Wayward Comet:. Martin Beech

Wayward Comet:

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THE WAYWARD COMET

A DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY OF COMETARY ORBITS, KEPLER’S PROBLEM AND THE COMETARIUM

MARTIN BEECH

Universal-Publishers Boca Raton

The Wayward Comet: A Descriptive History of Cometary Orbits, Kepler’s Problem and the Cometarium

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

www.universal-publishers.com

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

INTRODUCTION