Download or read book The Quest for Comets written by David H. Levy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brilliant trailing beauty of fiery comets has inspired fear, wonder, and awe since the dawn of human history. Brighter than stars, moving and disappearing in their own singular orbits, comets have been among the most mysterious elements in the sky, eluding our understanding until very recently. With the aid of space probes, scientists have discovered that these swiftly moving chunks of ice and carbon are more plentiful and far more dangerous than suspected. Scientists are also beginning to realize the monumental role played by comets in the development of the Earth and solar system. David Levy describes in dramatic detail the thrilling yet often devastating effects of comet collisions. In the dawn of our solar system, the Earth was barraged with comets that may have carried the materials necessary to lay the foundations for life on this planet. Levy also presents compelling evidence for later comet collisions, including those of the age of dinosaurs. Great impacts, Levy asserts, not only caused the extinction of the dinesaurs, but ushered in new species of life. As Levy so clearly explains, scientists are realizing that comet collisions are virtually inevitable. Levy reveals possible future collisions with the Earth and describes the terrible risks to life they would pose. He even shows how we might prepare to withstand the impact of large comets in the future.
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 The Heart Of A Comet written by Pages Matam and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Heart of a Comet is a collection of poems and short stories offering the tale of Comet, who fell from the sky unto an unfamiliar plane of existence. On his quest to return home, he has many life-altering encounters with people and places that completely change his perspective of what it means to love and to live. Through this series of truths, the lines between dreams and reality so often blur, this creates a new mosaic to an ultimate revelation: the internal lesson of the true meaning of purpose. What are we here for? Why do we experience the things that we do, and why do we react to them in the ways that we do? All questions posed with seemingly infinite answers. In this conceptual miscellany, author Pages Matam touches on topics of immigrant experience to fatherhood and love in all of its beautiful but also often tragic and traumatic faces. As the tale unfolds, we become swallowed by a self reflective journey with a destination that could only be sought from one's own soul searching heart...the Heart of a Comet.
Download or read book The Comet s Curse written by Dom Testa and published by Tor Teen. This book was released on 2009-01-20 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the gripping start to this young adult science fiction adventure series by popular Colorado radio host Dom Testa, the teenage crew of the starship Galahad must find a new home for humanity among the stars--if they fail, it will be the end of the human race.... When the tail of the comet Bhaktul flicks through the Earth's atmosphere, deadly particles are left in its wake. Suddenly, mankind is confronted with a virus that devastates the adult population. Only those under the age of eighteen seem to be immune. Desperate to save humanity, a renowned scientist proposes a bold plan: to create a ship that will carry a crew of 251 teenagers to a home in a distant solar system. Two years later, the Galahad and its crew—none over the age of sixteen—is launched. Two years of training have prepared the crew for the challenges of space travel. But soon after departing Earth, they discover that a saboteur is hiding on the Galahad! Faced with escalating acts of vandalism and terrorized by threatening messages, sixteen-year-old Triana Martell and her council soon realize that the stowaway will do anything to ensure that the Galahad never reaches its destination. The teens must find a way to neutralize their enemy. For if their mission fails, it will mean the end of the human race.... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book From Jars to the Stars written by Todd Neff and published by Earthview Media. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did a company best known for its glass jars hit a comet 83 million miles away? The answer involves technical expertise, heroic dedication, an industrial giant’s push to modernize, Hitler’s V-2 rocket, speakers destined for a Hall & Oates summer concert tour, and the search for life’s origins. In “From Jars to the Stars: How Ball Came to Build a Comet-Hunting Machine,” award-winning science journalist Todd Neff presents an inside look at the backgrounds and motivations of the men and women who actually create the spacecraft on which the American space program rides. A timeless story of science, engineering, politics and business strategy intertwining to bring success in the brutal business of space, “From Jars to the Stars” is a lively account of one of mankind’s great modern achievements. It is a story about people, foremost those on the Deep Impact mission, which smashed a spacecraft into the comet Tempel 1. “From Jars to the Stars” explores the improbable beginnings of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which built the comet hunter, and the evolution of the American space agency that funded it. The book begins with the story of a group of University of Colorado students who built a “sun seeker” for the noses of sounding rockets studying the home star. The pathbreaking device sparked the creation and development of both Ball Aerospace and the University of Colorado’s formidable Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. “From Jars to the Stars” describes how Ed Ball, president of the Ball Brothers Company of Muncie, Indiana, ended up owning a space business in Boulder, Colorado, through a combination of strategic intent and serendipity. Neff explores the personalities and the technologies behind Ball’s pioneering spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory launched in 1962. The Ball orbiter prepares the ground for Deep Impact, showing readers how much—and how little—changed across four decades of American space exploration. Neff goes on to show how Ball Aerospace evolved into an organization capable of building seven Hubble Space Telescope instruments as well as the comet hunter at the center of the story. The author describes the development of the American space enterprise as it went from emphasizing big-budget “gigabuck” missions to “faster, better, cheaper” spacecraft of the sort Ball specialized in. Neff pays special mind to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the world leader in interplanetary space exploration and Ball’s partner on Deep Impact. It was often a rocky marriage. Throughout, Neff makes clear that robotic space missions are indeed manned: the people just happen to stay on the ground.
