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This book relates the history of asteroid discoveries and christenings, from those of the early pioneering giants of Hersehel and Piazzi to modern-day amateurs. Moving from history and anecdotal information to science, the book's structure is provided by the names of the asteroids, including one named after the author. Free from a need to conform to scientific naming conventions, the names evidence hero-worship, sycophancy, avarice, vanity, whimsy, erudition and wit, revealing the human side of astronomers, especially where controversy has followed the christening. Murdin draws from extensive historical records to explore the debate over these names. Each age reveals its own biases and prefe...
The first in a set of four volumes that make up the most complete and comprehensive catalog of every comet observed throughout history.
Comets have not only blazed across the celestial vault throughout human history, they have embellished the night sky since the Earth itself formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Comets were among the first-born solid bodies in the solar system, and their frozen nuclei tell of the primordial chemistry and chaos that ultimately resulted in the formation of the planets, the evolution of life and us. For all this, however, comets have long been celestial oddities: they baffled our distant ancestors, and human society continues to marvel and speculate wildly at their appearance even to the present day. Cutting against the perceived constancy of the stars, comets seemingly present themselves at rando...
In addition to its practical value for identification purposes, this collection provides a most interesting historical insight into the work of those astronomers who, over two centuries, revealed their true affinities in a rich and colourful variety of ingenious names - from heavenly goddesses to more prosaic constructions. This third, revised and enlarged edition contains the naming citations for over 95% of the named planets and thus provides a comprehensive data compilation for both astronomers and science historians.
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