CometWhat are these graceful visitors to our skies? We now know that they bring both life and death and teach us about our origins. Comet begins with a breathtaking journey through space astride a comet. Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan, author of Cosmos and Contact, and writer Ann Druyan explore the origin, nature, and future of comets, and the exotic myths and portents attached to them. The authors show how comets have spurred some of the great discoveries in the history of science and raise intriguing questions about these brilliant visitors from the interstellar dark. Were the fates of the dinosaurs and the origins of humans tied to the wanderings of a comet? Are comets the building blocks from which worlds are formed? Lavishly illustrated with photographs and specially commissioned full-color paintings, Comet is an enthralling adventure, indispensable for anyone who has ever gazed up at the heavens and wondered why. Praise for Comet "Simply the best." —The Times of London "Fascinating, evocative, inspiring." —The Washington Post "Comet humanizes science. A beautiful, interesting book." —United Press International "Masterful . . . science, poetry, and imagination." —The Atlanta Journal & Constitution |
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apparition asteroids astronomers Astronomical Units atoms bright called carbon century Chapter chemical close collision coma Comet Halley cometary nucleus cometary orbits cosmic craters Cretaceous dark debris disk distance dust Earth Earth's atmosphere eccentric orbits Edmond Halley ejected falling formed fragments Galaxy grains gravitational Halley's Comet heat heavens Huggins human hundred hydrogen hypothesis imagine impact inner solar system interplanetary interstellar comets ion tail iridium jets Jon Lomberg Jupiter Kant Laplace layer light long-period comets Mars mass extinctions meteor shower meteorites methane Milky million kilometers Moon motion moving NEOs Newton objects observations Observatory ocean Oort Cloud organic matter origin particles perhaps perihelion perihelion passage period perturbations photograph planetary planets produced rotation Saturn scientific scientists seen short-period comets silicates solar nebula solar wind space spacecraft stratosphere sunlight surface swastika tails of comets telescope temperature thousand trillion universe vapor Venus water ice zodiacal