(eBook PDF) Life in the Universe 4th

Edition by Jeffrey O. Bennett

Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-life-in-the-universe-4th-edition-by-jeffrey-
o-bennett/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

(eBook PDF) Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life 4th

Edition by Jeffrey O. Bennett

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-statistical-reasoning-
for-everyday-life-4th-edition-by-jeffrey-o-bennett/

(eBook PDF) The Cosmic Perspective 9th Edition by

Jeffrey O. Bennett

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-the-cosmic-
perspective-9th-edition-by-jeffrey-o-bennett/

(eBook PDF) The Cosmic Perspective 7th Edition by

Jeffrey O. Bennett

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-the-cosmic-
perspective-7th-edition-by-jeffrey-o-bennett/

(eBook PDF) The Cosmic Perspective 8th Edition by

Jeffrey O. Bennett

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-the-cosmic-
perspective-8th-edition-by-jeffrey-o-bennett/
The Cosmic Perspective 8th Edition by Jeffrey O.
Bennett (eBook PDF)

http://ebooksecure.com/product/the-cosmic-perspective-8th-
edition-by-jeffrey-o-bennett-ebook-pdf/

Using & Understanding Mathematics: A Quantitative

Reasoning Approach (7th Edition) Jeffrey O. Bennett -
eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/using-understanding-mathematics-
a-quantitative-reasoning-approach-7th-edition-ebook-pdf-2/

(eBook PDF) Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life 5th

Edition by Jeff Bennett

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-statistical-reasoning-
for-everyday-life-5th-edition-by-jeff-bennett/

(eBook PDF) The Physical Universe 16th Edition by

Konrad Krauskopf

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-the-physical-
universe-16th-edition-by-konrad-krauskopf/

(eBook PDF) Discovering the Universe, 10th Edition by

Neil F. Comins

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-discovering-the-
universe-10th-edition-by-neil-f-comins/
 Questioning Life Beyond Earth
life

bennett | shostak life in the universe

Bennett and Shostak’s Life in the Universe asks the compelling
questions that drive our quest in the search for life: how did life form
on Earth, and what life lies beyond our notion of the world? The Fourth
Edition of this critically acclaimed text ignites student interest with
in the
universe
cutting-edge research in the field of astrobiology. With effective
pedagogy and an engaging style, Life in the Universe provides a
captivating introduction to this fascinating new field.

Today, text and media go hand in hand, providing interactive ways

to see astrobiology concepts come to life. MasteringAstronomyTM,
available with this text for the first time, is the leading online
homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to improve
results by helping students quickly master astrobiology concepts.
bennett | shostak
Students will benefit from self-paced tutorials that feature immediate
wrong-answer feedback and hints that emulate the office-hour
experience to help stay on track. With a wide range of self-guided
tutorials, interactive figures, and engaging videos, students will
fourth edition
actively participate in a learning process that fosters greater
comprehension and retention.

fourth edition
Please visit us at www.pearsonhighered.com for more information. To order any
of our products, contact our customer service department at (800) 824-7799,
(201) 767-5021 outside of the U.S., or visit your campus bookstore.

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-408908-9
ISBN-10: 0-13-408908-1
9 0 0 0 0

9 780134 089089
www.pearsonhighered.com

BENN9089_04_cvrmech.indd 1 06/11/15 8:17 PM

 COSMIC CALCULATIONS 11.3 Finding Sizes of Extrasolar
Exercises and Problems  497
Planets  396 COSMIC CALCULATIONS 13.1 The Rocket Equation  464
MOVIE MADNESS Star Wars  403 COSMIC CALCULATIONS 13.2 Time Dilation  474
COSMIC CONTEXT Figure 11.28. Reading an H–R Diagram  412 MOVIE MADNESS Star Trek  479

12 The Search for Extraterrestrial Epilogue: Contact—Implications

Intelligence  421 for the Search and Discovery 501
12.1 The Drake Equation  422 Exercises and Problems 510
12.2 The Question of Intelligence  427 MOVIE MADNESS E.T 504
12.3 Searching for Intelligence  432
12.4 THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE IN ACTION UFOs and Aliens on Appendixes
Earth  448

Exercises and Problems  457 A Useful Numbers  A-1
SPECIAL TOPIC 12.1 Frank Drake and His Equation  425 B Useful Formulas  A-2
COSMIC CALCULATIONS 12.1 The Distance Between Signaling
Societies  427 C A Few Mathematical Skills   A-3
MOVIE MADNESS Contact  439 D The Periodic Table of Elements   A-9
COSMIC CALCULATIONS 12.2 Sensitivity of SETI Searches  442 E Planetary Data  A-10

13 Interstellar Travel and the Fermi

Paradox  460
Glossary  G-1
13.1 The Challenge of Interstellar Travel  461 Index  I-1
13.2 Spacecraft for Interstellar Travel  467
13.3 The Fermi Paradox  479
13.4 THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE IN ACTION Einstein’s Special Theory
of Relativity  490

