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THE WAYWARD COMET
THE WAYWARD COMET
A DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY OF COMETARY ORBITS, KEPLER’S PROBLEM AND THE COMETARIUM
MARTIN BEECH
The Wayward Comet: A Descriptive History of Cometary Orbits, Kepler’s Problem and the Cometarium
Copyright © 2016 Martin Beech
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Universal-Publishers
Boca Raton, Florida • USA
2016
ISBN-10: 1-62734-064-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-62734-064-9
Cover design: tatlin.net
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beech, Martin, 1959-
The wayward comet : a descriptive history of cometary orbits, Kepler’s problem and the cometarium / Martin Beech.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-62734-064-9 (pbk.)
1. Comets. 2. Solar system. 3. Outer space. 4. Kepler, Johannes, 1571-1630. 5. Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727. I. Title.
QB721.4 .B44 2015
523.6—dc23
2015915250
This book is humbly dedicated to Professor David W. Hughes,
who has inspired my interest in small solar system objects over many years, and to all the researchers, planners and engineers who made the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko such a wonderful success.
“And a wayward comet was flashing there –
And he shone upon the sea;
Where a spectre-bark, like a thing of air,
Was moving wearily;
He shot away from sphere to sphere
With a strange and reckless speed;
With a flight of beauty – a flight of fear –
Where none had dared to lead;
And every ray from him that fell,
Went into the soul, like a secret spell.” [1]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The workings of the solar system: a brief history
Comet C/1680 V1 - the game changer
