Weird Astronomical Theories of the Solar System and Beyond
After addressing strange cosmological hypotheses in Weird Universe, David Seargent tackles the no-less bizarre theories closer to home. Alternate views on the Solar System's formation, comet composition, and the evolution of life on Earth a
- PDF / 8,491,674 Bytes
- 282 Pages / 439.43 x 666.14 pts Page_size
- 111 Downloads / 195 Views
Weird Astronomical Theories of the Solar System and Beyond
Astronomers’ Universe
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6960
David Seargent
Weird Astronomical Theories of the Solar System and Beyond
David Seargent The Entrance, NSW, Australia
ISSN 1614-659X ISSN 2197-6651 (electronic) Astronomers’ Universe ISBN 978-3-319-25293-3 ISBN 978-3-319-25295-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-25295-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015957812 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. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
For Meg
Preface
As the title of my previous book Weird Universe demonstrates, our cosmic home is a strange place. The human mind, accustomed as it is to understanding our familiar surroundings, sets out on an adventure every time it tries to comprehend the broader picture, the wonderful wider universe that is our ultimate physical environment. Here common sense goes out the window! Ideas which seem strange—which are strange—are often the only ones that in the end make sense of what our observations and experiments reveal. As Professor Max Tegmark wisely counseled, we should not dismiss theories just because they seem weird to us, lest we dismiss something that would prove to be a real breakthrough in our understanding of nature. Tegmark was speaking specifically about the elusive Theory of Everything when he made this remark, but his statement remains true for lesser theories as well and should be remembered whenever astronomical and cosmological speculations start to look more like science fiction than what we might normally think of as sober fact. Nevertheless, there is another side to this as well. Just because a theory is strange does not necessarily mean that it is on the right track. To assume this would be to
Data Loading...
