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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
They say that as an undergraduate you are to believe the textbooks and then, as a graduate student, you should begin to doubt them. The subject of the Origin of Comets is a similar in that, if you watch TV, every science program that touches on the subject repeats over and over the mantra that comets are materials left-over from the beginning of our solar system. While that may be correct, not all of what we know about comets supports that speculation. In particular, the dynamics of the orbits of comets disallows the notion that their orbits can be assumed stable for the four or five billion years since then. There are simply too many forces acting (such as stars passing near by, or occasional solar-system passage through dense molecular clouds) which can perturb them over billions of years. This may not seem like such a big deal, but it is. If they cannot remain in stable orbits for billions of years, and if the solar system is that old, then how did they get into their present orbits, and were they really always associated with the formation of our solar system? Could they have been captured at some time intermediate in the history of our solar system? These are great questions. If you appreciate a tour of this particular frontier of human knowledge, and if you want guides who are natives, experts, and almost unbelievably skilled at explaining extremely complex subject matter, than this is a book to buy and cherish. I cannot think of a single example of science writing on a single neatly bounded subject that is as good as this. This book will make you wonder about the standard mantra about comet origins. And with luck, to wonder, is to begin to understand.
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1 review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A delightful guided tour of a complex subject by masters of science writing
18 Jun 2007
Format:Paperback
I have not read this book from cover to cover, but I have read enough of it to be deeply impressed by how masterfully and impartially these authors present complex and somewhat controversial subjects. Technical books this well written are very rare. This one is so good it can make you feel smarter than...well, smarter than you probably are. You suddenly think: "Whoa! I can't believe they found words that allowed me to understood that!" ...A feeling to relish for a few minutes before falling asleep. And then, if you are lucky, you have lofty thoughts to savor during the morning commute.
This book is out of print. I ordered a used copy. When it arrived, it had a stamp on it stating that it had been discarded from a large public library in Texas. It made me wonder what book was so important that this one had to be discarded to make room? Oh well. Texas' loss was my gain.
This book is out of print. I ordered a used copy. When it arrived, it had a stamp on it stating that it had been discarded from a large public library in Texas. It made me wonder what book was so important that this one had to be discarded to make room? Oh well. Texas' loss was my gain.
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