Book Review by David Bullock
To be published in October, Hidden in the Heavens: How the Kepler Mission’s Quest for New Planets Changed How We View Our Own is an excellent piece of science writing. Author and scientist Jason Steffen described the NASA mission and the discoveries of exoplanets to be both educational and engaging. From sleepy, jet lagged scientists to edge of your seat technological setbacks, Steffen takes us on an incredible journey of the Keppler mission for exoplanets that is even at times humorous.
Exoplanets are any planet found outside our solar system. While the planets don’t need to be orbiting around a star to be considered an exoplanet, due to the current limits of technology most discovered exoplanets orbit stars. These stars could be of various sizes and age. The planets around the star could be of various sizes as well. There also could be one planet or more than one planet around a star.
The field gets even more interesting when scientists use satellites, like the Kepler satellite, to see if discovered exoplanets are just the right size and just the right distance from their sun to qualify for requirements necessary to the possibility of harboring life, like Earth. To find Earth-like planets is actually hard, but since first looking for these celestial objects, there have been some notable discoveries.
For a scientist to write a narrative that is good storytelling is quite remarkable. Steffen accomplished this feat. He explained why he needed to take the time out of research to write Hidden in the Heavens.
“I wanted to write this book because the Kepler mission made major contributions to our understanding of exoplanets, and there was no history or summary of its findings,” wrote Steffen in an email sent by his publicist. “We are far enough away from when the mission completed to have a good understanding of what we learned from it and how those lessons fit into the broader field of exoplanets. So, it seemed like the time was right to write up this history—a time when most of the major players in the mission are still working, Bill Borucki is still alive, and I can still remember the details of my experience.”
Steffen is an American astrophysicist that teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as an assistant professor in physics and astronomy. He was a member of the science team for the Kepler mission and had a firsthand account of its story.
I felt that Steffen wrote an entertaining yet informative book on scientists, science and what it takes to do a NASA mission, even with mishaps. There is much to learn from this book, both scientifically and sociologically. I’m glad I read it and it’s in my bookcase.
The book is available for preorder on Amazon.com. https://a.co/d/0TPT9tH