Asteroids: A HistorySmithsonian Institution, 26 апр. 2016 г. - Всего страниц: 280 Asteroids suggest images of a catastrophic impact with Earth, triggering infernos, tidal waves, famine, and death -- but these scenarios have obscured the larger story of how asteroids have been discovered and studied. During the past two centuries, the quest for knowledge about asteroids has involved eminent scientists and amateur astronomers, patient research and sudden intuition, advanced technology and the simplest of telescopes, newspaper headlines and Cold War secrets. Today, researchers have named and identified the mineral composition of these objects. They range in size from 33 feet to 580 miles wide and most are found in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Covering all aspects of asteroid investigation, Curtis Peebles shows how ideas about the orbiting boulders have evolved. He describes how such phenomena as the Moon's craters and dinosaur extinction were gradually, and by some scientists grudgingly, accepted as the results of asteroid impacts. He tells how a band of icy asteroids rimming the solar system, first proposed as a theory in the 1940s, was ignored for more than forty years until renewed interest and technological breakthroughs confirmed the existence of the Kuiper Belt. Peebles also chronicles the discovery of Shoemaker-Levy 9, a comet with twenty-two nuclei that crashed into Jupiter in 1994, releasing many times the energy of the world's nuclear arsenal. Showing how asteroid research is increasingly collaborative, the book provides insights into the evolution of scientific ideas and the ebb and flow of scientific debate. |
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Alvarez Amor asteroids Apollo asteroids April asteroid belt asteroid moons asteroid names asteroid studies astronomers began calculated Ceres Chiron close approach collision comet Cunningham debris decades December detected dinosaurs discovered discovery distance early Earth Eros Eugene Shoemaker extinction February fireball flyby fragments Galileo Gaspra Helin Hilda asteroids Hubble Icarus images impact indicated interceptor Introduction to Asteroids iridium January Jupiter Jupiter’s kilometers in diameter Kowal later launch layer Levy LPS lights March Marsden Meteor Crater meteorites million Minor Planet Names mission Moon NASA near-Earth asteroids NEAs night nuclear observations Observatory October orbit original Palisa Pallas Palomar Mountain percent photographic Piazzi planetary Pluto Project Icarus radar result rock rotation S-type asteroid San Diego Union-Tribune satellite Saturn Schmadel scientists showed Sky and Telescope solar system space spacecraft Spacewatch spot star surface Telescope July Trojan Trojan asteroids Vesta volcanic weapon