Index

51-Peg 33–6

acid rain 67, 73–7, 88, 154

Agassiz, Louis 104–5, 114

Alan Hills (Antarctica) 20

Alien 211

ALH84001 20–2

Alpha Centauri 35–7

Alpha Ursae Minoris see pole star Anderson College 115

ammonia 131

Andes 58, 77

Andreae, Meinrat 151

Antarctica 20, 118, 130–1, 151

anthropic selection

cosmological 169–76, 184

definition 4

of Earth properties 211–12

and intelligence 136–8

objections 23–4

anthropogenic climate change see greenhouse effect

anti-gravity 162–6

Apollo programme 183, 190–1

Archaean 96

Arctic 83, 86, 126, 131, 141–3, 151, 213

arc volcanism 58

astrology 103

axial instability see Earth, axial instability

Azolla 142–4

banded iron formation (BIF) 54

Barrow, John 184

Beith, Ayrshire 73

beryllium 167–8

Big Bang 11, 159, 168–78

Brownlee, Donald 215

Bruno, Giordano 8–14

Burrator Reservoir, Dartmoor 63, 67, 73–5

Callisto 31–2

canali

on Mars 15–16

on Venus 19–20

Candide (Voltaire) 23

cap carbonates 88

carbonate rocks 75–7, 86–8

carbon dioxide

atmospheric removal and addition 65, 70–2, 76–7, 80, 83–4

in exoplanet atmospheres 38

future levels 205, 213

greenhouse effect of see greenhouse effect

on Mars 21

past levels see greenhouse effect

in rain see acid rain

on Venus 79

Carboniferous 74

Carter, Brandon 136–8

Ceres 40

Chamberlain, Thomas 206

Charlson, Robert 151

Charpentier, Jean de 104

cheating 132–3, 146–8

Chlamydomonas nivalis 125

CLAW hypothesis 151–2

climate system see Earth, climate system climate sensitivity 70–2, 80, 91

climatic precession 119

clouds 28, 53, 68, 78–9, 90, 99–100, 151–2

COBE mission 173

continent growth 58, 99–100, 153–4, 193

cooking 124

cosmological constant 163–7, 175–6

Copernicus, Nicolaus 8, 10, 107, 215

Coriolis effect 195, 201

Cosmic Landscape, The 216

cosmic microwave background 173–5

Cosmological Anthropic Principle, The (Barrow and Tipler) 184

cosmological smoothness problem 173–6

Cretaceous 84

crinoids 74–5

Croll, James 115–16

Croll-Milankovitch cycles 120

Curiosity lander 17

cyanobacteria 54–5, 97, 131

Daisyworld 145–8

dark energy 163–4

dark matter 164–5, 209

Dartmoor see Burrator Reservoir Darwin, Charles 8–9, 13, 17, 24, 52, 122–3

Darwin, George 191

Dawkins, Richard 177

Davies, Paul 216

Deinococcus radiodurans 127

De l’Infinito Universo et Mondi (Bruno) 10

De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (Copernicus) 8

direct detection 37

DMS 151–2

DNA 127, 129–30

double helix see DNA

Doppler effect 34, 161

dropstones 87

dwarf planets 39–40

Earth

axial instability 201

climate system 63–5, 69, 71, 80, 211

Earth–Moon system 51, 184–6, 189, 191–4, 200–2

history 47–8, 51, 54, 72, 78–80, 97, 101, 189

magnetic field 41

Earth–Moon system see Earth

East Africa 59

eclipses 181–3, 187, 193–5

EETA79001 21

Einstein, Albert 24, 162–4

electron microscopy 21–2

emergent properties 156

Enceladus 39, 208

Enola Gay 24

Eocene 141–3

Eos Chasma 18

Eris 40

Europa 30–1, 208

evolution see natural selection

exoplanet

definition 7

detection see direct detection; microlensing; radial velocity (RV) technique; transit method

