Provides a reference for the names, and their meanings of all named
minor planets. Informs about the discoverers as well as the
circumstances of the discovery of all 10,666 minor planets numbered up
to June 1999.
Erich Von Daniken, Chariots of the Gods: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past
Souvenir Press Ltd 1969
ISBN 0285502565
PDF | 1.4 MB
119 pages
Professor Dr Willy Ley, the well-known scientific writer and friend of Wernher von Braun, told me in New York: 'The estimated number of stars in our Milky Way alone amounts to 30 milliards. The assumption that our Milky Way contains at least 18 milliard planetary systems is considered admissible by present-day astronomers. If we now try to reduce the figures in question as much aspossible and assume that the distances between planetary systems are so regulated that only in one case in a hundred does a planet orbit in the ecosphere of its own sun, that still leaves 180 million planets capable of supporting life. If we further assume that only one planet in a hundred that might support life actually does so, we should still have the figure of 1-8 million planets with life. Let us further suppose that out of every hundred planets with life there is one on which creatures with the same level of intelligence as homo sapiens live. Then even this last supposition gives our 'Milky Way the vast number of 18,000 inhabited planets.'
Long before Galileo published his discoveries about Jupiter, lunar
craters, and the Milky Way in the Starry Messenger in 1610, people were
fascinated with the planets and stars around them. That interest
continues today, and scientists are making new discoveries at an
astounding rate. Ancient lake beds on Mars, robotic spacecraft
missions, and new definitions of planets now dominate the news. How can
you take it all in? Start with the new Encyclopedia of the Solar
System, Second Edition.
Hammer's Slammer Don Slade is coming home to the planet Tethys, to his son and the woman he loves. But the space between is dark and cold. And the stars he must pass shine their light on planets which beckon to the weary traveler, planets which hold hidden dangers.