Download or read book Shoemaker by Levy written by David H. Levy and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portrays geologist Eugene Shoemaker and explains the scientific reasoning that led him to construct his "impact theory," in which collisions with comets created craters on the moon and several bodies in the solar system.
Download or read book Shoemaker by Levy written by David H. Levy and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a lucky twist of fate when in the early1980s David Levy, a writer and amateur astronomer, joined up with the famous scientist Eugene Shoemaker and his wife, Carolyn, to search for comets from an observation post on Palomar Mountain in Southern California. Their collaboration would lead to the 1993 discovery of the most remarkable comet ever recorded, Shoemaker-Levy 9, with its several nuclei, five tails, and two sheets of debris spread out in its orbit plane. A year later, Levy would be by the Shoemakers' side again when their comet ended its four-billion-year-long journey through the solar system and collided with Jupiter in the most stunning astronomical display of the century. Not only did this collision revolutionize our understanding of the history of the solar system, but it also offered a spectacular confirmation of one scientist's life work. As a close friend and colleague of Shoemaker (who died in 1997 at the age of 69), Levy offers a uniquely insightful account of his life and the way it has shaped our thinking about the universe. Early in his training as a geologist, Shoemaker suspected that it wasn't volcanic activity but rather collisions with comets and asteroids that created most of the craters on the moon and most other bodies in the solar system. Convincing the scientific community of the plausibility of "impact theory," and revealing its power for penetrating mysteries such as the extinction of the dinosaurs and the timing of the Earth's eventual demise, became Shoemaker's mission. Through conversations with Shoemaker and his family, Levy reconstructs the journey that began with a young geologist's serious desire to go to the moon in the late1940s. Sent by the government to find a way to harvest plutonium, Shoemaker instead found evidence in desert craters for what became his impact theory. While he never became an astronaut, he did become the first geologist hired by NASA and subsequently set the research agenda for the first manned lunar landing. After a series of victories and setbacks for Shoemaker, the collision of Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter provided the most convincing proof to date of the role of impacts in our solar system. Levy's explanation of the scientific reasoning that guided Shoemaker in his career up to this dramatic point--as well as his personal portrait of a man who found white-water rafting to be an easy way to relax--sets these fascinating events in a human scale. This biography shows what Shoemaker's legacy will be for our understanding of the story of the Earth well into the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Impact Jupiter written by David H. Levy and published by Springer. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Comets written by David Levy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Levy brings these "ghostly apparitions" to life. With fascinating scenarios both real and imagined, he shows how comets have wreaked their special havoc on Earth and other planets. Beginning with ground zero as comets take form, we track the paths their icy, rocky masses take around our universe and investigate the enormous potential that future comets have to directly affect the way we live on this planet and what we might find as we travel to other planets. In this extraordinary volume, David Levy shines his expert light on a subject that has long captivated our imaginations and fears, and demonstrates the need for our continued and rapt attention.
Download or read book Handbook of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense written by Joseph N. Pelton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers in a comprehensive fashion all aspects of cosmic hazards and possible strategies for contending with these threats through a comprehensive planetary defense strategy. This handbook brings together in a single reference work a rich blend of information about the various types of cosmic threats that are posed to human civilization by asteroids, comets, bolides, meteors, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, cosmic radiation and other types of threats that are only recently beginning to be understood and studied, such as investigation of the “cracks” in the protective shield provided by the Van Allen belts and the geomagnetosphere, of matter-antimatter collisions, orbital debris and radiological or biological contamination. Some areas that are addressed involve areas about which there is a good deal of information that has been collected for many decades by multiple space missions run by many different space agencies, observatories and scientific researchers. Other areas involving research and studies that have only recently gotten underway are discussed by some of the world’s foremost experts in each of these areas, who provide up-to-date and scientifically verifiable information. Although much of the work in these various areas have been conducted by space agencies, an expanding range of work is also being carried out by observatories, by universities and other research centers, and even by private foundations and professional organizations. The purpose of this work is thus several-fold: to include the latest information and most systematic research from around the world in a single reference work; to note where there are significant gaps in knowledge where new research, spacecraft, observatories, or other initiatives are needed to fill in critical missing information; and to give the best possible information about preventative actions that might be taken against cosmic threats and identify various alternative strategies that are now under way or planned to cope with these various threats.
Download or read book David Levy s Guide to Observing and Discovering Comets written by David H. Levy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Levy has held a lifelong passion for comets, and is one of the most successful comet discoverers in history. In this book he describes the observing techniques that have been developed over the years--from visual observations and searching, to photography, through to electronic charge-coupled devices (CCDs). He combines the history of comet hunting with the latest techniques, showing how our understanding of comets has evolved over time. This practical handbook is suitable for amateur astronomers, from those who are casually interested in comets and how to observe them, to those who want to begin and expand an observing program of their own. Drawing widely from his own extensive experience, Levy describes how enthusiastic amateurs can observe comets and try to make new discoveries themselves. David H. Levy is one of the word's foremost amateur astronomers. He has discovered seventeen comets, seven using a telescope in his own backyard, and had a minor planet, Asteroid 3673 Levy named in his honor. He is best known as the co-discoverer of the famous 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet. Levy is frequently interviewed in the media and succeeded Carl Sagan as science columnist for Parade magazine. He has written and contributed to a number of books, most recently David Levy's Guide to the Night Sky (Cambridge, 2001).