Detailed Contents  vii

A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 7 06/11/15 2:12 PM

 Preface
To the Reader
Few questions have so inspired humans through the ages as the
mystery of whether we are alone in the universe. Many an-
cient Greek philosophers were confident that intelligent beings
could be found far beyond Earth. When the first telescopes were
trained on the Moon in the seventeenth century, some eminent
astronomers interpreted lunar features as proof of an inhabited
world. A little over a century ago, belief in a civilization on Mars
became so widespread that the term martian became synony-
mous with alien. But despite this historical interest in the pos-
sibility of extraterrestrial life, until quite recently few scientists
devoted much effort to understanding the issues surrounding it,
let alone to making a serious search for life.
In the past few decades, however, a remarkable conver-
gence of biology, geology, astronomy, and other sciences has
brought the issue of extraterrestrial life to the forefront of re-
search. Advances in our understanding of the origin of life on
Earth are helping us predict the conditions under which life
might arise in other places. Discoveries of microbes thriving un-
der extreme conditions (at least by human standards) on Earth
have raised hopes that life might survive even in some of the
harsh environments found elsewhere in our own solar system.
Proof that planets exist around other stars—first obtained in the
1990s—has given added impetus to the study of the conditions
that might allow for life in other star systems. Technological ad-
vances are making it possible for us to engage in unprecedented,
To Current or Prospective Instructors
The rest of this preface is aimed primarily at current or prospec-
tive instructors teaching courses on life in the universe. Stu-
dents and general readers might still find it useful, because it ex-
plains some of the motivation behind the pedagogical features
and organization of this book and may thereby help you get the
most from your reading.
Why Teach a Course on Life in the Universe?
By itself, the rapid rise of research interest in astrobiology might
not be enough to justify the creation of new courses for non-
science majors. But the subject has at least three crucial features
that together make a strong case for adding it to the standard
science offerings:
viii  Preface
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 8
large-scale scrutiny of the sky for signals from other civilizations,
spurring heightened interest in the search for extraterrestrial in-
telligence (SETI). Perhaps most important, scientists have found
the interdisciplinary study of issues related to the search for life
beyond Earth to have intrinsic value, independent of whether
the search is ultimately successful.
Given the intense research efforts being undertaken by the
scientific community and the long-standing public fascination
with the search for life, it should be no surprise that the study
of life in the universe—also known as astrobiology—has become
one of the most publicly visible sciences. Colleges, too, have rec-
ognized the growing importance of this discipline, and many
have established courses in astrobiology. This book aims to serve
such courses by offering a comprehensive introduction to the
broad science of life in the universe.
Although this is a textbook, it is designed to be of interest to
anyone with a desire to learn about the current state of research
in astrobiology. No special scientific training or background is
assumed, and all necessary scientific concepts are reviewed as
they arise. If you have a basic high school education and a will-
ingness to learn, you are capable of understanding every topic
covered in this book. We wish you well in your efforts.
Jeffrey Bennett
Seth Shostak
1. For students who take only one or a few required science
courses, the interdisciplinary nature of the study of life in
the universe offers a broader understanding of a range of
scientific research than can a course in any single disci-
pline.
2. Public fascination with UFOs and alien visitation offers
a unique opportunity to use life in the universe courses
as vehicles for teaching about the nature of science and
how to distinguish true science from pseudoscience.
3. The science of life in the universe considers many of the
most profound questions we can ask, including What is
life? How did life begin on Earth? Are we alone? Could
we colonize other planets or other star systems? Students
are nearly always interested in these questions, making it
easy to motivate even those students who study science
only because it is required.
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 These features probably also explain the growing number of
life in the universe courses being offered at colleges around the
world (as well as some at the high school level). It’s worth not-
ing that, besides being fascinating to students, a course on life in
the universe can be a great experience for instructors. The in-
terdisciplinary nature of the subject means that no matter what
your specific scientific background, you are sure to learn some-
thing new when you teach an astrobiology course at any level.
Course Types and Pacing
This book is designed primarily for use in courses for nonscience
majors, such as required core courses in natural science or elec-
tive follow-up courses for students who lack the preparation
needed for more technical offerings in astrobiology. However,
past editions have also been used successfully in higher-level
courses, often supplemented with journal articles on original
research. This book can also be used at the senior high school
level, especially for integrated science courses that seek to break
down the traditional boundaries separating individual science
disciplines.
Although the chapters are not all of equal length, it should
be possible to cover them at an average rate of approximately
one chapter per week in a typical 3-hours-per-week college
course. The 13 chapters in this book should therefore provide
about the right amount of material for a typical one-semester
college course. If you are teaching a one-quarter course, you
might need to be selective in your coverage, perhaps dropping
some topics entirely. If you are teaching a yearlong course, you’ll
have time to go into greater depth as you spread out the mate-
rial for an average pace of about one chapter every 2 weeks.
The Topical (Part) Structure of
Life in the Universe
The interdisciplinary nature of astrobiology can make it difficult
to decide where emphasis should be placed. In this book, we fol-
low the general consensus revealed in discussions with instruc-
tors of astrobiology courses, which suggests a rough balance
between the different disciplines that contribute to the study of
life in the universe. We’ve therefore developed this book with
a four-part structure, outlined below. (See the table of contents
for more detail.)
PART I. INTRODUCING LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (CHAPTERS
1–3).  Chapter 1 offers a brief overview of the topic of life in
the universe and why this science has moved to the forefront
of research. Chapter 2 discusses the nature of science, based on
the assumption that this is many students’ first real exposure
to how scientific thinking differs from other modes of thinking.
Chapter 3 presents fundamental astronomical and physical con-
cepts necessary for understanding the rest of the course mate-
rial, including the formation of planetary systems.
PART II. LIFE ON EARTH (CHAPTERS 4–6).   This is the first
of three parts devoted to in-depth study of astrobiology issues.
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 9
Here we discuss the current state of knowledge about life on
Earth. Chapter 4 discusses the geological conditions that have
made Earth habitable. Chapter 5 explores the nature of life on
Earth. Chapter 6 discusses current ideas about the origin and
subsequent evolution of life on Earth.
PART III. LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM (CHAPTERS 7–10).  
We next use what we’ve learned about life on Earth in Part II
to explore the possibilities for life elsewhere in our solar system.
Chapter 7 discusses the environmental requirements for life and
then offers a brief tour of various worlds in our solar system,
exploring their potential habitability. Chapters 8 and 9 focus on
the places in our solar system that seem most likely to offer pos-
sibilities for extraterrestrial life: Mars (Chapter 8) and the jovian
moons Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Enceladus, and Tri-
ton (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 discusses how habitability evolves
over time in the solar system, with emphasis on comparing the
past and present habitability of Venus and Earth; this chapter
also introduces the concept of a habitable zone around a star,
setting the stage for the discussion of life beyond our solar sys-
tem in Part IV.
PART IV. LIFE AMONG THE STARS (CHAPTERS 11–13,
EPILOGUE).  This final set of chapters deals with the question
of life beyond our solar system. Chapter 11 focuses on our rap-
idly growing understanding of extrasolar planets, including the
types of stars they orbit, how we detect them, their similarities
to and differences from the planets of our own solar system,
and prospects for habitability among the different types of plan-
ets. Chapter 12 covers the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
(SETI). Chapter 13 discusses the challenge of and prospects for
interstellar travel, and then uses these ideas to investigate the
Fermi paradox (“Where is everybody?”), the potential solutions
to the paradox, and the implications of the considered solutions.
The Epilogue is designed as a short wrap-up of the course, fo-
cusing on philosophical issues relating to the search for life be-
yond Earth.
Pedagogical Features of Life in the Universe
Along with the main narrative, Life in the Universe includes a
number of pedagogical devices designed to enhance student
learning:
• Basic Chapter Structure Each chapter is carefully
structured to ensure that students understand the goals
up front, learn the details, and pull together all the ideas
at the end. In particular, note the following key structural
elements:
º Chapter Learning Goals Each chapter opens with a
page offering an enticing image and a brief overview of
the chapter, including a list of the section titles and as-
sociated learning goals. The learning goals are presented
as key questions designed to help students both under-
stand what they will be learning about and stay focused
on these key goals as they work through the chapter.
Preface  ix
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 º Introduction and Epigraph The main chaper text be-
gins with a two- to three-paragraph introduction to the
chapter material and an inspirational quotation relevant
to the chapter.
º Section Structure Chapters are divided into numbered
sections, each addressing one key aspect of the chapter
material. Each section begins with a short introduction
that leads into a set of learning goals relevant to the
­section—the same learning goals listed at the beginning
of the chapter.
º The Process of Science in Action The entire book is
built around showing that science is a process, helping
students understand how scientific ideas arise and how
they gain acceptance through careful studies of evidence.
To reinforce these ideas, every chapter ends with a final
section designated as “The Process of Science in Action,”
in which we explore one topic in particular depth to show
students various aspects of how science works in practice.
º The Big Picture Every chapter narrative ends with
this feature, designed to help students put what they’ve
learned in the chapter into the context of the overall
goal of gaining a broader perspective on ourselves, our
planet, and prospects for life beyond Earth.
º Chapter Summary The end-of-chapter summary offers
a concise review of the learning goal questions, helping
reinforce student understanding of key concepts from
the chapter. Thumbnail figures are included to remind
students of key illustrations and photos in the chapter.
• End-of-Chapter Exercises Each chapter includes an
extensive set of exercises that can be used for study, dis-
cussion, or assignment. The end-of-chapter exercises are
organized into the following subsets:
º Review Questions: Questions that students should be
able to answer from the reading alone
º Does It Make Sense? (or similar title): A set of short
statements that students are expected to evaluate,
determining whether each statement makes sense and
explaining why or why not; these exercises are gener-
ally easy once students understand a particular concept,
but very difficult otherwise, making them an excellent
probe of comprehension
º Quick Quiz: A short multiple-choice quiz that allows
students to check their progress
º Process of Science Questions: Essay or discussion
questions that help students focus on how science pro-
gresses over time
º Group Work Exercise: A suggested activity designed
for collaborative learning in class
º Short-Answer/Essay Questions: Questions that go
beyond the Review Questions in asking for conceptual
interpretation
x  Preface
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 10
º Quantitative Problems: Problems that require some
mathematics, usually based on topics covered in the
Cosmic Calculations boxes
º Discussion Questions: Open-ended questions for class
discussions
º Web Projects: A few suggestions for additional web-
based research
• Additional Features You’ll find a number of other
features designed to increase student understanding, both
within individual chapters and at the end of the book,
including the following:
º Annotated Figures Key figures in each chapter use
the research-proven technique of annotation—the
placement on the figure of carefully crafted text (in
blue) to guide students through interpreting graphs, fol-
lowing process figures, and translating between different
representations.
º Think About It This feature, which appears
throughout the book in the form of short questions
integrated into the narrative, gives students the op-
portunity to reflect on important new concepts. It
also serves as an excellent starting point for classroom
discussions.
º Cosmic Calculations Boxes These boxes contain
optional mathematics exercises. Many of the quantita-
tive exercises at the ends of chapters are based on these
boxes.
º Special Topic Boxes These boxes contain supplemen-
tary discussion topics related to the chapter material but
not prerequisite to the continuing discussion.
º Movie Madness Boxes These boxes contain brief
discussions of popular movies that deal with various as-
pects of life in the universe, presented in a way designed
to be both humorous and informative.
º Cross-References When a concept is covered in
greater detail elsewhere in the book, we include a
cross-reference in brackets to the relevant section
(e.g., [Section 5.2]).
º Glossary A detailed glossary makes it easy for students
to look up important terms.
º Appendixes The appendixes contain a number of
useful references and tables including key constants
(Appendix A), key formulas (Appendix B), key mathemat-
ical skills (Appendix C), the periodic table (Appendix D),
and a summary of key solar system facts (Appendix E).
º MasteringAstronomy® Resources New to this
edition, Life in the Universe now has a dedicated Master-
ingAstronomy site, with numerous resources including
online quizzes, Interactive Figures and Photos, Self-
Guided Tutorials, and much more.
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 New for the Fourth Edition
Astrobiology is a fast-moving field, and there have been many
new developments since we wrote the third edition. You will
therefore find many sections of the book almost entirely rewrit-
ten, though we have retained the basic organization of the text.
Here, briefly, is a list of some of the most important changes and
updates we have made:
• Every chapter has undergone at least some substantial
change, in order to bring the scientific material fully up-to-
date with recent research.
• In Chapter 2, we have enhanced the discussion of the
nature of science with the new Table 2.1, which summa-
rizes how the same terms often have different meanings in
science and in everyday usage. We’ve also reorganized and
rewritten Section 2.4.
• Chapter 3 has been significantly reorganized and rewritten,
particularly in Sections 3.3 through 3.5, in order to reflect
new understanding of extrasolar planetary systems.
• Section 5.5 on extremophiles has been almost completely
rewritten in light of new discoveries.
• Chapter 6 has been heavily rewritten, particularly in Sec-
tions 6.1 and 6.2, in light of new research concerning the
most ancient fossils of life.
• Chapter 7 has been significantly revised, particularly in
Sections 7.3 and 7.4, so that it now covers several new
spacecraft missions, including relevant results from Dawn
at Ceres and New Horizons at Pluto.
• Chapter 8 on Mars has been nearly entirely rewritten to
reflect the latest results from Curiosity, MAVEN, and more.
• Chapter 9 has several important scientific updates, particu-
larly with regard to recent results from the Cassini mission
in its studies of Titan and Enceladus.
• In Chapter 10, we have significantly updated and revised
the final section on global warming.
• Chapter 11 has been almost completely reorganized and
rewritten in light of the rapidly advancing study of extraso-
lar planets.
• In every chapter, we have added one or two “process of
science” questions and one new group work question to
the exercise set.
• We’ve replaced three Movie Madness boxes entirely and
updated numerous others.
Supplements and Resources
In addition to the book itself, a number of supplements are
available to help you as an instructor. The following is a brief
summary; contact your local Pearson representative for more
information.
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 11
• MasteringAstronomy® (www.masteringastronomy.
com). MasteringAstronomy is the most widely used and
most advanced astronomy tutorial and assessment system
in the world. By capturing the step-by-step work of stu-
dents nationally, MasteringAstronomy has established an
unparalleled database of learning challenges and patterns.
Using these student data, every activity and problem has
been refined. The result is a library of activities of unique
educational effectiveness and assessment accuracy. Master-
ingAstronomy provides students with two learning systems
in one: a dynamic self-study area and the ability to partici-
pate in online assignments.
MasteringAstronomy provides instructors with a fast
and effective way to give uncompromising, wide-ranging
online homework assignments of just the right difficulty
level and duration. Tutorials built around text content
are available in MasteringAstronomy. The tutorials coach
85 percent of students to the correct answer with specific
wrong-answer feedback. Powerful post-diagnostics enable
instructors to assess the progress of their class as a whole
and to quickly identify an individual student’s areas of diffi-
culty. A media-rich self-study area is included that students
can use whether or not the instructor assigns homework.
• Pearson eText 2.0 (ISBN 978-0-13-408002-4). An interac-
tive Pearson eText will be available for this edition.
º Now available on smartphones and tablets
º Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media
Accessible (screen-reader ready)
º
º Configurable reading settings, including resizable type
and night-reading mode
º Instructor and student note-taking, highlighting, book-
marking, and search
• Life in the Universe Activities Manual, Second Edition, by
Ed Prather, Erika Offerdahl, and Tim Slater (ISBN 978-0-
80-531712-1). This manual provides creative projects that
explore a wide range of concepts in astrobiology. It can be
used as a laboratory component for a life in the universe
course or as a source for group activities in the classroom.
• Additional Instructor Resources. This instructor resource
area residing in MasteringAstronomy includes jpegs of all fig-
ures from the text, PowerPoint® Lecture Outlines that incor-
porate figures, photos, and multi-media, and the Test Bank
in both Word and Testgen® formats. TestGen is an easy-to-
use, fully networkable program for creating tests ranging
from short quizzes to long exams. Questions from the Test
Bank are supplied, and professors can use the Question Edi-
tor to modify existing questions or create new questions.
Acknowledgments
A textbook may carry the names of its authors, but it is the
result of the hard work of a long list of committed individuals.
Preface  xi
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 We could not possibly name everyone who has had a part in
this book, but we would like to call attention to a few people
who have played particularly important roles. First, we thank
the friends and family members who put up with us during the
long hours that we worked on this book. Without their support,
this book would not have been possible.
At Pearson, we offer special thanks to our editors Nancy
Whilton, Tema Goodwin, and Lizette Faraji (who put in count-
less hours to make this book meet its schedule). Many oth-
ers have also helped make this book happen, including Adam
Black, Joan Marsh, Mary Douglas, Margot Otway, Claire Mas-
son, Michael Gillespie, Debbie Hardin, Sally Lifland, Mark Ong,
and many more.
We’ve also been fortunate to be able to draw on the ex-
pertise of several other Pearson authors, in some cases draw-
ing ideas and artwork directly from their outstanding texts. For
their gracious help, we thank the authors of the Campbell Biolo-
gy textbooks and the authors of The Cosmic Perspective astronomy
texts. And very special thanks go to Bruce Jakosky, who was
our coauthor on the first edition and provided much of the vi-
sion around which this book has been built.
Finally, we thank the many people who have carefully re-
viewed portions of the book in order to help us make it both as
scientifically up-to-date and as pedagogically useful as possible:
Wayne Anderson, Sacramento City College
Timothy Barker, Wheaton College
Wendy Hagen Bauer, Wellesley College
Laura Baumgartner, University of Colorado, Boulder
Jim Bell, Cornell University
Raymond Bigliani, Farmingdale State University of New York
Janice Bishop, SETI Institute
Sukanta Bose, Washington State University
Greg Bothun, University of Oregon
Paul Braterman, University of North Texas
Juan Cabanela, Haverford College
Christopher Churchill, New Mexico State University
Leo Connolly, San Bernardino State
Manfred Cuntz, University of Texas at Arlington
Alfonso Davila, SETI Institute
Steven J. Dick, U.S. Naval Observatory
James Dilley, Ohio University
Anthony Dobrovolskis, SETI Institute
Alberto G. Fairén, Cornell University
Jack Farmer, Arizona State University
Steven Federman, University of Toledo
Eric Feigelson, Penn State University
Daniel Frank, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Richard Frankel, California Polytechnic State University
xii  Preface
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 12
Rica S. French, MiraCosta College
Tracy Furutani, California Polytechnic State University
Bob Garrison, University of Toronto
Harold Geller, George Mason University
Perry A. Gerakines, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Donna H. Gifford, Pima Community College
Kevin Grazier, Santa Monica College
Bob Greeney, Holyoke Community College
Bruce Hapke, University of Pittsburgh
William Hebard, Babson College
Beth Hufnagel, Anne Arundel Community College
James Kasting, Penn State University
Laura Kay, Barnard College
Jim Knapp, Holyoke Community College
David W. Koerner, Northern Arizona University
Karen Kolehmainen, California State University, San Ber-
nardino
Kenneth M. Lanzetta, Stony Brook University
Kristin Larson, Western Washington University
James Lattimer, Stony Brook University
Jack Lissauer, NASA Ames Research Center
Abraham Loeb, Harvard University
Bruce Margon, Space Telescope Science Institute
Lori Marino, Emory University
Christopher Matzner, University of Toronto
Gary Melcher, Pima Community College
Stephen Mojzsis, University of Colorado, Boulder
Michele Montgomery, University of Central Florida
Ken Nealson, University of Southern California
Norm Pace, University of Colorado, Boulder
Stacy Palen, Weber State University
Robert Pappalardo, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Insti-
tute of Technology
Robert Pennock, Michigan State University
James Pierce, Minnesota State University at Mankato
Eugenie Scott, National Center for Science Education
Beverly J. Smith, East Tennessee State University
Inseok Song, University of Georgia
Charles M. Telesco, University of Florida
David Thomas, Lyon College
Glenn Tiede, Bowling Green State University
Gianfranco Vidali, Syracuse State University
Fred Walter, Stony Brook University
John Wernegreen, Eastern Kentucky University
William Wharton, Wheaton College
Nicolle Zellner, Albion College
Ben Zuckerman, University of California, Los Angeles
06/11/15 2:12 PM

