Research Catalog

Title

The life and death of planet Earth : how the new science of astrobiology charts the ultimate fate of our world / Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee.

Author

Ward, Peter D. (Peter Douglas), 1949-

Publication

New York : Times Books, 2003, ©2002.

Supplementary Content

Publisher description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Brownlee, Donald.

Description

240 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• "Two brilliant scientists - Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a paleontologist and an astronomer respectively - are helping to bring this groundbreaking work to a popular audience. Vanguards of a new field called astrobiology - the science of how planets and organisms live and die - Ward and Brownlee combine the discoveries of astronomers, Earth scientists, and those in other scientific disciplines.
• Astronomers are well-poised to study the end of our world, since they have studied the ends of other worlds, while paleontologists can tell us about "worlds" that have already ended on our planet, such as the death of dinosaurs and other signposts in the rock and fossil record.".
• "Ward and Brownlee present a comprehensive portrait of Earth's ultimate fate, allowing us to understand and appreciate how our planet sustains itself, and offer a glimpse at our place in the cosmic order. As they depict the process of planetary evolution, they peer deep into the future destiny of Earth, showing us that we are living near or shortly after Earth's biological peak.
• Eventually, the process of planetary evolution will reverse itself; life as we know it will subside until only the simplest forms remain. In time they, too, will disappear. The oceans will evaporate, the atmosphere will degrade, and as the sun slowly expands, Earth will eventually meet a fiery end."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• End of the world (Astronomy)
• Exobiology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-226) and index.

Contents

1. Our Blink of Time -- 2. The Wondrous Machine -- 3. The Life Span of Habitable Planets -- 4. The Return of the Glaciers -- 5. The Return of the Supercontinent -- 6. The End of Plant Life -- 7. The End of Animals -- 8. The Loss of the Oceans -- 9. Red Giant -- 10. Accidental Armageddon -- 11. What Trace Will We Leave? -- 12. The Ends of Worlds and the Drake Equation -- 13. The Great Escape.

ISBN

0805067817 (hb.)

LCCN

2002029115

OCLC

• ocm50322946
• SCSB-4331313

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries