Sun Kings (eBook)

The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began

Stuart Clark (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2019
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-20708-7 (ISBN)

Infos

In September of 1859, the entire Earth was engulfed in a gigantic cloud of seething gas, and a blood-red aurora erupted across the planet from the poles to the tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed, machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered operators unconscious. Compasses and other sensitive instruments reeled as if struck by a massive magnetic fist. For the first time, people began to suspect that the Earth was not isolated from the rest of the universe. However, nobody knew what could have released such strange forces upon the Earth--nobody, that is, except the amateur English astronomer Richard Carrington. In this riveting account, Stuart Clark tells for the first time the full story behind Carrington's observations of a mysterious explosion on the surface of the Sun and how his brilliant insight--that the Sun's magnetism directly influences the Earth--helped to usher in the modern era of astronomy. Clark vividly brings to life the scientists who roundly rejected the significance of Carrington's discovery of solar flares, as well as those who took up his struggle to prove the notion that the Earth could be touched by influences from space. Clark also reveals new details about the sordid scandal that destroyed Carrington's reputation and led him from the highest echelons of science to the very lowest reaches of love, villainy, and revenge. The Sun Kings transports us back to Victorian England, into the very heart of the great nineteenth-century scientific controversy about the Sun's hidden influence over our planet.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.12.2019
• Zusatzinfo: 15 halftones.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
• Schlagworte: Ashen Light • Astronomer • Astronomer Royal • Astronomical Object • Astronomy • Atmosphere of Earth • Aurora • Balfour Stewart • British Astronomical Association • Calculation • Carbon-14 • Cassini–Huygens • Celsius • cloud chamber • compass • coronal mass ejection • Cosmic Ray • David Whitehouse • earth • Earth's Magnetic Field • Earth's rotation • Eddy (fluid dynamics) • Edmond Halley • Edward Sabine • Edward Walter Maunder • electric charge • electricity • electromagnetism • exoplanet • eyepiece • Fellow of the Royal Society • Fleck • Fraunhofer lines • Galileo Galilei • greenwich mean time • Gustav Kirchhoff • Heat • Heinrich Schwabe • High Altitude Observatory • ice core • James Challis • Jay Pasachoff • J. J. Thomson • John Couch Adams • John Herschel • Joseph Larmor • joseph von fraunhofer • kitchin • magnetar • Magnetic declination • Magnetic dip • Magnetic Energy • Magnetic field • magnetism • mathematician • meadows • Measurement • meteorology • Natural Philosophy • Nitrate • North America • Northern Hemisphere • North Magnetic Pole • Observatory • photography • Photosphere • physicist • Planetary body • pole star • Prediction • Quantity • Radcliffe Observatory • Radio Wave • Robert Bunsen • Rotation period • Royal Astronomical Society • Running • Schwabe (crater) • Scientist • Simons • solar cycle • Solar eclipse • Solar flare • Solar observation • solar physics • Solar storm of 1859 • South Magnetic Pole • spacecraft • Spectrohelioscope • Sun • Sunlight • SunSPOT • Technology • theory • Thermometer • Thunderstorm • Warren De La Rue • William Herschel • Willie Soon • year
• ISBN-10: 0-691-20708-9 / 0691207089
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-20708-7 / 9780691207087