June 23, 2013: A Little More Sci For Your Sci-Fi

Since 2009 the Kepler satellite has been peering at the heavens, discovering new planets like some kind of. . .  crazy new-planet-discovering machine.

Not content to wait the several generations that will probably elapse before we get to visit these new worlds ourselves, Kepler Project scientist Dr. Steve Howell and author David Lee Summers collaborated with nearly a dozen other writers to create: A Kepler's Dozen: Thirteen Stories about Distant Worlds that Really Exist. Each of these tales is set on one of 13 different planets discovered by the Kepler satellite, and chosen for this collection. While the planetary conditions described in this book are purely conjectural, Tom Beal of the Arizona Daily Star explains that "Howell has fact-checked each story for fidelity to what is known about its host planet and each tale begins with a chart giving the planet's known characteristics."

-- Ben Williams