Physics of the Solar System: Dynamics and Evolution, Space Physics, and Spacetime Structure (Astrophysics and Space Science Library)

Book Description

This volume covers most areas in the physics of the solar system, with special emphasis on gravitational dynamics; its gist is the rational, in particular mathematical, understanding of the main processes at work. Special stress is given to the variety of objects in the planetary system and their long-term evolution. The unique character of this book is its breadth and depth, which aims at bringing the reader to the threshold of original research; however, special chapters and introductory sections are included for the benefit of the beginner.

Physics of the Solar System is based on the earlier work by B. Bertotti and P. Farinella: Physics of the Earth and the Solar System (Kluwer, 1990), which has been completely revised and updated, and more focused on the solar system. It generally attains a higher level than the previous version. This volume is generally suitable for post-graduate students and researchers in physics, especially in the field related to the solar system. A large amount of figures and diagrams is included, often compiled with real data.

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe

Average customer rating:

Tectonic plates balance Greenhouse gases
Yes, but....
history of earth is fine, but left out the present and future
Dodges the real issues
Well thought out

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
Peter Ward , and Donald Brownlee
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387987010

Amazon.com

"Do you feel lucky? Well do ya?" asked Dirty Harry. Paleontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee think all of us should feel lucky. Their rare Earth hypothesis predicts that while simple, microbial life will be very widespread in the universe, complex animal or plant life will be extremely rare. Ward and Brownlee admit that "It is very difficult to do statistics with an N of 1. But in our defense, we have staked out a position rarely articulated but increasingly accepted by many astrobiologists."

Their new science

is the field of biology ratcheted up to encompass not just life on Earth but also life beyond Earth. It forces us to reconsider the life of our planet as but a single example of how life might work, rather than as the only example.

The revolution in astrobiology during the 1990s was twofold. First, scientists grew to appreciate how incredibly robust microbial life can be, found in the superheated water of deep-sea vents, pools of acid, or even within the crust of the Earth itself. The chance of finding such simple life on other bodies in our solar system has never seemed more realistic. But second, scientists have begun to appreciate how many unusual factors have cooperated to make Earth a congenial home for animal life: Jupiter's stable orbit, the presence of the Moon, plate tectonics, just the right amount of water, the right position in the right sort of galaxy. Ward and Brownlee make a convincing if depressing case for their hypothesis, undermining the principle of mediocrity (or, "Earth isn't all that special") that has ruled astronomy since Copernicus. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

In this exciting new book, distinguished paleontologist Peter D. Ward and noted astronomer Donald Brownlee team up to present a fascinating synthesis of what is now known about the development of life on Earth and how this sheds light on possibilities for organic life forms elsewhere in the Universe. With their broad expertise and wonderful descriptive imagery, the authors provide a compelling argument, a splendid introduction to the emerging field of astrobiology, and a lively discussion of the remarkable findings that are currently being generated.

Customer Reviews:

Tectonic plates balance Greenhouse gases.......2007-08-31

Earth is the only planet with tectonic plates. Earth possesses water, the universal solvent and indispensable for life. Earth's mountains occur in chains. The giant mountains are Mars were created by volcanos. There is no equivalent to the Rockies, the Andes, the Himalyas, or the score of linear mountain chains. The process, the movement of planetary crust across the surface of the planet, is found in our solar system only on Earth.

Tectonic plates provide a wide range of biodiversity. The defense against mass extinction is diversity. Second, the tectonic plates provide our global thermostat by recycling chemical crucial to keeping the volume of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere relatively uniform. Third, plate tectonics is the dominate force that cause changes in sea levels, which in turn, are vital to the formation of minerals that keep the level of global carbon dioxide in check. Fourth, plate tectonics create continents on the earth. And finally, plate tectonics make possible the earth's magnetic field, the protection against cosmic radiation.

All the continents are masses of relatively low-density rock embedded in ground mass of more dense material. The low density rock have the average composition of granites, whereas, the higher density rocks that make up the ocean crust are basaltic in composition. Because granite is less dense than basalt, the granite rich continents float on a thin bed of basalt. The earth inner core is radioactive and generates heat deep inside the earth. As this heat rise toward the surface, it creates gigantic cells of hot, liquid rock in the mantle. The mantle rises, moves parallel with the surface for great distance, and then, cooled, settles back down into the depths. The upper mantle has a convection behavior. The mantle convects in the manner of liquid because the movement is so slow, and the temperatures so high, that the individual crystals have time to deform in response to stress.

