Cosmic Discovery: Search, Scope and Heritage of Astronomy - Softcover

Harwit, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0710806256 ISBN 13: 9780710806253

Publisher: Harvester P, 1983

Synopsis

In the remarkable opening section of this book, a well-known Cornell astronomer gives precise thumbnail histories of the 43 basic cosmic discoveries—stars, planets, novae, pulsars, comets, gamma-ray bursts, and the like—that form the core of our knowledge of the universe. Many of them, he points out, were made accidentally and outside the mainstream of astronomical research and funding. This observation leads him to speculate on how many more major phenomena there might be and how they might be most effectively sought out in afield now dominated by large instruments and complex investigative modes and observational conditions.

The book also examines discovery in terms of its political, financial, and sociological context—the role of new technologies and of industry and the military in revealing new knowledge; and methods of funding, of peer review, and of allotting time on our largest telescopes. It concludes with specific recommendations for organizing astronomy in ways that will best lead to the discovery of the many—at least sixty—phenomena that Harwit estimates are still waiting to be found.

About this title

Review:

"...Sir Fred Hoyle describes Cosmic Discovery as 'A remarkable book. A unique book.' So it is. It is an examination of the epistemology of astronomy, and one of those books which will set astronomers and philosophers thinking and talking."
— Nature

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvester P
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0710806256
• ISBN 13: 9780710806253
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352