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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Where did we come from? Before there was life there had to be something to live on - a planet, a solar system. During the past 200 years, astronomers and geologists have developed and tested several different theories about the origin of the Solar System and the nature of the Earth. Did the Earth and other planets form as a by-product of a natural process that formed the Sun? Did the Solar System come into being as the result of a catastrophic encounter of two stars? The three volumes that together make up A History of Modern Planetary Physics present a survey of these theories.

This first volume follows the development of the nineteenth century's most popular explanation for the origin of the Solar System, Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis. This theory supposes that a flattened mass of gas extending beyond Neptune's orbit cooled and shrank, throwing off in the process successive rings that in time coalesced to form the several planets. From fiery fluid to rigid solid to electrodynamic dynamo, the book recounts their theories about what actually occurs in the Earth's interior.

(Extracted from the back cover)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Illustrations.

-Preface.

-Part I. Nebular Birth and Heat Death.

-1.1 Introduction.
-1.2 The Founders: Laplace and Herschel.
-1.3 Followers and Critics.
-1.4 The Nebular Hypothesis and the Evolutionary Worldview.
-1.5 Thermodynamics and the Cooling Earth.
-1.6 Saturn's Rings.
-1.7 Revisions of the Nebular Hypothesis, 1860-1885.
-1.8 Poincaré and Cosmic Evolution.
-1.9 The Nebular Hypothesis in the 20th Century.

-Part II. Inside the Earth.

-2.1 A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
-2.2 Nineteenth-century Debates: Solid, Liquid, or Gas?
-2.3 Discovery of the Earth's Core.
-2.4 Chemical History of the Core.
-2.5 Geomagnetic Secular Variation.
-2.6 Time and Tide.

-Abbreviations.

-Reference List and Citation Index.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

The Earth, its inner behavior and its possible origin, just like they have been explained by the scientists along the times, center the interest of this first volume of a set of three. Its author, Brush, does a whole review of this question, and also examines Laplace's ideas with respect to the Solar System. To do this, he has not spared any efforts: well documented, the text introduces us in depth into the theoretical history of both themes, supplying us with a complete and pleasant vision, containing enough tables and graphics whenever they become necessary.

This work examines the previous data without excessive technicalities, making it apt for a wide range of readers. Together with the other volumes of the series, it no doubt amounts to being one of the most complete incursions into planetary physics. For this reason it becomes imperative to read it as a whole, and also its current format facilitates a great deal its academic and even its personal use.