Volcanos occur along subduction zones. The total are of the oceanic plates have decreased over time and the area of the continental plates has grown. The ocean crust can sink and be remelted back to magma. Whereas, the lighter continental crust remains afloat like a cork on the sea.

Plate tectonics promote environmental complexity and thus increase biodiversity. "Changes in continental position would affect ocean currents, temperature, seasonal rainfall patterns and fluctuations, the distribution of nutrients, and patterns of biological productivity." 2/3 of all animal species live on land. There are between 3 and 30 million plant and animal species alive today.

Volcanos recycle CO2 into the atmosphere. CO2 is stored in Limestone at the bottom of the ocean. The Limestone moves into subduction channels and is recycle through volcanic activity into the atmosphere. A temperature of 4-40 C is suitable for life and must be maintained. Greenhouse gases include: H20, O3, CO2, CH4 and are capable of capturing infrared energy from the earth's surface, in so doing, warm the planet. Oxygen and Nitrogen do not capture energy. However, suppose the oceans froze, this would cause an insufficient amount of CO2 generated for life to exist. CO2 constitutes on 0.035% of the atmosphere. Plate tectonics play an important role in maintaining levels of greenhouse gases. The water on the earth is .05% by weight. The maintenance of liquid water is controlled by global temperatures. The temperature of the earth is controlled by the amount of energy coming from the sun and how much energy is absorbed by the planet and how fast the greenhouse gases are replenished. If the green house gases are not replenished the earth will grow colder. "On a planet with volcanism there is usually an abundance of greenhouse gases, too much in some cases" - from both active and dormant volcanos.

Yes, but...........2007-08-13

Good book. Good recap of history of the planet and of our knowledge of the development of life on it.

Nice to read a work in which the pragmatism of the geologist tempers for theory of the astronomer. Good to read that there remain many things the authors don't or cannot know. That's life. Much better, so much better, than reading the nonsense posing as science that astrophysicists churn out when THEY don't know something.

From that maelstrom of 200 + IQs we get such nonsense as string theory and the big bang......but I don't recall once reading in this book how everything we observe out billions of light years all started as an infintesimal point .

I stopped reading astronomy books twenty years ago when I learned that those more intelligent than I had concluded that galaxies were held in place by strings of matter unimaginably strong etc. None of that bull in this book. Very pragmatic.

good show guys. I think we are alone in this little slice of time.

history of earth is fine, but left out the present and future.......2007-04-29

I gave this book 3 stars because it did not continue to go anywhere. Apparently the authors haven't spent as much time studying and keeping up with the subject of Extraterrstrials/UFOs. There is a wealth of information on the subject as a whold and they seemed to ignore it. I have a hard time beleiving that we are the only ones in the universe. We don't know how much is out there, and probably never will. But the UFO question is real and cannot dismiss it with it's available history.

Dodges the real issues.......2007-01-14

The authors theorize that because primitive life apparently (based on scientific evidence) began early in the earth's history that it is likely universal (and may have bounced around from Mars to earth). Once they accept this as a given the rest of the book is about how many factors are uniquely involved to accomodate complex life.

This approach glosses over two critical issues.

(1) All life on earth is based on the genetic code right down to 'simple' (structurally) viruses (from this point of view it is 'universal'; i.e. all life as we know it). The DNA and RNA processes of the genome are far too complex to arise spontaneously, whether here or from Mars. Modern science suggests that there must be a prebiotic evolution with a DNA precursor. The authors mention a number of theories including the popular "RNA World" theory where the RNA performed all of the necessary functions. However no one has successfully modeled this so it is only a hypothesis bordering on pure speculation. RNA specialist Gerald Joyce has gone so far as to say "The most reasonable assumption is that life did not start with RNA...The transition to an RNA world, like the origins of life in general, is fraught with uncertainty and is plagued by a lack of experimental data." The authors' distinction between 'simple' and 'complex' life from a scientific viewpoint is misguided. The critical first step or 'prebiotic phase' is so far unexplainable and applies to all life. As the authors of a recent unpublished paper (available on the web like many articles) state "The information crisis in prebiotic or chemical evolution stems essentially from two observations: (i) the length of a replicating polymer (i.e. RNA-like template) is limited by the replication accuracy per nucleotide, and (ii) templates that differ significantly from each other cannot coexist in a purely competitive setup. Realistic estimates of the error rate of primitive replication mechanisms predict too scanty information content per template - less than 100 nucleotides - to permit the complete codification of the mechanism in just one template."

