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Exotic theories of the universe

* Looking For Earths: The Race To Find New Solar Systems by Alan Boss

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this issue's focus: Science Fiction Science fiction and its more respectable cousin, science non-fiction, are the focus of this issue of The Informed Reader

non-fiction/popular science/astronomy

The Astronomer's Holy Grail

Exotic theories of the universe

The idea of science books pitched at the 'general reader' is a good one. The thought that you can pick up a book and have the most exotic theories of the universe explained to you in ten easy chapters is appealing. In practice, however, it's an entirely different thing. I recall buying Paul Davies' God And The New Physics and thinking, "Ok, Paul - hit me with the big picture." And he did, leaving this "general reader with an interest in science" wondering just what the hell the proceeding page, paragraph or, in some cases, a single sentence, was all about.

So it's with some pleasure that I can report that Alan Boss's Looking For Earths: The Race To Find New Solar Systems is indeed that rare animal - a book that is readable, informative and, despite the wealth of detail on a relatively arcane science, resolutely understandable.

Boss, a research scientist specialising in the computer modelling of solar system formation, leads the reader through what is perhaps the most exciting area of astronomy - the discovery of another planet orbiting around another star. As Boss points out in his introduction, the idea of other planets and other systems is so familiar from science fiction books and movies that we take it for granted that they're out there. Even if we can't see them.

Science, on the other hand, has a simpler approach. If you can't prove it, it doesn't exist. Despite the fact that 'extra-solar' planets (planets outside our solar system) have been theoretically possible, and Boss was one of the scientists who created just such a theory, direct observational evidence was virtually non-existent.

Boss describes the 30-year search by astronomer Peter van de Kamp for a planet that was virtually next door. Van den Kamp had evidence that a planet was in orbit around the relatively close Barnard's Star, a paltry 6 light years away from Earth - so close that astronomers refer to it as being part of the "local neighborhood."

Van de Kamp's method was to look for the smallest observable movement of the star. It's a sure sign, given the way stars move in relation to their planets, that a body, either a planet like Earth or a gas giant like Jupiter, was engaged in a subtle tug-of-war with Barnard's Star. Boss goes into detail describing van de Kamp's methodology of studying photographs taken at regular intervals over a 30 year period. By predicting the movement of the star and calculating what sort of planet or system of planets could cause this regular shift, van de Kamp was certain that he had cracked the big one. His long analysis of years of painstaking research had, as van de Kamp believed, proven conclusively that a Jupiter-like planet was causing Barnard's Star to shift on its axis of rotation.

And that's the astronomer's holy grail - the discovery of another, extra-solar planet. The imagination is fired by the thought that other solar systems must have planets too. And when you have planets - well, you could have life there too. That's what driving the exploration of Mars.

Even with the relatively cheap cost of the Pathfinder and Surveyor missions, it's a lot of money to put on the table when all that could be out there are a bunch of rather mundane rocks. The search is for life - it could even be extinct, fossilised life - but any exobiological life signs will finally put paid to the depressing notion that we could be alone out here on the edge of the galaxy.

Unfortunately for van de Kamp, it was an illusion. A minute fault in the imaging technology - a photographic process that still used glass plates when the project began - had created a error in the images. It was a reasonable mistake. But as Boss points out scientists, astronomers and astrophysicists in particular, are a competitive lot. If you're going to make a claim in the scientific community, then you'd better be ready for intense scrutiny. Sadly for van de Kamp, his discovery was never verified.

Van de Kamp's claim came well before scientists had seriously tackled a theory to explain the formation of solar systems. Once a theory was devised, then other methods could be used to find a planet orbiting another star. Boss explains how these theories developed and how this led, ultimately, to the discovery of a planet orbiting 51 Pegasi - the first verified extra-solar planet some 45 light years away.

Boss's book is also a rather bizarre insight into the way the culture of science works. He goes into detail concerning the politics of fund-raising, the endless rounds of meetings and way domestic politics in the US affects NASA's every move. This aspect of the book is the least interesting - it could've been effectively dealt with in the occasional aside, rather than devoting entire chapters to discussions of where a meeting was held (Maui seems a favourite) and the hotels they stayed in. Boss's attempt to seduce the "general reader" is really just window dressing for the story of his place in the big picture.

That aside, Looking For Earths is a fascinating story which, when it sticks to the events at hand, is perhaps one of the best books of its kind. You'll put the book down knowing a great deal more about the exotic theories of the universe than you ever thought possible. Highly recommended.

Andrew G. Frost

Other works on same/related theme: -

Paul Davies, God and the New Physics, Penguin 014013462X RRP $17.95 [9780140134629] -

Steve Zukov, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Century Hutchinson 0712648720 RRP $19.95 [9780712648721]