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How Did We Find Out #10

How Did We Find Out About Comets

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The phenomena of comets and astronomers' concepts about them are considered historically and in view of the present knowledge.

10 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

46 people want to read

About the author

Isaac Asimov

4,672 books27.3k followers
Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Joan.
2,428 reviews
August 27, 2018
This was such an excellent series for children. Asimov didn't really change how he wrote his nonfiction whether for kids, or adults, except perhaps in size. This series is less than 100 pages and would likely be simply too short for adults. Nevertheless, he still packs in an excellent description. The most dated part are the drawings and photos. At least I'm fairly certain they are photos. The text is still quite pertinent.Of course it doesn't have the Shoemaker Comet or other recently discovered comets, but otherwise seems fairly undated scientifically. Recommended!
3 reviews
November 6, 2024
This was a rather short book but it gave a beautiful and quick overview of the history of comets. It was intriguing to know how we figured out what comets are. We often take little concepts like this for granted, but the entire history shows how difficult and mysterious interpreting these celestial objects has been. Now, I won't be thinking of comets simply again :)
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