(2) The earth clearly evolved over time from an original molten mass so one might well expect that as it cooled and water formed that more structurally complex life evolved with it (even if the prebiotic phase is universal). For those interested in the evolution they would be better educated by a book on Evolutionary Dynamics that does not, by a bunch of 'hand waving', spend time speculating about the qualitative effects of the moon on tides and Jupitor on asteroids. There is lots of science on the evolution of complexity and how it can work as opposed to not work. This is not to deny that life in the universe maybe very rare, but this is apparent from our telescopes and the very complexity of the much misunderstood first prebiotic steps. However the inference that these first steps can be taken for granted is not science.

Well thought out.......2006-11-04

A good book about the different "types" of life on earth and the necessary supporting ecosystems. Even though the book would be considered about astrobiology, much of it is about Earth and it's diversity of life.

Whether you agree with the authors or not, there is a lot of information of interest in the book.

Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World (Cambridge Atmospheric & Space Science)

Average customer rating:

perfect book for reference
The evolution of our planet from a new perspective

Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World (Cambridge Atmospheric & Space Science)
Jonathan I. Lunine
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521644232

Book Description

This is an outstanding overview of the history of the Earth from a unique planetary perspective for introductory courses in the earth sciences. The book approaches Earth history as an evolution, encompassing the origin of the cosmos through the inner working of living cells. Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World tells how the Earth has come to its present state, why it differs from its neighboring planets, what life's place is in Earth's history, how humanity affects the processes that make our planet livable, and contemplates human influences in the context of natural changes on Earth. This book brings a fresh perspective to the study of the Earth for students who wish to learn how our planet evolved to its present form.

Customer Reviews:

perfect book for reference.......2000-01-05

If you're looking for a book that is a great read and even a better reference book about the geosciences, this is the one. I refer to it often in my scientific education. The references at the end of each chapter are also a great way for people to get further information on each subject, if they need it.

The evolution of our planet from a new perspective.......1999-07-08

Earth, Evolution of a Habitable World by Jonathan I. Lunine

Review by Philip Eklund

Dr. Lunine is a Professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, and a NASA advisor. His new book describes Earth's evolution in a fresh perspective, in relation to its sister planets, particularly Mars and Venus. This 319 page textbook covers Earth's origin, the development of its atmosphere and oceans, the variations of its orbit and climate, and at what point we are enmeshed in its long and lively history. The reader can see how we can be unwittingly in the teeth of an ice age and why the number of species has crescendoed now, in our time.

The vast territory that Lunine succinctly covers is all that anyone with a bit of gumption needs to become an authority on the state of our planet. Guideposts to this territory include the sciences of measurement (basically, math, the metric system, and dating methods), and of physics as applied to geology and biology (and some chemistry). Unfortunately Lunine sometimes lapses into off-topic diversions of astronomy (Doppler shifts, lunar phases, Stonehenge, eclipses, and aging planets by the density of their craters). Also, there is no glossary, but the index is adequate. (A few undefined jargons, like "cratonization", sneak in.)

The book is profusely illustrated by Jonathan's wife, Cynthia. There is a color section, mostly of refugees of some astronomy book showing various wonders of the universe. But one color map of the Southwest occupied my attention for a long time. It compares vegetation regimes during the Pleistocene and the Present, the ancient record being derived from pollen counts meticulously gleaned from old packrat middens. I amused myself by examining these data to see whether elephants could be reintroduced into Arizona. Another color figure shows fantastic computer sequences on how the moon must have been formed by an impact between Earth and a Mars-sized billiard ball.

The description of the origin of life is a gem. Lunine's compelling prose springs out as lively as the quasi-stable whirlpools of life he describes (basically an autocatalysis model describing a mode of life existing before reproduction). An alternative model depicting an RNA origin of life is provided mainly for comic relief. Although the role of biology in forming Earth's almost explosive atmosphere covers several subsequent chapters, life is depicted as along for the ride, and the Gaia "biofeedback" theory is dismissed in a sentence.

