In Search of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost in Newton’s Clockwork UniverseSpringer US, 21 Μαρ 1997 - 310 σελίδες Presented for the first time in popular form is the fascinating true story of the search for the phantom planet Vulcan. As with legends of "the lost continent of Atlantis," scientists and dreamers alike have sought to prove that Vulcan is more than just a myth. Historians of astronomy Richard Baum and William Sheehan have combed the continents, digging through dusty letters and journals, to unravel this mysterious and captivating tale. The planet first assumed a shadowy reality against a backdrop of war and revolution early in the nineteenth century. Le Verrier, the autocratic Director of the Paris Observatory, had unveiled a problem with the motion of the planet Mercury. The indications were of a planet closer to the sun than Mercury. Incredibly, the prediction was immediately fulfilled by an obscure French country doctor using no more than a homemade telescope. The planet, named for the Roman god of fire, was no sooner discovered than it was lost. Still it reappeared often enough to tantalize even skeptics into considering its shadowy existence possible. This fast-paced tale follows the exploits of Le Verrier, and later of his followers, in a pursuit of his unbridled obsessions: to extend the universality of Newton's Laws, to prove Vulcan's existence, and to secure his place in history as one of the greatest astronomers of his time. Stranger than fiction, the story reaches an exciting climax in the final showdown in the unlikeliest of places: America's Wild West. Like gunslingers at high noon, determined astronomers of the opposing camps brave Indians and the elements in their attempt to prove once and for all whether the planet exists. They congregate with some of the most illustrious names of their time for the final test: a grand eclipse of the sun. |
Περιεχόμενα
Introduction | 1 |
The Elusive Planet of Twilight | 7 |
Le Grand Newton | 16 |
Πνευματικά δικαιώματα | |
19 άλλες ενότητες δεν εμφανίζονται
Άλλες εκδόσεις - Προβολή όλων
In Search of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost in Newton’s Clockwork Universe Richard P. Baum,William Sheehan Περιορισμένη προεπισκόπηση - 2013 |
In Search Of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost In Newton's Clockwork Universe Richard Baum,William Sheehan Δεν υπάρχει διαθέσιμη προεπισκόπηση - 2003 |
Συχνά εμφανιζόμενοι όροι και φράσεις
Adams Adams's Airy anomalous advance appeared Arago arc seconds asteroids Astronomer Royal body Bouvard C. H. F. Peters calculations Cambridge Cancri celestial Challis Clairaut comet Comptes Rendu discovered discovery of Neptune distance Earth eccentricity errors existence Flammarion Flamsteed gravitation Greenwich Halley Herschel History of Astronomy Holden hypothesis Ibid intramercurial planet inverse-square law J. C. Adams January John Couch Adams Journal Jupiter Lalande Laplace later Le Verrier Lea Shane Archives Lescarbault letter Lewis Swift Liais Lick Observatory London longitude magnitude Mary Lea Shane mass mathematical mathematician Mercury's Monthly Notices Moon Newcomb Newton noted object observations October orbit Orgères Paris Observatory perihelion perturbations planetary position predicted problem published refractor Royal Astronomical Society Saturn seemed seen September Simon Newcomb solar system spot stars sunspots tables telescope tions total eclipse transit tronomer U. J. J. Le Verrier U.S. Naval Observatory Uranus Venus Vulcan Watson wrote