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Offering an engaging and complete story of the hunt for new worlds, this volume fully details the detection and exploration of extrasolar planets.

This is the first book to integrate the cultural history of Sirius with modern astrophysics in a way which provides a realistic view of how science progresses over time.

The first popular science book to examine scientifically the methods for detecting planets around other stars, the possibility that they might support life, and speculate as to what aliens might look like. It poses the question: are we alone?

Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role.

This volume tells the fascinating story of Man's conceptualization of the solar system from the earliest times, when star maps represented what could be seen to the naked eye, to the modern age, when powerful telescopes and probes afford fresh insights.