Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems

This book reviews the 'state of the art' of exoplanet research. The material spans not only the details of known exoplanet systems, but also the methods used for exoplanet detection and explains a lot of the science behind it all. The author's experience as an educator is very obvious. The material is well-organized and the book is thorough, without ever being tedious or confusing. You don't need a math or science background to understand the concepts, as they are very clearly explained, with lots of useful analogies given. Most importantly (to me), the book is entertaining. Without compromising on detail, the author manages an engaging and often very amusing narrative. This is a very sophisticated and well-written book for this price point. It really is fantastic value for money and I highly recommend it to those interested in this exciting subject.

Pros: Very decent analysis of what was available in terms of data at the time (Nov 2011). In general the book is easy to read (see cons). Cons: The author is too fierce at criticizing current theories of planet creation and definitions of "life". Those are complex issues that we know little about (from a general perspective). Describing their flaws could have been done in 2 pages, not 20. Overall the book was good. If there is a second edition covering the latest data (especially the one from the Kepler mission) I would definitely buy it.

In this book, Dr. Yaqoob takes the reader to a journey of recent discoveries. He is able to translate complex subjects and techniques using a very simple language and make those more accessible to the general audience. Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems is a book not only about extrasolar planets but also about our own solar system and our presence in the universe. I can enthusiastically recommend the book to anyone who does not necessarily have a strong math or physics background but who is curious about the recent discoveries of a large number of planets around other stars in our galaxy, and also wants to reflect on other issues, such as origin of life. There are chapters also about the missions dedicated to search for planets and the author explains very clearly the difference between planets like Earth and the large planets discovered by those missions. I also enjoyed the discussion about Exomoons and how they could be important in hosting life. The author talks to the reader and keeps the reader wanting more and more. It was hard to avoid flipping fast to the next page and see what was next. I also liked the links and references provided in the ebook and thought they were quite helpful specially coming from an astrophysicist. I teach Astronomy in college and will recommend this book to my non-Science majors. But I am sure they will complain about the lack of pretty pictures in the book. However, all links provided by the author in the Appendix B contain a lot of pictures to anyone connected to the internet. One just need to click on those links in order to complement this great book with pretty pictures.

Dr. Tahir Yaqoob's obvious expertise in his field accompanied by his skillful writing talents have created the perfect mix for amateurs and professionals alike to appreciate and gain from. `Exo-planets and Alien Solar Sytems' is an easy to read, highly informative body of work that speaks to the interested layperson in an understandable dialogue, but it is also technical and detailed enough to benefit the professional. It is an intelligent, well-written work that describes in detail how the science is executed and analyzed, and touches on where the science is taking us in the future while maintaining a human quality in style. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about these fascinating new discoveries and what the findings mean to mankind.

I am warming to it

Overall, it is interesting book worth reading. Although the author claims that the book is intended for laypersons, personally I feel that it is rather for "advanced amateurs". The book is subdivided into five chapters. The first one is brief introduction. Second chapter deal with composition of our solar system and some basic questions regarding exoplanets (e.g. how many exoplanets have been discovered so far etc.). The third chapter is dedicated to methods how exoplanets are found and observed. The author also describes Kepler and CoRoT missions searching for exoplanets. In the fourth chapter, current results (valid for year 2011, however, as the author suggested, it is not problem to look at current data to some exoplanet catalogue on the Internet - hyperlinks are of course provided). The author uses predominantly histograms and simple cluster analysis based on scatter plots to explain links among exoplanets properties (it seems that Earth is really special case :-) ). I appreciate that the author tells something about data interpretation approaches in order to avoid premature conclusions. Last chapter is dealing with possibility of life on exoplanets. First part of this chapter is dedicated to definition of life, rest of the chapter is disscusion how life forms could look like. As I see it, this last chapter is rather speculative but interesting . The author himself emphasises this fact (in his words: "I am sorry if you are disappointed that there have been no answers in this chapter, only questions"). The reason for that is simple: current state of knowledge about evolution of life forms on Earth is not very clear. Two appendicies are attached as well. First one brings disscusion what is actually planet. Second one contains many Internet hyperlinks to other sources, including two exoplanets encyclopedias (I recommend visiting these webpages for latest exoplanet data because number of exoplanets is nowadays about five times higher than it was in 2011, the year of publishing the book). What little bit disappointed me is two times repeated wrong definition of deuterium (so-called "heavy hydrogen"). The author stated that deuterium is "hydrogen with two neutrons per atom instead of one". In fact, two neutrons are in nucleus of tritium ("super heavy hydrogen"). Personally, I suppose that the word "neutrons" was interchanged with "nucleons" because deuterium has one proton and one neutron in its nucleus, i.e. two nucleons. I know that it is a subtle detail but on the other it seems to be "basic mistake". Rest of the book seemed to me to be right, however, I am not professional astronomer.

I have been interested in understanding more about the discoveries of exoplanets in the last 2 decades and have downloaded kindle samples of many books on this topic. Ultimately this is the one I decided to purchase first after I read the sample as I found that Yaqoob's writing was easy to understand for such a complex subject and very down to earth (pun intended). His honesty and non-biassed position in presenting the major problems in the current theories on how life appeared and how planets are formed is a great eye opener and just shows how much work still needs to be done in this field. This book is definitely a great companion to anyone who wants to understand what is being published through the media which is often overhyped and lacks clarity on what is assumed and what is confirmed. Highly recommended.

I'm currently reading this book (about 70%) of the way through. This is an excellent read for anyone who already knows a bit about physics and has a keen interest in astrophysics. While the author says this book is written for the layperson, anyone without some knowledge already will probably have a tough time understanding everything the author talks about. The book tackles important questions and admits where current theories fall down.

Neat-looking book. Interesting content with overall slightly non-mainstream perspective, slightly cynical of mainstream, even, which is refreshing but bordering on being carping. I'm knowledgeable on this subject and have studied and thought about it for decades - even so, this book gave me views and ideas which I'd neither come across nor come up with myself, so it was unusual and rewarding beyond the ordinary. I'd recommend it and would look out for other books by the author.

A really good read. Well written by an expert in the field with a nice touch of humour. The book is also not afraid to challenge current thinking on planetary formation and migration. It also has excellent appendices to help you learn more and keep your knowledge up to date in this fast moving field of exploration.