Discovery of the First Asteroid, Ceres Historical Studies in Asteroi
Based on extensive primary sources, many never previously translated into English, this is the definitive account of the origins of Ceres as it went from being classified as a new planet to reclassification as the first of a previously unknown group of ce
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Discovery of the First Asteroid, Ceres Historical Studies in Asteroid Research
Discovery of the First Asteroid, Ceres
Clifford Cunningham
Discovery of the First Asteroid, Ceres Historical Studies in Asteroid Research
Clifford Cunningham Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-21776-5 ISBN 978-3-319-21777-2 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-21777-2
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950473 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: Ceres, picture taken February 19, 2015, by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 km). (Credit: NASA) Painting of Piazzi pointing toward Ceres (credit to come) Cover image courtesy of INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
Clifford J. Cunningham has been genuinely passionate about asteroids ever since I first met him. It is hard to explain to others why one cares deeply about such esoterica. As a graduate student at Stanford, I once heard the famed astrophysicist S. Chandrasekhar lecture about his work on a topic that seemed completely outside the mainstream of what was then considered interesting. Someone in the audience actually asked him why anyone of his ability would waste time on such an apparently useless matter. Chandrasekhar replied very cheerfully, “That is precisely why I have chosen to do so!” This is Mr. Cunningham’s second book about the Minor Planets, following the publication of his well-received and much-utilized Introduction to Asteroids. In this new work readers are transported back more than two centuries to the end of the eighteenth century and the quest by the “Celestial Police” for the missing party in the Titius-Bode “law” of planetary distances. In his profusely illustrated and welldocumented history of the
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