A History of Modern Planetary Physics Fruitful Encounters [Hardcover]

Fruitful Encounters surveys the development of theories of the origin of the solar system in the twentieth century.The three volumes that together make up A History of Modern Planetary Physics present a survey of the different theories about the origin of the solar system and the nature of the Earth. Fruitful Encounters follows the development of twentieth century theories of the solar system's beginnings. By placing great emphasis on the findings of the Apollo space program and especially its analysis of lunar samples, Professor Brush discusses ideas about the origin of the Moon, culminating in the establishment, in the 1980s, of the giant impact theory.The three volumes that together make up A History of Modern Planetary Physics present a survey of the different theories about the origin of the solar system and the nature of the Earth. Fruitful Encounters follows the development of twentieth century theories of the solar system's beginnings. By placing great emphasis on the findings of the Apollo space program and especially its analysis of lunar samples, Professor Brush discusses ideas about the origin of the Moon, culminating in the establishment, in the 1980s, of the giant impact theory.The early twentieth century saw the replacement of the Nebular Hypothesis with the Chamberlin-Moulton theory that the solar system resulted from the encounter of the Sun with a passing star. Fruitful Encounters follows the eventual refutation of the encounter theory and the subsequent revival of a modernized Nebular Hypothesis. Professor Brush also discusses the role of findings from the Apollo space program, especially the analysis of lunar samples, culminating in the establishment of the giant impact theory of the Moon's origin in the 1980s.Illustrations; Preface; Part I. Planetesimals and Stelllar Encounters: 1. Introduction; 2. A geologist among astronomers: the Chamberlin-Moulton theory; 3. Jeans, Jeffreys and the decline of encounter theories; Part II. Nebular RelC#