Unfortunately, the origin of sentience, an event indisputably more profound than the origin of life, is not mentioned. However, the fossil evolution rise of humanity, particularly the Neanderthals, is wonderfully covered. Lunine mentions the "blitzkrieg" theory of his neighbor, Dr. Paul Martin, who postulates the extinction of American megafauna, such as the great elephants and saber-tooths, as being the result of the invasion of "native" Americans with spears. A nice contrast to the increase in American bio-diversity that accompanied the post-Columbian invasion of technologically advanced humans.

Lunine was identified by Time magazine as one of its 1994 "50 for the Future" list of emerging American leaders. Lunine himself would prefer the term "policy-maker" to leader, in the sense of presenting knowledge that self-led individuals can organize into principles of purposeful and long range action. The power of a comprehensive book such as this is that current issues such as global warming can be put in the perspective of past "atmosphere crises" of Earth, such as the super-high greenhouse prevailing at the end of the dinosaur era.

The penultimate chapter, titled "Limited Resources" fails this potential, being anecdotal without the factual rigor of the preceding chapters. (I was told that this chapter was written at the last minute at the request of the publisher.) Lunine starts by treating limited resources and overpopulation as arbitrary assertions, in defiance of his tradition of listing the assumptions of every dating method or limitations of climate modeling.

On the plus side, Lunine does take a rational stand against the Luddites. But where are the charts on air pollution, famine frequencies, human fertility, wetland or forest land acreage, etc. over time? The charts that do appear, on projections of population, energy use, kilos of grain per person, and "undiscovered" oil, have none of the error bars, validation, or context of previous chapters. Bemoaning the tiny amount of land urbanized each year to support farmers moving to the cities as a result of a world-wide food glut is an example of the surreal non-sequitor grab-bag of alarmist insinuations of which fill this chapter.

Particularly nasty is the bromide that less industrialized nations need a "reasonable" standard of living, with the implication that the U.S., (which creates most of the resources that feed and run the world), somehow deprives them of this even as the U.S. demonstrates the technological and political blueprints on how to achieve abundance. Since humans are too greedy or stupid to be allowed the freedom to despoil their own nest, only coercive regulation, or supra-governmental "cooperation" is required to tell their citizenry what is in their own best interests at gun-point. The nadir of these politics is an inexcusable sanction of coercive sterilization in China.

Other than the coverage of our most recent millennium, Lunine has written a tightly integrated and ambitious book. Particularly evocative is the imagery of the continents, floating and jostled into each other like froth on the churning oceanic plates of the Earth, teeming with a surprisingly robust and assertive biological component, laughing yet seesawing through cosmic disasters, extinctions, and self-induced crises of a scale that reduces the palimpsest of human intervention to ripples from a plunked stone.

Amazon.com

Who's afraid of little green men these days? We've got more pressing (and realistic) worries now, but recent evidence points to the red planet as a possible source of living matter, so while we might not have to worry about the war of the worlds, it does behoove us to be neighborly and check it out. Astrobiologist Malcolm Walter wrote The Search for Life on Mars to explain what we know and what's at stake in this interplanetary reconnaissance mission. His writing is relaxed and personal; he shares his early experiences observing the space program with the readers and builds in us a sense of the magic felt by the pioneers in extraterrestrial exploration. He goes on to describe our current state of knowledge--and ignorance--about life elsewhere and on Mars in particular, then explains what we're currently doing to investigate and why.

The fabled "Martian meteorite" renewed interest in both Mars and the search for alien life, and Walters tells us its history and probable origin, though much still remains unknown. The excitement of working with NASA comes through in his writing about his own work; it's fascinating to read of space research divorced from the old context of nationalistic pride. Walters ends the book with a beautiful, lucid description of what the first Martian explorers will see, and argues gently for the importance and relevance of this work to our lives and those of our descendents. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

A timely and provocative account of one of the most thrilling topics in science today-the search for life on Mars--and how it may ultimately lead us to the origins of life in the universe.

Hidden beneath the sterile surface of Earth's neighboring planet may be the keys to unlocking the origins of life in the universe. An expert on extreme-life environments, Malcolm Walter argues that the best place to find evidence of life on Mars is out of reach of telescopes and space probes--it's in the rocks and subsurface water of the Red Planet. In this engaging and authoritative book, Walter unveils his dramatic plan-already adopted by NASA--for finding these elusive traces of life.

