Comets, Meteors & Asteroids in The Books Store

It is said that astronomy is one of the few remaining fields in which amateurs can make a real contribution to science, and nowhere is this more true than in the field of meteors and meteorites.

Although meteors are isolated and unpredictable, it is possible to predict when meteor showers - usually associated with old comets - are due; they last a couple of days, during which many meteors can be observed in a single night. Equipment for watching, counting and even measuring meteors can range from the simplest (a chair) to sophisticated all-sky cameras.

What is unique about meteors in astronomical observation is that many survive entry into the Earth's atmosphere and impact the ground - the only easily-analysed extraterrestrial material available to science.

What is unique about Richard Norton's book is that it is both a field guide to observing meteors, and also a field guide to locating, preparing and analysing meteorites. In addition to giving the reader information about observing techniques for meteors, this book also provides a fully detailed account of the types of meteorites, how and where to find them, how to prepare and analyse them. It is thus the only complete book on the subject available at present.

The quest for extraterrestrial life doesn't happen only in science fiction. This book describes the startling discoveries being made in the very real science of astrobiology, an intriguing new field that blends astronomy, biology, and geology to explore the possibility of life on other planets. Jeffrey Bennett takes readers beyond UFOs to discuss some of the tantalizing questions astrobiologists grapple with every day: What is life and how does it begin? What makes a planet or moon habitable? Is there life on Mars or elsewhere in the solar system? How can life be recognized on distant worlds? Is it likely to be microbial, more biologically complex--or even intelligent? What would such a discovery mean for life here on Earth?

Come along on this scientific adventure and learn the astonishing implications of discoveries made in this field for the future of the human race. Bennett, who believes that "science is a way of helping people come to agreement," explains how the search for extraterrestrial life can help bridge the divide that sometimes exists between science and religion, defuse public rancor over the teaching of evolution, and quiet the debate over global warming. He likens humanity today to a troubled adolescent teetering on the edge between self-destruction and a future of virtually limitless possibilities. Beyond UFOs shows why the very quest to find alien life can help us to grow up as a species and chart a course for the stars.

This textbook is intended to be used in a lecture course for college students majoring in Earth Sciences. Planetary science provides an opportunity for these students to apply a wide range of subject matter pertaining to the Earth to the study of other planets and their principal satellites. In this way, planetary science tends to unify subjects in the Earth Sciences that are traditionally taught separately. Therefore, planetary science is well-suited to be taught as a capstone course for senior undergraduates in geology departments and as an introduction to the solar system in astronomy departments. Both groups of students will benefit because planetary science bridges the gap between geology and astronomy and it prepares geologists and astronomers to participate actively in the on-going exploration of the solar system.

The subject matter is presented in 24 chapters that lead the reader through the solar system starting with historical perspectives on space exploration and the development of the scientific method. The presentations concerning the planets and their satellites emphasize that their origin and subsequent evolution can be explained by applications of certain basic principles of physics, chemistry, and celestial mechanics and that the surface features of the solid bodies in the solar system can be interpreted by means of the principles of geology.