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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.

The early 20th century saw the replacement of the nebular hypothesis with the Chamberlin-Moulton theory that the Solar System resulted from the encounter of the Sun with a passing star. Fruitful Encounters follows the eventual refutation of the encounter theory in the 1930s and the subsequent revival of a modernized nebular hipothesis, which was reconstructed with the help of nuclear physics. It discusses the role of findings from the Apollo space program, specially the analysis of lunar samples, culminating in the establishment of this theory in the 1980s.

(Extracted from the back cover)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Illustrations.

-Preface.

-Part I. Planetesimals and Stellar Encounters.

-1.1 Introduction.
-1.2 A Geologist Among Astronomers: The Chamberlin-Moulton Theory.
-1.3 Jeans, Jeffreys, and the Decline of Encounter Theories.

-Part II. Nebular Rebirth and Stellar Death.

-2.1 Introduction.
-2.2 Methodology.
-2.3 Nuclear Cosmochronology and Hoyle's Research Programme.
-2.4 Cameron's Programme.
-2.5 Isotopic Anomalies and the Supernova Trigger.

-Part III. Planetogony and Plasma.

-3.1 Safronov's Programme.
-3.2 The Giant Planets.
-3.3 Chemical Cosmogony: The Terrestrial Planets.
-3.4 Alfvén's Electromagnetic Programme.

-Part IV. Whence the Moon?

-4.1 Introduction.
-4.2 Early History of Selenogony.
-4.3 Harold Urey and the Origin of the Moon.
-4.4 History of Modern Selenogony.

-Abbreviations.

-Reference List and Citation Index.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

To finish with the three-volume series that follows the history of modern planetary physics, Stephen Brush examines the latest theories appeared in this respect, as well as the currently accepted nebular hypothesis, the one responsible for the origin of the Solar System. To do this, he reviews the motivations that the scientists have had in order to adopt it, as well as the proofs they have obtained. The author does not forget the already rejected theory of interstellar encounters, which was widely supported during the first half of this century. Also, thanks to the explorations of the Apollo program and the important amounts of samples from the Moon surface thus gathered, the Moon seems to have found a more or less reasonable theory on its origin, and Brush makes it known to us.

The book, that ends with a very complete list of bibliographical references, is the adequate colophon of a complete historical review to the ideas that transformed our vision of the Solar System, its origin, its evolution and its future. The author, a worthy professor of history from the University of Maryland, in the U.S.A., has done a magnificient work of research and synthesis, whose intrinsic value will no doubt be appreciated by the university and scholar community.