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The splendor of the night sky has been a
source of fascination and mystery for as long as human eyes
have gazed at the heavens. Bound to the Sun is the
story of the human quest to discover the world of planets,
moons, and comets. With a storyteller's charm, Rudolf Kippenhahn,
the distinguished scientist and science writer, looks back
to the first stirrings of astronomy and describes how some
early observations of the solar system led to strange beliefs
and practices. For example, you'll read about Christopher
Columbus's dangerous encounter with Indians and how he was
saved by a fifteenth-century prediction of a lunar eclipse.
Kippenhahn then moves on to a more modern
investigation of our immediate cosmic neighborhood through
high-powered telescopes and space probes and includes engaging
information from the recent Voyager 2 flight.
You'll follow current space exploration
and meet Herr Meyer, a fictitious space traveler who, in
a dreamlike state, zooms close in to planets and provides
eyewitness descriptions.
The lively narrative is augmented by numerous
illustrations and an eight-page full-color insert. From
the outermost planets to interplanetary dust, from the failed
sun to the sun we know, Bound to the Sun is a captivating,
non-technical exploration of the components of our solar
system.
Rudolf Kippenhahn was Professor of Astronomy
at the University of Gottingen and is director of the Max
Plank Institute for Astrophysics in Munich. He is one of
Europe's leading astrophysicists and a well-known popularizer
of physics and astronomy. Two of his most widely read works
in translation are 100 Billion Suns: The Birth, Death,
and Life of Stars and Light from the Depths of Time.
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