This volume provides an overview of meteors and comets, descriptions of major meteor showers, major impact craters, famous meteorite falls, as well as a breakdown of the various types of meteorites and tektites. The author includes a list of meteorite dealers and a price guide for every popular meteorite in addition to advice on meteor watching, recording data, photographing meteors, and the meteorological calendar.
As the title suggests, this book is devoted to the nations that used the Meteor in anger. After WWII Europe's air forces were keen to rebuild their air arms with jet aircraft. With little to choose from the Meteor was the prime candidate and hundreds were sold over the following years. Further afield in the Middle East, Meteors were sold to Egypt, Israel and Syria. In far off South America, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador purchased the aircraft. On the other side of the World, South Africa and Australia operated them as well. Several of these nations used their Meteors operationally in open conflicts. From the RAF's struggle against the V-1 menace to the various hot spots around the dwindling Empire from Aden to Malaya. The Suez Crisis of 1956 would see Meteors from the RAF, Egypt, Israel and Syria all operating in the same conflict. During the Korean War (1950-53) the Royal Australian Air Force carried out thousands of ground attack missions and even engaged the MiG-15 in air to air combat. During a number of internal revolutions in Argentina in 1956, both sides operated the Meteor. Even France operated a handful of Meteor night fighters during their troubles in Algeria in 1957. Although it did not achieve a large amount of victories, the Meteor played an important part in the emerging air forces of a forever changing post-WWII World. Essential reading for aviation enthusiasts & scale aeromodellers.
What is unique about Richard Norton's book is that it is both a field guide to observing meteors, and also a field guide to locating, preparing and analysing meteorites. In addition to giving the reader information about observing techniques for meteors, this book also provides a fully detailed account of the types of meteorites, how and where to find them, how to prepare and analyse them. The book provides everything the amateur astronomer (or geologist!) needs to know about meteors and meteorites. It is thus the only complete book on the subject available at present.
A meteor is a streak of light in the sky. It is caused by a piece of rock from space that enters Earth’s atmosphere. Learn more in Meteors, one of the titles in the All About Space Science series. This series examines the history and science of space exploration. It also delves into the careers and technological advancements associated with this exciting field of study.
Did an enormous collision in the Asteroid Belt, orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, bombard Earth with meteorites 470 million years ago? Astonishing new research suggests it did, and a revolutionary theory is emerging that this bombardment resulted in the single greatest increase in biological diversity on the planet since the origin of life. Introducing these discoveries to the general public for the first time, Ted Nield challenges the view that meteorites are bad news. Tracing the history of meteorites from the first recorded strike to the videos made routinely today, he reveals the fascinating ways in which meteorites have transformed from omens of doom to a stepping stone to Mars in twenty-first-century space exploration. TheFalling Sky will shatter everything you thought you knew about one of the most terrifying forces in the universe.
Have you ever seen a shooting star? What you really saw was a meteor! A meteor is actually a chunk of metallic or stony matter – called a meteoroid – that enters the earth’s atmosphere from outer space. A comet, on the other hand, is a lump of ice and dust that periodically comes into the center of the solar system from somewhere in its outer reaches. Learn more about meteors and comets in this lively and informative book!
The genesis of modern searches for observable meteoritic phenomena on the Moon is the paper by Lincoln La Paz in Popular Astronomy magazine in 1938. In it he argued that the absence of observed fashes of meteoritic impacts on the Moon might be interpreted to mean that these bodies are destroyed as luminous meteors in an extremely rarefed lunar atmosphere. The paper suggested the possibility of systematic searches for such possible lunar meteors. With these concepts in mind, I was surprised to note a transient moving bright speck on the Moon on July 10, 1941. It appeared to behave very much as a lunar meteor would – except that the poorly estimated duration would lead to a strongly hyperbolic heliocentric velocity. Thus, the idea of systematic searches for both p- sible lunar meteors and meteoritic impact fashes was born. It was appreciated that much time might need to be expended to achieve any positive results. Systematic searches were carried out by others and myself chiefy in the years 1945–1965 and became a regular program at the newly founded Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, or ALPO.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.
