Planetary Science: A Space Odyssey
- Creators
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Stevenson, David J.
Abstract
Planetary science and the scientific revolution bootstrapped each other into prominent places in intellectual history during the 15th and 16th centuries. In his Pathways of Discovery essay, David J. Stevenson of Caltech begins with this "first epoch" of planetary science, including the likes of Galileo using homemade telescopes, as he tells an expansive story of scientific discovery. While taking readers on a veritable tour of the solar system, he also recounts highlights of the ongoing "second epoch" of planetary science and its fantastic tools, such as interplanetary satellites and the Hubble Space Telescope. According to Stevenson, the best is yet to come for the field as its practitioners continue to discover extrasolar planets and join the quest to answer one of the most important questions there is: How did life first arise?
Additional Information
© 2000 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Special thanks go to Ivan Amato for his help in preparing the final version of this essay. Thanks also go to Steven Dick for historical advice. Any attempt to cover all significant areas and endeavors in an essay of this length would lead to a list that is boring to write and to read. I apologize to planetary science colleagues for the inevitable omissions.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 39165
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130701-113052557
- Created
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2013-07-03Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences