The Little Book of Aliens

“Is there anyone out there?” asks University of Rochester astrophysicist Frank (Light of the Stars) in this animated overview of scientists’ search for extraterrestrial life. Frank notes that researchers only started taking the quest to find aliens seriously in 1960 after astronomer Frank Drake tried (and failed) to detect radio emissions “from a star ten light years away.” Highlighting some of the major discoveries made since then, Frank writes that such advanced technologies as NASA’s Kepler space telescope have expanded astronomers’ knowledge of planets outside the solar system (among the peculiarities observed are planets that don’t spin on an axis, so “the sun never moves in their sky”) and that the discovery of water on Jupiter’s moon Europa, “far outside the Sun’s habitable zone,” changed astronomers’ assumptions about the most promising places to look for life. Frank discusses some of the ways astronomers are currently looking for aliens and hospitable planets, including studying the chemical composition of distant planets’ atmospheres by observing how they filter starlight as it passes through. The conversational tone keeps things light (“Our solar system has eight planets. [Please don’t start with me about Pluto, OK?]”), though the lack of a cohesive narrative can sometimes make this feel like a collection of trivia. Still, it’s a solid survey of the hunt for life beyond Earth. (Oct.)