Customer Reviews:

Not as easy as you might think.......2001-05-26

This book is a little like "Here be Dragons," (Koerner, LeVay, Oxford University Press, 2000) and "Rare Earth," (Ward, Brownlee, Copernicus, 2000) except that it is more focused and specific than the others. While Koerner, LeVay, Ward, and Brownlee consider the possibility that life exists outside the solar system, Walter limits the scope of his book to the question of whether microbes exist, or once existed, on Mars.

Life outside of earth has never been unambiguously observed and verified. Consequently, discussions about the possibility of life beyond earth inevitably begin with thoughts about how life originated here. There seems to be an emerging sense that life is the result of a universe that is naturally self-organizing (Stuart Kauffman is in this camp. See his book "At Home in the Universe, Oxford University Press, 1995). According to this point of view, life is all but certain to arise on any planet having the basic chemicals and physical conditions found on earth 4 billion years ago. Given this hypothesis - that life arises quickly and naturally in the proper environment - it's natural to ask if any other planets in the solar system have (or had) the necessary ingredients. If they did, we should look to see if life evolved there. Since there is growing evidence that Mars had a distant past with some of these conditions, it seems more and more important that we look for life on Mars. Finding evidence of life there would buttress the concept that life readily evolves given the proper environment. Obviously, if that's the case, it holds enormous consequences for modern science.

Walter has a nice chapter on the tree of life, and describes recent information showing that "all the lowest branches of the tree are occupied by hyperthermophiles." The discovery that life exists on earth under extreme conditions (like those of deep-sea thermal vents) has increased the hope among scientists that it might also have evolved and flourished on Mars many thousands of millions of years ago. He also shows how genetic transfer between species happens today, and was probably common among our earliest ancestors, so that the whole concept of a "tree of life" becomes somewhat tangled during the earliest stages of the evolution of life. Instead of a tree, the topology looks more like a web, with the roots of the tree (consisting of Bacteria, Eucarya, and Archaea) rising out of this web.

The expectation of finding evidence of life on Mars depends on the type of environment that Mars supported in the distant past, and the circumstances under which life arose on earth. It also depends on how easy it is to ascertain the evidence of fossilized ancient microbial life. It turns out that identifying evidence of microbes in very old rocks is a pretty hard thing to do. To illustrate this, Walter describes the difficulty of identifying stromatolites in ancient rocks. This was new information for me, and a real insight into the nuts and bolts of making these sorts of identifications. I'd thought that stromatolites were easy to identify, but in the very oldest rocks, they're not. When identifying stromatolites in rocks 3000 million years old, there can be (and often is) a great deal of controversy regarding the conclusion. Walter's point in making this so clear is that stromatolites are large colonies of microbes, yet even they are not unambiguously identified in the oldest rocks. The problem of identifying evidence for individual microbes in rocks 3000 to 3500 million years old is even tougher. The point being that even with Martian rocks in our hands, it's not going to be easy to affirmatively state whether there is evidence of ancient life on Mars.

To drill the point home, Walter points to the fact that we do have chunks of Martian rocks on hand, in the form of bits and pieces that have been blasted off the Martian surface by meteorite impacts. Walter describes in detail the scientific examination of some of these rocks, and one, in particular, identified as ALH84001. This meteorite made world news when a team of scientists reported finding evidence of ancient microbes buried inside it. Walter describes the initial reports, the objections, and the eventual state of limbo in which these conclusions came to rest. This helps set the tone for expectations regarding the difficulty against which such analysis will proceed even when we manage to return samples from the Martian surface using spacecraft.

In describing how scientists make conclusion about the presence of microbes in ancient rocks, Walter does a real service by illustrating the importance of convergent evidence. Identifying ancient microbes involves more than one type of observation. It involves many types of converging data, including visible observations of deposits in rocks, the types of rocks involved, and things like carbon isotope ratios (not to be confused with carbon 14, which decays far to quickly for analysis in 3000-million-year-old rocks). Along these lines, I noticed a recent article in Photonics Spectra (May 2001) describing the use of Raman imaging to identify microfossils - another tool, in the search for the ancient life on earth, and possibly on Mars.

The book ends with some very informative discussions about proposals for future landing sites on Mars, for sample analysis and/or return.

This is a very informative book, with useful insights into the way science works, complete with several pages of color plates, a useable index, and short list of further reading material. If you are interested in what NASA does, and how the scientific search for life on Mars is (and will be) carried out, I think you will like it. I certainly did.