Jeffrey Bennett
Jeffrey Bennett, a recipient of
the American Institute of
Physics Science Communi-
cation Award, holds a B.A.
in biophysics (UC San Die-
go) and an M.S. and Ph.D.
in astrophysics (University
of Colorado). He specializes
in science and math educa-
tion and has taught at every
level from preschool through grad-
uate school. Career highlights include
serving 2 years as a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquar-
ters, where he developed programs to build stronger links be-
tween research and education, and proposing and helping to
develop the Voyage scale model solar system on the National
Mall (Washington, D.C.). He is the lead author of textbooks
in astronomy, astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics, and of
critically acclaimed books for the public including Beyond UFOs
(Princeton University Press, 2008/2011), Math for Life (Big Kid
Science, 2014), What Is Relativity? (Columbia University Press,
2014), and On Teaching Science (Big Kid Science, 2014). He is
also the author of six science picture books for children, includ-
ing Max Goes to the Moon, The Wizard Who Saved the World, and I,
Humanity; all six have been launched to the International Space
Station and read aloud by astronauts for NASA’s Story Time
from Space program. Dr. Bennett lives in Boulder, Colorado,
with his wife, children, and dog. His personal website is www.
jeffreybennett.com.
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 13
About the Authors
Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak earned his B.A. in
physics from Princeton Uni-
versity (1965) and a Ph.D.
in astronomy from the Cal-
ifornia Institute of Technol-
ogy (1972). He is currently
a senior astronomer and Di-
rector of the Center for SETI
Research at the SETI Institute
in Mountain View, California,
where he helps press the search
for intelligent cosmic company. For
much of his career, Seth conducted radio astronomy research
on galaxies and investigated the fact that these massive ob-
jects contain large amounts of unseen mass. He has worked at
the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville,
Virginia, as well as at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in
Groningen, the Netherlands (where he learned to speak bad
Dutch). Seth also founded and ran a company that produced
computer animation for television. He has written more than
four hundred popular articles on various topics in astronomy,
technology, film, and television. A frequent fixture on the lec-
ture circuit, Seth gives approximately 70 talks annually at both
educational and corporate institutions; he is also a frequent
commentator on astronomical matters for radio and television.
His book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Ex-
traterrestrial Intelligence (National Geographic, 2009) details the
latest ideas, as well as the personal experience of his day job.
When he’s not trying to track down aliens, Seth can often be
found behind the microphone, as host of the SETI Institute’s
weekly one-hour radio show about science, Big Picture Science.
About the Authors  xiii
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 How to Succeed in Your Astrobiology Course
Times for Reading the Times for Homework
If Your Course Is Assigned Text (per week) Assignments (per week)
3 credits 2 to 4 hours 2 to 3 hours
4 credits 3 to 5 hours 2 to 4 hours
5 credits 3 to 5 hours 3 to 6 hours
The Key to Success: Study Time
The single most important key to success in any college course
is to spend enough time studying. A general rule of thumb for
college classes is that you should expect to study about 2 to 3
hours per week outside of class for each unit of credit. For ex-
ample, based on this rule of thumb, a student taking 15 credit
hours should expect to spend 30 to 45 hours each week study-
ing outside of class. Combined with time in class, this works out
to a total of 45 to 60 hours spent on academic work—not much
more than the time a typical job requires, and you get to choose
your own hours. Of course, if you are working while you attend
school, you will need to budget your time carefully.
As a rough guideline, your study time might be divided as
shown in the table above. If you find that you are spending
fewer hours than these guidelines suggest, you can probably im-
prove your grade by studying longer. If you are spending more
hours than these guidelines suggest, you may be studying inef-
ficiently; in that case, you should talk to your instructor about
how to study more effectively.
Using This Book
Each chapter in this book is designed to make it easy for you
to study effectively and efficiently. To get the most out of each
chapter, you might wish to use the following study plan.
• A textbook is not a novel, and you’ll learn best by reading
the elements of this text in the following order:
1. Start by reading the Learning Goals (in the form of key
questions) and the introductory paragraphs at the begin-
ning of the chapter so that you’ll know what you are
trying to learn.
2. Get an overview of key concepts by studying the illustra-
tions and their captions and annotations. The illustrations
highlight most major concepts, so this “illustrations first”
strategy gives you an opportunity to survey the concepts
before you read about them in depth. You will find the
two-page Cosmic Context figures especially useful.
3. Read the chapter narrative, trying the Think About It ques-
tions as you go along, but save the boxed features (e.g.,
Cosmic Calculations, Special Topics, Movie Madness) to
read later. As you read, make notes on the pages to remind
xiv  How to Succeed in Your Astrobiology Course
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 14
Times for Review and
Test Preparation (average Total Study Time
per week) (per week)
2 hours 6 to 9 hours
3 hours 8 to 12 hours
4 hours 10 to 15 hours
yourself of ideas you’ll want to review later. Take notes as
you read, but avoid using a highlight pen (or a highlighting
tool if you are using an e-book), which makes it too easy to
highlight mindlessly.
4. After reading the chapter once, go back through and read
the boxed features.
5. Review the Chapter Summary, ideally by trying to an-
swer the Learning Goal questions for yourself before
reading the given answers.
• After completing the reading as outlined above, test your un-
derstanding with the end-of-chapter exercises. A good way
to begin is to make sure you can answer all of the Review
and Quick Quiz Questions; if you don’t know an answer,
look back through the chapter until you figure it out.
• Visit the MasteringAstronomy® site and make use of re-
sources that will help you further build your understanding.
These resources have been developed specifically to help
you learn the most important ideas in your course, and they
have been extensively tested to make sure they are effec-
tive. They really do work, and the only way you’ll gain their
benefits is by going to the website and using them.
General Strategies for Studying
• Budget your time effectively. Studying 1 or 2 hours each
day is more effective, and far less painful, than studying all
night before homework is due or before exams.
• Engage your brain. Learning is an active process, not a
passive experience. Whether you are reading, listening to a
lecture, or working on assignments, always make sure that
your mind is actively engaged. If you find your mind drift-
ing or find yourself falling asleep, make a conscious effort
to revive yourself, or take a break if necessary.
• Don’t miss class. Listening to lectures and participating in
discussions is much more effective than reading someone
else’s notes. Active participation will help you retain what
you are learning. Also, be sure to complete any assigned
reading before the class in which it will be discussed. This is
crucial, since class lectures and discussions are designed to
help reinforce key ideas from the reading.
• Take advantage of resources offered by your professor,
whether it be email, office hours, review sessions, online
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 chats, or other opportunities to talk to and get to know
your professor. Most professors will go out of their way to
help you learn in any way that they can.
• Start your homework early. The more time you allow
yourself, the easier it is to get help if you need it. If a
concept gives you trouble, do additional reading or study-
ing beyond what has been assigned. And if you still have
trouble, ask for help: You surely can find friends, peers, or
teachers who will be glad to help you learn.
• Working together with friends can be valuable in helping
you understand difficult concepts, but be sure that you learn
The following guidelines will help ensure that your assignments
with your friends and do not become dependent on them.
meet the standards of collegiate quality:
• Don’t try to multitask. A large body of research shows that
human beings simply are not good at multitasking: When
we attempt it, we do more poorly at all of the individual
tasks. And in case you think you are an exception, the
same research found that those people who believed they
were best at multitasking were actually the worst! So
when it is time to study, turn off your electronic devices,
find a quiet spot, and concentrate on focusing your efforts.
Preparing for Exams
• Study the Review Questions, and rework problems and
other assignments; try additional questions to be sure you
understand the concepts. Study your performance on as-
signments, quizzes, or exams from earlier in the term.
• Work through the relevant chapter quizzes and other
study resources available at the MasteringAstronomy® site.
• Study your notes from lectures and discussions. Pay attention
to what your instructor expects you to know for an exam.
• Reread the relevant sections in the textbook, paying special
attention to notes you have made on the pages.
• Study individually before joining a study group with
friends. Study groups are effective only if every individual
comes prepared to contribute.
• Don’t stay up too late before an exam. Don’t eat a big meal
within an hour of the exam (thinking is more difficult
when blood is being diverted to the digestive system).
• Try to relax before and during the exam. If you have
studied effectively, you are capable of doing well. Staying
relaxed will help you think clearly.
Presenting Homework and Writing Assignments
All work that you turn in should be of collegiate quality: neat and
easy to read, well organized, and demonstrating mastery of the
subject matter. Future employers and teachers will expect this
quality of work. Moreover, although submitting homework of
collegiate quality requires “extra” effort, it serves two important
purposes directly related to learning:
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 15
1. The effort you expend in clearly explaining your work
solidifies your learning. In particular, research has shown
that writing and speaking trigger different areas of your
brain. Writing something down—even when you think
you already understand it—reinforces your learning by
involving other areas of your brain.
2. If you make your work clear and self-contained (that is,
make it a document that you can read without referring
to the questions in the text), you will have a much more
useful study guide when you review for a quiz or exam.
• Always use proper grammar, proper sentence and paragraph
structure, and proper spelling. Do not use texting shorthand.
• Make all answers and other writing fully self-contained. A
good test is to imagine that a friend will be reading your
work and to ask yourself whether the friend will under-
stand exactly what you are trying to say. It is also helpful
to read your work out loud to yourself, making sure that it
sounds clear and coherent.
• In problems that require calculation:
1. Be sure to show your work clearly so that both you and
your instructor can follow the process you used to obtain
an answer. Also, use standard mathematical symbols,
rather than “calculator-ese.” For example, show multipli-
cation with the symbol (not with an asterisk), and write
105, not 10^5 or 10E5.
2. Check that word problems have word answers. That is, after
you have completed any necessary calculations, make
sure that any problem stated in words is answered with
one or more complete sentences that describe the point of
the problem and the meaning of your solution.
3. Express your word answers in a way that would be mean-
ingful to most people. For example, most people would
find it more meaningful if you expressed a result of 720
hours as 1 month. Similarly, if a precise calculation yields
an answer of 9,745,600 years, it may be more meaning-
fully expressed in words as “nearly 10 million years.”
• Include illustrations whenever they help explain your an-
