Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World - Couverture rigide

Morton, Oliver

 
9781841156682: Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 184115668X ISBN 13 : 9781841156682
Editeur : Fourth Estate Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

A narrative history of the men and women who have explored Mars and mapped its surface from afar, and in so doing conditioned our understanding of our nearest planetary neighbour. Mars is the most observed and imagined place that humans have never been. Human names glitter on its surface, commemorating astronomers and physicists. Classical mythological identities have been stamped on its most prominent geographical features. Oliver Moreton examines how the process of exploration in space, of mapping, conditions what we discover there. Hence our understanding of the surface features of Mars is in part a product of the fact that a specialist in water movement and its erosion comes from Malham and sees on Mars a version of the limestone Yorkshire cliffs. Our appreciation of Mars, made possible by ever more powerful telescopes and digitized signals, has increased far ahead of our ability to fulfil the benefits of all the Mars-gazing. But in our imaginations we have all but colonized the red planet: the work of Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury and Kim Stanley Robinson has filled the landscape with human potential. Olympus Mons, Mars' biggest volcano is more than three times the height of Everest and contains enough rock to cover the whole of Texas in a layer five miles deep. It's that sense of awe that has gripped the troupe of researchers and astronomers who have held their sights firmly on Mars.

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À propos de l'auteur

Oliver Moreton is a science writer and journalist. He has written extensively for New Scientist, Nature and a range of National broadsheets.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Fourth Estate Ltd
Date d'édition
2002
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
184115668X
ISBN 13 
9781841156682
Reliure
Relié
Numéro d'édition
1
Nombre de pages
368
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780312422615: Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  031242261X ISBN 13 :  9780312422615
Editeur : Picador, 2003
Couverture souple