Starfarers
By: Poul Anderson.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 383
Subjects: Interplanetary voyages -- Fiction.; Life on other planets -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Description: The saga begins when evidence of an advanced civilization is discovered by SETI astronomers. "Trails" observed in the sky are thought to be from starships traveling at the speed of light, an enigma that spurs scientific minds until this breakthrough is achieved by mankind as well. An expedition is then mounted and an eclectic team of scientists chosen to journey into the sector where the intelligent life is allegedly located.

But because the destination of the starship, Envoy, and her crew is 60,000 light-years away, the time required to reach the point of origin of the signals and return is 120,000 years - longer than Homo sapiens has been on Earth. And though the crew is ready to face the ramifications of such a trek, no one is prepared for what awaits them at the outer edge of the cosmos - or back at the planet they once called home.
Notes: "A Tor book."