first see 51-Peg

naming 35

properties 41–2, 207–9

extremophiles 127

faint young Sun 73, 77, 101

false vacuum 175–7

feedback

CLAW hypothesis 151

definition 71

biological 102, 146, 155

ice-albedo see ice-albedo feedback

and the Moon 186

negative 68, 80, 92, 151–2, 156, 205

positive 68–71, 80, 115, 146, 152, 156

weathering see volcanic rock weathering

51-Peg 33–6

Frozen Earth: The Once and

Future Story of Ice Ages (MacDougal) 216

Gaia hypothesis 92–3, 102, 140, 145, 148–9, 152–6, 169, 185, 203–4, 216

galactic location 41

Gale Crater 17

Galilean moons 29, 32

Galilei, Galileo 10–11, 28–30, 109

Galileo spacecraft 29–30

Ganymede 31

gas giants 33, 39, 209–10

gender ratio 132–3

God 13, 23, 101

gods 103, 203–4, 214

Gogh, Vincent van 30

Goldilocks 101–2, 152, 156, 203

Goldilocks Enigma, The (Davies) 216

Goldilocks Planet, The (Zalasiewicz and William) 216

Golding, William 203

granite 63–7, 73–4

grass 76, 147, 150

Great Red Spot 28

greenhouse effect 63–71, 77–101, 141–3, 153, 213

anthropogenic 68–9, 72

Earth history 97, 101, 189

explanation 63–71

on Mars 17–18

on Venus 79

Guth, Alan 174–5

habitable zone 14, 37

harmonious notes 106

Hays, James 117

hermeticism 9, 12

hot Jupiter 33–9, 210

How to Find a Habitable Planet (Kasting) 215

Hoyle, Fred 168

Hubble Space Telescope

and cosmic expansion 161

deep field 43

images 18, 28

replacement 38

hydrogen sulphide 96, 122, 213

Iapetus 39

ice ages

astronomical drivers 114, 117

discovery 104–5

in Earth history 143, 119

effect on life 134

on Mars 198

non-astronomical causes 114–120

see also Agassiz, Louis

ice-albedo feedback 68, 115, 120

ice giants 39

Imbrie, John 117

inflation 174–8

Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme 117

intelligent life

and anthropic selection 4–5, 93, 186, 206–12

difficulty of evolving 122, 125, 135–8

on other planets 6, 13–14, 19–20, 22, 47, 127, 139

Introduction to Cosmology (Ryden) 216

iron 21, 32, 54, 73, 97, 150–1

Is Mars Habitable? (Wallace) 17

Isotopes 90–1, 117

Io 29–30

James Webb Space Telescope 38

Johnson, Samuel 134

Jupiter 7, 10, 28–33, 36, 39–40, 108, 111, 207–10

Kasting, James 217

Kepler, Johannes 37, 106–8, 112

Kepler spacecraft 37

Kristallnacht 24

L2 point 171

La Cena de la Ceneri (Bruno) 10

Lagrange, Joseph-Louis 111, 114–15

Laplace, Pierre-Simon 111, 115

Lenton, Tim 216

Lewis, C.S. 88, 217

lichen 86, 100, 131, 154

limestone 75–80, 88, 185

Linnaean Society 17

Loricifera 121–2, 213

Lovelock, James 145, 151–3, 203

Lowell, Percival 16–19

Lucky Gaia 156

MacDougal, Doug 216

magnetic field see Earth, magnetic field

Manly, Steven 216

Margulis, Lynn 153, 156

Mariner 4 spacecraft 18

Mars

climate 17–22, 127, 145

ice ages see ice ages, on Mars

life 14, 19, 22, 127

meteorites 21, 40

see also ALH84001, EETA7901

mass extinction 83–5, 89, 139

McMurdo Dry Valleys 130–1

Mediterranean Sea 105, 121

methane 38, 67, 79, 83, 95, 99, 213

microlensing 38, 209

Midland Valley, Scotland 74

mid-ocean ridges 57, 126

Milankovitch, Milutin 116–17, 120

Mocenigo, Zuan 11–12

mitochondria 97

Mouldy Pineworld 145–6

Mars and its Canals (Lowell) 16–17

Mayor, Michel 33–5

Moon

fission versus capture theory 189–91

impact origin 51–3, 87, 190–1, 194

large Moon as an aid to life 183–4, 200

maria 32

meteorites 20

misconceptions 186–7

recession 192–4

size 43, 182, 186, 190–4, 200–1

sub-lunar world 9

multiple stars 35

multiverse 11, 170, 176–8, 214–16

NASA 7, 21, 40, 128

natural selection

constraints on 124

discovery of 16

earliest replicators 52–3

mechanism 123

Nazca plate 77

Nemesis 6, 27, 179, 199, 204–5, 214

Neptune 7, 32–5, 39

Neuchâtel 104

New Horizons spacecraft 40

Newton, Isaac 109, 184

