Comets in the 21st century : a personal guide to experiencing the next great comet! /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Boice, Daniel Craig, 1953- author.
Imprint:San Rafael [California] (40 Oak Drive, San Rafael, CA, 94903, USA) : Morgan & Claypool Publishers, [2019]
Bristol [England] (Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK) : IOP Publishing, [2019]
Description:1 online resource (various pagings) : illustrations (some color).
Language:English
Series:[IOP release 6]
IOP concise physics, 2053-2571
IOP (Series). Release 6.
IOP concise physics.
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12385489
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:Comets in the twenty-first century.
Other authors / contributors:Hockey, Thomas A., author.
Huebner, W. F. (Walter F.), 1928- writer of foreword.
Morgan & Claypool Publishers, publisher.
Institute of Physics (Great Britain), publisher.
ISBN:9781643274461
9781643274447
9781643274430
Notes:"Version: 20190401"--Title page verso.
"A Morgan & Claypool publication as part of IOP Concise Physics"--Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references.
Also available in print.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.
Daniel C. Boice is the principal astronomer at Scientific Studies & Consulting in San Antonio, TX. His professional activities include over 75 peer-reviewed research papers and several hundred conference reports. In 2000, he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Thomas Hockey is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Northern Iowa. He has written seven previous books including Galileo's Planet and How We See the Sky. Hockey was Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning Biographical Encyclopaedia of Astronomers.
Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 6, 2019).
Summary:The purpose of this book is to bring comets into the living rooms of general households, to familiarize politicians with these fascinating objects when they ponder funding for comet research, to teach children and young students and to provide teaching tools about these very unusual objects in our skies. The presentation is very comprehensive in its description of orbits around the Sun, the development of the coma (escaping atmosphere) from a comet's nucleus and source of all activities, various types of comet tails, trailing as well as leading as a comet orbits our Sun, ancient beliefs and explanations of these phenomena and the most recent discovery of the first interstellar comet.
Target Audience:General readership; beginning/undergraduate, appropriate for all levels.
Other form:Print version: 9781643274430
Standard no.:10.1088/2053-2571/ab027e
Table of Contents:
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Roller-coaster comets
  • 2.1. The paths of comets
  • 2.2. Two kinds of comets
  • 2.3. Celestial clockwork
  • 2.4. A Universe in motion
  • 2.5. The gravity of the situation
  • 2.6. Looping comets
  • 2.7. Orbits of your own
  • 3. What comets are all about
  • 3.1. Parts of a comet
  • 3.2. What is a comet made of?
  • 3.3. More on the comet nucleus
  • 3.4. Comet scene investigation (CSI) using chemical fingerprints
  • 3.5. The demise of comets
  • 3.6. The origin of comets
  • 3.7. A visit to a comet
  • 4. Comet crashes
  • 4.1. What if?
  • 4.2. The comets come to Earth
  • 4.3. The killer comet
  • 5. Observing comets
  • 5.1. Eye on a comet
  • 5.2. Where to go?
  • 5.3. When to look?
  • 5.4. Expectations
  • 6. Hunting comets
  • 6.1. Who discovers comets?
  • 6.2. Where is our comet?
  • 6.3. How bright a light?
  • 6.4. Eureka! I've found a comet!
  • 6.5. Starting your comet quest
  • 6.6. Epilogue
  • 7. Postscript
  • Appendices. A. Lesson suggestions for teachers
  • B. Approximate dates for some famous meteor showers
  • C. Typical comet visibility rates
  • D. The brightest comets since 1935
  • E. Notable comets in history
  • F. Books on historical comets
  • G. Intermediate and advanced books on comets.