1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910136693003321

Autore

Messeri Lisa <1982->

Titolo

Placing outer space : an Earthly ethnography of other worlds / / Lisa Messeri

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Durham : , : Duke University Press, , 2016

ISBN

0-8223-7391-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (249 pages)

Collana

Experimental futures : technological lives, scientific arts, anthropological voices

Disciplina

523.2/4

Soggetti

Ethnology

Planets

Extrasolar planets

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction from outer space to outer place -- Narrating Mars in Utah's desert -- Mapping Mars in Silicon Valley -- Visualizing alien worlds -- Inhabiting other Earths -- Conclusion : navigating the infinite cosmos.

Sommario/riassunto

In Placing Outer Space Lisa Messeri traces how the place-making practices of planetary scientists transform the void of space into a cosmos filled with worlds that can be known and explored. Making planets into places is central to the daily practices and professional identities of the astronomers, geologists, and computer scientists Messeri studies. She takes readers to the Mars Desert Research Station and a NASA research center to discuss ways scientists experience and map Mars. At a Chilean observatory and in MIT's labs she describes how they discover exoplanets and envision what it would be like to inhabit them. Today’s planetary science reveals the universe as densely inhabited by evocative worlds, which in turn tells us more about Earth, ourselves, and our place in the universe.