Lunar formation

[followups set to ssh, feel free to reply by mail - address is valid]

'ello all.

A friend of mine is doing some research into the various theories (now
mostly deceased) of lunar formation, and more interestingly the evidence
which killed them, &c, &c. Anyone know of a decent overview book I could
point her to?

(essentially, a 'History Of What We Thought We Knew About The Moon'; she
comments that "Especially pre-modern scientific theories, would be
interesting.")

--
-Andrew Gray

Andrew Gray wrote:

[followups set to ssh, feel free to reply by mail - address is valid]

'ello all.

A friend of mine is doing some research into the various theories (now
mostly deceased) of lunar formation, and more interestingly the evidence
which killed them, &c, &c. Anyone know of a decent overview book I could
point her to?

(essentially, a 'History Of What We Thought We Knew About The Moon'; she
comments that "Especially pre-modern scientific theories, would be
interesting.")

'To A Rocky Moon' adresses some of these issues. I saw a new book
about lunar formation at B&N yesterday that also adresses them, I'll
have to see if I can get the title.

D.
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On 25 Oct 2003 18:11:37 GMT, Andrew Gray wrote:

[followups set to ssh, feel free to reply by mail - address is valid]

'ello all.

A friend of mine is doing some research into the various theories (now
mostly deceased) of lunar formation, and more interestingly the evidence
which killed them, &c, &c. Anyone know of a decent overview book I could
point her to?

(essentially, a 'History Of What We Thought We Knew About The Moon'; she
comments that "Especially pre-modern scientific theories, would be
interesting.")

"The Once and Future Moon" by Paul Spudis treats this at what I'd call
the knowledgeable layman level. (Spudis is a geologist.)

However, Spudis is more concerned about the end of lunar exploration. And
I'd bet that "To a Rocky Moon", which I haven't read, does a better job on
this topic.

Chris W

In article , Christopher P
Winter wrote:

"The Once and Future Moon" by Paul Spudis treats this at what I'd call
the knowledgeable layman level. (Spudis is a geologist.)

However, Spudis is more concerned about the end of lunar exploration. And
I'd bet that "To a Rocky Moon", which I haven't read, does a better job on
this topic.

Thanks to all respondents; got a good list collated.

--
-Andrew Gray

On Sat, 25 Oct 2003, Andrew Gray wrote:

A friend of mine is doing some research into the various theories (now
mostly deceased) of lunar formation, and more interestingly the evidence
which killed them, &c, &c. Anyone know of a decent overview book I could
point her to?

(essentially, a 'History Of What We Thought We Knew About The Moon'; she
comments that "Especially pre-modern scientific theories, would be
interesting.")

A thick, technical volume is *Origin of the Moon*, edited by W.K. Hartmann,
R.J. Phillips, and G. J. Taylor and published in 1986. It's out of print,
but images of its pages have been placed online.

The table of contents is he

http://ads.harvard.edu/books/ormo/toc.html

The chapter "Early history of selenogony" by historian of science Stephen G.
Brush might be just what you're looking for.

Or maybe the technical review by John A. Wood of historical lunar origin
theories is more appropriate.

Looks like the site will send you a PDF of a chapter, or images of one page
at a time.

More recent thinking on the subject is to be found in *Origin of the Earth
and Moon*, edited by Robin M. Canup and Kevin Righter in 2000, but it
doesn't seem to dink around with such frippery as historical reviews,
instead plunging right in. It's one of those U. of Arizona Press books
crammed with review chapters, so it's probably very good, but I haven't seen
it.

Brush has done a three-volume history of planetary physics, and volume three
is devoted to the origins of the solar system, if your friend really wants
to get into this deeply.

--
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Fermilab | why can't we put a man on the Moon? -- Bill Engfer
Internet: | If we can put a man on the Moon,
| why can't we put a woman on the Moon? -- Bill Higgins