This book is a direct sequel to: B. Bcrtotri and P. Farinclla, "Physics of the Earth and the Solar System, Dynamics and Evolution. Space Navigation. Spa cc-Time Structure" (Kluwcr Academic Publishers, 1990). Nearly 15 years af tcr its publication it became evident that the volume was in need of a new edition to keep up with the outstanding progress and the changing perspectives in this field. David Vokrouhlicky agreed to collaborate on the project and be the third author. On March 25, 2000. after a tong illness and a heart transplant. Paolo Farinella passed away. We then decided that. rather than aiming at a second edition, it made more sense to rewrite the book anew. While its basic content and the structure of the chapters are the same, important new topics have been added, including the extrasolar planetary systems, transneptunian objects. accurate determination of reference frames and new space projects. Greater relevance has been given to scmiquantitarive discussions before intro ducing formal developments: many figures have been added and updated and several errors corrected. More emphasis has given to the solar system, whereas geophysical topics have been left at a less advanced level. To mark this change the slightly differ ent title "Physics of the Solar System" was chosen. We wish to dedicate this book to the memory of Paolo Farinella. an out standing scientist, an invaluable collaborator and a dear friend."

Since comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with the planet Jupiter with stupendous force in 1994 there has been an upsurge of amateur interest in comets. Most comets are first discovered by amateur astronomers because there are so many amateurs looking for them, and techniques and instruments have improved dramatically in the past few years. After a short but detailed introduction to the comets themselves Nick James and Gerald North describe comet hunting, photographing and imaging comets, and digital image processing. The use of computers for orbital calculations and even helping to discover new comets is given a full chapter, as are advanced techniques including comet photometry and spectroscopy. This comprehensive book has an accompanying CD-ROM and is at once a "primer" for comet hunters and a reference text for more advanced amateur astronomers.

GENESIS REVISED

"It takes a certain amount of courage to step beyond one’s day-to-day experiments and look at the big picture–and the origin of the Moon is a ‘big picture’ question par excellence. Perhaps it makes sense that William Hartmann, one of the two scientists who unraveled the Moon’s biggest mystery, is not only a scientist but also a part-time artist and science fiction writer. It took someone with an artist’s eye and a fiction writer’s speculative temperament to see the big picture.
"This is a book about that big picture: the origin of the Moon, as interpreted by Hartmann and Alastair Cameron, the second patriarch of ‘The Big Splat.’ It is also about a doomed planet called Theia, and a familiar one called Earth that used to look vastly different from today’s Earth. But, most of all, it is about a long lineage of intellectual voyagers who began exploring the Moon long before Neil Armstrong planted his boot into the lunar dust."
–– From the Introduction

Cometography is the most complete and comprehensive collection of data on comets available. It comes in four self-contained sequential volumes and this, the first, covers ancient times through to the end of the eighteenth century. Cometography uses the most reliable orbits known to determine all the key parameters of each well observed comet. Cometography also provides nontechnical details to help the reader understand how the comet may have influenced various cultures at the time of its appearance. All the information in Cometography has been sourced directly from the original documents, including European monastic histories, Roman, Greek and Muslim texts, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts. In many cases, dates of important historical events can be corrected based on the appearance of a comet and identified using this book. Cometography will be valuable to historians of science as well as providing amateur and professional astronomers with a definitive reference on comets through the ages.

Space storms, the manifestation of bad weather in space, have a number of physical effects in the near-Earth environment: acceleration of charged particles in space, intensification of electric currents in space and on the ground, impressive aurora displays, and global magnetic disturbances on the Earth's surface. Space weather has been defined as conditions on the Sun and in the solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space- and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life'. The 19 chapters of this book, written by some of the foremost experts on the topic, present the most recent developments in space storm physics and related technological issues, such as malfunction of satellites, communication and navigation systems, and electric power distribution grids.
Readership: researchers, teachers and graduate students in space physics, astronomy, geomagnetism, space technology, electric power and communication technology, and non-specialist physicists and engineers.

As recommended in the United Nations Space & Atmospheric Science Education Curriculum booklet. Please find it amongst classics such as T.J.M. Boyd, J.J. Sanderson, J.K. Hargreaves and M.C. Kelly etc.

The Earth in Context: A Guide to the Solar System tells a tale of scientific discovery, with two interwoven strands - one tracing the development of understanding the Earth's geological history, and the other placing this in the context of processes at work on the other planets of the solar system. Although planetology is assigned half of the text, the primary focus of the book is the Earth. It is discussed in two parts, the first summing up our knowledge of the Earth as it is today and the other considering it as it was long ago.

Astronomy was a popular and important part of Victorian science, and British astronomers carried telescopes and spectroscopes to remote areas of India, the Great Plains of North America, and islands in the Caribbean and Pacific to watch the sun eclipsed by the moon. Examining the rich interplay between science, culture, and British imperial society in the late nineteenth century, this book shows how the organization and conduct of scientific fieldwork was structured by contemporary politics and culture, and how rapid and profound changes in the organization of science, advances in photography, and new printing technology remade the character of scientific observation.
After introducing the field of Victorian science to the nonspecialist, the book examines the long periods of planning necessary for eclipse expeditions, and it recounts the day-to-day work of getting to field sites, setting up camp, and preparing for and observing eclipses. Operating behind the countless decisions made by scientists was a host of large-scale forces, including the professionalization and specialization of disciplines, the growth of service, and public funding for the sciences. Fieldwork also required close coordination with the many institutions and technological systems of British imperialism.
The development of imaging technologies was, of course, crucial to observations of the solar corona. Eclipse observation taxed astronomers and their cameras to their limits, and it raised new questions about the trustworthiness of imaging technologies. In the late nineteenth century, scientists shifted from drawing to photographing natural phenomena, but the shift occurred gradually, unevenly, and against resistance. Victorian astronomers had to weigh carefully the merits of human and mechanical observation, and the difficulties of solar photography highlight the inseparability of images from technologies of observation and printing.

The Ulysses observations have charted the heliosphere around the minimum in the 11 year cycle of solar activity, revealing the large scale properties of the heliospheric medium and its micro-scale characteristics. This book presents for the first time, a comprehensive review of the results of the Ulysses mission.The first chapter provides an overview of the region, introducing the heliosphere prior to the Ulysses mission, and the objectives and characteristics of the mission itself. Subsequent chapters discuss in detail specific areas of the heliosphere, including the solar wind, large and small scale features, cosmic rays and energetic particles, and the observations of interstellar gas and cosmic dust. Each of these chapters is written by members of the Ulysses science team, concentrating on their own areas of expertise, and is written in a clear and accessible way.In this book, the authors aim to summarise our understanding of the heliosphere near solar minimum and to provide the basis for understanding the more complex state of the heliosphere around solar maximum, which will be observed during the next phase of the Ulysses mission.

The aim of this Advanced Study Institute was to give an account on the most recent results obtained in solar research. Bucharest was chosen to host it, because the capital city of Romania was located right in the middle of the totality path of the last eclipse of the millennium, on 11th August 1999; furthermore the phenomenon was close to reach there its longest duration: 2m 23s. Such a total eclipse is not only a very spectacular event which draws the crowds: to astronomers, solar eclipses still offer the best conditions for observing the lower part of the corona. The Sun plays a crucial role in our very existence. It was responsible for the formation of the Earth, and rendered this planet fit to host living beings, providing the right amount of heat, and this for a long enough span of time. Quite understandably, it has always been a prime target of human curiosity, and more recently one of scientific investigation. During the last century, it was realized that the Sun is a star like billions of others; we learned since that it draws its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen, and we are now able to estimate its age and life expectancy.

Meteorites are fascinating cosmic visitors. Using accessible language, this book documents the history of mineralogy and meteorite research, summarizes the mineralogical characteristics of the myriad varieties of meteorites, and explains the mineralogical characteristics of Solar System bodies visited by spacecraft. Some of these bodies contain minerals that do not occur naturally on Earth or in meteorites. The book explains how to recognize different phases under the microscope and in back-scattered electron images. It summarizes the major ways in which meteoritic minerals form - from condensation in the expanding atmospheres of dying stars to crystallization in deep-seated magmas, from flash-melting in the solar nebula to weathering in the terrestrial environment. Containing spectacular back-scattered electron images, colour photographs of meteorite minerals, and with an accompanying online list of meteorite minerals, this book provides a useful resource for meteorite researchers, terrestrial mineralogists, cosmochemists and planetary scientists, as well as graduate students in these fields

Critical Acclaim for
PLANETARY DREAMS
The Quest To Discover Life Beyond Earth

"The stunning insights provided in Planetary Dreams make it a book for everyone who has the slightest curiosity about our role in the cosmos."——Hugh Downs, ABC News, 20/20

"The broadest and, in a philosophical sense, the deepest book to examine the question of the origins of life in the universe. . . . A wise, kindly, and beautifully written book, Planetary Dreams sets forth a vision of a truly human and humane future and a hope for a richly inhabited universe."——Ben Bova, six-time Hugo Award winner and past president of the National Space Society

"If you are interested in the search for extraterrestrial life. . .then Planetary Dreams is a must read. Delightfully written."——Louis D. Friedman, Executive Director, The Planetary Society

"Combining many narrative elements, including a description of his fanciful institution, the Museum of the Cosmos, Shapiro’s imaginative, multifaceted work should meet the yearnings of space enthusiasts and of the wider public, as Carl Sagan’s books did."——Booklist

Meteorites and Their Parent Planets provides an engrossing overview of a highly interdisciplinary field--the study of extraterrestrial materials. The second edition of this successful book has been thoroughly revised, and describes the nature of meteorites, where they come from, and how they get to Earth. Meteorites offer important insights into processes in stars and in interstellar regions, the birth of our solar system, the formation and evolution of planets and smaller bodies, and the origin of life. The first edition was immensely popular with meteorite collectors, scientists and science students in many fields, as well as amateur astronomers. In this second edition all of the illustrations have been updated and improved, many sections have been expanded and modified based on discoveries in the past decade, and a new final chapter on the importance of meteorites has been added. Everyone with an interest in meteorites will want a copy of this book.

Although transits of planets across the Sun are rare (only Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun closer than us, and so can transit the Sun's disc) amateur astronomers can observe, record and image other kinds of transit, which are very much more frequent. Transit is in two parts, the first telling the fascinating story of the early scientific expeditions to observe transits. The second part is for practical observers, and explains how to observe transits of all sorts - even transits of aircraft as they fly between the observer and the Sun!

The question of the existence of other worlds and other living beings has been present in the human quest for knowledge since as far as Epicurus. For centuries this question belonged to the fields of philosophy and theology. The theoretical problem of the formation of the Solar System, and hence of other planetary systems, was tackled only during the 18th century, while the first observational attempts for a detection started less than one hundred years ago. Direct observation of an extra-solar planetary system is an extraordinarily difficult problem: extra-solar planets are at huge distances, are incredibly faint and are overwhelmed by the bright light of their own stars. With virtually no observational insight to test their models, theoreticians have remained for decades in a difficult position to make substantial progress. Yet, the field of stellar formation has provided since the 1980s both the the oretical and observational evidences for the formation of discs at the stage of star birth and for debris materials orbiting the very young stellar systems. It was tempting to consider that these left-overs might indeed later agglomerate into planetary systems more or less similar to ours. Then came observational evidences for planets outside the Solar System.

The birth and evolution of our solar system is a tantalizing mystery that may one day provide answers to the question of human origins. From Dust to Life tells the remarkable story of how the celestial objects that make up the solar system arose from common beginnings billions of years ago, and how scientists and philosophers have sought to unravel this mystery down through the centuries, piecing together the clues that enabled them to deduce the solar system's layout, its age, and the most likely way it formed. Drawing on the history of astronomy and the latest findings in astrophysics and the planetary sciences, John Chambers and Jacqueline Mitton offer the most up-to-date and authoritative treatment of the subject available. They examine how the evolving universe set the stage for the appearance of our Sun, and how the nebulous cloud of gas and dust that accompanied the young Sun eventually became the planets, comets, moons, and asteroids that exist today. They explore how each of the planets acquired its unique characteristics, why some are rocky and others gaseous, and why one planet in particular--our Earth--provided an almost perfect haven for the emergence of life. From Dust to Life is a must-read for anyone who desires to know more about how the solar system came to be. This enticing book takes readers to the very frontiers of modern research, engaging with the latest controversies and debates. It reveals how ongoing discoveries of far-distant extrasolar planets and planetary systems are transforming our understanding of our own solar system's astonishing history and its possible fate.

Transient phenomena are short-lived astronomical events, unusual in a science in which time is more often measured in millennia than milliseconds. There is a fascination with transient phenomena, predictable or otherwise, that astronomers of all abilities share. In Meteors, Comets, Supernovae, Neil Bone gives guidelines for observers, including the best possible periods (months or years) to see seasonal but unpredictable phenomena like meteors and sunspots. Recording such outbursts involves visual observing techniques, photography, and even the relatively new field of the video recording of meteors, which are also examined in detail. The book also includes material about phenomena that occur in the lower atmosphere (such as "ozone eaters", nacreous clouds, solar and lunar haloes), which although not strictly astronomical in their nature attract the attention of dedicated sky-watchers.

Ce volume contient les revues invitees et les presentations orales du Symposium VAl 181 Sounding Solar and Stellar Interiors, tenu a Nice du 30 septembre au 3 octobre 1996. Les posters presentes a cette conference 1 sont publies dans un volume separe. Depuis Ie lancement avec succes du satellite SoRO Ie 2 Decembre 1995, et apres des annees d'efforts importants dans Ie domaine de l'helio- et l'asterosismologie, il a semble approprie de tenir un symposium dedie aux consequences de la sismologie pour notre connaissance de la structure in- terne du Soleil et des etoiles. Le but etait de presenter a la communaute entiere les nouveaux resultats de l'heliosismologie obtenus aussi bien par les experiences spatiales que par les reseaux exist ants au sol, ainsi que les avancees theoriques dans les domaines de la structure et de la physique de l'interieur solaire. Ce but a ete largement atteint: alors que SoRO ne fournissait des don- nees que depuis environ 6 mois, la qualite des donnees heliosismologiques a ete largement amelioree, de nouvelles techniques ont ete elaborees comme la "telechronosismologie" (nom propose par D. Gough dans sa conclusion pour l'analyse temps-distance), et de nouveaux mecanismes physiques ont ete proposes pour tenter de reduire les differences persist antes entre Ie Soleil observe et les modeles standard.

A total eclipse of the Sun is due in August 1999. It will attract alot of interest because - unusually - it will be visible in much of Europe and the UK. A total Solar Eclipse is always fascinating. This book is for everyone that wants to know 1. What a Solar Eclipse is 2. The phenomena one can expect to see 3. How to photograph an eclipse using a variety of methods 4. How to plan for an eclipse expedition. The book not only covers the 1999 eclipse but also past and future eclipses which we can look forward to. This book is also interesting to "armchair astronomers" as it contains alot of historical and anecdotal information. There's even a final chapter on "Eclipse Mishaps and Oddities" including the American eclipse expedition of 1780 that missed the total eclipse because they went to the wrong location

The cover picture of this volume displays one of the most advanced products of he lioseismic research: a view into the deep interior of the sun, revealing its distinctly non-uniform rotation throughout the entire depth of the convection zone. Just over 20 years ago, the first successful helioseismic experiment disclosed an increase of ro tation velocity in the uppermost one dozen megameters below the photosphere. The stunning progress in depth and detail highlighted by the cover diagram (and by others shown in this volume as well) was made possible by considerable advances in instru mentation, by the development of powerful analytical tools and, foremost, by the involvement of new brains of enthusiastic proselytes and newcomers to the field, in creasing nearly exponentially in number every year. New branches of research widened the scope of "uranoseismology", as e. g. time-distance seismology (the promising av enue towards small-scale and short-time variability), atmospheric seismology (a new look at strange phenomena we have all ways seen, but hardly understood), and finally the growing observational assault on hundreds of individual stars which are either manifestly or supposedly oscillating -i. e. asteroseismology. The formation of numer ous solar and stellar observing networks and, ultimately, space missions like SOHO have greatly promoted the potential of this science. This steady progress was accompanied by workshops, colloquia, and symposia in quick succession.

Discover the mysteries of the Universe and journey to galaxies beyond our own in this fact-packed companion to space. From icy worlds and hot, fiery giants to the biggest telescopes and latest spacecraft, this book covers more than 40 profiles of the planets, stars, and objects in our universe. Find out all about our neighboring planets, from tiny Mercury to gigantic Jupiter. Discover what lies beyond our solar system and the stars we can see in the night sky. Learn about the latest space technology and when humans may finally land on Mars. Broken down by type, each object is presented in a clear, engaging way, with stunning images and bite-sized chunks of information. Detailed NASA photography brings the mysteries of outer space to life, while pronunciation guides help with tricky names, and a visual index gives a quick overview of all the key objects in the book. Filled with fascinating details for every young stargazer and budding astronaut, My Book of Stars and Planets is the perfect first reference book on space and the universe for kids.

In the past decade, indirect (Doppler) imaging techniques have opened up a whole new discipline in stellar astronomy, providing increasingly detailed photometric, magnetic, and chemical inhomogeneity images of stellar surfaces. Furthermore, new optical interferometers are already being used with sophisticated interferometer techniques to image stellar surface structures more directly, and in the future the ESO VLT Interferometer and other instruments will extend these capabilities enormously. These developments are highlighted in the first two sections of this book. The large number of recent results, ground-based and space-based, and the lack of a generally accepted dynamo theory with predictive power for the stars and the Sun, result in an ever-growing complexity of interpretation of individual results. The IAU Symposium 176 on Stellar Surface Structure' consequently focused on spatially resolved stellar observations throughout the H-R diagram, from O- and B-stars to late M-stars. Two further sections in this book summarize the current observational data on surface inhomogeneities in stellar photospheres, chromospheres, and coronae. Finally, a special section is devoted to next generation model atmospheres.

On July 16, 1994 a world-shattering event occurred that would rivet our attention for six explosive days and go on to make history as the single most important celestial event of the century. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, changing forever our understanding of comets and cosmic cataclysms. Our own sense of security would never be the same as the world witnessed fragment after fragment of the comet bash into Jupiter with the collective equivalent force of a 50-million-megaton bomb. David Levy, co-discoverer of periodic Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, shares his once-in-several-lifetimes' story from the time of the discovery, with Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker, of this unusual "squashed" comet to the later shocking revelation of hearing that "their" comet was destined to collide with Jupiter. Never in recorded history has a comet created such a catastrophic event as smashing into a planet. Impact Jupiter takes off where David Levy's earlier acclaimed book, The Quest for Comets, left us. Magnificent photos of the impacts, including superb color pictures, accompany David's poetic words, vividly bringing to life his thrilling story. Savor the words of one of the world's most celebrated amateur astronomers as he humbly and eloquently opens the beauty of the heavens to all who are curious.

A complete revision of Goody's classic 1964 work, this volume offers a systematic discussion of atmospheric radiation processes that today are at the center of worldwide study and concern. It deals with the ways in which incident solar radiation is transformed into scattered and thermal radiation, and the thermodynamic consequences for the Earth's gaseous envelope, identifying aspects of the interaction between radiation and atmospheric motions as the central theme for atmospheric radiation studies. As a complete treatment of physical and mathematical foundations, the text assumes no prior knowledge of atmospheric physics. The theoretical discussion is systematic, and can therefore be applied with minor extension to any planetary atmosphere.

This book provides a concise but broad overview of the engineering, science and flight history of planetary landers and atmospheric entry probes designed to explore the atmospheres and surfaces of other planets. It covers engineering aspects specific to such vehicles which are not usually treated in traditional spacecraft engineering texts. Examples are drawn from over thirty different lander and entry probe designs that have been used for lunar and planetary missions since the early 1960s. The authors provide detailed illustrations of many vehicle designs from different international space programs, and give basic information on their missions and payloads, irrespective of the mission's success or failure. Several missions are discussed in more detail to demonstrate the broad range of the challenges involved and the solutions implemented. This will form an important reference for professionals, academic researchers and graduate students involved in planetary science, aerospace engineering and space mission development.