| Physics and Chemistry of Comets Softcover Repri Edition Contributor(s): Huebner, Walter F. (Editor), Whipple, Fred L. (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 3642748074 ISBN-13: 9783642748073 Publisher: Springer OUR PRICE: $52.24 Product Type: Paperback Published: December 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Science | Physics - Astrophysics - Science | Earth Sciences - Geology - Science | Physics - Geophysics |
| Dewey: 523.6 |
| Series: Astronomy and Astrophysics Library |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.69" W x 9.61" (1.38 lbs) 376 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: As this excellent book demonstrates, the study of comets has now reached the fas- cinating stage where we understand comets in general simple tenns while, at the same time, we are uncertain about practically all the details of cometary nature, structure, processes, and origin. In every aspect, even including dynamics, a choice among several or many competing theories is made impossible simply by the lack of detailed knowledge. The space missions, snapshot studies of two comets, partic- ularly the one that immortalizes the name of Sir Edmund Halley, have produced a huge mass of valuable new infonnation and a number of surprises. Nonetheless, we face the tantalizing realization that we have obtained only a fleeting glance at two of perhaps a hundred billion (lOll) or more comets with possibly differing natures, origins, and physical histories. To my personal satisfaction, comets seem to have discrete nuclei made up of dirty snowballs, as I concluded four decades ago, but perhaps they are more like frozen rubbish piles. |