Author: Frédéric J. Pont
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1461485541
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159
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Book Description
Planetary atmospheres are complex and evolving entities, as mankind is rapidly coming to realise whilst attempting to understand, forecast and mitigate human-induced climate change. In the Solar System, our neighbours Venus and Mars provide striking examples of two endpoints of planetary evolution, runaway greenhouse and loss of atmosphere to space. The variety of extra-solar planets brings a wider angle to the issue: from scorching "hot jupiters'' to ocean worlds, exo-atmospheres explore many configurations unknown in the Solar System, such as iron clouds, silicate rains, extreme plate tectonics, and steam volcanoes. Exoplanetary atmospheres have recently become accessible to observations. This book puts our own climate in the wider context of the trials and tribulations of planetary atmospheres. Based on cutting-edge research, it uses a grand tour of the atmospheres of other planets to shine a new light on our own atmosphere, and its relation with life.
Author: Philip Plait
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393867315
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363
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Book Description
A Financial Times Best Science Book of 2023 • A Science News Favorite Book of 2023 • A Scientific American 2023 Staff Recommendation "The next-best thing to traveling through space and time." —Laura Helmuth, editor in chief of Scientific American A rip-roaring tour of the cosmos with the Bad Astronomer, bringing you up close and personal with the universe like never before. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel the universe? How would Saturn’s rings look from a spaceship sailing just above them? If you were falling into a black hole, what’s the last thing you’d see before getting spaghettified? While traveling in person to most of these amazing worlds may not be possible—yet—the would-be space traveler need not despair: you can still take the scenic route through the galaxy with renowned astronomer and science communicator Philip Plait. On this lively, immersive adventure through the cosmos, Plait draws ingeniously on both the latest scientific research and his prodigious imagination to transport you to ten of the most spectacular sights outer space has to offer. In vivid, inventive scenes informed by rigorous science—injected with a dose of Plait’s trademark humor—Under Alien Skies places you on the surface of alien worlds, from our own familiar Moon to the far reaches of our solar system and beyond. Try launching yourself onto a two-hundred-meter asteroid, or stargazing from the rim of an ancient volcano on a planet where, from the place you stand, it is eternally late afternoon. Experience the sudden onset of lunar nightfall, the disorientation of walking—or, rather, shuffling—when you weigh almost nothing, the irritation of jagged regolith dust. Glimpse the frigid mountains and plains of Pluto and the cake-like exterior of a comet called 67P. On a planet trillions of miles from Earth, glance down to see the strange, beautiful shadows cast by a hundred thousand stars. For the aspiring extraterrestrial citizen, casual space tourist, or curious armchair traveler, Plait is an illuminating, always-entertaining guide to the most otherworldly views in our universe.
Author: Philip C. Plait
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780670019977
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338
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Book Description
It's only a matter of time before a cosmic disaster spells the end of the Earth. But how concerned should we about about any of these catastrophic scenarios? And if they do post a danger, can anything be done to stop them?
Author: Michael Carroll
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441969179
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
Ever since the Montgolfier's hot air balloon carried a chicken, a goat, and a duck into the Parisian skies, scientists have dreamed of contraptions to explore the atmosphere. With the advent of the space age, new airborne inventions were needed. From the Soviet Venus balloons to the advanced studies of blimps and airplanes for the atmospheres of Mars and Titan, Drifting on Alien Winds surveys the many creative and often wacky ideas for exploring alien skies. Through historical photographs and stunning original paintings by the author, readers also explore the weather on planets and moons, from the simmering acid-laden winds of Venus to liquid methane-soaked skies of Titan.
