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The best explanation of Very Long Period comets. If you want to know the very best explanation of the origin of the Very Long Period comets, this is where you will find it. If you combine the section on the Missing Planet, with a pile of album cover art by Roger Dean (on the YES album covers like Yessongs) you will know more about the history of the solar system then most professional astronomers. Is this hyperbole? No. Van Flandern is right about the origin of comets, but given the mindset of the astronomical community, protons will decay before they admit it. Van Flandern is akin to A.C. Clarke in one way: Someone once said about Clarke that "if he had stuck to any one hypothesis, he would have been a dangerous man." Like Clarke, Van Flandern works many hypotheses. And if it is permissible to have a favorite Clarke book or theme, it is certainly also permissible to extol the virtures of DM,MP & NC on the basis of the MP & NC material alone. Science will advance at four times the current pace when they stop ejecting people like Halton Arp and TVF from their ranks. TECHNO-BABBLE This book sounded so interesting I couldn't wait to order a copy. I am not a scientist or mathematician but I truly enjoy reading scientific books, articles and watching science programs on the television. This book started loosing me in the self-ingratiating preface and by the first chapter I hadn't a clue what the author was droning on about. A PhD writes this book for people with PhD's. The author needs to come down off his high intellectual horse and put his fascinating and intriguing ideas in layman's terms that the common man can understand. The illustrations are unremarkable and uninformative. I can pick my way with great interest through a book like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time. I toughly enjoyed Issac Asimov's The Collapsing Universe and Walter Alvarez's T.rex And The Crater of Doom. They were written with the common man in mind. I cannot challenge Van Flandern,s ideas but I can take issue with his writting style. This book is just tedious techno-babble an impossible read. Save it for the university classroom. Give it a pass, wait for the Readers Digest condensed version, buy it if you need a sleep aid or better yet wait for the movie. Not so dark matters __________________ Van Flandern was a consultant to the government regarding the Global Positioning System. Doubts had been expressed that the GPS could remain accurate due to a relativistic effect known as "frame dragging", but TVF concluded that, through a slightly too convenient coincidence, "frame dragging" didn't apply to this particular narrow case. It's clear that he understands conventional theories very well, and that's what made it possible for him to develop his Meta Model, the discussion of which comprises the first half of this book. I can see how the Meta Model discussion would not get high marks, as it clearly didn't in at least one of the earlier reviews here. I read most of it, finally got bored, and skipped into the second half of the book (first edition ISBN 1556431554) which pertains to TVF's Exploding Planet Hypothesis. When he wrote the first edition, the Alvarez theory was gaining momentum elsewhere in the sciences, as the position of the impact crater that ended the Cretaceous had been located at Chicxulub (the crater had been located circa 1960, but the Alvarez theory didn't come around until 1980 -- see "Night Comes to the Cretaceous" by James Lawrence Powell, ppback 0156007037 hardcover 0716731177). TVF didn't mention any of that, spending time instead on the "Face on Mars". At that time (early 1990s) the newest surface photos from Martian orbit were still those of Viking from the 1970s. The "Face" did exist, and it was an artifact -- but it existed only in those photos, and was only an artifact of the lower resolution of the Viking cameras, as opposed to that of the recent (late 1990s) orbiter. I don't see how any reasonable person can look at the higher res photos (as opposed to both the Viking photos and the low res photos from the new orbiter, which can mimic the resolution of Viking) and conclude that the "Face" is artificial. This devotion to a completely discredited idea is not to TVF's credit, and as someone who respects his intellect and many of his ideas, I wish he'd knock it off. The best part of either edition is the discussion of TVF's Exploding Planet Hypothesis (EPH). He uses the model to explain things like the tipped axis of Uranus, disturbed moon system of Neptune, retrograde rotation of Venus, Earth-crossing objects, and various other things which have made thoughtful people wonder for a very long time. In the original edition the EPH was about 3.2 million years ago. This new edition extends the EPH by adding an earlier exploding planet dated to 65 million years ago, in order to provide a source for the object which crashed into the Earth and ended the dominion of the dinosaurs. TVF's extension seems a bit ad hoc, but once a single unexplained planetary explosion has been posited, additional ones shouldn't be considered surprising or forbidden. On the other hand, TVF had already questioned the (also ad hoc) Oort Cloud idea, and that's the leading competitor (and dominant paradigm) for a source of the Chicxulub object. Since TVF is devoted to building a single comprehensive model to explain oddball characteristics of various solar system objects to replace the dozens of (also ad hoc) unique explanations. (see "Shoemaker by Levy" ISBN 0691002258 for