Download or read book Responsibility from the Margins written by David Shoemaker and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study develops a pluralistic quality of will theory of responsibility, motivated by our ambivalence to real life cases of marginal agency, such as those with clinical depression, scrupulosity, psychopathy, autism, intellectual disability, and more. Our ambivalent responses suggest that such agents are responsible in some ways but not others. A tripartite theory is developed to account for this fact of our ambivalence via exploration of the appropriateness conditions of three distinct categories of our pan-cultural emotional responsibility responses: attributability, answerability, and accountability.
Download or read book Cosmic Collisions written by Dana Desonie and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1996-03-15 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An encyclopedia encompassing a variety of natural science subjects relating to the understanding of weather and climate including the technology and policy discussions which have become part of contemporary environmental and political debates impacting forestry, aviation, famine relief, and pollution. Each entry is a short essay written by one of the over 200 distinguished contributing scholars; entries are cross-referenced and are written at different levels of technicality, making the reference suitable for scientists and non- scientists alike. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book David Levy s Guide to Variable Stars written by David H. Levy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-15 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly accessible book David Levy teaches the reader how variable stars work, and how to observe them.
Download or read book Starry Night written by David H. Levy and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the centuries the starry night sky has inspired poets and scientists alike, and the fruits of these inspirations enrich each other. Acclaimed science writer Levy has traced writers that celebrate the twin visions of human wonder and curiosity--including Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Galileo and more--as expressed in poetry and astronomy.
Download or read book Impact Jupiter written by David H. Levy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amateur astronomer and Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet co-discoverer David Levy recounts the story of the crash of the comet into the surface of Jupiter on July 16, 1994, and what the celestial impact taught scientists and the world.
Download or read book Clyde Tombaugh written by David H. Levy and published by Sky & Telescope. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1930 astronomer Clyde Tombaugh made the discovery of a lifetime: the planet Pluto. His work remains relevant today as astronomers continue their search for planets in the outskirts of our solar system. This fascinating biography chronicles the life of one of the giants of 20th century astronomy.
Download or read book The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos written by David Levy and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-07-22 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finally, the entire body of our scientific knowledge of the universe is available in one definitive volume. Scientific American, the oldest and most popular science magazine in the world, has prepared the most comprehensive and comprehensible book on the subject ever. Under the direction of renowned astronomer David H. Levy, this spectacular book assembles the best minds in science to give clear and accessible explanations of the nature of the cosmos. Newly commissioned essays by working scientists at the top of their fields and classic writings by such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Francis Crick, and Carl Sagan take us to the frontiers of space and time-from sub-atomic particles to the edge of the universe. Both thoughtful and provocative, this book asks-and answers-the big questions, such as: o How did our solar system evolve? o What forces lie at the center of the atom? o What is the size of the universe? o What is dark matter? o What is the possibility of extraterrestrial life? o What is the importance of superstrings? o How do galaxies form? Dazzling full-color and black-and-white photographs aid in articulating the latest theories about the size, age, nature, and expansion of the universe, and make this book a delight to behold. Essays are grouped by topic, from the largest phenomena, such as the formation of the universe, down to the smallest detail, such as the makeup of an atom. In addition, each section contains an illuminating introduction by David Levy that binds the essays together and creates a whole picture. The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of both professional astronomers and science enthusiasts alike.
Download or read book Killer Rocks from Outer Space written by Steven N. Koppes and published by Twenty-First Century Books. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the role that collisions with meteors, comets, and asteroids have played in the history of Earth and other planets in the solar system and examines what is being done to protect Earth from future collisions.
Download or read book Cosmic Discoveries written by David H. Levy and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-09-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many millennia the starry night sky has been a source of wonder and awe to men and women who have tried to unravel the mystery of the billion distant lights that fill the heavens after dark. The story of the great discoverers who succeeded in explaining part of the mystery is told here with the joy and infectious enthusiasm that only a fellow discoverer can convey. David Levy, codiscoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, with his wife, Wendee Wallach-Levy, evokes that marvelous moment of Eureka! as he masterfully relates each story. He gives the reader a glimpse of the enthralling adventure of cosmic discovery through stories of the most famous and brilliant astronomers. Beyond their personal accomplishments, these scientists expanded all of humanity's understanding of the universe and our place within it.For example, Galileo's breathtaking discovery of the moons of Jupiter, new worlds that refused to orbit the sun, challenged the whole doctrine of the earth being the center of the universe. With the start of the 20th century, Shapley pushed back the envelope that had been opened by Galileo by proving that the center of our galaxy is very far beyond our own sun. And Hubble showed that even our galaxy is but a tiny part of a universe that is rapidly expanding. In describing these milestones of science, Levy reveals his own spirited conversations with such luminaries of the imagination as the discoverer of the planet Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, and one of the world's greatest science fiction writers, Sir Arthur C. Clarke.Through Levy's unique perspective on cosmic discovery, he is able to connect his own personal life story with that of astronomers of the past and by extension with the history of the whole universe. As the codiscoverer of the spectacular comet that crashed into Jupiter, Levy formulated a whole new range of exciting questions about the universe: Do comets serve to transport the elements of life from one planet to the next? What is the evidence that a large comet once hit the earth? Will the earth someday be in danger of colliding with another such comet and will we have the technology to stop it?This fascinating book will excite any of us who have stared at the night sky in awe and amazement.David Levy and Wendee Wallach-Levy (Vail, AZ) are continuing their ongoing search for new comets. David Levy is the president of the Jarnac Observatory, science editor for PARADE magazine, a contributing editor to Sky and Telescope and Sky News magazines, and the author of Starry Nights, The Quest for Comets, and Impact Jupiter, among other books.
Download or read book A Nightwatchman s Journey written by David H. Levy and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 meets Jupiter written by David H. Levy and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
