Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Powell, James Lawrence (1936-....)
Titre(s) : Unlocking the Moon's secrets [Texte imprimé] : from Galileo to giant impact / James Lawrence Powell
Publication : New York : Oxford university press, copyright 2023
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (149 p.) : ill. ; 25 cm
Note(s) : Bibliogr. p. 135-142
The Moon is the most viewed object in the sky, the Sun being too bright to look at
directly and the planets too far away. The Greeks deduced everything that could be
learned about the Moon using only the naked eye, including that it has no light of
its own but reflects that of the Sun. They understood the cause of eclipses and used
the Earth's shadow on the Moon to conclude that our planet is a sphere and to calculate
the size of both the Moon and the Earth. The invention of the telescope some two millennia
later offered the opportunity for much greater understanding, but the early observers
became sidetracked onto a dead end: First, they fooled themselves into believing that
they saw evidence of life on the Moon, even the works of a civilization. Second, they
became convinced that the craters of the Moon were volcanoes like those we have on
the Earth. These wrong-headed beliefs took centuries to dispel. The origin of the
Moon itself has proven an even more difficult question, but scientists have now closed
in on the answer. They find that our placid and seemingly unchanging Moon was born
in colossal violence as a planet the size of Mars crashed into the primordial Earth
and flung off a blob that solidified to become our heavenly companion. Unlocking the
Moon's Secrets follows these developments to show how science evolves, complete with
misunderstandings, contentious arguments, difficult to relinquish assumptions, and
shifting views as new facts come to light. Thanks to the work of generations of determined
scientists, we understand our Moon, at last
Sujet(s) : Géologie lunaire
Lune
Indice(s) Dewey :
523.3 (23e éd.) = Lune
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 978-0-19-769486-2 (br.)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb47342050t
Notice n° :
FRBNF47342050
Table des matières : Part I: The Origin of the Moon's Craters. Chapter 1. The Ancient Astronomers ; Chapter
2. Pioneers of Modern Astronomy ; Chapter 3. Mapping and Measuring ; Chapter 4.
The Moon's Myriad Craters ; hapter 5. Colliding Moonlets ; Chapter 6. Cryptic Craters
; Chapter 7. To the Moon ; Part II: The Origin of the Moon. Chapter 8. The Rise and
Fall of the Nebular Hypothesis ; Chapter 9. We Go into Space ; Chapter 10. Rosetta
Stone of the Solar System ; Chapter 11. Volcanism on the Moon ; Chapter 12. Giant
Impact ; Chapter 13. Green Light for Giant Impact ; Chapter 14. Mother of Selene
; hapter 15. Simulating Giant Impact ; Chapter 16. Summing Up and Looking Ahead