Download or read book The Quest for Comets written by David H. Levy and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Comet written by Carl Sagan and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-07-06 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are these graceful visitors to our skies? We now know that they bring both life and death and teach us about our origins. Comet begins with a breathtaking journey through space astride a comet. Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan, author of Cosmos and Contact, and writer Ann Druyan explore the origin, nature, and future of comets, and the exotic myths and portents attached to them. The authors show how comets have spurred some of the great discoveries in the history of science and raise intriguing questions about these brilliant visitors from the interstellar dark. Were the fates of the dinosaurs and the origins of humans tied to the wanderings of a comet? Are comets the building blocks from which worlds are formed? Lavishly illustrated with photographs and specially commissioned full-color paintings, Comet is an enthralling adventure, indispensable for anyone who has ever gazed up at the heavens and wondered why. Praise for Comet "Simply the best." —The Times of London "Fascinating, evocative, inspiring." —The Washington Post "Comet humanizes science. A beautiful, interesting book." —United Press International "Masterful . . . science, poetry, and imagination." —The Atlanta Journal & Constitution
Download or read book Near Earth Objects written by Donald K. Yeomans and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's look at the science of near-Earth comets and asteroids Of all the natural disasters that could befall us, only an Earth impact by a large comet or asteroid has the potential to end civilization in a single blow. Yet these near-Earth objects also offer tantalizing clues to our solar system's origins, and someday could even serve as stepping-stones for space exploration. In this book, Donald Yeomans introduces readers to the science of near-Earth objects—its history, applications, and ongoing quest to find near-Earth objects before they find us. In its course around the sun, the Earth passes through a veritable shooting gallery of millions of nearby comets and asteroids. One such asteroid is thought to have plunged into our planet sixty-five million years ago, triggering a global catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs. Yeomans provides an up-to-date and accessible guide for understanding the threats posed by near-Earth objects, and also explains how early collisions with them delivered the ingredients that made life on Earth possible. He shows how later impacts spurred evolution, allowing only the most adaptable species to thrive—in fact, we humans may owe our very existence to objects that struck our planet. Yeomans takes readers behind the scenes of today’s efforts to find, track, and study near-Earth objects. He shows how the same comets and asteroids most likely to collide with us could also be mined for precious natural resources like water and oxygen, and used as watering holes and fueling stations for expeditions to Mars and the outermost reaches of our solar system.
Download or read book Comets and the Horns of Moses written by Laura Knight-Jadczyk and published by . This book was released on 2013-02 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laura Knight-Jadczyk's series, The Secret History of the World, is one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken to provide a cogent, comprehensive account of humanity's true history and place in the cosmos. Following the great unifying vision of the Stoic Posidonius, Laura weaves together the study of history, mythology, religion, psychology and physics, revealing a view of the world that is both rational and breathtaking in its all-encompassing scope. This second volume, Comets and the Horns of Moses, (written in concert with several following volumes soon to be released) picks up the dangling threads of volume one with an analysis of the Biblical character of Moses -- his possible true history and nature -- and the cyclical nature of cosmic catastrophes in Earth's history. Laura skillfully tracks the science of comets, revealing evidence for the fundamentally electrical and electromagnetic nature of these celestial bodies and how they have repeatedly wreaked havoc and destruction on our planet over the course of human history. Even more startling however, is the evidence that comets and cometary fragments have played a central role in the formation of human myth and legend and the very concept of a 'god'. As she expertly navigates her way through the labyrinth of history, Laura uncovers the secret knowledge of comets that has been hidden in the great myths, ancient astronomy (and astrology) and the works of the Greek philosophers. Concluding with a look at the political and psychological implications of cyclical cometary catastrophes and what they portend for humanity today, Comets and the Horns of Moses is a marvel of original thought and keen detective work that will rock the foundations of your understanding of the world you live in, and no doubt ruffle the feathers of the many academics who still cling to an outdated and blinkered view of history.
Download or read book Quest for Comets written by David H. Levy and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 1995-09-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brighter than stars, they awe and inspire with their fiery beauty--and hold the potential for incalculable devastation. Titanic masses of ice, dust, and carbon--among the most mysterious and misunderstood bodies in the universe--they date back to the birth of the solar system. Millions of years ago, they may have helped create life on Earth--and, someday, they may destroy it.
Download or read book Cosmic Impact written by Andrew May and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As end-of-the-world scenarios go, an apocalyptic collision with an asteroid or comet is the new kid on the block, gaining respectability only in the last decade of the 20th century with the realisation that the dinosaurs had been wiped out by just such an impact. Now the science community is making up for lost time, with worldwide efforts to track the thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, and plans for high-tech hardware that could deflect an incoming object from a collision course – a procedure depicted, with little regard for scientific accuracy, in several Hollywood movies. Astrophysicist and science writer Andrew May disentangles fact from fiction in this fast-moving and entertaining account, covering the nature and history of comets and asteroids, the reason why some orbits are more hazardous than others, the devastating local and global effects that an impact event would produce, and – more optimistically – the way future space missions could avert a catastrophe.
