Chris Kitchin has written or contributed to over two dozen books, and has published more than 500 articles in the astronomical journals and magazines. He also appears regularly on television, including many appearances on BBC TV's Sky at Night. His works for Springer includes, A Photo Guide to the Constellations: A Self-Teaching Guide to Finding Your Way Around the Heavens (1997), Solar Observing Techniques (2001), Illustrated Dictionary of Practical Astronomy (2002), and most recently Galaxies in Turmoil (2007). In his 'day job' Chris is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Hertfordshire, where until recently he was also Head of Physics and Astronomy, and Director of the University Observatory. Like many other astronomers Chris's interest in the subject started early. At the age of fourteen, he constructed an 8-inch Newtonian after spending hundreds of hours grinding and polishing the main mirror from scratch. Despite using some of the largest telescopes in the world since then, Chris still enjoys just 'gazing at the heavens' - though nowadays it's through a German-made Zeiss Maksutov telescope.

Will present the first findings from the Kepler telescope mission, which launched in 2009 with the express purpose of finding new worlds

Explores the possibility of humans one day traveling to and living on exoplanets

Reviews the possibility of finding alien life within the context of what we now know about exoplanets

Includes supplementary material: [...]

Acknowledgements.- Preface.- Chapter 1: Because WE live on one!: Why planets and exoplanets are important.- Chapter 2: A quick tour of the exoplanet menagerie.- Chapter 3: An exoplanet retrospective.- Chapter 4: In the beginning: the first exoplanet discoveries.- Chapter 5: On the track of alien planets: The radial velocity or Doppler method.- Chapter 6: On the track of alien planets: The transit method.- Chapter 7: On the track of alien planets: direct imaging and observation.- Chapter 8: On the track of alien planets: Gravitational microlensing.- Chapter 9: On the track of alien planets: Timing.- Chapter 10: On the track of alien planets: Other approaches.- Chapter 11: Where do we go from here?: Future approaches to exoplanet detection and study.- Chapter 12: Exoplanets revealed: what they are really like.- Chapter 13: Exoplanets and exoplanetary systems: Pasts and futures.- Chapter 14: Future homes for humankind?.- Appendices.- Appendix I: Nomenclature or What's in a name.- Appendix II: Note on distances, sizes, and masses, etc..- Appendix III: Further reading.- Appendix IV: Technical background.- Appendix V: Names, Acronyms, and Abbreviations.- Index.