swer, and make sure your illustrations are neat and clear.
For example, if you graph by hand, use a ruler to make
straight lines. If you use software to make illustrations, be
careful not to make them overly cluttered with unneces-
sary features.
• If you study with friends, be sure that you turn in your
own work stated in your own words—you should avoid
anything that might give even the appearance of possible
academic dishonesty.
How to Succeed in Your Astrobiology Course  xv
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 Credits
Frontmatter p. xiii (left to right) Jeffrey Bennett; Seth Shostak
Chapter 1 Opener and p. 12 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Epigraph Courtesy of
the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. Used with permission. 1.1 Alamy 1.2 NASA 1.3 and
p. 12 Pearson/Mike Carroll 1.6 NSSDC/NASA/JPL 1.7 NASA 1.8 and p. 12 NASA/Media
Services 1.9 and p. 12 Seth Shostak
Chapter 2 Opener European Space Agency Epigraph Albert Einstein, letter to Hans
Muehsam, 9 July 1951. Einstein archives 38–408. http://www.alberteinstein.info/terms_
of_use.html. Reprinted with permission. 2.1 D. Nunuk/Science Source 2.3 and pp. 34, 45
Tunc Tezel 2.7 Gianni Tortoli/Science Source 2.11 NASA 2.13a NASA/Goddard Institute
for Space Studies 2.13b Bruce Kluckhohn/Getty Images 2.13c NASA/Goddard Institute
for Space Studies 2.16 (bottom left) University of Oklahoma History of Science Collections
(bottom right) The University of Sydney Library
Chapter 3 Opener NASA, ESA, and M. Livio, The Hubble Heritage Team and the Hubble
20th Anniversary Team (STScI) 3.1 © Pearson Education/(Milky Way) Mike Carroll 3.2
Jeffrey Bennett 3.4 NASA 3.5 (inset) Fred Espenak 3.6 NASA 3.7 NASA Earth Observing
System 3.9 ESA 3.11 European Southern Observatory 3.13 (left to right) Pearson Educa-
tion/Pearson Science; Pius Lee/Shutterstock; NASA Earth Observing System; Image
Source/Alamy 3.14 Jerry Lodriguss/Astropix LLC 3.16 ESA/G. Illingworth/D. Magee/P.
Oesch/University of California/Santa Cruz/R. Bouwens/Leiden University/HUDF09
Team/NASA 3.17 Jeffrey Bennett 3.22 (clockwise from top) imagenavi/Datacraft Co Ltd/
Getty Images; © Creativ Studio Heinemann/Westend61 GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo; ©
Eric Gevaert/Alamy Stock Photo 3.25 Richard Megna/Fundamental Photographs, NYC
p. 81 NASA/JPL 3.30 JHU/APL/NASA (inset) NASA/JPL/JHUAPL 3.31 NASA/JPL-Caltech/
UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA 3.32 Miloslav Druckmuller 3.33 NASA/Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute 3.35 ESA/Hubble 3.37 NASA,
ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA), the Hubble Space Telescope
Orion Treasury Project Team and L. Ricci (ESO) 3.38 and p. 100 ESA/Hubble and NASA
(inset) ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) 3.39 NASA/JPL
Chapter 4 Opener Carsten Peter/National Geographic/Getty Images Epigraph Lost Woods:
The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson. Copyright © 1998 by Roger Allen Christie. Re-
printed by permission of Frances Collin, Trustee. All copyright or re-distribution of this
text is expressly forbidden. 4.1 (global views) NASA/JPL (surface views, left to right) NASA/
JPL/Northwestern University; NASA/JPL; NASA; NASA; NASA 4.2a Stockbyte/Getty Im-
ages 4.2b Kenneth Murray/Science Source 4.2c Jonas Tufvesson/Nordicphotos/Alamy 4.5
Gerhard Zwerger-Schoner/imageBroker/Alamy 4.9a James L. Amos/Science Source 4.9b
Harvey Lloyd/Getty Images 4.9c Sinclair Stammers/Science Source 4.9d Francois Gohier/
Science Source 4.9e Gracious Tiger/Shutterstock 4.9f David Parsons/istockphoto/Getty
Images 4.11 Courtesy of John W. Valley, University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.12 U.S.
Geological Survey/Denver 4.13 NASA Earth Observing System/USGS 4.15 NOAA 4.19,
4.20 NASA/JPL 4.21 (inset) Michael Rymer/U.S. Geological Survey 4.22 (clockwise) Ronen
Zilberman/AP Images; Nina B/Shutterstock; Duckworth, Michael; Alexander Malahoff
4.24a Jules Bucher/Science Source 4.25a (inset) NASA/Dr. L. A. Frank, The University of
Iowa 4.25b Doug Duncan 4.31 Pearson/Mike Carroll
Chapter 5 Opener Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 5.1a CNRI/SPL/Science Source
5.1b and p. 193 Biophoto Associates/Science Source 5.1c Jabruson/Nature Picture Library
5.1d Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 5.1e © dpa picture alliance/Alamy Stock
Photo 5.1f Mark Taylor/Naturepl.com 5.2 REECE, JANE B.; URRY, LISA A.; CAIN,
MICHAEL L.; WASSERMAN, STEVEN A.; MINORSKY, PETER V.; JACKSON, ROBERT
B., CAMPBELL BIOLOGY, 10th Ed., © 2014. Reprinted and electronically reproduced by
permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 5.3 (center) Madlen/Shutterstock
(clockwise from bottom left) YinYang/iStockphoto/E+/Getty Images; ranplett/E+/Getty Im-
ages; SimonKr d.o.o./iStock/Getty Images; Andrew Twort/Alamy; Suzannah Skelton/E+/
Getty Images; © Annette Hempfling/imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo p. 163 English
Heritage Photo Library 5.4a Biophoto Associates/Science Source 5.4b John Bavosi/Sci-
ence Source 5.4c John Durham/Science Source 5.4d Dr. Yorgos Nikas/Science Source
5.5 REECE, JANE B.; URRY, LISA A.; CAIN, MICHAEL L.; WASSERMAN, STEVEN A.;
MINORSKY, PETER V.; JACKSON, ROBERT B., CAMPBELL BIOLOGY, 10th Ed., ©
2014. Reprinted and electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc.,
New York, NY. 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9 CAMPBELL, NEIL A.; REECE, JANE B.; SIMON, ERIC J.,
ESSENTIAL BIOLOGY, 3rd Ed., © 2007. Reprinted and electronically reproduced by per-
mission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 5.11 CNRI/Science Photo Library/Sci-
ence Source 5.13, 5.14, 5.15, 5.16 CAMPBELL, NEIL A.; REECE, JANE B.; SIMON, ERIC
J., ESSENTIAL BIOLOGY, 3rd Ed., © 2007. Reprinted and electronically reproduced by
permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 5.18 Oliver Meckes/Nicole Ottawa/
Science Source 5.19 and p. 194 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 5.20 Douglas
Faulkner/Science Source 5.21 Steve Schmidt/University of Colorado 5.22 Arne Bomblies
(inset) E. Imre Friedmann 5.23 CNRI/Science Source 5.24 Eye of Science/Science Source
5.25 123rf.com
Chapter 6 Opener George Douwma/Naturepl.com 6.1a © Jane Gould/Alamy Stock Photo
6.1b © B Christopher/Alamy Stock Photo 6.1c and p. 239 Abigail Allwood/NASA 6.2
David Wacey/University of Western Australia 6.3 Stephen J. Mojzsis 6.4 Reuters/David
McNew 6.6 and p. 239 Martin M. Hanczyc 6.7, 6.8 CAMPBELL, NEIL A.; REECE, JANE
B.; SIMON, ERIC J., ESSENTIAL BIOLOGY, 3rd Ed., © 2007. Reprinted and electroni-
xvi  Credits
A01_BENN9089_04_SE_FM.indd 16
cally reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 6.9 NASA 6.10
CAMPBELL, NEIL A.; REECE, JANE B.; TAYLOR, MARTHA, R.; SIMON, ERIC J., BIOL-
OGY: CONCEPTS & CONNECTIONS, 5th Ed., © 2006, p. 332. Reprinted and electronical-
ly reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 6.12 Denis Audo
6.13 Sheila Terry/Science Source 6.14a ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images 6.14b M I (Spike)
Walker/Alamy 6.15 Theodore J. Bornhorst/Michigan Technological University 6.16 Brad
Snowder 6.17 Kirk R. Johnson 6.18 Virgil L. Sharpton/LPI/NASA/Johnson Space Center
6.19 and p. 239 Pearson Education/Pearson Science 6.20 REECE, JANE B.; URRY, LISA
A.; CAIN, MICHAEL L.; WASSERMAN, STEVEN A.; MINORSKY, PETER V.; JACKSON,
ROBERT B., CAMPBELL BIOLOGY, 10th Ed., © 2014. Reprinted and electronically
reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 6.21 (bottom) Serg
Zastavkin/Shutterstock 6.22 and p. 239 Leonid Kulik 6.23 MSSO, ANU/Science Source
6.24 AP Video/AP Images 6.26 CAMPBELL, NEIL A.; REECE, JANE B.; SIMON, ERIC
J., ESSENTIAL BIOLOGY, 3rd Ed., © 2007. Reprinted and electronically reproduced by
permission of Pearson Education, Inc., New York, NY. 6.27 David Gifford/Science Source
6.28 and p. 239 Agence France Presse/Getty Images 6.30 Dr. Janet Iwasa, Ph.D.
Chapter 7 Opener NASA 7.1 NASA/JPL 7.3b © NSF Photo/Alamy Stock Photo 7.5a ©
Stocktrek Images, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo 7.5b, 7.6a NASA Earth Observing System
7.6b NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution
of Washington 7.7 and p. 263 NASA/JPL 7.8 Ted Stryk/NASA 7.9 (left to right) NASA/JPL;
NASA/JPL; NASA/JPL/STScI; NASA/JPL (top) NASA 7.11 (left) NASA/JPL 7.12a NASA/
JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA 7.12b NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Phys-
ics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute 7.13a NASA Earth Observing System 7.13b
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona 7.14 and p. 263 NASA/JPL 7.16 NASA 7.17 NASA/JPL-
Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Chapter 8 Opener NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Texas A&M Univ. Epigraph Copyright ©
1980 Carl Sagan. Reprinted with permission from Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc. All
rights reserved; this material cannot be further circulated without written permission of
Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc. 8.1 and p. 298 NASA Earth Observing System 8.2 NY Daily
News Archive via Getty Images 8.3 (left) Lowell Observatory (right) NASA Earth Observ-
ing System 8.4, 8.5, 8.6 NASA 8.9 Space Telescope Science Institute 8.10 NASA Earth
Observing System 8.11, 8.12 NASA/JPL 8.13 NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies
8.14 MOLA Science Team/Ames Research Center/NASA 8.15a (main image) and p. 298
NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies (inset) NASA/JPL 8.16 (main image) NASA/
Goddard Institute for Space Studies (inset) NASA 8.17a, 8.17b and p. 298 NASA/JPL 8.18a
EROS Data Center/U.S. Geological Survey 8.18b R. P. Irwin III and G. A. Franz/Smithso-
nian National Air and Space Museum 8.18c NASA/Earth Observing System 8.19 NASA/
JPL 8.20 (left) NASA/JPL (right) Marjorie Chan 8.21a NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI
8.21b NASA/JPL 8.22 NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS 8.23 European Space Agency 8.24, 8.25a
NASA/JPL 8.25b NASA Earth Observing System 8.26 Pearson/Mike Carroll 8.27, 8.29,
8.31, 8.32 NASA 8.34 NASA/Johnson Space Center 8.35 and p. 298 NASA/JPL
Chapter 9 Opener NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/DLR Epigraph Courtesy of Carolyn
Porco. Used with permission. 9.1 Galileo Galilei 9.2 NASA/JPL/DLR 9.3 Image process-
ing by Tim Parker (JPL) and Paul Schenk and Robert Herrick (Lunar and Planetary
Institute), based on NASA images 9.5 (top, left to right) NASA Earth Observing System;
NASA/JPL; NASA Earth Observing System (bottom, left to right) NASA Earth Observing
System; NASA/JPL; NASA Earth Observing System 9.9, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15, 9.16 NASA/JPL
9.17 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 9.18 and p. 331 NASA/JPL 9.19 NASA Earth
Observing System (inset) NASA/JPL 9.20, 9.21, 9.22, 9.23 and p. 331 NASA/JPL 9.24
NASA Earth Observing System 9.25 NASA/JPL 9.26 and p. 331 NASA/JPL/SSI
9.27 NASA/JPL
Chapter 10 Opener NASA Earth Observing System 10.2 NASA/JPL 10.3 European Space
Agency 10.4 NASA/JPL 10.8 and p. 365 NASA/JPL
Chapter 11 Opener and p. 389 A.-L. Maire/LBTO 11.1 NASA/JPL 11.4 European Southern
Observatory 11.6 and p. 416 Pearson/Mike Carroll 11.9 ESA–D. Ducros, 2013 11.12 Rex
Features/AP Images 11.20 and p. 416 Pearson/Mike Carroll 11.23 and p. 416 NASA 11.25
Yeshe Fenner, STcI, AURA, NASA, ESA 11.26 University of Michigan at Cerro Tololo
11.27 Harvard College Observatory
Chapter 12 Opener Seth Shostak Epigraph Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison,
“Searching for Interstellar Communications,” NATURE, vol. 184, no. 4690, pages
844–846, Sept. 19, 1959. 12.1, p. 425, 12.2 Seth Shostak 12.5 and p. 456 Radio Age, Octo-
ber 1924 12.7, 12.8a Seth Shostak 12.8b National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center 12.9
and p. 456, 12.10 Seth Shostak 12.11 Wally Pacholka 12.12 Seth Shostak 12.13 © MGM/
POLARIS/Stanley Kubrick Productions/Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy Stock Photo 12.16,
12.17 Seth Shostak 12.18 and p. 456 Bettmann/Corbis 12.19 Christopher Cormack/Corbis
12.20 Tom Till/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images 12.21 Alamy
Chapter 13 Opener Joe Bergeron 13.1 and p. 496, 13.2 NASA/JPL 13.3, 13.4 NASA 13.5
U.S. Department of Energy 13.6 and p. 496, 13.7 Joe Bergeron 13.8 Pearson Education, Inc.
13.9 Joe Bergeron 13.12 Corbis
Epilogue Opener NASA/JPL Cal Tech E.1 Bettmann/Corbis E.2 NASA p. 509 Copyright
© 1994 Carl Sagan. Reprinted with permission from Democritus Properties, LLC. All
rights reserved; this material cannot be further circulated without written permission of
Democritus Properties, LLC.
06/11/15 2:12 PM
 1 A Universe of Life?

