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基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 1995. Transl. by Storm Dunlop. Through a clear explanation of the many issues involved, including new and updated information, the entire subject of extraterrestrial intelligence is explained: the expansion of searches in space, the habitable zones in our universe, and what might happen if actual contact takes place.
Full Description
If extraterrestrial intelligence exists, then positive detection would be the greatest scientific discovery of all time. By what criteria should we judge whether we are alone in the cosmos, and how should we set about detecting extraterrestrials? Jean Heidmann answers these questions in this engaging discussion of extraterrestrial intelligence. Through a clear explanation of the many issues involved, including new and updated information, the entire subject of extraterrestrial intelligence is explained: the expansion of searches in space, the habitable zones in our universe, and what might happen if actual contact takes place.
Table of Contents
Preface xiii (10)
Acknowledgments xxiii
PART I The bioastronomical prospect 1 (94)
1 The cosmic stage 3 (16)
The Big Bang, space, and matter 3 (8)
The inflationary Big Bang 3 (1)
Quantum uncertainty 4 (2)
Universes beyond count 6 (1)
Grand unified theory 7 (1)
Symmetry breaking 8 (1)
The emergence of space 9 (1)
The appearance of matter 9 (1)
The Longest Second 10 (1)
The Grand Design 10 (1)
Planetry systems 11 (8)
Giant molecular clouds 12 (1)
Dark clouds and T-Tauri stars 12 (1)
Jets and disks of gas 13 (1)
Protoplanetary disks 14 (1)
Does Beta Pictoris have a planet? 14 (2)
The formation of planets 16 (1)
Searching for extra-solar planets 16 (3)
2 The organic stage 19 (24)
Life on Earth 19 (5)
Carbon chemistry 19 (1)
The universal nature of our own atoms 20 (1)
The building blocks of life 21 (1)
The oldest fossils 21 (1)
The eukaryotes 22 (1)
The Ediacara fauna 22 (1)
The Cambrian explosion 23 (1)
The interstellar travels of a grain of dust 24 (2)
The incredible vacuum of space 24 (1)
Interstellar synthesis 24 (1)
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons 25 (1)
The expeditions to Comet Halley 26 (8)
The fly-bys 27 (1)
The European space probe Giotto 27 (2)
The American probe 29 (1)
Gravitational assistance 30 (1)
The probes' results 30 (1)
The coma 31 (1)
The dust 32 (1)
Comet Halley's nucleus 32 (2)
Comets and life 34 (4)
The Oort Cloud 34 (1)
The place where comets are formed 35 (1)
Primordial material 36 (1)
Comets and biological disasters 36 (1)
Comets' contribution to life 37 (1)
The Rosetta project 38 (5)
Choosing a landing site 38 (1)
The landing 39 (1)
Taking samples 39 (1)
Returning the samples 40 (1)
An engineer's nightmare and a scientist's 40 (3)
dream
3 The prebiotic stage 43 (16)
Titan, Saturn's large satellite 43 (8)
A prebiotic body 44 (1)
The Huygens probe 44 (1)
An atmosphere of organic compounds 45 (1)
The surface 46 (1)
The fourth planetary robot lander 47 (1)
Prebiotic chemistry 48 (1)
Prebiotic chemical pathways 48 (3)
Meteorites 51 (6)
Sizes 51 (1)
The Vaca Muerta meteorite 52 (1)
Types of meteorite 53 (1)
Extraterrestrial amino acids 54 (1)
A trail leading to life 55 (1)
Micrometeorites 55 (2)
Prebiotic seeding 57 (1)
Primitive life in martian meteorite? 57 (2)
4 The primitive biological stage 59 (36)
From an inert cosmos to living matter 59 (14)
The lunar samples 60 (1)
The initial bombardment 60 (2)
The stromatolites 62 (1)
The first parting of the ways 63 (1)
Biological separation of isotopes 63 (1)
Biological saturation 64 (1)
Did life arise in less than 100 million 65 (1)
years?