Download or read book The Quest For Truth written by Michael Dedivonai and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 659 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is for the reader who takes interest in an age-old issue that remains contemporary with every succeeding generation. When, how, and why we are here are questions that have caused countless generations of thinkers and laymen alike to intuitively seek at the very least the semblance of an answer to questions that have become more of an outlook than a science, and in turn spring up among the problems of modern life as opposed to allowing for a resolution to that which was intended to clarify instead of further complicate. Free from the shackles and bias imposed by the various schools of religious, scientific and philosophical thought, the examinations offered herein are rooted in systematic analyses of the scientific, philosophical, ethical, social and finally the religious; which in turn allows for the explanation and justification of concepts that enable the reader to adopt a perspective relevant to the distinctions of absolute truth and relativistic assumptions. Our age is accurately referred to as the age of advancement and technology and for good reason. The rapid pace of progression over the last century in the life sciences has contributed to a broadened understanding of knowledge itself and its relation to the psychological and sociological aspects of our existence. As a result of the significant expansion of the sciences, the desire for an understanding of “self” and simply of “why” has in many ways been diluted, thus negating the never ending questions that once tugged at man's conscious in the middle of the night for thousands of years. Today's amazing achievements have laid the foundation for a whole series of newer problems and questions that threaten mankind as never before. The medical and biological sciences have enabled us to have a life expectancy beyond that of prior generations, however coupled with that are the problems of population explosion, which in the not too distant future will give rise to serious concerns. We have the ability to harness the power of the atom, yet along with it comes the ability to destroy all that we hold sacred. Taking into consideration the advanced age we live in, how does one account for the remarkable complexity extant throughout the known universe? Is one to assume that our consciousness coupled with our overwhelming sense of purpose can be attributed solely to “random chance” alone? The law of causation deals with the need for a preceding event leading to the outcome, and despite the fact that this scientific age has left its handprint on every facet of life today, it has failed to satisfy the innate question of simply,.............................................. why?
Download or read book COMETS written by David J. Eicher and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join David J. Eicher in this fast-paced and entertaining journey through the history, present, and future of these important yet mysterious cosmic bodies. From ancient times, humans have been fascinated by 'broom stars' and 'blazing scimitars' lighting up the sky and moving against the fixed background of stars. The Great Comets of our time still receive in-depth attention - ISON, Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake, West, and others - while recent spacecraft encounters offer amazing insight into the earliest days of the solar system. In this guide you will discover the cutting-edge science of what comets are, how they behave, where they reside, how groups of comets are related, and much more. The author carefully explores the ideas relating comets and life on Earth - and the danger posed by impacts. He finishes with practical, how-to techniques, tips, and tricks on how to successfully observe comets and even to capture your own images of them.
Download or read book The Great Christ Comet written by Colin R. Nicholl and published by Crossway Books. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the biblical text and using the latest astronomical research, this book presents compelling evidence that the historic star of Bethlehem that accompanied Christ's birth was actually a great comet.
Download or read book Comets written by Julio A. Fernandez and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-07-19 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comets are small bodies, but of great cosmic relevance. Given its pristine nature, they may preserve valuable and unique information on thechemical and physical processes that took place in theearly solar system, and that may be occurring in the formation of other planetary systems. They might have even played a very important role in the origin of life on Earth. Beyond that, since ancient times comets have inspired awe, superstition, and also curiosity anddebate. Their sudden apparitions challenged the long-held view of the immutability of the heavens, which triggered a long debate on whether comets had a heavenly or terrestrial nature. Therefore, comets have a prominent role in the history of scienti?cthought, that goes back to the most ancient civilizations. The last apparition of comet Halley in 1986 was a landmark since it arouse a great expectation in the scienti?c community and in the public at large. For the ?rst time, a ?otilla of spacecrafts visited a comet. Agreat number of popular and technical books were written on Halley, and comets in general, around the mid-eighties. The interest in comets never subsided after Halley’s passage which is re?ected in the large volume of printed material on these bodies. I have taken the challenge to write a new book on comets that summarizes most of the recent advances on thesubject, including my own workdeveloped during the last 25 years.
Download or read book Ultraviolet Astronomy and the Quest for the Origin of Life written by Ana I. Gomez de Castro and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2021-03-27 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ultraviolet Astronomy and the Quest for the Origin of Life addresses the use of astronomical observations in the ultraviolet range to better understand the generation of complex, life-precursor molecules. The origin of RNA is still under debate but seems to be related to the generation of pools of complex organic molecules submitted to heavy cycles of solution in water and drying. This book investigates whether these cycles require a planetary surface or may occur in space by examining both the theoretical and observational aspects of the role of UV radiation in the origin of life. This book offers the latest advances in these studies for astronomers, astrobiologists and planetary scientists. - Addresses both the theoretical and observational aspects of the role of Ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the origin of life - Builds on the requirements to produce prebiotic molecules in space and the implications for the origin of RNA - Investigates the use of ultraviolet observations related to planetary system formation, the evolution of young planetary disks, and the interaction of stars with planetary atmospheres
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).