some brief comments quoted from Shoemaker regarding the role played by Jupiter in sweeping the Solar System of transitory debris -- TVF needs multiple exploding planets because such debris would either be kicked out of the system or bent into untroubling orbits within ten million years, mostly due to the presence of Jupiter) TVF's discussion of the origin of Earth's own Moon is a great reason to buy this book, and a great place to begin reading it for those who are like me, and enjoy picking at a book here and there. It's also a discussion I'd like to criticize a little. TVF discusses the four basic models of lunar formation, then picks them off one by one, as he offers his own model (fission from Earth due to overspin). The problem with his critique of the capture model is that his arguments apply also to his overspin model, and there's nothing he can do about it. Furthermore, the early presence of water on the Earth (a discovery that I think antedates this new edition of "Dark Matter") reduces the likelihood that the Moon was born of fission from Earth, either due to TVF's model or the more conventional impact model which is the dominant one of the five presented. Despite the catastrophic character of an exploding planet, TVF's model is really quite uniformitarian, and for those who object to catastrophism on a priori grounds, this book and his EPH should provide a great introduction to the topic that fascinates one's friends and neighbors without letting on to anyone that you're secretly hoping to join the winning side. :^) Let's have fun Hard reading? Techno-babble? The people must have read the wrong book! Reader, don't be scared. If you are a devotee to the subject, this is the book for you. It is easy, straightforward reading, no math required. As for shaky philosophy, the author is faithfully reproducing Ernst Mach's propositions - and even a certain Einstein found his inspiration in Mach's lectures. Personally I have no bones to pick with what I read, but if I ever had the inclination of writing such a book, I certainly would leave out a few things. Van Flanders has a lot to talk about: "Faster than light motion in time is possible / Gravitation progresses faster than light / the physical universe has five and only five dimensions / it is infinite in extent in all five dimensions / there was no Big bang to start the universe / the universe is not expanding / the universal microwave radiation is of nearby origin / there are no black holes in the universe / quasars are associated with our own and nearby galaxies / galaxies are arranged in waves in an immense medium /gravitational shielding is possible / the classical description of quantum entities is incorrect / the Bell inequality in quantum physics should be violated / There is no "Oort Cloud" of comets / comets and asteroids are quite similar in nature / comets and asteroids are accompanied by satellites / a former major planet exploded between Mars and Jupiter / this explosion occurred just 3 million years ago / this explosion was the origin of comets and asteroids / this explosion may be connected with the origin of man / the great pyramids in Egypt are perhaps 9000 years old / artificial structures may exist on the surface of Mars / tidal forces on the sun and giant planets are significant / there may be a sunspot-planet link / solar eclipses are best viewed away from the centre line / Mercury was originally a moon of Venus / our Moon originated from the Pacific basin of the Earth / the Moon no longer shows us the same face it used to / the Martian moons are the survivors of a great many moons/ a great rift on Mars is the impact site of a former moon / Jupiter's Red Spot is a floating impact remnanat / Saturn's rings are only a few million years old / Solar system bodies have received black carbon deposits / the moons of Neptune were violently disrupted / Pluto and Charon are escaped moons of Neptune / Another undiscovered planet probably exists beyond Pluto" Not that I or anybody has to agree to all this, but Van Flanders propositions his hypothesis as a true scientist, he is not preaching gospel. He deserves a fair hearing. If I try to imagine how his own peers may view this rich enchilada - oh well, at present the author must be living in the remotest Siberia. It's not about being right or wrong, and the author may very well be more often right than wrong, but it doesn't add much credibility where it counts most for a man of his qualifications. One has to hand it to him, Van Flandern has courage! But for us lay people and lesser mortals, this book is a fun ride, this much I can promise you. Brand new thinking about timeless astronomical issues Tom Van Flandern's book adds a new dimension to cosmology--not only does it present a novel approach to timeless issues, it stands up to the closest scientific scrutiny. The author has a proven track record and top notch credentials, so when he begins his hard-hitting critique of the status quo it's a breathtaking read, for laymen and scientists alike. Let's be honest about the Big Bang Theory--even the most respected scientists today will readily admit it is full of holes. But it takes a new look, like Tom Van Flandern's book, to explain not only why the theory is wrong but what to substitute in its place. This is a significant book and if you read it you will get a thrill just as those who read Copernicus and Galileo must have gotten a thrill to realize they were reading about the future of science. Read it--you won't be disappointed. See also:
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