From inert matter to life 65 (6)
The four acts in the drama 71 (1)
The crux of the matter 72 (1)
Primitive biology on Mars 73 (22)
The martian tripods 73 (1)
The first landings 74 (1)
The first habitable world 75 (1)
French astronomy and extraterrestrial life 76 (1)
Earth's sister planet? 77 (1)
Traces of water 78 (1)
The Viking Lander's biological experiments 79 (1)
A desolate landscape 79 (1)
Water on Mars! 80 (1)
Kasei Vallis 81 (1)
The channels 82 (1)
The frozen subsoil 82 (1)
The polar caps 83 (1)
An unstable climate 84 (1)
Terrestrial equivalents 85 (2)
What sort of life should we seek on Mars? 87 (1)
Martian simulations 87 (1)
Exobiological simulations 88 (1)
The biological exploration of Mars 89 (1)
The martian rovers 89 (1)
Marsokhod 90 (1)
The CNES rover 91 (1)
Martian meteorites 92 (3)
PART II Extraterrestrials 95 (140)
5 Intelligence 97 (14)
The emergence of the human species 97 (1)
The behavior of our ancestors 98 (2)
Plate tectonics and intelligence 100 (1)
Homo erectus and SETI 101 (2)
Mammalian intelligence 103 (1)
The intelligence of birds 103 (1)
Technology without intelligence 104 (1)
The precursors of awareness 105 (1)
The footprints of Australopithecus 106 (2)
Subconscious opposition to SETI 108 (1)
Kardashev's supercivilizations 108 (3)
6 The SETI pioneers 111 (10)
Initial hypotheses 112 (1)
The first basic session 112 (2)
The three basic hypotheses 114 (2)
Millions of extraterrestrials 116 (1)
Ten thousand galaxies... 117 (1)
The Drake Equation 117 (4)
7 Why use radio waves? 121 (14)
Solar sails 122 (2)
Using radiation 124 (1)
Neutrinos 125 (1)
Gravitational waves 126 (1)
Electromagnetic waves 127 (1)
Decimetric radio waves 128 (2)
Narrow-bandwidth signals 130 (1)
Interstellar dispersion 131 (1)
SETI's 100 billion channels 131 (1)
Salute the pioneers! 132 (3)
8 NASA takes up the challenge 135 (14)
Ten million channels 135 (1)
The MCSA 136 (1)
Modular architecture 136 (1)
The prototype 137 (1)
How to envisage eight million channels 137 (1)
The detector 138 (1)
A nightmare image 139 (1)
Extracting the signals 139 (2)
The listening program 141 (1)
The targeted search 141 (1)
One thousand target stars 142 (1)
One million accessible stars 143 (1)
Is the program too anthropomorphic? 143 (1)
The sky survey program 144 (1)
The SETI system 145 (2)
Project Phoenix 147 (2)
9 False alarms 149 (8)
Epsilon Eridani 149 (1)
Little Green Men 1 150 (1)
The CTA 102 affair 150 (2)
My own false alarm 152 (5)
10 The expansion of SETI 157 (20)
The `magic' frequencies 157 (11)
Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovskii 157 (2)
The 21-cm line 159 (1)
The Doppler effect 160 (1)
The fight against interference 161 (1)
Which reference system? 162 (1)
Horowitz's system 163 (1)
Can we make use of supernovae? 164 (1)
The southern hemisphere becomes involved 164 (1)
Another search strategy 165 (1)
Are there too many `magic' frequencies? 166 (2)
A new Ariadne's thread 168 (4)
Pulsars 168 (2)
Targeted searching 170 (1)
Significant mathematical constants 170 (1)
The observational test 171 (1)
Can `ET' listen to Earth? 172 (5)
Terrestrial radars 173 (1)
Our television signals 174 (3)
11 Habitable zones in the universe 177 (14)
Stars with planets 177 (2)
Double stars 179 (1)
The case of Alpha Centauri 179 (1)
The role of the atmosphere 180 (2)
Habitable zones around stars 182 (1)
The carbon dioxide cycle 182 (1)
The Gaia hypothesis 183 (1)
Martian-type planets 184 (1)
Other suns 185 (1)
Stellar ecospheres 186 (1)
Unexpected habitats 187 (1)
The spiral arms of galaxies 187 (1)
Habitable regions in the Galaxy 188 (1)
Galactic zones and advanced life forms 189 (2)
12 The day we make contact 191 (14)
An extraterrestrial signal belongs to all 192 (2)
humanity
The scientific and media points of view 194 (2)
A natural or an artificial phenomenon? 196 (3)
Should we reply and start a dialog? 199 (6)
13 The new world of SETI 205 (14)
The birth of SETI 206 (3)
The International Space Year 209 (2)
SETI and Europe 211 (1)
The Nancay radio telescope 212 (2)
A collaboration between NASA and Nancay? 214 (5)
14 SETI in the 21st Century 219 (8)
Where is SETI going in the 21st century? 220 (1)
The lunar crater Saha 221 (3)
The FOCAL extrasolar mission 224 (3)
15 Epilog. Terrestrial destines and cosmic 227 (8)
perspective
How the discovery affects us 227 (5)
Bioastronomy 232 (3)
Bibliography 235 (2)
Index 237
