Research Catalog

Distant worlds : milestones in planetary exploration / Peter Bond.

Title: Distant worlds : milestones in planetary exploration / Peter Bond.
Author: Bond, Peter.
Publication: New York : Copernicus : in association with Praxis Publishing, Ltd., c2007.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	QB601 .B66 2007	Off-site

Details

Description

x, 325 p. : ill. (some col.); 21 cm.

Summary

This book recounts the epic saga of how we as human beings have come to understand the Solar System. The story of our exploration of the heavens, Peter Bond reminds us, began thousands of years ago, with the naked-eye observations of the earliest scientists and philosophers. Over the centuries, as our knowledge and understanding inexorably broadened and deepened, we faltered many times, frequently labored under misconceptions, and faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles to understanding. Yet, despite overwhelming obstacles, a combination of determined observers, brilliant thinkers, courageous explorers, scientists and engineers has brought us, particularly over the last five decades, into a second great age of human discovery. At our present level of understanding, some fifty years into the Space Age, the sheer volume of images and other data being returned to us from space has only increased our appetite for more and more detailed information about the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets of the Solar System. Taking a much-needed overview of how we now understand these "distant worlds" in our cosmic neighborhood, Bond not only celebrates the extraordinary successes of planetary exploration, but reaffirms an important truth: For seekers of knowledge, there will always be more to explore. An astonishing saga of exploration, .in this much-needed overview of "where we stand today," Peter Bond describes the achievements of the astronomers, space scientists, and engineers who have made the exploration of our Solar System possible.

Subjects

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-313) and index.

Contents

Discovering distant worlds -- Mercury : the iron planet -- Venus : the runaway greenhouse -- The moon : queen of the night -- Mars : the red planet -- Asteroids : vermin of the skies -- Jupiter : king of the planets -- Saturn : lightweight lord of the rings -- Uranus : the toppled giant -- Neptune : the last giant -- Pluto : king of the Kuiper Belt -- Comets : cosmic icebergs -- Appendices. Lunar and planetary missions ; Planetary data ; Satellite data ; Planetary rings ; The largest known Kuiper Belt objects ; Lunar and planetary firsts.

ISBN

0387402128
9780387402123

LCCN

^^2006931779

OCLC

99943457

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library