Author: Ryan Sprague
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781954528031
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: James P. Hogan
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
ISBN: 1618244809
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 432
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Book Description
Eighteen years have passed since the first manned mission to Earth arrived from Venus. With the first colonists already establishing themselves across the bright, sunny world of clear blue skies and wonderlands of towering mountains and ice deserts, Kyal Reen arrives to join the Venusian scientific and archeological teams that are working to reconstruct the story of the mysterious and enigmatic extinct Terran race that once flourished there. Studies of Terran geology, scientific works, and ancient records show that Earth's early peoples witnessed terrifying cataclysmic cosmic events in skies very different from those seen today. In his travels among the Terran ruins, Kyal meets a biologist called Lorili, who is attempting to explain certain baffling similarities between some Terran and Venusian life forms that are irreconcilable with the established fact that Venus is a far younger planet than Earth. Formerly aligned with the "Progressive" activists back on Venus, Lorili admires the qualities of tenacity and determination written through Terran history. She constructs a theory of Venusians being descended from Terran ancestors. However, even allowing for the greatly exaggerated time scales that Terran science assigned to the processes of biological and planetary evolution, further research shows that there could have been no overlap. The Terrans were extinct long before life emerged on Venus. But there is a different, unexpected answer to the riddle. Lorili and Kyal will have to fight for their theory and their lives. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Author: Sid Kotian
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1952126266
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 115
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Book Description
From the mind of Sid Kotian (Gambit, The Adventures of Apocalypse Al, Dream Police, Dents) comes Beneath an Alien Sky. On an alien planet a mad man releases a deadly monster onto an unsuspecting populace. The creature is the last of its kind. And it comes from the third planet orbiting a yellow sun. The Krimikitan are an alien race who brought themselves to the brink of complete ecological destruction. After a devastating war they refer to as the Realignment their society reformed themselves under the leadership of a god like AI called Control. Having done away with the political class, peace reigned. The new societies were self-contained inside giant domes. The natural world outside was left to heal itself unencumbered by their meddling. However not everyone was happy with this Realignment. Appi, a remnant of the old world, plots to ruin the world by introducing the universe’s most violent and invasive species into the fragile, recovering ecosystem. Standing in his way is Kopa, a cop. Appi and the creature’s destructive ambition and Kopa’s naïve ambition collide with the fate of the domed city and the struggling natural world outside hanging in the balance.
Author: Mario Mateo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781516506323
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 718
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Book Description
Alien Skies: A Travelogue of the Universe gives readers the opportunity to travel through the universe, visiting a series of celestial destinations carefully chosen to span the extraordinary limits of space and time that bound our amazing cosmos. The destinations in Alien Skies reveal the unusual skies seen from throughout the solar system, nearby stars, nebulae, and star clusters, and during a series of voyages exploring the structure and content of our home galaxy. The itinerary includes nearby 'normal' galaxies, exotic active galaxies, as well as galaxy groups, clusters and cosmic voids. The final destinations of the journey traverse space and time to view the evolution of galaxies and cosmic structure, and of the universe as a whole. Alien Skies provides a broad, factual overview of modern astronomy, while instilling interest and enthusiasm of how science reveals the wonders of our universe. This book can serve as the text for introductory courses aimed at non-science majors or as background for courses geared to astronomy and astrophysics majors. It is also suitable for advanced courses at the high school level. Mario Mateo holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and is currently a professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan with over 20 years of experience teaching introductory astrophysics courses. He is an active observational astronomer who has published extensively in professional journals on such diverse topics as stellar evolution, cataclysmic variable stars, gravitational lensing, dwarf galaxies, blue stragglers, stellar streams in the Galactic halo, pulsating stars in extragalactic systems, black holes, and the dark matter phenomenon. He has led the construction of large-scale astronomical instruments for use at observatories in Arizona and Chile.
Author: Mario Mateo
Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9781516506330
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Alien Skies: A Travelogue of the Universe gives readers the opportunity to travel through the universe, visiting a series of celestial destinations carefully chosen to span the extraordinary limits of space and time that bound our amazing cosmos. The destinations in Alien Skies reveal the unusual skies seen from throughout the solar system, nearby stars, nebulae, and star clusters, and during a series of voyages exploring the structure and content of our home galaxy. The itinerary includes nearby 'normal' galaxies, exotic active galaxies, as well as galaxy groups, clusters and cosmic voids. The final destinations of the journey traverse space and time to view the evolution of galaxies and cosmic structure, and of the universe as a whole. Alien Skies provides a broad, factual overview of modern astronomy, while instilling interest and enthusiasm of how science reveals the wonders of our universe. This book can serve as the text for introductory courses aimed at non-science majors or as background for courses geared to astronomy and astrophysics majors. It is also suitable for advanced courses at the high school level.
Author: Daniel Arenson
Publisher: Moonclipse
ISBN: 1927601428
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
The Singularity. The day the machines gained awareness. The day they turned cruel. The day they overthrew their makers. In a distant star system, a planet-sized computer unleashes its hosts: fleets of warships, armies of robots, and a swarm of killer drones. Their purpose is one: destroy all life. As the cosmos crumbles, one team steps up to the plate: The Alien Hunters. The Alien Hunters are galactic pest controllers, not an army. Their spaceship is old and clunky. They specialize in crushing the odd space bug, not a fleet of vicious machines. They're a rolled-up newspaper when the cosmos needs an A-bomb. But they're fast, they're brave, and they're just foolhardy enough to charge right into battle. As the robots spread across the galaxy, slaying all in their path, the Alien Hunters fly out to meet them. The war between life and machine begins.
