Perryman The Making of History's Greatest Star Map

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-3-642-11602-5
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 282 Seiten

From prehistoric times, mankind has looked up at the night sky, and puzzled at the changing positions of the stars. How far away they are is a question that has confounded scientists for centuries. Over the last few hundred years, many scientific careers - and considerable resources - have been devoted to measuring their positions and motions with ever increasing accuracy. And in the last two decades of the 20th century, the European Space Agency developed and launched the Hipparcos satellite, around which this account revolves, to carry out these exacting measurements from space.What has prompted these remarkable developments? Why have governments been persuaded to fund them? What are scientists learning from astronomy's equivalent of the Human Genome Project? This book traces the subject's history, explains why such enormous efforts are considered worthwhile, and interweaves these with a first-hand insight into the Hipparcos project, and how big science is conducted at an international level. The involvement of amateur astronomers, and the Hipparcos contributions to climate research, 'death stars' passing close to the Sun, and the search for extra-solar planets and even intelligent life itself, are some of the surprising facets of this unusual space mission.

Michael Perryman has spent a career in space science focused on Europe's ambitious programme to map the stars. For his scientific leadership of the Hipparcos project, the first star mapping programme carried out from space and the greatest leap in accuracy in history, he was awarded the Prix Janssen of the French Astronomical Society in 1996, and the Academic Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Perryman, Michael

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;8
2;Contents;12
3;Prologue: Hipparcos Launch;13
4;Our Place in the Cosmos;26
5;Why Star Positions?;40
6;Early History;54
7;Developments 1850–1980;74
8;The Push to Space;96
9;FromConcept to Launch;110
10;Disaster Unfolds;136
11;Mission Recovery;144
12;Science in theMaking;156
13;The Finishing Touches;180
14;Our Galaxy;196
15;Inside the Stars;215
16;Our Solar System and Habitability;240
17;The Future;265
18;Epilogue;269
19;Notes;271
20;Stereo Views;275
21;Acknowledgments;279
22;Index;281