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The phenomena of comets and astronomers' concepts about them are considered historically and in view of present knowledge.Tags
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This is a clear, straightforward, informative, and enjoyable venture into one aspect of astronomy and its history.
This "How did we find out ..." series is over all very good, but this subject fits especially well within the framework.
I was a bit disappointed that there was no discussion of the discovery of Uranus, originally misidentified by Herschel as a new comet. Previously I had believed that there were so many comets then that a new one was no big deal, but now I realize that, while the discovery of a new planet is certainly more significant, a new comet would have been worth a paper.
Chapter 1: Ancient sitings of comets, etymology of the word, the direction in which the comet's tail points.
Chapter 2: Tycho Brahe attempts to measure show more distance to comet using parallax; comet is too far away for this technique to work. Kepler identifies planetary orbits as elliptical, comet orbits are more eccentric than planetary orbits.
Chapter 3: Halley uses Newton's thoughts about gravitation to predict the return of the comet named after him.
Chapter 4; Anders Jean Lexel discovers a new comet with a short period that had not been seen before. The comet never comes back, the hypothesis is that it is yanked out of its orbit by Jupiter. Then in 1818 Johan Franz Encke discovers a new comet with a very short period. It is observed that comets disintegrate very fast, each visit to the sun reducing its size by removing its coma.
Chapter 5: Biela's comet, with a short period, so that its disintegration at every perihelion could be observed and recorded. The relationship of comets to meteors.
Chapter 6: The Oort cloud, birthplace of comets, and Whipple's ideas about comet composition. The solar wind is what forms and directs the comet's tail. Comet Kohoutek, which reached perihelion in 1973. Short speculation about future comet and investigation of their composition, which was pretty much on the money when Halley's comet returned in 1986. show less
This "How did we find out ..." series is over all very good, but this subject fits especially well within the framework.
I was a bit disappointed that there was no discussion of the discovery of Uranus, originally misidentified by Herschel as a new comet. Previously I had believed that there were so many comets then that a new one was no big deal, but now I realize that, while the discovery of a new planet is certainly more significant, a new comet would have been worth a paper.
Chapter 1: Ancient sitings of comets, etymology of the word, the direction in which the comet's tail points.
Chapter 2: Tycho Brahe attempts to measure show more distance to comet using parallax; comet is too far away for this technique to work. Kepler identifies planetary orbits as elliptical, comet orbits are more eccentric than planetary orbits.
Chapter 3: Halley uses Newton's thoughts about gravitation to predict the return of the comet named after him.
Chapter 4; Anders Jean Lexel discovers a new comet with a short period that had not been seen before. The comet never comes back, the hypothesis is that it is yanked out of its orbit by Jupiter. Then in 1818 Johan Franz Encke discovers a new comet with a very short period. It is observed that comets disintegrate very fast, each visit to the sun reducing its size by removing its coma.
Chapter 5: Biela's comet, with a short period, so that its disintegration at every perihelion could be observed and recorded. The relationship of comets to meteors.
Chapter 6: The Oort cloud, birthplace of comets, and Whipple's ideas about comet composition. The solar wind is what forms and directs the comet's tail. Comet Kohoutek, which reached perihelion in 1973. Short speculation about future comet and investigation of their composition, which was pretty much on the money when Halley's comet returned in 1986. show less
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2,400+ Works 292,919 Members
Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, on January 2, 1920. His family emigrated to the United States in 1923 and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where they owned and operated a candy store. Asimov became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of eight. As a youngster he discovered his talent for writing, producing his first original fiction at show more the age of eleven. He went on to become one of the world's most prolific writers, publishing nearly 500 books in his lifetime. Asimov was not only a writer; he also was a biochemist and an educator. He studied chemistry at Columbia University, earning a B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. In 1951, Asimov accepted a position as an instructor of biochemistry at Boston University's School of Medicine even though he had no practical experience in the field. His exceptional intelligence enabled him to master new systems rapidly, and he soon became a successful and distinguished professor at Columbia and even co-authored a biochemistry textbook within a few years. Asimov won numerous awards and honors for his books and stories, and he is considered to be a leading writer of the Golden Age of science fiction. While he did not invent science fiction, he helped to legitimize it by adding the narrative structure that had been missing from the traditional science fiction books of the period. He also introduced several innovative concepts, including the thematic concern for technological progress and its impact on humanity. Asimov is probably best known for his Foundation series, which includes Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. In 1966, this trilogy won the Hugo award for best all-time science fiction series. In 1983, Asimov wrote an additional Foundation novel, Foundation's Edge, which won the Hugo for best novel of that year. Asimov also wrote a series of robot books that included I, Robot, and eventually he tied the two series together. He won three additional Hugos, including one awarded posthumously for the best non-fiction book of 1995, I. Asimov. "Nightfall" was chosen the best science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1979, Asimov wrote his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. He continued writing until just a few years before his death from heart and kidney failure on April 6, 1992. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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