Celestial Mechanics
The Waltz of the Planets
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Beschreibung
I was delighted to be invited by my colleagues Alessandra Celletti and Ettore Perozzi to provide a foreword to their book, Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets. Having known them for many years and long admired their work in the subject so many of us love and are fascinated by, 1 read with great attention and pleasure the text when it arrived. It is a formidable task they have set themselves, to provide a book that describes attempts by successive generations of astronomers from the dawn of history five millennia ago to observe, record and understand the phenomena of the heavens, particularly the intricate and perplexing behaviour of the planets. Sun and Moon. As naked eye astronomy became aided by the telescope and the photographic plate, and since the middle of the twentieth century, by instruments launched on spacecraft into circum- Earth orbit or to the Moon and planets and beyond, the discovery of new satellites, scores of them, and ring systems displaying new and initially perplexing behaviour also demanded explanations for that behaviour. It is also the inspiring story of science itself with special reference to how lonely individuals, impelled by curiosity and dedicated to seeking the truth, and nothing but the truth, about the fascinating phenomena of nature, ultimately became accepted as scientists, those players in the most successful endeavour ever engaged in by the human race.
Reinforces public awareness as a key issue for appreciating and exploiting the wealth of astronomical data and images gathered during the space age Explains celestial mechanics without the use of mathematics Authors provide an interdisciplinary cross section of all celestial mechanics
The aim of the book is to demonstrate to a wider audience, as well as to a more skilled audience, the many fascinating aspects of modern celestial mechanics. It sets out to do this without the use of mathematics. After giving the reader the technical tools needed for a basic understanding of the underlying physical phenomena (using only elementary mathematics), facts and figures are provided on historical events, modern discoveries and future applications. Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role. The common perception of Celestial Mechanics is that of a discipline which needs advanced mathematics and astronomy to be understood. Yet modern Celestial Mechanics has a rather different taste and a truly interdisciplinary nature.
Autor*in
Alessandra Celletti
Themen in »Celestial Mechanics«
Celestial Celestial mechanics Celletti Mechanics Natur Perozzi Planets Solar System artificial satellite astronomy evolution mathematics
Stimmen zu »Celestial Mechanics«
From the reviews:
"Celletti (Universita di Roma ‘Tor Vergata’) and Perozzi (Telespazio Rome) present a complicated subject in an engaging manner that is accessible to general readers. The writing is clear and authoritative, and the diagrams and tables help the nonexpert reader to visualize the key ideas without having to wade through the mathematics usually found in a book on this subject. … Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates." (T. Barker, CHOICE, Vol. 44 (11), August, 2007)
"The celestial mechanics can be considered as the mathematical part of the astronomy, requiring a high level in mathematics and reserved to specialists … . The Waltz of the Planets offer a different insight, providing very basic mathematical tools to the reader, sufficient to enable him or her to understand the main topics of celestial planetary dynamics. The purpose is to present this discipline as accessible, interesting and amusing … . A book to recommand to students, astronomers … and celestial mechanicians." (Anne Lemaître, Physicalia Magazine, Vol. 30 (1), 2008)
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