LE ARNING GOALS
1.1 THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE 1.2 THE SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT OF 1.3 PLACES TO SEARCH
BEYOND EARTH THE SEARCH • Where should we search for life in
• What are we searching for? • How does astronomy help us under- the universe?
• Is it reasonable to imagine life stand the possibilities for extrater- • Could aliens be searching for us?
beyond Earth? restrial life?
• How does planetary science help 1.4 THE NEW SCIENCE OF
us understand the possibilities for ASTROBIOLOGY
extraterrestrial life? • How do we study the possibility of
• How does biology help us under- life beyond Earth?
stand the possibilities for extrater-
restrial life?

▲ About the photo: Earth is home to an abundance of life, making us wonder if other worlds might also be home to life.

M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 1 06/11/15 4:08 PM


Sometimes I think we’re alone
in the universe, and sometimes
I think we’re not. In either case
the idea is quite staggering.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008)
2  Part I Introducing Life in the Universe
M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 2
T he night sky glitters with stars, each a sun, much like our own Sun. Many stars have
planets, some of which may be much like Earth and other planets of our own solar
system. Among these countless worlds, it may seem hard to imagine that our world
could be the only home for life. But while the possibility of life beyond Earth might seem
quite reasonable, we do not yet know whether it actually exists.
Learning whether the universe is full of life holds great significance for the way we
view ourselves and our planet. If life is rare or nonexistent elsewhere, we will view our
planet with added wonder. If life is common, we’ll know that Earth is not quite as spe-
cial as it may seem. If civilizations are common, we’ll be forced to accept that humanity
is just one of many intelligent species inhabiting the universe. The profound implications
of finding—or not finding—extraterrestrial life make the question of life beyond Earth
an exciting topic of study.
The primary purpose of this book is to give you the background needed to under-
stand new and exciting developments in the human quest to find life beyond Earth.
We’ll begin in this chapter with a brief introduction to the subject and to why it has
become such a hot topic of scientific research.
1.1 The Possibility of Life Beyond Earth
Aliens are everywhere, at least if you follow the popular media
(Figure 1.1). Starships on television, such as the Enterprise or Voyager,
are on constant prowl throughout the galaxy, seeking out new life and
hoping it speaks English (or something close enough to English for the
“universal translator”). In Star Wars, aliens from many planets gather at
bars to share drinks and stories, and presumably to marvel at the fact
that they have greater similarity in their level of technology than do
different nations on Earth. Closer to home, movies like Independence Day,
Men in Black, and War of the Worlds feature brave Earthlings battling evil
aliens—or, as in the case of Avatar, brave aliens battling evil humans—
while numerous websites carry headlines about the latest alien landings.
Even serious newspapers and magazines run occasional articles about
UFO sightings or about claims that the U.S. government is hiding alien
corpses at “Area 51.”
Scientists are interested in aliens too, although most scientists remain
deeply skeptical about reports of aliens on Earth (for reasons we’ll discuss
later in the book). Scientists are therefore searching for life elsewhere,
looking for evidence of life on other worlds in our solar system, trying
to learn whether we should expect to find life on planets orbiting other
stars, and scanning for signals broadcast by other civilizations. Indeed,
the study of life in the universe is one of the most exciting fields of active
scientific research, largely because of its clear significance: The discovery
of life of any kind beyond Earth would forever change our perspective on
how we fit into the universe as a whole, and would undoubtedly teach us
much more about life here on Earth as well.
What are we searching for?
When we say we are searching for life in the universe, just what is it
that we are looking for? Is it the kind of intelligent life we see portrayed
06/11/15 4:08 PM
 in science fiction TV shows and films? Is it something more akin to the
plants and animals we see in parks and zoos? Is it tiny, bacteria-like mi-
crobes? Or could it be something else entirely?
The simple answer is “all of the above.” When we search for
extraterrestrial life, or life beyond Earth, we are looking for any sign
of life, be it simple, complex, or intelligent. We don’t care if it looks exact-
ly like life we are familiar with on Earth or if it is dramatically different.
However, we can’t really answer the question of what we are looking for
unless we know what life is.
Unfortunately, defining life is no simple matter, not even here on
Earth where we have bountiful examples of it. Ask yourself: What com-
mon attributes make us think that a bacterium, a beetle, a mushroom,
a tumbleweed, a maple tree, and a human are all alive, while we think
that a crystal, a cloud, an ocean, or a fire are not? If you spend just a little
time considering this question, you’ll begin to appreciate its difficulty.
For example, you might say that life can move, but the same is true of
clouds and oceans. You might say that life can grow, but so can crystals.
Or you might say that life can reproduce and spread, but so can fire. We
will explore in Chapter 5 how scientists try to answer this question and
come up with a general definition of life, but for now it should be clear
that this is a complicated question that affects how we search for life in
the universe.
Because of this definitional difficulty, the scientific search for extra-
terrestrial life in the universe generally presumes a search for life that is
at least somewhat Earth-like and that we could therefore recognize based
on what we know from studying life on Earth. Science fiction fans will
object that this search is far too limited, and they may be right—but we
have to start somewhere, so we begin with what we understand.

Think About It Name a few recent television shows and movies that involve FIGURE 1.1
Aliens have become a part of modern culture, as illustrated in
aliens of some sort. Do you think any of these shows portray aliens in a scien-
this movie poster.
tifically realistic fashion? Explain.

Is it reasonable to imagine life beyond Earth?

The scientific search for life in the universe is a relatively recent develop-
ment in human history, but the idea of extraterrestrial life is not. Many
ancient cultures told stories about beings living among the stars and, as
we’ll discuss in Chapter 2, the ancient Greeks engaged in serious philo-
sophical debate about the possibility of life beyond Earth.
Until quite recently, however, all these ideas remained purely spec-
ulative, because there was no way to study the question of extraterres-
trial life scientifically. It was always possible to imagine extraterrestrial
life, but there was no scientific reason to think that it could really exist.
Indeed, the relatively small amounts of data that might have shed some
light on the question of life beyond Earth were often misinterpreted.
Prior to the twentieth century, for example, some scientists guessed that
Venus might harbor a tropical paradise—a guess that was based on little
more than the fact that Venus is covered by clouds and closer than Earth
to the Sun. Mars was the subject of even more intense debate, largely
because a handful of scientists thought they saw long, straight canals on
the surface [Section 8.1]. The canals, which don’t really exist, were cited
as evidence of a martian civilization.

Chapter 1 A Universe of Life?  3

M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 3 06/11/15 4:08 PM

 Today, we have enough telescopic and spacecraft photos of the plan-
ets and large moons in our solar system to be quite confident that no civi-
lization has ever existed on any of them. The prospect of large animals or
plants seems almost equally improbable. Nevertheless, scientific interest
in life beyond Earth has exploded in the past few decades. Why?
We’ll spend most of the rest of the book answering this question, but
we can summarize the key points briefly. First, although large, multicel-
lular life in our solar system seems unlikely anywhere but on Earth, new
discoveries in both planetary science and biology make it seem plausible
that simpler life—perhaps tiny microbes—might yet exist on other plan-
ets or moons of the solar system. Second, while we’ve long known that
the universe is full of stars, we’ve only recently gained concrete evidence
telling us that it is also full of planets, which means there are far more
places where we could potentially search for life. Third, advances in both
scientific understanding and technology now make it possible to study
the question of life in the universe through established techniques of sci-
ence, something that was not possible just a few decades ago. For exam-
ple, we now understand enough about biology to explore the conditions
that might make it possible for life to exist on other worlds, and we know
enough about planets, and many of their moons, to consider which ones
might be capable of harboring life. We are also rapidly developing the
spacecraft technology needed to search for microbes on other worlds of
our solar system and the telescope technology needed to look for signs of
life among the stars.
The bottom line is that while it remains possible that life exists only
on Earth, we now have plenty of scientific reasons to think that life
might be widespread and that we might detect it if it is.

1.2 The Scientific Context of the Search

Almost every field of scientific research has at least some bearing on
the search for life in the universe. Even seemingly unrelated fields such
as mathematics and computer science play important roles. For exam-
ple, we use mathematics to do the many computations that help us un-
derstand all other areas of science, and we use computers to simulate
everything from the formation of stars and planets to the way in which
the molecules of life interact with one another. However, three disci-
plines play an especially important role in framing the context of the
scientific search for life: astronomy, planetary science (which includes
geology and atmospheric science), and biology.

How does astronomy help us understand the

possibilities for extraterrestrial life?
For most of human history, our conception of the cosmos was quite dif-
ferent from what it is today. Earth was widely assumed to be the center
of the universe. Planets were lights in the sky, named for ancient gods,
and no one had reason to think they could be worlds on which we might
search for life. Stars were simply other lights in the sky, distinguished
from the planets only by the fact that they remained fixed in the patterns
of the constellations, and few people even considered the possibility that
our Sun could be one of the stars. Moreover, with the Sun and planets
presumed to be orbiting around Earth, there was no reason to think that

4  Part I Introducing Life in the Universe

M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 4 06/11/15 4:08 PM

 stars could have planets of their own, let alone planets on which there
might be life.
When you consider the dominance that this Earth-centered, or geo-
centric, view of the universe held for thousands of years, it becomes ob-
vious that astronomy plays a key role in framing the context of the mod-
ern search for life. We will discuss in Chapter 2 how and why the human
view of the cosmos changed dramatically about 400 years ago, and we’ll
consider the modern astronomical context in some detail in Chapter 3.
But the point should already be clear: We now know that Earth is but one
tiny world orbiting one rather ordinary star in a vast cosmos, and this
fact opens up countless possibilities for life on other worlds.
Astronomy provides context to the search for life in many other ways
as well, but one more is important enough to mention right now: By
studying distant objects, we have learned that the physical laws that op-
erate in the rest of the universe are the same as those that operate right
here on Earth. This tells us that if something happened here, it is possible
that the same thing could have happened somewhere else, at least in
principle. We are not the center of the universe in location, and we have
no reason to think we are “central” in any other way, either. To summa- FIGURE 1.2
The astronomical context tells us that our Sun is an ordinary star
rize, the astronomical context makes it clear that the universe holds an
in a vast universe, implying that there could be an enormous
enormous number of stars that could potentially be orbited by planets number of stars with planets that might potentially host life.
with life (Figure 1.2). This Hubble Space Telescope photo shows a cluster of young,
massive stars (NGC 3603) surrounded by a gas cloud in which
How does planetary science help us understand the Sun-like stars may still be forming. Careful study of distant stars
and gas clouds shows that they are made of the same basic
possibilities for extraterrestrial life? chemical elements and obey the same physical laws that we are
Planetary science is the name we give to the study of almost everything familiar with on Earth.
having to do with planets. It includes the study of planets themselves,
as well as the study of moons orbiting planets, the study of how planets
form, and the study of other objects that may form in association with
planets (such as asteroids and comets). Planetary science helps set the
context for the search for life in the universe in several different ways,
but two are especially important.
First, by learning how planets form, we develop an understanding of
how common we might expect planets to be. Until just about the mid-
dle of the last century, we really had no basis for assuming that many
other stars would have their own planets. Some scientists thought this
likely, while others did not, and we lacked the data needed to distin-
guish between the two possibilities [Section 3.5]. But during the latter
half of the twentieth century, a growing understanding of the processes
by which our own solar system formed—much of it based on evidence
obtained through human visits to the Moon and spacecraft visits to other
planets—gradually made it seem more likely that other stars might sim-
ilarly be born with planetary systems.
Still, as recently as 1995, no one was sure whether planets encircled
other stars like the Sun. That was the year in which the first strong evi-
dence was obtained for the existence of extrasolar planets, or planets
orbiting stars other than our Sun. Since that time, additional discover-
ies of extrasolar planets have poured in at an astonishing rate, so that
FIGURE 1.3
the number of known extrasolar planets now far exceeds the number of Artist's conception of the planet “Kepler 11f,” which is about
planets of our solar system (Figure 1.3). Based on the statistics of these twice the mass of Earth and orbits its star with at least five other
discoveries, it now seems likely that most stars have planets and, as we’ll planets. Kepler 11f is one of thousands of planets discovered by
discuss in Chapter 11, it seems reasonable to imagine that life—and the Kepler spacecraft.

Chapter 1 A Universe of Life?  5

M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 5 06/11/15 4:08 PM

 The Planetary Science Context possibly even civilizations—could exist on at least some of these planets
or their moons.
A second way in which planetary science shapes the context for the
Modern
Evidence
search for life is by helping us understand why planets differ. For exam-
understanding ple, by studying planets and comparing them to one another, we have
that most stars
of how planets
have planets learned why some planets are rocky like Earth while others, like Jupiter,
form
contain vast amounts of hydrogen and helium gas. We’ve also learned
Vast why Venus is so much hotter than Earth despite the fact that, in the
numbers of stars
should have habitable planets scheme of our solar system, it is only slightly closer to the Sun. Similarly,
we can now explain why the Moon is desolate and barren even though
it orbits the Sun at essentially the same distance as Earth, and we have a
fairly good idea of why Mars is cold and dry today, when evidence shows
that it was warmer and wetter in the distant past.
Understanding This understanding of how planets work gives us deeper insight into
the conditions the nature of planetary systems in general. More important to our pur-
that make a
planet habitable poses, it also helps us understand what to look for as we search for habit-
able worlds—worlds that have the ingredients and conditions necessary
for life. After all, given that there are far more worlds in the universe
than we can ever hope to study in detail, we can improve our odds of
FIGURE 1.4
The astronomical context showed us that vast numbers of success in finding life by constraining the search to those worlds that are
stars could be hosts to planets, and planetary science suggests the most promising. Be sure to note that when we ask whether a world is
that these stars are indeed orbited by planets, many of which habitable, we are asking whether it offers environmental conditions un-
should be habitable. der which life could arise or survive, not whether it actually harbors life.
Also keep in mind that when we say a world is habitable, we do
not necessarily mean that familiar plants, animals, or people could sur-
vive there. For much of Earth’s history, nearly all life was microscopic,
and even today, the total mass of microbes on Earth is greater than that
of all plants and animals combined. The search for habitable worlds is
primarily a search for places where microbes of some kind might sur-
vive, though we might find larger organisms as well. To summarize, the
planetary science context suggests that most of the stars in the universe
should indeed have planets and that we should expect many of them to
be at least potential homes for life (Figure 1.4).

How does biology help us understand the possibilities

for extraterrestrial life?
Astronomy, planetary science, and other science disciplines play impor-
tant roles in shaping the context for the search for life in the universe,
but since we are searching for life, the context of biology is especially im-
portant. Just as you wouldn’t look for a house to buy without knowing
something about real estate, it would make no sense to search for life if
we didn’t know something about how life functions. The key question
about the biological context of the search revolves around whether we
should expect biology to be rare or common in the cosmos.
Wherever we have looked in the universe, we have found clear evi-
dence that the same laws of nature are operating. We see galaxies sprin-
kled throughout space, and we see that the same stellar processes that
occur in one place also occur in others. In situations in which we can
observe orbital motions, we find that they agree with what we expect
from the law of gravity. These and other measurements make us confi-
dent that the basic laws of physics that we’ve discovered here on Earth
also hold throughout the universe.

