed this book from my local library, and then bought it.

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Top reviews from other countries

Leo Passi
Excellent distillation of the facts and the evolution of a fundamental question, are we alone?
Reviewed in Germany on October 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
This is a really great book, which may date quite quickly nevertheless, given the speed at which discoveries are being made in the domains of astronomy, cosmology, biology and related fields. However, I think it will remain relevant for a few decades yet.

Frank does a great job of giving some historical context to the postulation of the famous Drake Equation by the eponymous astronomer, as an appetiser to a meaty discussion and debate on the said equation. He clearly and concisely shows how astronomers have developed the observational tools over the intervening decades to put figures to several terms of the equation. You get a sense that progress is being made and that scientific endeavour really is bearing fruit in quest of the age old question, "are we alone in the universe?"

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Isaac Griggs
Brilliant Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2020
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Very informative content about multiple areas of great interest.

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J. Beeds
Amazing way to think about Earth in the larger context of exoplanets
Reviewed in Canada on August 13, 2018
Verified Purchase
A highly enjoyable read. The book is easy to read and understand. Fascinating exploration of exoplanets and how to classify planets with life. Really gives a great perspective and shows how we are cosmic teenagers as a civilization. I hope as a species we can get past climate change denial and allow our civilization to evolve and endure.

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Josh
Excellent start. A bit of a letdown toward the end.
Reviewed in India on August 28, 2018
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I really tried hard to love the book, but it just doesn't do it for me. I like the idea that there's so much originality in the work, a lot of details into the writer's own studies and experiments. However, as a casual reader, I'd be more interested in the results than in the processes. For a student, the process might be more interesting, building up theories, tearing down assumptions, the re-working new hypotheses, and so on.
The author tries to keep a single thread going on till the end, which is to be appreciated, but I started losing interest in the plot as soon as the author starts shearing off the stuff which separates science from sci-fi. To be fair, we are forewarned that Adam Frank does not promise us the moon, but some hypothetical projections would have been nice. For eg. Frank does not provide any exposition about the physical appearances of an alien civilization, or even about the kind of environment they'd have because 'current science does not paint a clear picture about it'. But to my mind, it's impossible to imagine the power of an alien civilization without also wondering what their world would like.
The first two-thirds of the book are really great, but after that, Frank starts pulling his punches about the projections we can make about exo-civilizations, which makes it a bit dry. This is not an article for 'Science' to be peer-reviewed, he could have used some cautious optimism to throw in a splash of color for his readers.
Overall, I'd recommend this book for students and people who actually work in the field. But for a casual reader, I'd say take it up if you really have the time, otherwise, the guys who show up in the top 5 of 'popular science' writers are good enough.

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Kerel
Long term vision for today
Reviewed in Australia on August 15, 2018
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Simply outstanding on all levels...and all based on the scientific genius of Humankind and the magnificence of our plant...I am overwhelmed by the rare quality of this book...

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