Hunting for Stars (MCGRAW HILL HORIZONS OF SCIENCE SERIES)

This work is about meteorites and those who search for them. Seeking an explanation of the role micrometeorites have played in the origin and evolution of life on earth, readers follow astronomers across the globe to hunt for these mysterious black stones and tiny grains of cosmic dust, and into the laboratory to test hypotheses on the origin of our solar system. The text discusses the risks and obstacles these scientists face, and provides an appreciation of the reasons and stakes involved in this field of research. Topics covered include discussions of Jupiter, the first rendezvous on the moon, the search for isotopes and the pre-solar and nebular time scales. Could we have come from the stars? Some specialists in extraterrestrial matters ask: could meteorites - those mysterious black stones that fall from the sky and terrified the ancients - and micrometeorites - minuscule grains of cosmic dust new to the scientific scene - hold the secret of the origins of life? Would it not be a strange destiny for humans, who risk being decimated by an enormous meteorite - as were probably the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago - to have come into existence as a result of a primitive shower of billions upon billions of micrometeorites? Moreover, some of them contain star dust that is even older than the sun. They are therefore unique and fabulous archivists of our earliest history. To collect them - in Antarctica, Greenland, and the Australian and Sahara deserts - scientists have become "hunters of stars." Translated from the original French language edition (Hachette, Paris, 1993). The author is NASA's chief investigator for the study of lunar samples and research director at the French National Scientific Research Center. He is responsible for collecting micrometeorites in the hot and cold deserts of the world; in this clear presentation for the lay audience, he tells why his work is important. Lacks an index. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. Cover......Page 1 Introduction......Page 4 1 Meteorites and micrometeorites......Page 18 2 The search, the stakes, and the heroes......Page 40 3 Approaching "primitiveness"......Page 96 4 From the presolar time scale to the origin of life......Page 134 Conclusions......Page 182 Bibliography......Page 184 Considers meteorites and those who search for them. The reader follows astronomers across the globe to hunt for these mysterious black stones and tiny grains of cosmic dust and into the laboratory to test hypotheses on the origin of our solar system.