6  Part I Introducing Life in the Universe

M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 6 06/11/15 4:08 PM

 We can be similarly confident that the laws of chemistry are univer- The Biological Context
sal. Observations of distant stars show that they are made of the same
chemical elements that we find here in our own solar system, and that
interstellar gas clouds contain many of the same molecules we find on Evidence that Evidence that
Earth. This provides conclusive evidence that atoms come in the same organic molecules life appeared early
form easily and in the history
types and combine in the same ways throughout the universe. naturally of the Earth
Could biology also be universal? That is, could the biological process-
es we find on Earth be common throughout the cosmos? If the answer is Biology
may be common
yes, then the search for life elsewhere should be exciting and fruitful. If in the universe
the answer is no, then life may be a rarity.
Because we haven’t yet observed biology anywhere beyond Earth,
we can’t yet know whether biology is universal. However, evidence from
our own planet gives us at least some reason to think that it might be.
Laboratory experiments suggest that chemical constituents found on the Evidence that
Earth life can
early Earth would have combined readily into complex organic (car- survive under a
bon-based) molecules, including many of the building blocks of life [Sec- wide range of
conditions
tion 6.2]. Indeed, scientists have found organic molecules in meteorites
(chunks of rock that fall to Earth from space) and, through spectroscopy
[Section 3.3], in clouds of gas between the stars. The fact that such mole-
FIGURE 1.5
cules form even under the extreme conditions of space suggests that they Evidence from the study of life on Earth gives us at least some
form quite readily and may be common on many worlds. reason to think that biology may be common among the many
Of course, the mere presence of organic molecules does not necessarily potentially habitable worlds in the universe.
mean that life will arise, but the history of life on Earth gives us some reason
to think that the step from chemistry to biology is not especially difficult.
As we’ll discuss in Chapter 6, geological evidence tells us that life on Earth
arose quite early in Earth’s history, at least on a geological time scale. If
the transition from chemistry to biology were exceedingly improbable, we
might expect that it would have required much more time. The early origin
of life on Earth therefore suggests—but certainly does not prove—that life
might also emerge quickly on other worlds with similar conditions.

Think About It Microbial life on Earth predates intelligent life like us by at

least 3 to 4 billion years. Do you think this fact tells us anything about the
likelihood of finding intelligent life, as opposed to finding any life, on extraso-
lar planets? Explain.

If life really can be expected to emerge under the right conditions,

the only remaining question is the prevalence of those “right” condi-
tions. Here, too, recent discoveries give us reason to think that biology
could be common. In particular, biologists have found that microscopic
life can survive and prosper under a much wider range of circumstances
than was believed only a few decades ago [Section 5.5]. For example, we
now know that life exists in extremely hot water near deep-sea volcanic
vents, in the frigid conditions of Antarctica, and inside rocks buried a
kilometer or more beneath the Earth’s surface. Indeed, if we were to
export these strange organisms from Earth to other worlds in our solar
system—perhaps to Mars or Europa—it seems possible that at least some
of them would survive. This suggests that the range of “right” conditions
for life may be quite broad, in which case it might be possible to find life
even on planets that are significantly different in character from Earth.
In summary, we have no reason to think that life ought to be rare
and several reasons to expect that it may be quite common (Figure 1.5).
If life is indeed common, studying it will give us new insights into life on
Earth, even if we don’t find other intelligent civilizations. These enticing

Chapter 1 A Universe of Life?  7

M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 7 06/11/15 4:08 PM

 Mercury Venus
Jupiter Saturn
FIGURE 1.6
A “family portrait” of the eight official planets that orbit our
Sun, along with the dwarf planets Ceres (located in the asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter) and Pluto (located in the Kuiper
belt beyond Neptune). Going across the top row and then the
bottom row, the planets and dwarf planets are shown in order
of increasing average distance from the Sun; the photos are not
shown to scale.
8  Part I Introducing Life in the Universe
M01_BENN9089_04_SE_C01.indd 8
Earth Mars Ceres
Uranus Neptune Pluto
prospects have captured the interest of scientists from many disciplines
and from around the world, giving birth to a new science devoted to the
study of, and search for, life in the universe.
1.3 Places to Search
The study of life in the universe involves fundamental research in all the
scientific areas we have already mentioned, and others as well. Indeed,
as you’ll see throughout this book, the study of extraterrestrial life goes
far beyond simply searching for living organisms. Still, all of this study is
driven by the possibility that life exists elsewhere, so before we dive into
any details, it’s worth a quick overview of the places and methods we use
in the search.
Where should we search for life in the universe?
The search for life in the universe takes place on several different levels.
First, and foremost in many ways, it is a study of life right here on Earth.
As we discussed earlier, we are still learning about the places and con-
ditions under which terrestrial life exists, and many scientists are busy
searching for new species of life on our own world. After all, the more we
know about life here, the better we’ll be able to search for it elsewhere.
SEARCHING OUR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM Turning our attention to places besides
Earth, the first place to search for life is on other worlds in our own solar
system. Our solar system has a lot of worlds: It has the planets and dwarf
planets (including Ceres, Pluto, and Eris) orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting
planets, and huge numbers of smaller objects such as asteroids and comets.
Figure 1.6 shows some of our best current views of the planets (and
two of the five currently identified dwarf planets) in our solar system.
Note that it is not to scale, since its purpose is to show each world as we
know it today from spacecraft or through telescopes; you can turn to
Figure 3.3 to see the sizes correctly scaled.
06/11/15 4:08 PM
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 She would sell the chain flung to her at the Carnival.

It was certainly hers, and quite as certainly she would never wear the
thing. She remembered the high price of that she had seen at Spink's. This
one appeared to be quite as good, the pearls of quite as excellent colour and
lustre, the diamonds the same. It ought to fetch something substantial.

With this comfortable thought she folded her letter and went to bed, and
slept till morning blushed (as it did at the proper time in vivid crimson),
while the poor suspected woman in the next room tossed upon an uneasy
pillow, and racked her brains in vain, feverish efforts to find some way of
turning the sapphires into money, until youth and nature conquered, and she
too sank into blissful forgetfulness.

Ermengarde found it useless to take the thin man into her confidence
with regard to the woman of mystery; his mind on that subject seemed to be
of impenetrable brass. Had Mr. Welbourne observed this or that singular
proceeding on the part of Miss Somers? drew from him a look of blank
stupidity, a brazen want of comprehension, or some remark to the effect that
Miss Somers was a young lady of singular charm; that she possessed
intelligence of a high order, was remarkably well-informed, a most restful
companion, with unusual conversational powers, enhanced by the still more
unusual faculty of knowing when to be silent; that her beauty was of a very
distinguished order, the marble whiteness of her complexion having the
quality of morbidezza, and being due to an exceptionally fine and clear
skin, rather than to ill-health.

"In short, my dear creature," Ermengarde reflected, "you think her far
too good-looking to be criticized, much less suspected."

She remembered that the thin man was a bachelor, and not so very old,
probably not much more than forty, the age of most acute susceptibility to
feminine attraction. In the sight of men of that age, beauty can do no wrong.
Yet the thin man honestly detested poor Miss Boundrish; he had been
known to flee as if for life, and hide behind trees, rocks, trellises, and
folding screens, even on one occasion behind an upright piano, where by
mischance he was imprisoned for two solid hours, in trying to escape the
society of that coral-lipped, dewy-eyed sylph.
 But the woman of mystery had known how to tame that wild and shy
bachelor heart to her hand. Perhaps she would make him sell the sapphires.

"Supposing," Ermengarde asked Mr. Welbourne, the day after her

refusal to oblige Agatha by that small service, conscience having given her
some uncomfortable qualms on that account—"supposing some one were to
ask you to sell extremely valuable jewels for them, on the ground that they
did not wish to be seen selling diamonds, would you do it?"

"Why not? If it were a lady, of course I would," he said promptly,

reflecting that he was in for it, and could make better bargains than she, and
hoping that parting with her jewels would be a lesson to Mrs. Allonby on
the folly of gambling.

"But supposing you were another lady?"

"How suppose anything so utterly impossible?" What on earth had that

to do with it, he wondered.

"Well, would one woman ask another woman to do such a thing without
very strong reason?"

The man's brain swam; certainly she was not asking him to sell jewels
for her. What could she be driving at?

"Dear lady, I hope you will forgive my saying that the common consent
of mankind throughout the ages agrees that your sex never acts upon
reason."

"I can't forgive anything so insulting to my sex. My impression is that

the woman stole the necklace."

"Ah, now we leave the abstract and come to the concrete—a particular
woman and a particular necklace—and forgetting logic, we go gallantly
upon feelings, intuitions. Still, the impression that certain costly jewels have
been stolen by an individual acquaintance is somewhat powerful, not to say
aggressive. Modern altruism, still less old-fashioned Christian charity,
would scarcely cherish an impression of that kind, would it?" After all, he
reflected, this little woman is not as simple as she appears.

"Well, but if she wants to sell them, why can't she do it herself?"

"People exist who never, as a matter of principle, do anything they can

get anybody else to do for them. I can't defend the principle, though I often
act upon it; indeed, it appears to have its roots very deep in human nature,
like the propensity to bottle up trumps at bridge."

"One dislikes to be disobliging; it seems unkind."

"If," replied the thin man, a light suddenly breaking upon his bewildered
brain, "the lady in question should happen to be our dear young friend of
the too frequent laugh, Mrs. Allonby, don't be afraid. She has neither the wit
nor the self-command to make a big haul like that. But she is quite silly
enough to get into difficulties over play or dress"—here Ermengarde's
cheeks vied with the scarlet salvias blooming hard by—"and to sell jewels
on the sly, and it would be the worst service you could do a child like that to
help her."

"Sweet girl! I quite agree with you. She's much too small for large sins.
And I've never seen her with valuable jewels. Dear Mr. Welbourne, your
advice is as always so excellent. Ever since we met here you have been a
second father to me."

The thin man sighed. It is a sweet and seemly thing to be the father of a
charming and lovely young woman, but only when one is too old for other
relationships. It occurred to him that it might be wise to shave; a beard
sometimes gives a false appearance of age. The patriarchs wore beards,
while Greek gods, with the exception of Zeus, are mostly represented as
beardless. No one ever heard of a bearded angel. Only yesterday Miss
Boundrish had wondered publicly and at the top of her voice why Mr.
Welbourne "had never married," and he had replied very meekly that it was
not his custom to do anything in a hurry; upon which Miss Boundrish's
mother had encouragingly cited the case of a cousin's uncle on the other
side, who had married at eighty-five.
 It was while Mr. Welbourne was sighing and meditating on his own
beard and the probable extent of her pecuniary difficulties that Ermengarde,
who, with his helping hand had just climbed up among the twisted roots of
some pines to the height on which the monastery was built, caught sight of
the figure of a stranger. He was pacing the broad and level walk beneath the
cypresses, outside the building, where the ridge was highest, and whence
the outlook over mountain gorges on one hand and capes and headlands
running out to sea on the other was widest and of most varied beauty. It was
a tall, thin, black figure in a hooded cloak, with a clean-shaven, ascetic face
bent over the book he carried and was perusing with devout interest.

"Surely," she said, stopping to rest on the low, crumbling wall by the
steps leading on to this plateau—"surely that must be one of the expelled
monks, or his ghost, come back to the old home. Reading his breviary."

Mr. Welbourne found a seat on the wall beside her, carefully avoiding a
geranium-bush, that had grown up to the top among the broken stones, and
gave out a delicate scent where Ermengarde's skirt swept it.

"No," he said, looking at the studious figure, "it is not a monk. I doubt if
the book he is studying with such devout interest is a book of hours—or a
psalter."

"An interesting type—pale, worn, emaciated, deep-set eyes, a keen,

subtle face—the true ascetic type. What stories that face could tell," she
mused aloud—"that is, the mouth."

"Well, yes; it has told a few thumpers to my certain knowledge. No, it is

not a monk, Mrs. Allonby. It is only Mr. Mosson."

"You know him? How interesting!"

"Oh, everybody knows Mr. Mosson—everybody who has come to grief,

that is."

"A philanthropist? The modern form of religious enthusiasm—deeds,

not words; feeding the hungry instead of saying prayers. A holy
materialism."
 How soon, Mr. Welbourne reflected, misfortune breeds cynicism. It was
hardly forty-eight hours since calamity at the tables had befallen this young
woman, and she could talk like this. "Should you be in want of money," he
continued, "you have merely to name the sum to our ascetic friend, and it is
forthcoming. People often want money in these regions, because everybody
here is rich. It is only the rich who want money."

"Really? Then what on earth do the poor want?"

"Oh, lots of things—food, fire, friends, advice, sympathy, clothes, work,

but money never."

"Really? Then how very, very rich I must be."

"Undoubtedly you are. But here comes our friend."

They had to stand in the narrow path to let the reverend man pass on his
pious way, and, the déjeuner bell having just left off sounding, followed
him into the house very shortly after, but at too small a distance to permit
further discussion of his virtues—a point much on Mr. Welbourne's
conscience at the time, but unfortunately soon driven from his memory by
after-events.

The benefactor of his species in the meantime, unconscious of the

veneration he inspired, took his place at a small solitary table in the
background, silent and, after the first few moments of curiosity his presence
excited, unnoticed, and presumably absorbed in schemes for the
amelioration of mankind. With the déjeuner he vanished, but was again
discovered at his secluded table at dinner, just as if he had never moved,
and so for several days.

