They say that it's proof of how well you understand something when you are able to explain it clearly. Dr. Kaltenegger can explain insanely complicated topics in a way that I could understand, even though this is an area where my science is severely lacking.
That's wonderful and amazing, but what makes this book even better is her musings throughout the book regarding her topic. I had never thought someone could dedicate their life to the possibility of other alien earths, but there are so many practical things we learn in trying to figure it out. In the end, there was a fantastic scene where she and her young daughter watched a rocket take off to go get her information. Brilliant.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

I was able to read an early digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley and boy am I glad I was afforded the opportunity. I love shows with similar topics on the Discovery or Science channel and reading this book felt like watching a very engaging show. Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger explains things in a way that feel easy to understand.

Digressive Ponderings About Aliens

I have reviewed several books in the sub-genre of the search for life on other planets. This is not a good example of this mostly scientific genre. The frontmatter is digressive as it turns over the same ponderings and repetitive philosophies regarding life elsewhere. The above blurb is half the size of the original because the original keeps repeating some of the same ideas with slight rephrasing. Even the first chapter “At the Brink of Finding Life in the Cosmos” opens with first-person ponderings about starting at “my computer screen” and watching NASA launch the James Webb Space Telescope, instead of opening with some clear history of who has been searching for these exoplanets, when and the like. A couple of paragraphs later she is still “glued to NASA TV”. Then, there is a brief moment of clarity as she explains: “The JWST is the first telescope capable of capturing just enough light with its 21.3 foot (6.5 meter) mirror to explore the chemical composition of the atmosphere of other rocky worlds.” But the next paragraph again digresses at the meaningless “cheering of the crew in the control room”. The next section leaps to ponderings on “UFO sightings”. Many paragraphs follow that explore alien theories. Then, suddenly there is another scientifically sound paragraph that describes the speed of light, and offers the distance to the nearest star.
It is as if there are two writers making this book, one is a scientist who provided a brief essay about searching in practice for life on other planets, and the second is a generalist who has a TV-watcher’s curiosity about aliens who has composed the babblings between these scientific sparks. This combination makes this book entirely unreadable both to scientists and to those who just like science fiction. Thus, I do not recommend for anybody to read this project.

Thanks to hte publisher for access to this book in exchange for a review. This book was accessible (but still substantive) - an argument for the importance of space exploration. Mind expanding at times!

I loved this book. Dr. Kaltenegger took a fascinating area of astronomy and brought it down to Earth with her conversational tone, great explanations of the science, and joyous enthusiasm. I loved reading about her own journey. There was also a good bit of information about the process of science and uniquely in my experience, the book discusses the role of scientific meetings, oral presentations, and posters, albeit briefly. And all of this is done with a good deal of humour. Even though I had already read books on the topic, this book is outstanding in that it made everything seem brand new. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

Are we really alone? This book makes you think about how far we have come with space exploration. Is there alien life out? So many questions to the unknown. Interesting read about what is out there makes you think that there could be another life form out there.
It doesn't matter what you believe as this book gives you a glimpse into the unknown. Lisa writes a good solid book that made me think about what could be out there.
Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for the copy. This is my voluntary review.

This book was very interesting. Dr. Kaltenegger wrote in a way that made complex science topics approachable and understandable
The book discusses the conditions that lead to life on this planet as well as what scientists are looking for when they look for life on other planets. It was very interesting to learn about how our research of the cosmos has truly turned into a multidisciplinary effort. She also discussed the difficulties women experience when working in the field of science.
The only thing that was missing from this book was some pictures and diagrams.

I was provided an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Not what i was expecting. I expected this book to be about what we would experience when visiting Exoplanets, Kennedy Space Center has a fun ride that highlights this very thing, instead that type of description didn't occur until I was over 60% complete with the book and even then was brief. Dr Kaltenegger concentrates more on her own experiences working in academia, spoiler: she says Harvard A LOT (you could almost make a drinking game out of it but you would be sloshed after the first few chapters) If you want to learn about her journey from Austria and her path towards science and finding exoplanets it is a fascinating read but this is not a tour of other planets but more of a memoir of her thoughts and feelings.

