The book is a snapshot of a fast-moving interdisciplinary field, with a conversational tone, where researchers describe what they do in their own words and convey the excitement of addressing fundamental questions about the universe.

[3] Neil Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, talks about our halting progress in space travel and the prospects for venturing to find life among the stars.

[19] The biological potential of meteorites is the subject of the interviews with Laurie Leshin[20] and Jesuit Guy Consolmagno,[21] who note the presence of the complex building blocks of life in this primordial material from the outer Solar System.

Alan Boss[22] discusses the theory of extrasolar planets or exoplanets, and ace planet-hunters Debra Fischer[23] and Geoff Marcy[24] talk about their properties and the technical innovations that led to their discovery.

Sara Seager summarizes efforts to characterize exoplanets in detail,[25][26] and David Charbonneau talks about the power of the transit method for detecting low mass and Earth-like planets.

To round out the book with a humanistic perspective, Ben Bova[34] talks about our future in space and Jennifer Michael Hecht[35] rekindles our delight in alien yet familiar life on Earth.