Rumour spoke of a motor-car waiting daily at the foot of the ridge, and
bearing him away in a cloud of dust and unpleasant smell. M. Bontemps
hinted that he came up to Les Oliviers for a few days' rest, much to Mrs.
Allonby's surprise. She had had no idea that the practice of beneficence was
so fatiguing.
 People often came up to the little house on the ridge for rest and quiet,
out of the closer air of the town, out of the racket and turmoil of the huge
and hideous barrack hotels, that desolated the face of the country for many
a mile round, even drawing great splotches of aggressive ugliness across the
lovely wooded slopes of the mountains, so that no eye could possibly
escape the sight of them. And after a brief sojourn, refreshed and soothed to
the point of boredom, they returned with renewed zest to the horrors of
civilization and excessive wealth in the barracks.

Les Oliviers itself was certainly not beautiful, and it was visible from
far, but its humble position behind and beneath the monastery, its moderate
size and similarity to the little green-shuttered houses dotted among
vineyards and olive-gardens, with its absence of all pretence and
meretricious ornament, redeemed it from vulgarity, and put its want of
comeliness out of mind. So at least Mrs. Allonby told M. Isidore, who
acknowledged the compliment with a bow, and observed with a sigh of
deepest melancholy that it was the home of his heart's desire.

A cloud had for some days past hung over the habitual gaiety of the
cheery little man, a cloud neither black with thunder nor leaden with low-
hanging rain, but rather one of those pearly transparencies that flutter about
sunset skies, catching and transmuting every glorious glow of crimson and
gold and purple. He was obliging, courteous, full of wit and gaiety, as ever;
but interspersed his sallies with deep-drawn sighs, emotional exclamations,
and those little, half-humorous groans, that are the peculiar characteristic of
the lively Gaul.

He had even discussed—with Mrs. Allonby—the frequency and

inevitableness of self-destruction as a result of feminine scorn and
variableness, and of blighted hopes, together with the best way of effecting
it. For this, he had been gently, very gently, rebuked, and wisely and kindly
counselled, and recommended to give back scorn for scorn.

"What care I how fair she be?" etc.

In rejoinder he had referred to the tragic circumstance that he possessed

a heart, placing his hand over the region where hearts are supposed to be,
with a gesture expressive of severe internal pain.
 In short, there was no manner of doubt that M. Isidore was the victim of
unrequited passion of the most powerful description, or that the sympathy
implied or expressed by Mrs. Allonby's reception of his hinted confidences
was balm to his wounded breast.

She told him quite plainly that he was a fool—a fact that he admitted
with gusto—that he was young, and would soon get over it, which he
denied with fury. Some such confidences had been imparted during chance
meetings and aimless rovings along paths through pine-woods aromatic
with undergrowth of myrtle and juniper; through solemn olive-groves,
hushed and dim, their drooping foliage tangled with azure lights; between
vineyards; by lonely cottages, pergola-shaded; through shadowy dells and
along sunny ridge-tops. In the bee-haunted silence of these secluded ways
suddenly, round a corner, up a ravine, down a steep, emerging from an aisle
of pine-trunks, anything or anybody might appear as if by magic.
Sometimes a mule, pattering softly and steadily under panniers of
household goods and garden stuff, and followed by a peasant with ready
smile and chat in broken French; now an old woman leading a goat;
sometimes men or women laden with faggots and grass more heavily than
their own patient, soft-eyed beasts; sometimes a gaily-caparisoned donkey
bearing a tourist, sometimes a whole noisy troop of them; now a solitary
pedestrian, now a numerous party, breaking the charmed quiet by confused
babble of nasal American, guttural German, slurred English, or burred
French; sometimes the sudden, abhorred gurgle of Miss Boundrish.

The suddenness and unexpectedness of these apparitions, the feeling

that anything—a wood-nymph, a fairy, a mountain gnome, a Greek faun,
the face of an old friend, or the bearer of some new fresh happiness—might
appear was a great charm. One afternoon Ermengarde had been sitting
under a pine-tree on a sandy bank by the path, looking across the ravine at
the great sweep of crag-peaked mountains running down to a broad blue
space of sea, when the figure of M. Isidore issued from hidden depths, and
was suddenly outlined on the sky in front of her.

Quite naturally, and without hesitation, he let himself down on the

myrtle-covered bank near the lady, but a little lower down, so that in
speaking he had to look up. The easy, friendly ways of this attendant Ariel
sometimes aroused a momentary wonder, soon stilled by the reflection that
it was "only M. Isidore," a convenient and agreeable foreigner, outside
conventions, socially non-existent, like the peasants who chatted and smiled
so pleasantly in passing.

Though the daily unacknowledged offering of flowers continued, none

had been worn since the episode of the Malmaisons. Not that any
importance was to be attributed either to the French youth's graceful
courtesy in giving flowers, or to the woman of mystery's unwarranted hints
of gossip about it. Mrs. Allonby seldom wore flowers at table now, unless
they were obviously wild; that was all.

Nor had the Italian lessons M. Isidore had been giving her stopped—he
gave conversational lessons in that language to Miss Boundrish, to Mr.
Welbourne, and other male visitors as well. There was nothing tedious or
fatiguing in the Italian lessons given to Mrs. Allonby. They always began
with Ollendorffian questions and answers in slow and indifferent Italian, as
thus: "Do you like cheese? I do not like cheese, but the sister-in-law of the
Italian organ-grinder likes cheese," and ended in light and gay discussions
in quick, fluent French upon subjects of various interest, art, literature, the
only drastic and effectual remedy for blighted hopes, the best place to pop
and redeem jewels in, the last big haul at Monte Carlo, and the eminent
personalities to be seen playing there—topics upon which this light-hearted
youth was very well informed.

"Ah, Madame!" he sighed on this sunny afternoon, his beautiful dark

eyes uplifted to her sympathetic face, and his hand fervidly pressing the
upper part of his waistcoat; "if I might but reveal to you the anguish that is
consuming me!"

Bees were drowsily humming in masses of grey-blue rosemary bloom,

so drowsily that they accentuated the deep mountain silence, upon which
the minor tones of the lovelorn youth's voice fell plaintive and clear.
Ermengarde, regarding him with the unconsciously sweet expression that
had won her many a heart, was replying, "Well, why not? Perhaps the
trouble is not so great as it seems," when she became sympathetically
aware, without looking up, through a sudden nervous tremor in her young
friend's frame, of another presence on the path, and turned simultaneously
with him to see the statuesque figure and cold, rigid face of Mlle.
Bontemps.

She had apparently sprung up unobserved from the depths of the earth,
as everybody did on that ridge, and stood waiting, her massively coiled hair
shining uncovered in the fading sun, for an opportunity to speak.

The luckless Isidore was on his feet with a bound, while Ermengarde
started with a smothered exclamation, and recovered with a little
embarrassed laugh.

"How you startled me, Mademoiselle!" she said. "One hears nothing on
this soft sand."

Mademoiselle seemed neither to see nor to hear Mrs. Allonby. Looking

coldly at the embarrassed and apologetic Isidore, she said with a kind of
weary calm, "Maman is still waiting," turned and walked away with her
usual haughty bearing, and sank out of sight down the steep path, pursued,
after a moment of despairing gesture, in which his hair suffered, and a wild
exclamation of, "Mon Dieu! je l'avais oubliée, cette vieille!" by M. Isidore,
to the mingled amusement and regret of Ermengarde, who justly divined
that the charm of her society had beguiled the unfortunate youth into
forgetfulness of the hour of some domestic duty, and that his reception at
the hotel might be stormy.

"He really is a very dear boy," she reflected, leaning back against the
gnarled pine-trunk, and watching the shadows fill hollow and ravine with
vague blueness and the upward slanting sunlight steep the mountain peaks
in crimson and rose, while the hushed sea grew bluer than its own
incredible blue, and the clear, deep sky took a violet tinge. "How on earth
did this boy come to be born in this small hotel-keeper class? He has the
bearing of a prince, the instincts of a knight of romance, and the charm of a
gallant child. And then to be sulked at and called over the coals by a girl
like Geneviève, and at the beck and call of a woman like this Madame
Bontemps!"

The situation was odious, impossible. She wished the poor boy were her
son. When youngish women—women under thirty—find themselves
wishing to be the mothers of full-grown and fascinating youths, they should
at once begin to think as hard as possible of something else. Instead of this,
Mrs. Allonby went on thinking how this young Isidore might be her son. He
could not be more than twenty-one, certainly; it was hardly possible to be a
mother at seven—but at seventeen? Had she been born just ten years earlier,
the thing would have been not only possible, but probable. She might have
been forcibly married to some unpleasant elderly person at sixteen—some
foreign vicomte, who, after a few years, would have conveniently and
politely died, leaving her in the bloom of youth, free and rich, as they do in
French novels.

Then she might have met Arthur and married him, at eight or nine and
twenty—a much more appropriate age for Arthur's wife—that is, in the
event of Arthur having had the sense to be born on the date of his actual
birth, though, of course, a man so exasperating was capable of anything. It
would have been so interesting to marry a French noble and have those few
years' glimpse of foreign life. And, in that case, the poor dear boy would
certainly not have found himself in this sordid hotel-keeping element; he
might have been in the diplomatic service; he was made for it. Why had her
life not been arranged on these lines? An elder brother would have been so
good for Charlie; she would have been less tempted to spoil the child; and
being nearer his age, and having already trained one husband, she would
have been more capable of understanding Arthur's freaks and fancies; and
some recent regrettable incidents might never have occurred. But it is a
crooked world.

Turning with a sigh, she found herself face to face with a figure that had
come down unseen in the shadows, and proved to be that of a fellow-visitor.
"Where is M. Isidore?" this lady asked abruptly in the German manner.

Hardly had Ermengarde expressed polite ignorance on the subject, when

her musings were again interrupted by the appearance of Miss Boundrish's
parents, on their evening stroll, with the same query, followed by
expressions of disappointment at her inability to satisfy their curiosity.

"But where can he be?" exclaimed Mrs. Boundrish with irritation, upon
which she was tartly advised to go back to the hotel and telephone for the
required information.
 "But you must know which way he went?" Mrs. Boundrish persisted
obstinately.

"Indeed, I am neither as observant nor as curious as you suppose," she

replied sweetly, vexed at having shown temper to a casual travelling
acquaintance—a mere "passing ship"—whereupon Mr. and Mrs. Boundrish
exchanged glances; while Ermengarde, incidentally remarking upon the
well-known chill of the sunset hour, rose and walked in the opposite
direction to her inquisitors—homewards—remembering as she went that it
was not the first time that questions concerning the youth who might have
been her son, if she had been ten years older, had annoyed her. The pettiness
and impertinence of these underbred tourists—tourists are never of the first
person; people have owned to criminality, but not to being tourists—the
worst of these small hotels—people are so mixed up and thrown together.

"Well, and if the poor boy is hard hit," she meditated, "a grand passion
is a necessary phase in a young man's development, and the more hopeless
the better. But the bourgeois mind cannot grasp the beauty of an ideal
devotion, of the unselfish homage a gallant youth gladly pays to one in
every way hopelessly above him. A Boundrish can vulgarize even that
poetic passion. How very lucky that the object of the poor lad's devotion
happens to be a staid and sensible matron old enough to give motherly
advice and young enough to be sympathetic," she reflected complacently,
while she went slowly back to the house and dressed for table d'hôte.

She was still pursuing this current of reflection while she went
downstairs in her simple semi-toilet, adorned no longer by tributary
flowers, and sank upon the least hard-hearted of the drawing-room easy-
chairs.

"Oh, I say, Mrs. Allonby!" cried Miss Boundrish, bursting into the half-
lighted, empty room with her usual grace and charm, and punctuating her
remarks with gurgles, "I'm jolly glad you're safe, so far. That Bontemps girl
is going for you the minute she sees you. There has been the most awful
row downstairs about you. Best double-lock your door to-night, and be
careful to eat nothing that has not been tasted by somebody else."
 "My dear Miss Boundrish," she replied gently, observing that no one
else was in the room; "you are young, and your imagination is vivid; do you
think it quite wise to mix yourself up with the people of the house?"

But Dorris was not to be crushed; she only gurgled scornfully, and
would have made some pert retort, had not the thin man, who, after all, had
been lounging unseen in a shadowed corner, suddenly glided to the piano,
struck some full bass chords and begun to improvise in a pleasant fashion
he had at times: when the room was empty and he felt moved to confide his
thoughts and dreams to the spirit in the instrument.

Then Ermengarde, ruffled and inwardly raging, but grateful for Mr.
Welbourne's paternal care, took a seat touching the piano, and was silent;
the man with the ascetic face came in and stood like a statue behind the
player; the room slowly filled; but Mr. Welbourne, contrary to custom,
played on, as if something within him must find expression in music, even
when a buzz of talk hummed through the room and lights were turned up,
until dinner.