Alien Ears by Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger is an excellent and informative non fiction read on a topic that is incredibly present in the current cultural zeitgeist..
This will be a good read for those interested in the topic of life supporting planets outside of our solar system looking for a great deal of information in a digestible format.

Remember how, in so many Sci-fi movies, in a blink of an eye, spacecraft traveled faster than the speed of light? Could what we deem Sci-fi be reality in today’s world? Author Lisa Kaltenegger, Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell and Associate Professor in Astronomy, was presented with a suggestion from one of her students dealing with just that. Maybe the reason why we don’t have many alien visitors might be because the distances between habitable worlds are too vast to be travelled. Although traveling in this manner is beyond us currently, communicating with an alien species by collecting radio signals may be possible. You may recall the movie, “Contact”, based on a novel by Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan. Thousands of exoplanets (planets around suns other than ours) have been found but which of these host life? If we were to find that we could communicate with another civilization, what would we say to them? Obviously, they would not speak any of the thousands of languages spoken here on Earth but perhaps we could learn a thing or two from the many scientists worldwide who study communication of species such as dolphins, chimpanzees, dogs, etc. about communicating. Keltenegger discusses interesting topics about the makeup of habitable worlds, what makes up life, searching for life in the Cosmos, and why. Don’t we all want to know if there is life (perhaps like us) somewhere else in the Universe? If not, put your head back in the ground.

"Alien Earths" by Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger is a captivating exploration of the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the potential habitability of exoplanets. Kaltenegger, an astrophysicist at the forefront of exoplanet research, provides a compelling synthesis of scientific discovery and speculative wonder. The book delves into the latest advancements in exoplanet detection and characterization, presenting a vivid picture of the diverse worlds scattered throughout the cosmos.

Kaltenegger's accessible prose skillfully navigates complex concepts, making this work appealing to both enthusiasts and those new to astrobiology. She seamlessly weaves together astrophysics, biology, and the quest for life beyond our solar system. Through engaging storytelling and rich scientific detail, "Alien Earths" invites readers to ponder the profound question of whether we are alone in the universe.

In an era of rapidly evolving space exploration, Kaltenegger's work serves as a timely and enlightening guide to the tantalizing prospect of discovering habitable exoplanets and potential extraterrestrial life. "Alien Earths" is an essential read for anyone intrigued by the mysteries of the cosmos and the search for life beyond our home planet.

A fascinating, informative and fairly easy to understand look at the universe and our place in it. The author had a great writing style easy to grasp even when she was talking about some of the heavy science topics.

Excellent and lucid review of the search for life on other planets. This is not an area that I was particularly interested in but the writing is so lively and she uses so many metaphors and analogies to make it understandable that I’m really glad Net Galley gave me an ARC in exchange for my independent review here.
In the last 20-30 years there has been so much progress in identifying the many possible places close to us in the universe where life of some sort might exist. The techniques astronomers use are very ingenious and as I said she makes it seem so logical. It turns out that astronomers are very interested in science fiction because their own research requires that they use their imaginations in such creative ways. This book has not succeeded in making me a sci-fi fan however. I’m more interested in facts. I was also not aware of just how interdisciplinary and international this field is. An appendix gives a lot of resources for citizen scientists to learn more and get involved.
I will definitely be paying more attention to this field in the future. Thank you NetGalley!

This book reads as somewhat of a summary or primer in the subject. I enjoyed the portions that spoke to the early solar system as a way to get my mindset back to thinking in terms of the understood timelines and origins as we know them.

I like how each chapter was somewhat split, but I feel like that detailed me a few times when I had to set the book down and pick it back up days later. That said, this honestly read more like Dr. Kaltenegger was talking to you about the subject rather than reading a book on it, so I really enjoyed the splitting from that aspect. There is one section that I believe my daughter would benefit from reading through regarding the discrimination that women in STEM fields faced not all that long ago. It’s not a lengthy dissertation on the subject, but it adds some understanding and the mindset one had to get into.

I’m always interested in hearing how teams are able to pull off all of the planning and execution of these large-scale projects, but a nice touch was how some of the events just serendipitously lined up at the right times. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I wish it went more technically into hunting for biomarkers through spectroscopy, but I definitely understand that would have led into a rather dry section of an otherwise approachable book.

