Shoemaker by Levy: The Man Who Made an ImpactPrinceton University Press, 9.2.2021 - 319 sivua It was a lucky twist of fate when in the early1980s David Levy, a writer and amateur astronomer, joined up with the famous scientist Eugene Shoemaker and his wife, Carolyn, to search for comets from an observation post on Palomar Mountain in Southern California. Their collaboration would lead to the 1993 discovery of the most remarkable comet ever recorded, Shoemaker-Levy 9, with its several nuclei, five tails, and two sheets of debris spread out in its orbit plane. A year later, Levy would be by the Shoemakers' side again when their comet ended its four-billion-year-long journey through the solar system and collided with Jupiter in the most stunning astronomical display of the century. Not only did this collision revolutionize our understanding of the history of the solar system, but it also offered a spectacular confirmation of one scientist's life work. As a close friend and colleague of Shoemaker (who died in 1997 at the age of 69), Levy offers a uniquely insightful account of his life and the way it has shaped our thinking about the universe. |
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... month Gene and Carolyn were accompanied by their colleague Henry Holt , and again they included my comet on their list of fields of sky to ... months after Comet Levy's closest approach to the Sun. This was a singular instance Preface xi.
... months later at a sixteen - inch telescope on Mount Bigelow near Tucson , although that telescope didn't work out as we had hoped . In July 1989 I began observing regularly with the Shoemakers at Palomar . For perhaps six months of the ...
... month . Gene had so much more than simple energy and enthusiasm ; his personal magnetism could envelop a situation . Again and again , his colleagues , friends , and family have told me how that quality of his got them to do so much ...
... month - in search of comets and asteroids . Gene's goal was to determine the rate of impacts in our corner of the solar system . Gene had a dream . With all the craters , and crater - making objects he had seen , he wanted to cap his ...
... month . “ I think we should keep on observing , ” I said , conscious that in an El Niño year , the onset of clouds likely meant that we would not get to use the telescope for several days . Gene's reply had a financial twist to it ...
Sisältö
14 | |
1948 | 27 |
A Revolution in Earth | 44 |
Impact | 58 |
19531960 | 69 |
19661968 | 101 |
19681969 | 113 |
19691970 | 126 |
19801995 | 184 |
19841995 | 197 |
1993 | 213 |
1994 | 225 |
19951997 | 241 |
1997 | 251 |
Epilogue | 262 |
Notes | 269 |