This book is about an audacious idea: asteroengineering--literally, the physical engineering of a star, especially the star we call our Sun. It is an idea on the grandest of scales. Part science fiction, part science fact, asteroengineering is a response to a very definite and a very real problem, a problem that our distant descendants will one day have to face. It is also a universal problem that will be experienced - at some stage or other - by every extraterr- trial civilization that has or will exist. Indeed, the problem to be addressed resides within the parent stars of each and every...
This book is about an audacious idea: asteroengineering--literally, the physical engineering of a star, especially the star we call our Sun. It is an ...
The word ''terraforming'' conjures up many exotic images and p- hapsevenwildemotions, butatitscoreitencapsulatestheideathat worldscanbechangedbydirecthumanaction.Theultimateaimof terraforming is to alter a hostile planetary environment into one that is Earth-like, and eventually upon the surface of the new and vibrant world that you or I could walk freely about and explore. It is not entirely clear that this high goal of terraforming can ever be achieved, however, and consequently throughout much of thisbooktheterraformingideasthatarediscussedwillapplytothe goal of making just some fraction...
The word ''terraforming'' conjures up many exotic images and p- hapsevenwildemotions, butatitscoreitencapsulatestheideathat worldscanbechangedbydirect...
The pendulum is perhaps the simplest experimental devices ever constructed, and yet for all its simplicity it has historically enabled scientists to both investigate and enumerate gravity; the fundamental force that shapes the very universe. The pendulum has also allowed astronomers and geologists to measure the motion, mass and distribution of matter within the Earth, and its stately swing is at the very heartbeat of time. This book explores the many applications of the pendulum, from its employment as a fundamental experimental device, such as in the Cavendish torsion balance for measuring...
The pendulum is perhaps the simplest experimental devices ever constructed, and yet for all its simplicity it has historically enabled scientists to b...
As our closest stellar companion and composed of two Sun-like stars and a third small dwarf star, Alpha Centauri is an ideal testing ground of astrophysical models and has played a central role in the history and development of modern astronomy-from the first guesses at stellar distances to understanding how our own star, the Sun, might have evolved. It is also the host of the nearest known exoplanet, an ultra-hot, Earth-like planet recently discovered. Just 4.4 light years away Alpha Centauri is also the most obvious target for humanity's first directed interstellar space probe. Such a...
As our closest stellar companion and composed of two Sun-like stars and a third small dwarf star, Alpha Centauri is an ideal testing ground of astroph...