Chapter XIII

The Publisher's Parcel

Though conjectures as to the manner in which poor Agatha Somers had

become possessed of the necklace disturbed Ermengarde's sleep, and the
glow of the sapphires coloured all her thoughts of her, she was obliged to
take the creature to her heart; there was in her something so lovable and so
pathetic, especially that appeal in her eyes—so she confided to Mr.
Welbourne, who smiled and seemed gratified by this view of their mutual
friend, though he said little.
 She seems fond of me, Ermengarde reflected; I wonder why? How
great, she mused, is the attraction that virtue has for the depraved and
rectitude for the outcast! Who could tell what redeeming influence a good
woman's kindness might exercise upon this erring young soul? She would
certainly befriend the wanderer in every possible way, except that of
helping her to dispose of ill-gotten jewellery. Perhaps there might be some
grain of truth, some small foundation in fact, for the circumstantial family
history this ingenious young person had related to her by the wood fire that
evening. She was undoubtedly well-bred, possibly well-born; it was highly
probable that she had been nurtured in comfort, if not luxury—still, how did
she come by that necklace? It was a small fortune in itself. Nobody reduced
to bread-labour would keep so much money locked up. Again, what
possible work of a secretarial character could she be doing in this land of
lotus-eating? Or how could a penniless young woman afford such an
expensive holiday as this? Was she, could she be, a female detective?

In that case, who could she be shadowing, up here in the mountains,

among this little company of highly respectable, not to say frumpish, folk?
Surely not the thin man—yet human character abounds in the unexpected
and even the incredible—had Mr. Welbourne, after all, a wife desirous of
shunting him? Was he a wolf in sheep's clothing, a hypocrite steeped in
iniquity? Lame and deformed people often have a twist in their character—
not that poor Mr. Welbourne was deformed—indeed, had his fleshly
covering been a little more abundant, he would have been rather good-
looking, his features well-cut, his eyes bright and animated. There was
nobody else to shadow at Les Oliviers—no English body else, that is—the
visitors mostly consisted of family parties.

No; she must be some kind of spy or conspirator, in league as she was
with the Anarchist. Yet Ivor Paul was hardly a spy or a conspirator; both the
thin man and the fair Dorris agreed in placing him as the scion of a family
of rank; they knew that he was only five lives off a peerage, but those lives
were young and vigorous. Lady Seaton, who knew the ins and outs and
most intricate ramifications of every family of consequence, and never
forgot who married who, and how they were connected with everybody
else, a widow old enough to mention her age without prevarication, and
herself allied in some distant and complicated manner to every coronet-
bearing English name, had known his father in his youth; she remembered
that his mother had married a second time; she had forgotten the man's
name; it would come back to her presently. Sir George, her late husband,
had been in public life; the present baronet represented a North-country
constituency, and had been a Minister. So far, the truth of Agatha's story
was confirmed; though what the woman of mystery's relations with this
young man might be, it was wiser not to dwell upon. And if she improvised
ailing aunts at need, so did Miss Boundrish, about whom, with all her
delightful deviations from the normal English girl, there was no manner of
mystery, her father giving himself out for what he undoubtedly was—a
plain, substantial British merchant.

"Our young friend," Mr. Welbourne observed one day after some act of
kindness on the part of Agatha to Ermengarde, whose weakness had not yet
entirely left her, "appears to be much attached to you, Mrs. Allonby."

"But I can't think why," she replied; "though I can't help liking the girl
myself."

"Why should you help it? A kindly nature," he added, with a sigh so
deep and so despairing that she was sorry for him. Had the thin man met
with so few kindly natures on his earthly pilgrimage; or was it, could it, at
his age be, hopeless passion?

Lady Seaton had but recently come up to the peace of the house on the
ridge from one of the great hotels below, where there was too much
crowding and racket for her. She was fairly well read and interested in
many things, and had shown much friendliness, mixed with something that
was almost deference, to Ermengarde. In the course of half an hour's
desultory chat in the garden she had become acquainted with all the leading
facts in Mrs. Allonby's life; Charlie's name, age, school, disposition, and
beauty; the busy journalist husband; the attack of influenza; the subsequent
depression, and present holiday trip; while Ermengarde had had a vague
notion that they had been discussing the climate and topography of the
Riviera, and Lady Seaton's own health, all the time.

"You must be very proud of your husband, Mrs. Allonby," she said,
when they were parting on that occasion, and Ermengarde made some
vague and wondering assent to the assumption.

A husband is a not unusual piece of personal property; why on earth be

proud of it? Still, she was not going to let people think she was ashamed of
poor old Arthur, who, with all his faults, was probably no worse than other
men—besides, even if he were ever so bad, he was her man, and she must
stand up for him. "A poor thing, sirs, but mine own."

Since Lady Seaton's arrival Ermengarde had been dimly conscious of a

difference in people's manner to her, as if that of the kind-hearted old lady
had been infectious, or her avowed interest had conferred some distinction
upon her.

Once, when she had tucked herself up cosily in a nook behind a rose-
trellis and fallen asleep in the sunshine, she had been waked by a murmur of
voices from people on the other side of her trellis, and heard in the adored
treble shout of the Boundrish, "Well! I simply call it scandalous. I wonder
the Bontemps put up with it. Such goings on are a reflection upon us all."

"You need have no fear, Miss Boundrish," replied Lady Seaton's low,
distinct voice, in which Ermengarde detected a subtle hint of sarcasm, "you
are quite beyond any such reflection."

"Well, I don't know about that," she replied with complacent gurgles.
"One doesn't care to associate with people who get themselves talked about.
An inherited instinct, I suppose," with more gurgles. "Besides, how do you
know who she is, or whether she has a husband at all? Grass-widows who
run about the Continent alone, and play at Monty to that extent that they
have to pop their jewels——"

Ermengarde smiled at this. "After all, I'm not the only one who pops
jewels here," she thought; "but who on earth can the Boundrish be going for
now?"

"—Why, I saw her go in myself, and she thought I didn't know her
under her black gossamer, and I saw the things in the window afterwards
——"
 "You were there, too?" the thin man interjected, with a greenish glitter
in his eye.

"Oh yes; nothing escapes me——"

"So it appears, and nobody," he murmured to himself.

"—A grass-widow who does that kind of thing needn't go about with
her nose in the air, snubbing people she couldn't possibly get in with at
home, not to speak of the disgraceful way in which she persecutes that poor
silly young Isidore, who will probably get the sack owing to her, besides
losing his fiancée——"

Ermengarde smiled to herself. Was the poor boy engaged, then? and
how could his engagement affect the only grass-widow besides herself in
the house? It certainly was well known that the latter gave the young man a
good deal of unnecessary trouble, but what had that to do with this
supposed engagement of his?

"Though it's true," the artless girl continued, "that she has given up
wearing his flowers at dinner, just to put people off the scent, and persuades
herself that nobody notices all the little walks and talks on the quiet—

Ermengarde, who had listened guilelessly, supposing these remarks to

be addressed to the general public, suddenly changed colour, while another
voice, that of Agatha, as suddenly struck in, "Miss Boundrish, you are
positively slanderous. Such things ought not to be said, even if true, which
they are not."

"Say, Miss Somers, don't you get mad," the American lady began. "I
judge this young Isidore can look after himself some, whoever makes eyes
at him, Miss Boundrish. There are folks must flirt, if it's only with a
broomstick; they just can't help making eyes when there's any men around.
I guess they don't know they're doing it all the time."

"When people are attractive," came in Lady Seaton's exact intonation,

"they are often accused of trying to attract."
 "Oh, attract," gurgled Miss Boundrish. "How anyone can be attracted by
a nose like that—why, you might hang your hat upon it. And as for her
waist——"

"Want of style," her mother suggested, "while her dress——"

"Oh, she don't calculate to dress any. She just slumps along anyhow up
in these mountains, I judge. I never was much on the apple-cheeked, yalla-
haired sort—British gells are too beefy for my taste—else she's pretty
enough, and, my! don't her eyes snap; nights, when she kind of fancies
herself!"

"And thinks she can play bridge, and tries to strum on the piano," added
Dorris viciously.

"Were our fair friend the subject of masculine comment," observed Mr.
Welbourne impressively, "the verdict would, I venture to predict, be one of
whole-hearted admiration on every count."

"Thank you," sighed Ermengarde in her corner, whence she dared not
try to escape.

"Oh, a man's woman is pretty much the same as a lady's man," Dorris
gurgled, "so they say."

"You may stake your pile on that, Miss Boundrish," the American
corroborated.

"And you don't suppose that hair of hers is all grown on the premises,"
continued Dorris acidly.

"Whatever you suppose, I've seen it brushed out," Agatha retorted

—"lovely hair, like floss-silk."

"At any rate, no hair could be that colour naturally, and it gets brighter
every day—thanks to the climate, I suppose. The Monte Carlo yellows are
famous, you know——"
 "Cat!" murmured Ermengarde. "How I should enjoy the twisting of
yours!"

"But what I simply can't stand," pursued the injured maiden plaintively,
"is her making herself out to be somebody—pretending to be that man's
wife——"

"Ah, well! this can't be me. I don't pretend to be anybody's wife,"

thought Ermengarde.

"She is his wife," Agatha said.

"Or one of his wives. He may have dozens for all we know——"

"Dorris, my dear," faltered her poor mother, blushing wildly.

"Well, mater, so he may; that kind of man often does. And, as I said
before, nobody knows anything about her, or whether she has any husband
at all—she may have five—or six——"

"Seven is considered a round, complete, and therefore sacred, number,

though the wife of Bath only had five," observed Mr. Welbourne
thoughtfully.

"Bath! What Bath? D'you mean Lord Bath's wife?" Dorris asked. "And
did he get her divorced?"

"For the Land's sake, Miss Boundrish," shouted Mrs. Dinwiddie, the
American lady, "if you don't just tickle me to death! Lord Bath——" while
the thin man chuckled grimly to himself.

"I never can remember about titled people," Dorris complained bitterly,
as if this defect of memory was owing to the malice of present company.
"And I should have thought that Americans never knew anything to forget,"
she added vindictively.

"That is so—'cept when we marry dukes. But don't you fret, Miss
Boundrish, there's a sight of things better worth knowing than that, you put
your bottom dollar on it."
 Agatha and Lady Seaton had in the meantime drawn Mrs. Boundrish
into other talk, and the thin man had reminded them of an early promise to
come to a private view of his sketches, in which project Miss Boundrish,
who was within earshot, promptly included herself.

The American went off in another direction, and Ermengarde, unable to

stir an inch without attracting attention, kept her eyes fiercely shut, so as to
look asleep, till the footsteps died away. Then she rose and went round to
the front of the terrace, where Agatha still sat among the flowers, with a
fountain pen and a paper partially covered with cipher in her hand, but
looking over the sunny amplitude of space to the sea.

She started at seeing Ermengarde, and seemed relieved when the latter
told her she had been dozing behind the trellis, and had waked to hear the
conversation. "For your part of which, thank you," she said, smiling. "No
doubt I ought to have got away, but I hadn't wit or pluck enough," she
added, sitting by Agatha, and laying her hand caressingly on her arm.
"What that horrid cat said about popping jewellery was partly true. I sold
the chain I got at the Carnival, and—a ring—and—h'm—I redeemed the
ring only yesterday—there it is—and I hope nobody else will ever know
what a fool I've been. The solid truth is, I should have had to go home to
England at once if I hadn't got back those few louis I lost that afternoon—
and I badly wanted to stay on."

"Did Mr. Mosson give you a wrinkle, or was it pure luck?" Agatha
asked, warmed to the heart by this unwonted cordiality.

"Oh, pure luck."

"It's so beguiling—that first luck," Agatha sighed. "And then, when the
luck goes, there's the necessity and hope of getting the losses back. The
demon of chance sits there, I suppose, like a great spider, weaving, weaving
his poison-webs, till the poor fly, caught and tangled hopelessly all round,
can struggle no more. And people live on this—on these blighted lives,
broken homes, shattered hearts, and widespread misery and despair! Have
you seen the cathedral, Mrs. Allonby—that snow-white, brand-new,
dazzling immensity of marble at Monaco, flaunting among the palms and
pines and flowers, all built out of these cruel gains, these despairs and
miseries and degradations? And that palace? Nearly all the palace is new,
built out of Casino winnings, as you remember."

"Perhaps that's why it's so vulgar. You want to wipe it out of the picture
—cathedral and palace, too, built of money."

"Not of money," she said, her eyes shining with a hard brilliance. "No,
built of broken hearts—women's hearts, mothers' hearts, wives' hearts. Oh,
to see the whole accursed monstrosity levelled to the ground! I cannot
speak of it."

What did this sudden passion mean, Ermengarde wondered; then she
remembered the "connexion by marriage," and was sorry for her.

"According to Mr. Welbourne, it is not the gamblers who make the

income," she said. "It is the people who stop a few days at Monte Carlo, and
throw away a couple of louis at the tables to pass the time. After all, most
amusements have to be paid for, and what enjoyment is not liable to
abuse?"

"Enjoyment," cried Agatha, "enjoyment!"

"The gambling instinct, the delight in the excitement of chance, seems

pretty deeply rooted in human nature."

"What vile passion is not deeply rooted in human nature? Mrs. Allonby,
I could tell you tragedies. But no——"

Could anything be more moral, correct, and praise-worthy than this

impetuous outburst?

And yet, on the very next day, who should Ermengarde meet in the
Casino, coming out of the Salle de Jeu, but the woman of mystery herself?
Not alone, certainly, but in earnest conversation with the ubiquitous and
elusive Anarchist, whom she began to suspect of being no creature of flesh
and blood, but some sinister spirit haunting her path with evil intent. So
absorbed in their talk were those two that they passed her without