Looking for life on Mars.......2000-04-10

Malcolm Walter has written a fascinating guide to where we should look for current or past life on Mars. As a non-scientist I was not quite sure what to expect in buying this book, but what I found was a thoughtful discussion of how one scientist would explore the red planet for signs of life. Walter gives a short, understandable review of the scientific discoveries to date from the past NASA missions as a prelude to what to expect in the future. However, his background is in palaeobiology on Earth, which I learned is the study of fossilied life. Having absolutely no knowledge of this field myself, I sometimes felt a little lost in his technical discussions and wasn't always sure that I wanted to know as much as he told me about microbe fossils on Earth. Nevertheless, the thrust of his arguments and points he made were all clear. The heart of his case is that there is a lot we can learn from palaeobiology on Earth that should inform how we search for life, which may very well only be fossilized former life, on Mars. The importance future extensive scientific exploration for signs of past or present life on Mars is also well made. Overall, this short book (170 pages including the index) is worth the the time, and for a layman the effort, for anyone who has even a passing interest in this subject.

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Solar System Evolution
Stuart Ross Taylor
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Planetary Scientist's Companion
Planetary Sciences

ASIN: 0521641306

Book Description

This completely rewritten new edition begins with a historical perspective of the place of the solar system in the universe. Evidence from meteorites is used to describe how the planets were formed and the giant planets are considered in the light of the discovery of new extrasolar giants. Other chapters discuss satellites, comets, centaurs, asteroids and why Pluto is not a planet. Explanations on why Earth and Venus turned out so differently, and how Mars and Mercury are the survivors of many similar bodies, are also discussed.

Major Impacts and Plate Tectonics: A Model for the Phanerzoic Evolution of the Earth's Lithosphere

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Major Impacts and Plate Tectonics: A Model for the Phanerzoic Evolution of the Earth's Lithosphere
Neville Price
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415238994

Book Description

Neville Price presents a major breakthrough in our understanding of the subject of plate tectonics in this new book. In this ambitious look at the importance of impacts of objects from space on the earth, he challenges the fundamentals of the theory on which geoscience has rested for the past 25 years. In the latter half of the 20th century, earth-scientists gradually became aware of the scale and effect of bombardment by meteoric material on Earth. Prior to 1950 only a handful of small craters were generally accepted as resulting from impact events. Now "certain" impacts number around 150, with four such features measuring over 100km in diameter. Neville Price evaluates the mechanisms that give rise to plate movements. Generally, such plates move slowly at about the rate-of-growth of human nails and their tracks are usually smooth, gentle curves . Major Impacts and Plate Tectonics presents evidence to show that impacts can cause significant and dramatic changes in track, which cannot be explained by current theories of plate tectonics. The book also demonstrates that such major impact events often coincide with the development of continental flood basalts and oceanic plateau basalts and frequently coincide with major stratigraphic stage boundaries and toxicity, which in turn can be associated with periods of extinction. It concludes that geological history comprises periods of relatively orderly, evolutionary change in Earth and life-forms punctuated by catastrophic changes induced by major impacts that reset the evolutionary clock.

Martian Genesis: The Extraterrestrial Origins of the Human Race

Average customer rating:

Not bad but for beginners to the subject
Little connection between the title and what is delivered.
Am I supposed to believe this?
Quick, compelling, well-researched
Interesting hypothesis

Martian Genesis: The Extraterrestrial Origins of the Human Race
Herbie Brennan
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Genesis Race: Our Extraterrestrial DNA and the True Origins of the Species
The Atlantis Enigma
Dead Men's Secrets
Gods, Genes, and Consciousness: Nonhuman Intervention in Human History

ASIN: 044023557X
Release Date: 2000-04-11

Book Description

The startling Antarctic discovery...The revelations about life on Mars...Shocking new proof about who we really are!

From outer space to deep prehistory, from ancient Egypt to the planet Mars, the conclusions in Martian Genesis will astound you.

At last, science writer Herbie Brennan provides answers to the questions that have confounded scientists for years--including a startling solution to the mystery surrounding the rock face found on Mars. His carefully researched, impeccably documented conclusions may change history forever.

Find out when, where, and how the human race first came to be--millions of years earlier than previously believed! Discover the shocking archaeological evidence of Martian ancestors that has been ignored--or suppressed--in popular theories of evolution. Encounter new revelations made in photos taken from space...eye-opening evidence of hi-tech artifacts millennia old...fascinating discoveries from Antarctica, Siberia, the ocean floor...and more. Read about:

Unexplained fossils! Evidence that people actually walked with the dinosaurs...wearing shoes!
Amazing ancient technology! How the pyramids were lit...by electricity!
Lost prehistoric civilizations! How someone built a massive concrete block wall in Oklahoma...312 million years ago!
Life on Mars...when it flourished, what happened to it, what it left behind!

