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The Planet Factory
The Planet Factory: Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth | Elizabeth Tasker
4 posts | 2 read | 1 reading | 2 to read
Twenty years ago, the search for planets outside the Solar System was a job restricted to science-fiction writers. Now it's one of the fastest-growing fields in astronomy with thousands of exoplanets discovered to date, and the number is rising fast. These new-found worlds are more alien than anything in fiction. Planets larger than Jupiter with years lasting a week; others with two suns lighting their skies, or with no sun at all. Planets with diamond mantles supporting oceans of tar; possible Earth-sized words with split hemispheres of perpetual day and night; waterworlds drowning under global oceans and volcanic lava planets awash with seas of magma. The discovery of this diversity is just the beginning. There is a whole galaxy of possibilities. The Planet Factory tells the story of these exoplanets. Each planetary system is different, but in the beginning most if not all young stars are circled by clouds of dust, specks that come together in a violent building project that can form colossal worlds hundreds of times the size of the Earth. The changing orbits of young planets risk dooming any life evolving on neighbouring worlds or, alternatively, can deliver the key ingredients needed to seed its beginnings. Planet formation is one of the greatest construction schemes in the Universe, and it occurred around nearly every star you see. Each results in an alien landscape, but is it possible that one of these could be like our own home world?
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review
shanaqui
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I think this is mostly interesting if you haven't read around much but have a solid interest and are good at visualising. I got a little lost amid mini Neptunes, hot Jupiters, super Earths and gas drag, peanut shaped temperate zones, etc, etc -- and the brief chapter on detecting planets already supporting life was utterly threadbare. Good, I think, but not for me.

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shanaqui

I'm feeling anxious, so hopefully a book that makes me think is the cure! I do wish the terminology wasn't "Super Earths" or "hot Jupiters", etc. It's so broad as to be near meaningless.

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shanaqui
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I don't think I posted this pic of surprised!Breakfast after my last book haul. Enjoy! #BunniesofLitsy

I've started The Planet Factory -- it's interesting, but I don't quite find the explanations working for my brain, maybe because I can't picture how it works (I can't picture anything, ever -- this isn't a failing on Tasker's part). Some more diagrams might help.

Karkar Breakfast is too darn cute!!! ❤️🐰❤️ 6y
Clare-Dragonfly Hee! Breakfast is shocked that your stack is so short! 😄🐰❤️ 6y
14 likes2 comments
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heikemarie
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This book is really interesting so far! Getting in some reading while I️ wait for folks to arrive for my cousin‘s bridal shower. #cameprepared #neverwithoutabook