I've always been fascinated by space so I jumped at the chance to read this book. It was amazing. This book was filled with tons of scientific information and was a pleasure to read.

For someone in the social sciences (with no astronomy background), this book was a challenge at times. It took me longer to read than most books. However, I really enjoyed it and can't wait to gives copies to a few people in my life who would LOVE this book (and have an easier time with it than me.) Tasker's humor and notes were appreciated.

I wanted to enjoy this because I like women writing about science, but the writing didn't connect with me.

A deep dive into places far, far away. This book is wonderfully written, though very technical in scope discussing planet formation and the search for exoplanets. Tasker shows that theories and assumptions regarding our solar system and planets can get overturned all the time with new discoveries and data.

Fascinating look at planet formation, with a sense of humor

I enjoyed this book. Author Elizabeth Tasker’s explanations of planet formation are very clear and plainly worded. She writes in a manner that frequently carries humorous undertones and some of the footnotes are downright funny. Indeed, this humor is what pushed this book up to a 5-star rating. I recommend this book for anyone interested in science or more specifically astronomy.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

A wonderful, explanatory and exploratory piece on exoplanets and those that love them. Now, some of this digs like waaaay into the science so prepare to be a bit challenged as a reader (always good!) with both the width and breadth of Ms. Tasker's project. I felt like a real dummy for pages at a time but never talked down to. If you can get past the absolutely dreadful first chapter you're in for a treat. Strong recommend.

The Planet Factory: Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth is THE book on planet formation and the search for exoplanets.

I loved the focus on process and formation. Tasker demonstrates over and over again how our assumptions and theories about planets, solar systems, and what's possible out there get overturned all the time by new discoveries and new data. A hypothetical formation process is suggested to cover the size and orbit of one exoplanet, then needs to be revised again and again as new "formerly impossible" exoplanets are discovered.

And this calls into question our own solar system - are WE the weird ones? Are we rare? Do we need to disregard all our assumptions about planets and life when we search farther and farther out?

Tasker lets her audience have ALL the information about planets. This is some pretty technical stuff and Tasker doesn't skimp. I assume she's left out the very, very technical stuff, for accessibility reasons, but this is not a dumbed down version with all the corners rounded off. Some parts read a little like a textbook, but it was always interesting and the occasional side remark in the footnotes added personality.

Unlike other pieces I've read on exoplanets, The Planet Factory always seemed firmly rooted in what we know (and what little we sometimes can find out), rather than speculating too much and creating an "artist's impression" instead of a scientific one. I'm going to be rather put out next time I read a sensationalistic news article touting "the most Earth-like exoplanet yet", because the real scientific data probably doesn't support that (it will be real news when it does!).

Highly recommended for readers and amateur scientists searching for detailed and cutting edge information on planetary science and exoplanets.

How To Build A Planet, or To Find One That's Already Been Built

You know how with many college science courses they number them from intro courses up to pre-major? So you get Bio 101, Bio 103, Bio 105, and Bio 107, and then you select more advanced courses in the major. Well, I'd put this text somewhere between Astrophysics 105 and Astrophysics 107. An interested amateur can get most of it, (or all of it if he really, really tries), but there is no shame in browsing/skipping a bit here or there.

The book is fairly described by the blurbs that promise it will "demystify the crucial technical details of the research with impressive clarity and a light, engaging touch". The important point is that the material is indeed presented clearly, the author does have a light but not overly jokey or dummified touch, and there are a lot of technical details. And once you realize that there will be no final exam you can relax and enjoy the ride.

I did start this book with the mistaken expectation that it would mostly be a tour of the different possible types of exoplanets, along the lines of those books of speculative art that imagine what the landscapes of other worlds might look like. There's some of that, but just some. This is a more technical and rigorous work that focuses heavily on how tiny bits of dust in the planetary disc around a new star can ever grow to be a planet. We start with how exoplanets are found, (radial velocity technique, transit technique, and so on), but this book is primarily about how planets are made - how they make themselves and how they make each other, why they are composed of certain elements, and why they are where they are instead of somewhere else.

To get into the material we start with out own solar system and a discussion of how each of the planets we are familiar with might have come to be. We consider the other types of planets that we don't have, but that could exist. We then review how exoplanets are found. We talk about what we know is out there, and then we talk about what might be further out and how we might go about looking for them. In the course of doing all of that we have to consider all of the different types of stars and star systems, and how each might have its own sorts of planets.

There's a sort of chicken and egg problem here. Do you find something and then try to figure out what it is? Do you posit what might exist, and then try to find it? Do you find something and then work backwards to recreate how it came to be? Do you theorize a planet making process, and then look for a planet that may have been made that way? Our author does all of that, sometimes at the same time. If this book has a challenge it would be how to organize, make sense of, and present the field. This isn't settled material, and it hasn't developed in a nice straight line. All of this science is happening right now; ideas and discoveries are popping up all over, and every direction you look something is happening. Tasker does a wonderful job of trying to keep the story, (the problems, the solutions, and the problems with the solutions), on track, but sometimes she's herding Schrodinger's cats.

There are also fascinating digressions. I very much enjoyed the discussion of how you look for markers that suggest life on various exoplanets. There is a good deal of discussion of Pluto, (not just griping about its demotion), that explains why Pluto is different, and this segues into a discussion of a possible Planet 9 and of other planetary objects that orbit our sun, (who knew about Sedna?, or that Neptune was so important).

The bottom line is that if you are at all interested in planetary science or astrophysics, this book is a rich and rewarding feast. A very nice find. (Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

In a fantastic primer for budding planetary scientists or armchair explorers, astrophysicist Elizabeth Tasker shares her passion and expertise for the astronomical sciences. Planet Factory chips away at the mountains of exoplanet research and presents it in approachable chunks of historical context, current research and exciting conjecture. Tasker describes how celestial bodies emerge from swirling space dust, details prevailing theories for the varying compositions of known planets and explores the incomprehensibly strange worlds that exist in distant systems (hot Jupiters, super Earths and rogue planets, oh my!).

There were some stretches of text in the middle that felt a bit tedious and recursive, going through the litany of possible explanations for any findings that didn't fit neatly into the currently accepted theories. But hey, that's science! The repetitive circular critique of hypotheses is both a strength and weakness in the text: it was honestly very refreshing to have each theory delineated with a little dollop of doubt, teaching the reader to question and critically assess previous explanations when presented with new evidence. It's even addressed point-blank in the introduction: any scientist trying to report this amount of interstellar research as fact with the pretense that 'we've got it all figured out' is doing a disservice to the reader and to the field. Overall, a very friendly introduction to the awe-inspiring mysteries of our universal neighbors.

Super interesting and informative for lovers of space and the study of planets.