A new vision on Aliens and our Earth. Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger may use too many academic vocabulary, which makes readers is easy to get tired, but if you pass 30%, you will find many interesting knowledge in this book.
For those who love to find origin of Earth and the connection between us and Aliens.

Very science heavy, but still an interesting read. A different genre than I normally read, but it was still accessible to me in the best way.

I absolutely loved this book, aside from the typical typos inherent in a galley. Much like one of my other favorite science authors, Mary Roach, Kaltenegger does a wonderful job of paring down what can be an overwhelming amount of research and information into an absorbing and fascinating read. Putting the mass of a star in a tablespoon; translating space time to years to and from the light we see in the sky; creating tiny lava planets that fit in the palm of her hand. Magical!
One of the most striking messages of the book, for me as a woman, was her refusal to see her gender as a roadblock in the pursuit of her passion and curiosity. One passage in particular struck me. While attending a conference in which a presenter had forgotten to make copies of his slides, she offered to make copies for him. He told her not to, because from that point on, she'd be viewed as a secretary to the rest of the (predominantly male) attendees. A small interaction, but important.
Really well done. I look forward to seeing it on the shelves next year.

Interesting but also not particularly simple or simplistic. There are things that no matter how easy you try to explain are not easy at all, and on this I must say the author does a very good job.
Planets, stars and possible life outside of our planet is something we have only just begun to study and there is still a long way to go, but you certainly cannot say it is not a fascinating path.

Interessante ma anche non particolarmente semplice o semplicistico. Ci sono cose che per quanto si provi a spiegare facilmente non sono facili per niente e su questo devo dire che l'autrice fa un ottimo lavoro.
I pianeti, le stelle e l'eventuale vita al di fuori del nostro pianeta é qualcosa che abbiamo appena cominciato a studiare e la strada é ancora lunga, ma certo non si puó dire che non sia un percorso affascinante.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

What a dream it would be to work at the Carl Sagan Institute. Dr. Kaltenegger offers glimpses into her life and career in astrophysics and research in studying plantary outerspace, and her lifelong enthusiasm and fascination for this exploration comes across very clearly. I liked when she provided a framework for the science by relaying how her students talked about it, because it felt like she made for a terrific professor. I would have liked the book to be a little more accessible to the layperson, and a little more organized thematically, but even Carl Sagan enthusiasts can only aspire to be such an infectious and illuminating storyteller as he was. Anyone who's even tangentially related to his work is remarkable, and such is the case with Dr. Kaltenegger. Try not to be disappointed when you leave this book not knowing the answer to whether we've found extraterrestrial life out there!

It’s one big mystery: life on other planets. Lisa Kaltenegger gives us a fascinating and comprehensible look at unexpected discoveries in the universe. For anyone that thinks this is a “stuffy and rigid” subject, she will prove you wrong with all sorts of ways astronomers are exploring new planets with advanced technology.

She explained how Earth has changed from a billion years ago. Kaltenegger makes comparisons that are simple to understand. Who would have ever thought about raisin bread and the big bang explosion? She said at first the raisins are close together. Then when dough rises, the raisins spread out just like the stars in the universe. This made me smile.

This book engages readers to learn and understand more about Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and Sun along with other surrounding planets outside of our solar system. She answers questions like: What is the meaning of tardigrades on the moon? How does one search for life in the cosmos? What is the significance of posters at an international collaboration with scientists? Why is it impossible for humans to live on almost all other planets?

Kaltenegger talks about her work as the Director at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell. She says it wasn’t easy as a female to advance with this type of career. However, at 46 years old, her accomplishments are impressive. She hopes that someday there will be a way of space traveling safely to areas where we can only dream about now.

This is an easy-to-read, interesting book. The only thing missing is the visual look at what she’s describing which is why she has a big following at live presentations. I love her comments about science fiction books and movies. While there hasn’t been proof yet of other types of life, she notes that with 200 billion stars in our galaxy, it’s just a matter of time when it happens.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of April 16, 2024.