Ebook: Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets

I was delighted to be invited by my colleagues Alessandra Celletti and Ettore Perozzi to provide a foreword to their book, Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets. Having known them for many years and long admired their work in the subject so many of us love and are fascinated by, 1 read with great attention and pleasure the text when it arrived. It is a formidable task they have set themselves, to provide a book that describes attempts by successive generations of astronomers from the dawn of history five millennia ago to observe, record and understand the phenomena of the heavens, particularly the intricate and perplexing behaviour of the planets. Sun and Moon. As naked eye astronomy became aided by the telescope and the photographic plate, and since the middle of the twentieth century, by instruments launched on spacecraft into circum- Earth orbit or to the Moon and planets and beyond, the discovery of new satellites, scores of them, and ring systems displaying new and initially perplexing behaviour also demanded explanations for that behaviour. It is also the inspiring story of science itself with special reference to how lonely individuals, impelled by curiosity and dedicated to seeking the truth, and nothing but the truth, about the fascinating phenomena of nature, ultimately became accepted as scientists, those players in the most successful endeavour ever engaged in by the human race.

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The number of known celestial objects has dramatically increased and the long-awaited presence of extrasolar planets has now been detected around other stars. Spaceflight dynamics has brought new applications encompassing rocked dynamics, the place-in-orbit of artificial satellites and interplanetary mission design. Solar System exploration has grown as a long term strategy for the construction of a permanent base on the Moon and a manned mission to Mars.

The aim of the book is to demonstrate to a wider audience, as well as to a more skilled audience, the many fascinating aspects of modern celestial mechanics. After giving the reader the technical tools needed for a basic understanding of the underlying physical phenomena (using only elementary mathematics), facts and figures are provided on historical events, modern discoveries and future applications.

Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role.

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The number of known celestial objects has dramatically increased and the long-awaited presence of extrasolar planets has now been detected around other stars. Spaceflight dynamics has brought new applications encompassing rocked dynamics, the place-in-orbit of artificial satellites and interplanetary mission design. Solar System exploration has grown as a long term strategy for the construction of a permanent base on the Moon and a manned mission to Mars.

The aim of the book is to demonstrate to a wider audience, as well as to a more skilled audience, the many fascinating aspects of modern celestial mechanics. After giving the reader the technical tools needed for a basic understanding of the underlying physical phenomena (using only elementary mathematics), facts and figures are provided on historical events, modern discoveries and future applications.

Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii
Around and around....Pages 1-23
Three bodies and no solution....Pages 25-42
Celestial waltz....Pages 43-57
Cosmic spinning tops....Pages 59-82
Our chaotic Solar System....Pages 83-106
Singularities, collisions and threatening bodies....Pages 107-128
Of Moon and man....Pages 129-148
Rock around the planets....Pages 149-172
Lords of the rings....Pages 173-186
At the edge of the Solar System....Pages 187-198
On the road to exolife....Pages 199-213
Back Matter....Pages 215-245

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The number of known celestial objects has dramatically increased and the long-awaited presence of extrasolar planets has now been detected around other stars. Spaceflight dynamics has brought new applications encompassing rocked dynamics, the place-in-orbit of artificial satellites and interplanetary mission design. Solar System exploration has grown as a long term strategy for the construction of a permanent base on the Moon and a manned mission to Mars.

The aim of the book is to demonstrate to a wider audience, as well as to a more skilled audience, the many fascinating aspects of modern celestial mechanics. After giving the reader the technical tools needed for a basic understanding of the underlying physical phenomena (using only elementary mathematics), facts and figures are provided on historical events, modern discoveries and future applications.

Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii
Around and around....Pages 1-23
Three bodies and no solution....Pages 25-42
Celestial waltz....Pages 43-57
Cosmic spinning tops....Pages 59-82
Our chaotic Solar System....Pages 83-106
Singularities, collisions and threatening bodies....Pages 107-128
Of Moon and man....Pages 129-148
Rock around the planets....Pages 149-172
Lords of the rings....Pages 173-186
At the edge of the Solar System....Pages 187-198
On the road to exolife....Pages 199-213
Back Matter....Pages 215-245
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