You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Given that the question of an internal magnetic field is of fundamental importance to the understanding of Mars' formation and thermal evolution, and of the evolution of Mars' atmosphere, surprisingly few of the many spacecraft sent to Mars were equipped with instrumentation for such investigations. Of the 9 or so orbiters that have successfully archived Mars orbit, even if for a short period of time, only two have returned useful data about the magnetic field and about the plasma environment near Mars: The Phobos 2 spacecraft, and more recently, Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). With the discovery by MGS that Mars has large remnant magnetic field structures indicating an internal dynamo long extinct, the true nature of the past and present interaction between Mars and the solar wind comes, for the first time, into sharp focus. This work, detailing the integration and new interpretation of the MGS and Phobos results, is a primary reference for the researcher studying solar wind/planet interactions.
For the general public, magnetism often seems more the province of new age quacks, movie mad scientists, and grade-school teachers than an area of actual, ongoing scientific inquiry. But as Ronald T. Merrill reveals in Our Magnetic Earth, geomagnetism really is an enduring, vibrant area of science, one that offers answers to some of the biggest questions about our planet’s past—and maybe even its future. In a clear and careful fashion, he lays out the physics of geomagnetism and magnetic fields, then goes on to explain how Earth’s magnetic field provides crucial evidence for our understanding of continental drift and plate tectonics; how and why animals, ranging from bacteria to mammal...
None
One of the most attractive features of the young discipline of Space Science is that many of the original pioneers and key players involved are still available to describe their field. Hence, at this point in history we are in a unique position to gain first-hand insight into the field and its development. To this end, The Century of Space Science, a scholarly, authoritative, reference book presents a chapter-by-chapter retrospective of space science as studied in the 20th century. The level is academic and focuses on key discoveries, how these were arrived at, their scientific consequences and how these discoveries advanced the thoughts of the key players involved. With over 90 world-class contributors, such as James Van Allen, Cornelis de Jager, Eugene Parker, Reimar Lüst, and Ernst Stuhlinger, and with a Foreword by Lodewijk Woltjer (past ESO Director General), this book will be immensely useful to readers in the fields of space science, astronomy, and the history of science. Both academic institutions and researchers will find that this major reference work makes an invaluable addition to their collection.
Although the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has become synonymous with the United States’ planetary exploration during the past half century, its most recent focus has been on Mars. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the Mars Phoenix mission of 2007, JPL led the way in engineering an impressive, rapidly evolving succession of Mars orbiters and landers, including roving robotic vehicles whose successful deployment onto the Martian surface posed some of the most complicated technical problems in space flight history. In Exploration and Engineering, Erik M. Conway reveals how JPL engineers’ creative technological feats led to major breakthroughs in Mars explor...
A leading historian of astronomy and a leading planetary scientist who works at the forefront of space exploration provide a comprehensive history of the solar system's most alluring planet beyond Earth. William Sheehan and Jim Bell chronicle how ancient watchers of the skies attended to Mars's red color and baffling movements, how three and a half centuries of telescopic observations added vistas and controversies around possible seas and continents and canals, and how the current era of exploration by flyby, orbiter, lander, and rover spacecraft have conjured for us the reality of a world of towering shield volcanoes, vast canyons, ancient dry riverbeds--and even possible evidence of past life. A unique collaboration between two authors on the forefront of Mars explorations, past and future, Discovering Mars provides an ambitious, detailed, and evocative account of humanity's enduring fascination with the Red Planet.
Mars is about one-eighth the mass of the Earth and it may provide an analogue of what the Earth was like when it was at such an early stage of accretion. The fur ther growth of the Earth was sustained by major collisions with planetesimals and planets such as that which resulted in the formation ofthe Earth's moon (Hartmann and Davis, 1975; Cameron and Ward, 1976; Wetherill, 1986; Cameron and Benz, 1991). This late accretionary history, which lasted more than 50 Myr in the case of the Earth (Halliday, 2000a, b), appears to have been shorter and less catastrophic in the case of Mars (Harper et ai. , 1995; Lee and Halliday, 1997). In this article we review the basic differences between the bul...