Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide To The Universe, by Philip Plait, Ph.D

The author of this book is a professional astronomer, and that combination of creative imagination as well as professional knowledge gives this book an interesting and complex flavor. On the one hand, this book reads in parts like a well-reached and well-thought out book on astronomy in parts that is careful both to avoid unnecessary antagonism of the readers (such as the author’s thoughtful refusal to provoke those of us who are partisans of Pluto’s place in the solar system) as well as to present cutting-edge science in the field. On the other hand, though, this book is creatively written in parts to express what it would be like to travel to various astronomical phenomena, how it would work from a logistical perspective, and what kind of tourist experiences could be had in the future with the development of the appropriate technology, even if such a task is likely to last well beyond our own lifetimes. Some of the experiences the author writes about are ones I would like to write about, and the author is pretty intriguing also in his attempts to understand what it would be like for people to live under certain circumstances and work under them and not simply engage in tourism. As someone who has written at length myself about the barriers to extraplanetary exploration and settlement, the author has clearly done his homework, and this is an easy book to appreciate and approve of, provided the potential reader is an astronomy nerd.

One thing the author appears to be particularly sensitive to in writing this particular guide to the universe is the way that our worldview so strongly influences the way we judge our experiences and place them in a larger context. The author assumes, possibly correctly, that the sort of people who are going to be seeing these space phenomena are going to be people who have a certain body of experiences, and he invents at least some of that body of experience that might help put it in context. For example, many of the travels (though not all of them, it would appear) are viewed as being by the same people. In one grimly humorous example, a person gets too close to a black hole and explodes their rented space ship and themselves are turned more or less into spaghetti and told matter-of-factly that they do not survive the encounter, as if they turned to a bad page in a choose-your-interstellar-adventure book. In quite a few of the discussions, there are representations of the sort of movement that would be necessary to deal with the strange gravitational and topographical aspects of the moon, Mars, a comet, an asteroid, or a planet that is in tidal lock with its sun in an alien system. As is fitting for a book like this one, the author seeks to make the familiar seem a bit more alien and the alien seem a bit more familiar. In general, this is a good way to approve any sort of travel, even an imaginary one.

In terms of its contents, this book is almost 300 pages long and is divided into ten unnumbered chapters. The author begins with a short preface. This is followed by a discussion of a trip that might be feasible before too long, and that is a short jaunt to the moon. After this comes a discussion of the curious differences that would be apparent in traveling to Mars. The next chapter then explores the delicate task of traveling to and being able to maneuver around the asteroids and comets of our solar system, which are visible in the sky but far less tangible when examined up close. The next visit explored is a compelling and intriguing visit to Saturn, which includes a stunning view of the rings of Saturn from close to it as well as a harrowing balloon trip over the gas giant. The author then explores what a trip to Pluto would be like, a subject near and dear to my own heart and my own writing. These relatively familiar travels, as daunting as they would be, are then supplemented by five more that are well beyond even conceiving the logistics for at present. The author examines the mini-solar system of exploring earth-like planets around red dwarf stars that may be able to support life. he then turns his attention to the tricky astrophysics of a planet that orbits two stars, where moisture farms would probably be necessary to deal with the increased solar heat. The author then examines what it would be like to visit a planet in a globular cluster densely populated with stars. This is followed by what it would be like to visit the star factories of nebulae. Finally, there is a chapter about responsible black hole visits, which sound like they would be compelling but also extremely hazardous, a fact that the author pointedly and repeatedly emphasizes. The book closes with an epilogue, as well as acknowledgements, suggestions for further reading, and an index.