obliquity

climate effects 118

definition 114

evolution 201–2

instability 118, 198, 201

relation to precession 118

observational bias 3–4, 35, 155, 186, 202

Of the Plurality of Worlds (Whewell) 13

OGLE-2006-BLG-109L 35, 209–10

On Gaia (Tyrrell) 216

On the Origin of Species (Darwin) 9, 13, 17, 24, 122

orbital evolution 104, 108–16, 209

overtones 109–12

oxygen

anoxic animals 123

in blood 124

breathing 54–5, 97–8

as component of water 41

creation in stars 167

future levels 213

greenhouse effect 67

isotopes 90, 117

past levels 92, 95–9

and photosynthesis see photosynthesis

pale blue dot 7

Pangloss, Dr 23

PCR 127

Peppa Pig 187

Permian 63, 84–6

Permo-Triassic mass extinction 84–9

Phanerozoic 85, 91–2, 99–100

photosynthesis 55, 96–8, 137, 150, 213

non-oxygenic 96

oxygenic 96–8

Pioneer 10 spacecraft 28

Planck mission 173

Planck pressure 165–6

planetary migration 33

plate tectonics 56–9, 74, 207

Platonic solids 107–8

Pluto 7, 39–40

pole star 113

polymerase see PCR

Poynting, John Henry 17

precession

and climate 118–19

definition 113

evolution 193

and instability 196, 199, 201, 209

mechanism 113–14

Prince Harry 198–9

proteins 124–9

Proterozoic

climate instability 85–9, 99, 119; see also snowball Earth

cooling trend 92, 99, 144

Proxima Centauri 35–6

pulsars 36

Pythagoras 106–12, 120

quantum mechanics 162, 175

Queloz, Didier 33–5

radial velocity (RV) technique 34

Rare Earth (Ward and Brownlee) 215

red dwarfs 139

resonance see precession

Revolutions that Made the Earth (Lenton and Watson) 216

Rimicaris exoculata 126

Ryden, Barbara 216

Sagan, Carl 7

Saturn 7, 27, 29, 32–3, 39, 49, 108, 111, 190, 210

Schiaparelli, Giovanni 14–19

Schwabniederhofen 181

Schwartzman, David 153–5

sentient life see intelligent life Shackleton, Nicholas 117

Shaw, Glen 151

Shetland 86–8, 92

silicate weathering see volcanic rock weathering

Sirius 103

snowball Earth 87–9, 92, 99, 101, 119, 147, 216

soccer 137

solar evolution

climate effects 91, 153

mechanism 136

Spock, Mr 211

Star Trek 211

strain 19 (microbe) 128

strain 24 (microbe) 128

Strom Ness 86–8

subduction 57–8, 77

sulphur 29, 78–9, 96, 151

sulphur dioxide 79

Sun 50, 53, 59

supernovas 36, 161, 165–7

Susskind, Leonard 216

theory of everything 177

thermal inertia 72

Thermus aquaticus 127

thermophiles 125–7

tidal

drag 192–4, 200

forces 29, 40, 114, 183, 187, 198

heating 30

Tipler, Frank 184

Titan 39, 208

tragedy of the commons 148–9

transit method 37–8

Triassic 84–5, 89

trilobites 84

Tyndall, John 66

Tyrrell, Toby 216–17

Uranus 7, 32–3, 39, 108, 111

Universe size 11, 27, 45, 161–2, 165–6, 170, 175

Ursa Major 43

vacuum pressure 165–6

Venera lander 78

Venetz, Ignatz 104

Venus 7, 10, 19–20, 29, 32, 39, 41, 78–80, 101, 136, 144–5

Verne, Jules 30

Viking lander 21

Viking settlements 189

Visions of the Multiverse (Manly) 216

volcanic rock weathering 73–6, 80

volcanism

and climate 88

on Io 29

and life 31, 84, 96

and plate tectonics 74–5

Voltaire 23

Voyager 7, 29

Wallace, Alfred Russel 16–18, 122

War of the Worlds, The (Wells) 16

War of the Worlds, The (movie) 16

Ward, Peter 215

Warren, Stephen 151

water

on Earth 18, 51, 53, 63

essential to life 83, 128, 130

on exoplanets 38

as a greenhouse gas 18, 67

habitable zone 14, 37

on ice giants 39

isotopic fractionation 90–91

on Mars 17–19

on moons 30–1

in photosynthesis 96

removal from atmosphere 41

and subduction 77

in Universe 38–9

on Venus 79

Watson, Andrew 137–8, 145, 216

weathering see volcanic rock weathering

Wells, H.G. 16

Whewell, William 13–14

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy

Probe (WMAP) 171

William, Mark 216

www.davidwaltham.com 216

Zalasiewicz, Jan 216