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Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space

Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space

Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space
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ISBN-10:
0521800404
ISBN-13:
9780521800402
Pub. Date:
07/28/2001
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
ISBN-10:
0521800404
ISBN-13:
9780521800402
Pub. Date:
07/28/2001
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space

Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space

Overview

Throughout history, the mysterious dark skies have inspired our imaginations in countless ways, influencing our endeavors in science and philosophy, religion, literature, and art. Filled with 380 full-color illustrations, Celestial Treasury shows the influence of astronomical theories and the richness of illustrations in Western civilization through the ages. The authors explore the evolution of our understanding of astronomy and weave together ancient and modern theories in a fascinating narrative. They incorporate a wealth of detail from Greek verse, medieval manuscripts and Victorian poetry with contemporary spacecraft photographs and computer-generated star charts. Celestial Treasury is more than a beautiful book: it answers a variety of questions that have intrigued scientists and laymen for centuries.
  • How did philosophers and scientists try to explain the order that governs celestial motion?
  • How did geometers and artists measure and map the skies?
  • How many different answers have been proposed for the most fundamental of all questions: When and how did Earth come about?
  • Who inhabits the heavens—gods, angels or extraterrestrials? No other book recounts humankind's fascination with the heavens as compellingly as Celestial Treasury. Marc Lachièze-Rey is a director of research at the Centre National pour la Récherche Scientifique and astrophysicist at the Centre d'Etudes de Saclay. He is the author of The Cosmic Background Radiation (Cambridge, 1999), and and The Quest for Unity, (Oxford, 1999 ), as well as many books in French. Jean-Pierre Luminet is a research director of the Centre National pour la Rechérche Scientifique, based at the Paris-Meudon observatory. He is the author of Black Holes, (Cambridge 1992), as well as science documentaries for television.

    • Product Details

    ISBN-13: 9780521800402
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press
    Publication date: 07/28/2001
    Edition description: New Edition
    Pages: 217
    Product dimensions: 10.75(w) x 14.69(h) x 0.91(d)

    About the Author

    Marc Lachièze-Rey is a director of research at the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique and astrophysicist at the Centre d'Etudes de Saclay. He is the author of the The Cosmic Background Radiation (1999), and Cosmology: A First Course (1995), both published by Cambridge University Press, and The Quest for Unity published by Oxford University Press (1999), as well as many books in French.

    Jean-Pierre Luminet is a research director of the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique, based at the Paris-Meudon observatory. In addition to many research papers in cosmology, the structure of space-time and relativistic astrophysics, he has written several popular science articles and books (including Black Holes, Cambridge University Press, 1992), as well as science documentaries for television. Beyond his outstanding scientific research, he is also a renowned expert in the history of cosmology, and astronomical art and poetry. His first novel, Le rendez-vous de Vénus, was published in 1999 by JC Lattès.

    Table of Contents

    Part I. Celestial Harmony: 1. Geometry and the cosmos; 2. The celestial hierarchy; 3. The grandeur of space; 4. Finite or infinite?; 5. The structure of the world; 6. Celestial music; 7. World systems; Part II. Uranometry: 8. Mapping the sky; 9. Naming the stars; 10. The development of celestial atlases; 11. The depths of space; Part III. The Creation: 12. From myth to myth; 13. The metamorphosis of chaos; 14. Time and creation; 15. The Creator; 16. The order of creation; 17. The date of creation; 18. The theory of evolution; 19. The Big Bang; 20. A modern creation; Part IV. Creatures of the Sky: 21. Humanity beneath the sky; 22. The sky in humanity; 23. Humanity in the sky; 24. The worlds in the sky.
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