Stephen R. Kane is a Professor of Planetary Astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside. His work covers a broad range of topics related to planetary astrophysics and he has discovered and co-discovered hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. He is a leading expert on the topic of planetary habitability, the habitable zone of planetary systems, and the study of why Venus and Earth underwent divergent evolutions. He is a prominent scientific leader for several NASA missions designed to search for life in the universe. He is also a prolific advocate of interdisciplinarity science through the combination of biology, climate science, geophysics, planetary science, and stellar astrophysics.
"This textbook offers a very accessible introduction to the topic of planetary habitability, both in the context of Solar System bodies and exoplanets. It focuses on the concept of the Habitable Zone (HZ), which it breaks down according to three broad influencing factors: the planet itself, the stellar host, and the planetary system. The different chapters and their sections are very well linked together, and often invite the reader to recall a concept previously explained. Planetary habitability is a young and fast-evolving field and the author acknowledges the necessary incompleteness of his textbook, emphasizing that each approach ""is likely case-specific in a way not yet obvious"". In this context, Professor Kane chooses to remain very Earth- and Solar System centric and approaches planetary habitability strictly through the lens of the Habitable Zone - for which he is extremely thorough and consistent. Estelle Janin, The Observatory, October 2022"