Customer Reviews:

Not bad but for beginners to the subject.......2004-05-16

Brennan recounts the old stories of ancient archaeology through most of this book. He sites a lot of bible quotes to reinforce his contention that we came from Mars but doesn't really give any hard evidence as to how this was possible. This book is basically a collection of other books that I have read that were more interesting. More for people who don't know too much about ancient archaeology and what to start out with the basics.

Little connection between the title and what is delivered........2001-08-27

Although this book does present some intriquing archeological anomalies, and thought-provoking speculation, it fails to even come close to delivering the goods. The author revisits ground well-trodden ('face on Mars', ancient mysteries, mythology-as-fact), but offers nothing new. It is disjointed, and seems to have been put together hastily. Sub-par.

Am I supposed to believe this?.......2001-08-07

How half of the archaeological sites mentioned in this book have anything to do with Mars is beyond me. If we came from Mars, then don't you think there'd be some kind of oral or written history about it? There's an oral history of Noah's flood, and of Jesus allegedly rising from the dead, but there's no mention of us coming to Earth from Mars. How could people forget such a momentous occasion?

The whole premise of this book is solely based on one picture. Overall this book sucks.

Quick, compelling, well-researched.......2000-12-11

Brennan's book is far from the definitive book on possible extraterrestrial intervention in our species' history. But it's surprisingly cogent, fast reading that raises important questions without insulting the reader's intelligence. Brennan's thesis isn't developed into a working hypothesis; he leaves this thorny task for others to unravel. But the material here is certainly worth the few hours it takes to read "Martian Genesis."

Interesting hypothesis.......2000-11-13

Mr. Brennan explores a vast amount of historical "anomalies" throughout his book, all of which, he believes, are clues to an ancient civilization that existed before modern history was believed to have started. According to modern consensus civilization began about 6,000 years ago in Sumer, however, Mr. Brennan challenges this idea and suggests that it was much earlier, around 35,000 or 65,000 years ago, and also that we possibly could've been transplanted from Mars. All in all the book is pretty good, plus there's pictures of the face on Mars.

Astrophysics of Life (Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium Series)

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Astrophysics of Life (Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium Series)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This volume, based on a meeting held at the Space Telescope Science Institute, lays the astrophysical groundwork for locating habitable places in the Universe. Written by leading scientists in the field, it covers a range of topics relevant to the search for life in the universe, including extrasolar planet searches and properties; the history of the solar system; star and planet formation; the habitability of planets and search strategies.

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Astrobiology is one of the hottest areas of current research, reflecting not only impressive advances in the understanding of the origin of life but also the discovery of over 100 extrasolar planets in recent years. This volume is based on a meeting held at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which aimed to lay the astrophysical groundwork for locating habitable places in the Universe. Written by leading scientists in the field, it covers a range of topics relevant to the search for life in the Universe, including: cosmology and its implications for the emergence of life, the habitable zone in the Milky Way Galaxy, the formation of stars and planets, the study of interstellar and interplanetary matter, searches for extrasolar planets, the synthesis of organic material in space, and spectroscopic signatures that could be used to detect life. This is an invaluable resource for both professional researchers and graduate students.

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Before Life (Life on Earth)
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Manufacturer: Checkmark Books
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0816050457

A Comparison of the Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems: Proceedings of the Sixth Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics Bad Hofgastein (Austria), 21-27 March 2004

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A Comparison of the Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems: Proceedings of the Sixth Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics Bad Hofgastein (Austria), 21-27 March 2004

Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 1402042183

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The papers in this volume cover a wide range of subjects covering the most recent developments in Celestial Mechanics from the theoretical point of nonlinear dynamical systems to the application to real problems. We emphasize the papers on the formation of planetary systems, their stability and also the problem of habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems. A special topic is the stability of Trojans in our planetary system, where more and more realistic dynamical models are used to explain their complex motions: besides the important contribution from the theoretical point of view, the results of several numerical experiments unraveled the structure of the stable zone around the librations points. This volume will be of interest to astronomers and mathematicians interested in Hamiltonian mechanics and in the dynamics of planetary systems.

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