A History of Modern Planetary Physics: Fruitful Encounters

by Stephen G. Brush

• ISBN13: 9780521552141
• ISBN10: 0521552141
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-04-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Where did we come from? Before there was life there had to be something to live on - a planet, a solar system. During the past 200 years, astronomers and geologists have developed and tested several different theories about the origin of the solar system and the nature of the Earth. Together, the three volumes that make up A History of Modern Planetary Physics present a survey of these theories. The early twentieth century saw the replacement of the Nebular Hypothesis with the Chamberlain-Moulton theory that the solar system resulted from the encounter of the Sun with a passing star. Fruitful Encounters follows the eventual refutation of the encounter theory and the subsequent revival of a modernised Nebular Hypothesis. Professor Brush also discusses the role of findings from the Apollo space program, especially the analysis of lunar samples, culminating in the establishment, in the 1980s, of the 'giant impact' theory of the Moon's origin.

Table of Contents

Part I. Planetesimals and Stelllar Encounters: 1. Introduction

2. A geologist among astronomers: the Chamberlain-Moulton theory

3. Jeans, Jeffreys, and the decline of encounter theories

Part II. Nebular Rebirth and Stellar Death: 4. Introduction

5. Methodology

6. Nuclear cosmochronology and Hoyle's research programme

7. Cameron's programme

8. Isotopic anomalies and the supernova trigger

Part III. Planetogony and Plasma: 9. Safronov's programme

10. The giant planets

11. Chemical cosmogony: the terrestrial planets

12. Alfvé

n's electromagnetic programme

Part IV. Whence the Moon?

13. Introduction

14. Early history of selenogony

15. Harold Urey and the origin of the moon

16. History of modern selenogony.