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Gerard P. Kuiper and the Rise of Modern Planetary Science
Astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper ignored the traditional boundaries of his subject. Using telescopes and the laboratory, he made the solar system a familiar, intriguing place. “It is not astronomy,” complained his colleagues, and they were right. Kuiper had created a new discipline we now call planetary science.
Kuiper was an acclaimed astronomer of binary stars and white dwarfs when he accidentally discovered that Titan, the massive moon of Saturn, had an atmosphere. This turned our understanding of planetary atmospheres on its head, and it set Kuiper on a path of staggering Pluto was not a planet, planets around other stars were common, some asteroids were primary while some were just fragments of bigger asteroids, some moons were primary and some were captured asteroids or comets, the atmosphere of Mars was carbon dioxide, and there were two new moons in the sky, one orbiting Uranus and one orbiting Neptune.
He produced a monumental photographic atlas of the Moon at a time when men were landing on our nearest neighbor, and he played an important part in that effort. He also created some of the world’s major observatories in Hawai‘i and Chile. However, most remarkable was that the keys to his success sprang from his wartime activities, which led him to new techniques. This would change everything.
Sears shows a brilliant but at times unpopular man who attracted as much dislike as acclaim. This in-depth history includes some of the twentieth century’s most intriguing scientists, from Harold Urey to Carl Sagan, who worked with—and sometimes against—the father of modern planetary science. Now, as NASA and other space agencies explore the solar system, they take with them many of the ideas and concepts first described by Gerard P. Kuiper.
Kuiper was an acclaimed astronomer of binary stars and white dwarfs when he accidentally discovered that Titan, the massive moon of Saturn, had an atmosphere. This turned our understanding of planetary atmospheres on its head, and it set Kuiper on a path of staggering Pluto was not a planet, planets around other stars were common, some asteroids were primary while some were just fragments of bigger asteroids, some moons were primary and some were captured asteroids or comets, the atmosphere of Mars was carbon dioxide, and there were two new moons in the sky, one orbiting Uranus and one orbiting Neptune.
He produced a monumental photographic atlas of the Moon at a time when men were landing on our nearest neighbor, and he played an important part in that effort. He also created some of the world’s major observatories in Hawai‘i and Chile. However, most remarkable was that the keys to his success sprang from his wartime activities, which led him to new techniques. This would change everything.
Sears shows a brilliant but at times unpopular man who attracted as much dislike as acclaim. This in-depth history includes some of the twentieth century’s most intriguing scientists, from Harold Urey to Carl Sagan, who worked with—and sometimes against—the father of modern planetary science. Now, as NASA and other space agencies explore the solar system, they take with them many of the ideas and concepts first described by Gerard P. Kuiper.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published March 26, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 21, 2019
Rating of 4.90
April 15, 2020
Reviewed for Foreword Books Indies awards.
I wanted to like this book so much. Gerard Kuiper is a behemoth in the realm of planetary science, best known perhaps by his namesake Kuiper Belt on the outer edges of the solar system, and the fact that a book this dense could be written is testament to that. Unfortunately, this book is exceedingly dry and boring. It lists extraneous details about nearly every person we meet, but fails to express the drama that we are told existed. For example, we learn about the president of the University of Arizona, Richard Harvill, on page 218: where he was born, where he was educated, whom he married, and each of the positions he held in his professional career--all details that don't matter whatsoever to understanding Kuiper. But then, just seven pages later on page 225, we learn that there was "an energetic reaction to a memo from Kuiper asking observatory user to clean up the kitchen after use" by Harold Johnson. This was definitely a personal interest story, and spoke to Kuiper's tendency to write memos of this sort, but we never learn more about these memos nor what Johnson's "energetic reaction" entailed. The book is also short on details about Kuiper's personal life, beyond his marriage and the birth of his daughter early in the book and a brief touch on his daughter and grandchild in the final chapter. While this book provides a long and detailed history of Kuiper's professional life, it misses the mark on helping the reader get to know the man himself.
I wanted to like this book so much. Gerard Kuiper is a behemoth in the realm of planetary science, best known perhaps by his namesake Kuiper Belt on the outer edges of the solar system, and the fact that a book this dense could be written is testament to that. Unfortunately, this book is exceedingly dry and boring. It lists extraneous details about nearly every person we meet, but fails to express the drama that we are told existed. For example, we learn about the president of the University of Arizona, Richard Harvill, on page 218: where he was born, where he was educated, whom he married, and each of the positions he held in his professional career--all details that don't matter whatsoever to understanding Kuiper. But then, just seven pages later on page 225, we learn that there was "an energetic reaction to a memo from Kuiper asking observatory user to clean up the kitchen after use" by Harold Johnson. This was definitely a personal interest story, and spoke to Kuiper's tendency to write memos of this sort, but we never learn more about these memos nor what Johnson's "energetic reaction" entailed. The book is also short on details about Kuiper's personal life, beyond his marriage and the birth of his daughter early in the book and a brief touch on his daughter and grandchild in the final chapter. While this book provides a long and detailed history of Kuiper's professional life, it misses the mark on helping the reader get to know the man himself.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews