内容

目次

The Origin of Cometary Thought; Medieval Views; Johannes Kepler,Galileo, and the Comets of 1607 and 1618; The Comet of 1664: ConfusionReigns; The Comet of 1680: Newton's View from the Shoulders of Giants; TheReturn of Comet Halley; The Eighteenth Century: The Orbit Computers; TheNineteenth Century: The Shrinking Orbit of Comet Encke, the Disintegration ofComet Biela, and the Meteor Showers; The Physics of Comets; Comet Halley; TheBirths and Deaths of Comets; Epilogue; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.